Isaac Zablocki: Making Films/Productions More Accessible

Welcome to Disability Matters with your host Joyce Bender.

All comments, views, and opinions expressed on the show are solely those of the host, guest, and callers.

Now the host of Disability Matters, here's Joyce Bender.

Hi everyone, welcome to the show today, to everyone in the United States and around the world. Before I start You know, we have had such an increase in our listening audience, and, uh, you know, this is the 20th anniversary of the show, and I cannot thank you enough for your support. If not, this wouldn't be the 20th anniversary of this show, a number one show. So thank you so much. And with that, Hey, Richard Roberts in Brazil. Special shout out to my friend, can't wait to see you in person. And Gang Young in South Korea, I hope you're doing well. And Cheryl Harris at the State Department and Vinyamin in Kazakhstan. Hello to everyone around the world. You know, we have listeners in over 17 countries from Australia to China, and thank you so very much. Hey, Yoshiko Dart, special shout out to you. Yoshiko, my close friend, is the wife of the late, great Justin Dart Jr., and I never can forget Yoshiko. Thank you, Highmark, for your sponsorship. What a great company you are. And I have to tell you, I was really excited about our show today. We don't often have people enough relating to the film industry, the movies, what's happening to people with disabilities as far as them being portrayed in film. And so it is great to have Isaac Zablocki, festival co-founder and New York director of Real Abilities Film Festival. Welcome, Isaac. It's a pleasure to have you. And for our listeners around the world, people get in touch with me all the time and tell me, hey, I want to know about your guests, some personal information about them so I understand who they are. So would you mind sharing your story with our listeners across the United States and around the world?

With pleasure. So I was born in New York and my family moved to Israel actually when I was young, when I was about 10. And I have— my whole life has really been film. I'm one of those film nerds and like my hobby is also my work, so I'm really lucky on that level. I have a learning disability. I have dysgraphia, ADHD, and a little bit of dyslexia. That's something that's also really, I think, had an influence on my life and my career and possibly why I love film so much because I'm a more visual learner than a text-related learner. I came back to the US when I was 22 and worked on feature films, went to school, went to Columbia University and studied film there. After school, I had the now kind of embarrassing opportunity to work at Miramax Films. We can really thank Harvey Weinstein for the work that I'm doing now because that is what drove me to make sure that I want to do something that has a lot more meaning than anything I was doing in the terrible environment that was run there. So I was lucky enough to get the job as the Director of Film Programs at the JCC in Manhattan. To kind of really grow and develop a film program there that its goal was to bring the community together and to serve films that weren't being served. And Reel Abilities is a great example of what could grow out of that space and has really been one of our proudest programs that we run here. And I've been working here for 18 years. I thought at first I'd be here for 2 years and, you know, this is another short gig, but I've really been continuously inspired and everything we do here has been growing so much that I've never had a boring day.

You know what? Okay, right off the bat, what I want to say to all of our listeners, this guy is awesome. He starts by talking about his disabilities. You know what that means? You all, hear me now, we've got to follow him. We've got to follow him and his career and real abilities, because he obviously is the real deal. You know, I live with epilepsy, all my listeners know that. But it's so important, because we have disability pride, we're not ashamed, which is why July is now called Disability Pride Month. But oh, Isaac, I like you. I like you a lot. And we're going to be following you. So your background in the film industry, tell us what you've done, what you've worked on, you know, the films you've worked on, so we can all know a little more about you.

