Lee Ridley

Rockville, Maryland, June 4 – The story of Britain’s Got Talent 2018 is a story of two hilarious comedians who happen to have disabilities finishing in the top 2: Lee Ridley and Robert White.

Lee Ridley, Lost Voice Guy

After receiving more than two and a half million votes, Lee Ridley, who goes by Lost Voice Guy, won this season of Britain’s Got Talent. His prize is £250,000 and a spot on the bill at the Royal Variety Performance in front of the Queen. According to The Sun, Ridley also will be appearing as a guest on America’s Got Talent this summer on NBC.

Ridley is a comedian with cerebral palsy who uses an iPad and a speech-to-text application to communicate. He wrote out his jokes ahead of time and, as one of the judges pointed out, hit the play button with perfect comedic timing, and won the nation over. He wore a different blue shirt in each round, with jokes such as “I’m only in it for the parking” and “I’m a friend with benefits” written on them. His first audition included the joke “when I realized I couldn’t talk, I was speechless” and the punch lines only got funnier from there.

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Building on Momentum as Capacity Grows, New Program Diversification Paves the Way for Greater Societal Impact

Rockville, Maryland, May 11 – RespectAbility, a national nonprofit nonpartisan organization fighting stigmas and advancing opportunities for people with all types of disabilities in the United States, announces key expansion to its leadership team, the addition of new staff to continue building upon greater momentum toward the organization’s growing impact and influence in the field and increased capacity to serve an even more diverse cross-section of the disability community.

“We simply could not be more pleased over these latest developments,” says Jennifer Laszlo Mizrahi, RespectAbility’s President and CEO. “Our ever-growing support is an indication of the direction we are heading, and this is all just the beginning!”

Within just the past few months, RespectAbility has:

• Added to its ranks among its Board of Directors and Board of Advisors
• Expanded its full-time staff as part of its strategic efforts to increase impact and capacity
• Promoted personnel as organizational operations continue to strengthen
• Engaged in efforts to reach into American households via an upcoming event on Monday, July 30

“People with disabilities represent some of the most untapped resources this nation has to offer,” Mizrahi continues.  “As our momentum keeps quickening and more leaders lend their talents and abilities to promoting greater access for children and adults with disabilities to every aspect of societal life, we will individually and collectively make a real and positive difference in communities of every size.” [continue reading…]

Rockville, Maryland, May 9 – I watched Lauren struggle at work. She had poor social skills. She talked obsessively about roller coasters and her siblings’ engagements and subsequent weddings. She had trouble understanding other people’s emotions. She didn’t look at you when you spoke to her. She was very sensitive to loud noises; she had to be warned of fire drills and left the area ahead of everyone else. She had trouble expressing what she needed. She flapped her hands when she struggled to articulate what she was trying to say. Her sense of touch was poor; she couldn’t tell when clothes were damp or dry. Most distressing, she rarely received credit for her hard work; only her mistakes were recognized and never forgotten. She was treated unfairly. She was too smart for her own good. She had been a laundry aide for nine years. Lauren has Asperger’s syndrome, which is an autism spectrum disorder (ASD). She overcame adversity by trying her best and being herself.

Freddie Highmore as Dr. Shaun Murphy on ABC’s “The Good Doctor”

I thought that because I have a disability and had family members who have disabilities, that I understood all disabilities. That is not true. I did not understand why Lauren was making inappropriate comments, not listening to understand what I was trying to say and making my day harder than it needed to be sometimes. I did not know why she was behaving the way she did. I would not understand any of her behaviors until I watched ABC’s “The Good Doctor” and I saw Freddie Highmore’s Dr. Shaun Murphy behave in the same manner. [continue reading…]

Lenny Larsen with RespectAbility staff and Fellows

Rockville, Maryland, May 4 – As a National Leadership Fellow, I have had the opportunity to hear from guest speakers throughout my semester with RespectAbility. One of our most recent guests, Lenny Larsen (an internationally recognized producer and director from Los Angeles), provided particular inspiration and advice for my life.

Larsen is a man of many talents. While serving as the executive producer/creative director for theme park projects throughout the world, he simultaneously was maintaining a second career as an internationally competitive springboard and platform diver with eyes focused on 2016 Olympic trials. Then the unthinkable happened. A trampolining accident resulted in a catastrophic spinal cord injury, rendering him paralyzed from the neck down and dependent on a ventilator to breathe. [continue reading…]

Ads Feature a Diverse Group of People with Disabilities

Rockville, Maryland, April 26 – A new series of PSAs is breaking ground on ensuring philanthropists are inclusive of people with disabilities. Representing a diverse group of people with disabilities, the stars speak directly to the camera in their own words.