So as I mentioned, I mean, I was involved with independent films. I even wrote and produced and directed my own feature film and have always kind of leaned towards independent films and films that actually have some social impact. And I mentioned, of course, the Miramax experience was an important part of my career and really a changing point for me of understanding that film is actually education. Film is, of course, entertainment too, but it changes us. It impacts us. It impacts us, I feel, in a deeper way than most forms of communication. You could really get to someone's heart. You could get to someone intellectually. It really has such a powerful tool. And with great power comes great responsibility, as they've said in Hollywood. And it really was important for me to emphasize how important it is to be responsible with the films that we're showing, with the films that are— with the stories that we're telling. 'Cause I do believe that life mimics art sometimes, and specifically life really mimics film. And it's so funny, I was just reading an article about the movie Splash from the 1980s, where Daryl Hannah plays a mermaid who comes to New York. And it was said in the article that after that film came out, a lot of people started naming their kids Madison, which became one of the most popular names for girls. It was a total joke in the film. She looked up at Madison Avenue when she had to choose a name, and she was like, Madison. It's like not even a name that anyone used, and definitely not for girls at that time. And suddenly that film changed it. And you see how it's just one example, one very small and insignificant example of how impactful film is. And if film is that impactful, we have to use this tool so responsibly, and really need to present stories stories that we want our society to see. And as you said before, in terms of coming out and speaking about your disability, disability has been hidden in film for all these years. And I think it doesn't help us in society where most people will not come out. So many people I meet have disabilities and they won't even note it. They think it's a negative thing. Disability does not mean anything negative. It means difference, and we are all different. So we need to just own our differences and possibly Shout it out. And I could say that I wasn't always talking about my disability immediately, the first thing I'd say on a podcast. It would be sometimes something that I would even hide sometimes. But the Real Abilities has really helped me come to a place where I'm proud of it. Wow.

You are so awesome. We're all going to be following you. And so for young people listening to the show, Look at him, filmmaker, producer, the whole deal. Disability did not stop him. And for many people, I know you won't be surprised to hear this, but people with learning disabilities are extremely bullied in school, so much that, you know, we've lost people to what we call bully side. So, you know, I just want you to realize how successful he is, and he's now with Miramax. I mean, unbelievable. But I want to talk about Real Abilities. You founded Real Abilities. What is Real Abilities, and why did you found it, and wasn't it in Pittsburgh once? Didn't they have a showing in Pittsburgh? ReelAbilities?

They absolutely did. It goes on annually there. I'll tell you all about it. So ReelAbilities— Okay.

Yeah, because, excuse me, because I'm headquartered in Pittsburgh, and just so you know, I supported that. So go ahead. Sorry, go ahead.

Wonderful, wonderful. So ReelAbilities is the largest disability film festival in the world, and it's a festival dedicated to showing great stories, great films, by and about people with disabilities. We try to show a diversity of disabilities, try to take a progressive approach to disabilities. So these are not those films that are inspirational and just showing you how tragic or how triumphant life is to be with a disability. It's actually films that just tell really good stories. My favorite ones are ones that are not even about the disability but just inclusive of disability as well. And the festival is now— this April we're celebrating our 15th anniversary. And it launches here in New York. We run it in New York. And then it goes to over 20 cities across the U.S., into Canada, Latin America, Mexico. It's expanded over these last 15 years. And I have to admit, it expanded organically. This wasn't like a big plan of like, let's— global domination. Let's get it out there. Really just that there is such demand for these kinds of films. Most of our films, unfortunately, are so great but don't get shown in many other festivals or in many other places. And we are really proud to present them. We present them, I should note, with full accessibility. So we make it— every year we are raising the bar on accessibility so absolutely everyone can attend. And I like to think that the festival is for two major audiences. It is for the insiders who are people who live, breathe, and disabilities are part of their life, and at the same time for outsiders who think that they have no connection to the disability community, and they're coming in just because it's a great film, just because their friend told them to come, and hopefully these movies are forever changing people's perception of what disability film is and what the lives and stories of people with disabilities are, and gives people a window into the world of disability that they might not have had, and of those specific individuals of course every story is different. Even if you have, if you're living a disability, a life as a disabled person, you might not have the same experiences as another disabled person. It doesn't mean that you have the same exact experiences. And yet sometimes you might actually see yourself on the screen for the first time, which we don't see enough of. So that's in a nutshell a little bit of what ReelAbilities does. I should note, yes, of course one of the cities that has been extremely successful for us is Pittsburgh. And we love Reelabilities there, and it's been going on for quite a few years. I'd say probably close to 10 years now, and runs a great high-quality program.

When is this festival? Is it different in every place?