There was no script for the ads, only honest conversations with members of various disability communities. Participants in the ads include people who are deaf, blind, wheelchair-users or amputees or have Autism, learning differences or another disability. They include people who are African American, Hispanic, Latino, Asian, white and other backgrounds and are diverse in sexual orientations and identities. Participants communicate both verbally and with American Sign Language. The ads have captions, which is vital to 50 million Americans who are Deaf/Hard of Hearing.

The ads, focusing on inclusive philanthropy, along with free resources, are viewable at: www.respectability.org/inclusive-philanthropy. RespectAbility, the creator of the ads, is an education and advocacy nonprofit fighting stigmas and advancing opportunities for people with disabilities. More PSAs that focus on other disability-related topics will be released in the coming weeks.

The people with disabilities in the ads represent the 56 million Americans who live with some sort of disability and exemplify why philanthropists need to include people with disabilities in boards, staffs, grantmaking and more.

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Eleanor Clift and RespectAbility’s Spring 2018 Fellows

Rockville, Maryland, April 18 – In a visit to RespectAbility’s office Eleanor Clift spoke to the National Leadership Fellows about the current administration, growing up during the Civil Rights Movement and race-related issues.

Clift is a well known columnist for The Daily Beast and an author; she was previously a reporter at Newsweek for 50 years of her life. She also has appeared in many movies and is a board member of RespectAbility. [continue reading…]

RespectAbility and Norman Lear Center Unite to Help Hollywood Include People with Disabilities

HH&S’ Director Kate Folb in between RespectAbility’s President Jennifer Laszlo Mizrahi and Communications Director Lauren Appelbaum

Los Angeles, Calif., April 18 – RespectAbility, a nonprofit organization fighting stigmas and advancing opportunities for people with disabilities, announces a new partnership with Hollywood, Health & Society (HH&S), a project of the USC Annenberg Norman Lear Center. The partnership will help educate, inform and support the success of the movie/TV industry in its work to ensure that people with disabilities are included on both sides of the camera in the stories that Hollywood tells. HH&S provides entertainment industry professionals with accurate and timely information for storylines on health, safety and national security. Like RespectAbility, HH&S recognizes the profound impact that entertainment media have on individual knowledge and behavior – ultimately impacting society and lives at large.

“We’re delighted to be working with RespectAbility to help inform and inspire the frequency and accuracy of portrayals of people with disabilities in TV and film,” said Kate Folb, the director of HH&S.

HH&S offers several resources, including quick facts, briefings and consultations with experts, case examples, panel discussions about timely health issues, a quarterly newsletter with health updates called Real to Reel and an expanding list of tip sheets written specifically for writers and producers. The broad range of topics includes disability-specific topics autism and mental health. Some of the TV shows they have assisted include The Fosters, The Good Doctor, Grey’s Anatomy, Orange Is the New Black, Speechless, Switched at Birth and many more.

The creation of this partnership would not have been possible without the financial support of The California Endowment. “Visibility and representation matters,” said Jose L. Plaza, who manages the grant for The California Endowment. “We know that accurate and positive portrayals of diverse people with disabilities will not only empower and educate viewers and program creators but will ultimately lead to a more inclusive, responsive and healthier society.”

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Dana Marlowe and RespectAbility Fellow Eric Ascher

Rockville, Maryland, April 12 – “Nine years ago this week.”

For Dana Marlowe and her staff at Accessibility Partners, those five words are cause for celebration. Over the past nine years, Accessibility Partners has advised clients big and small, in the government and in the private sector. The Kennedy Center, the U.S. Department of Labor, Amazon, Coca-Cola, Dell, Intel and LinkedIn all have turned to her team for advice on how to make their websites and software accessible to the one-in-five Americans with a disability. [continue reading…]

Geoffrey Melada with RespectAbility staff and Fellows

Rockville, Maryland, April 10 – In his third time speaking to RespectAbility’s National Leadership Fellows, Geoffrey Melada, Director of Communications for Hillel International and a former journalist and trial lawyer, said the key to building a successful brand is storytelling.

The same goes for companies as for individuals. Melada told the Fellows that everyone in the room had something in common: being brand ambassadors for RespectAbility and our interest in disability inclusion. [continue reading…]