Yeah, so it launches here in New York April 27th till May 3rd, and then from there all those films travel to all the different cities based on their own schedule. And every city runs it independently. It's not that we run every city, of course, because we believe that every city has a different community and, you know, needs to give their own flavor to it, sometimes add in some of their own local films. And it's really about letting each city find its own identity and not just have to be like New York's film festival, because we have our own identity too.

Okay, let me ask you this question now. What was the trigger? What caused you to do this?

I have to admit it came— so it was at a period in my life where I was, I would say, not as proud of my disability as I am now. And although of course disability was always very close to me, I mean, it was— it's something that's all around all of us and it's a part of life. And by the way, of course, I mean, you mentioned before bullying and, you know, Standing up against bullies and fighting bullying. I remember seeing a film called Bully, and I believe the Bully Project came out of it. It was something that was always on my mind as far as the changes that we need. But really what the impetus to this festival came from, I showed a film that was related. I saw there was underrepresentation for disability, and I showed a film here at the JCC that was related to disability. We got a crowd and the impact was important and I started getting more and more films. And at one point I looked at my desk and I saw, wow, I have— and back then they did screeners on DVDs. Today it's all on links. But back then I had a whole stack of DVDs on my desk that were all disability-related. And I said, wow, we got a festival here. And as luck would have it, I met a woman named Anita Altman who is my co-founder of the festival. And she had the same idea. She was working with a film and saw the impact of a film. And she had organized a network of disability organizations. And bringing these two things together, her network and knowing that this is a program that would be very much connected to those organizations working in the community, and at the same time my program which was about bringing quality films of the underrepresented to the public, bringing those together was just a slam dunk and it took took off very quickly.

Wow, that is so great. And now, are you working on films now? Are you working on new films? What's going on?

So me personally, I mean, I still help with some production for films, and I continue to produce. Most of my time is dedicated to presenting films, so I'm on the exhibition side of things and running in various film festivals beyond ReelAbilities too, but especially ReelAbilities.

Yeah, that is great. Well, how do you like working at Miramax? How do you like that?

So Miramax, I had worked in just after college and it was—

Oh, you did? Oh, okay.

Yeah, yeah. I haven't been there in many years, but as I said, it's what drove me to make sure that I never work in a place— it's been— one of my mantras has been, I don't work at Miramax anymore, I don't work for Harvey Weinstein. I want to work in a world where people like that are not the boss.

Isn't that the truth? Yeah, that is absolutely so true. Uh, well, this ReelAbilities Festival, you mentioned it's the 15th year, uh, April 27th through May 3rd, as you said. Uh, what are you going to do about that? What do you have any— anything special planned?

I mean, every year is extremely exciting and first of all, of course, has a great lineup of films and we're always overwhelmed. I'll mention the hardest part of my job is we have to say no to great films. We don't have enough room for all the films we would love to screen. And that's heartbreaking, but it leaves us definitely with a really great program of films. But beyond the films, we're going to have a big celebratory opening night and we're going to have Troy Kutzer there, the Academy Award winner from Coda last year. He's going to be honored there. And we are planning so many programs throughout the week. We're not going to sleep for a week, and I'm excited to have as many people as possible join me in this pajama party because it is nonstop programs for a full week relating to disability, all very different. We're going to have a comedy night at the Gotham Comedy Club here in New York with all disabled comedians who are fabulous. Fabulous. We are going to have within it sketch comedy and stand-up and improv and show some videos too. We are planning— last year we started running an accessibility summit for the film industry, and we are expanding that this year with the help of the Mayor's Office for Media and Entertainment here in New York to make a summit that is for all performing arts on accessibility. And talk about how we can better bring in both on stage and behind the scenes more disabled people into these forms of art, which is crucial. And I feel like we're in a state of growth. There's a real revolution going on, and we're seeing so much more exposure. And this is the moment to really not say, "Okay, we're there," but rather to say, "All right, We got to push now to really make a change because to really create that sea change that we need for our society in terms of disability inclusion, we have a long way to go and it's an uphill battle and it's not just going to happen with a couple of Academy Award wins.

So anyone listening right now, if they're saying, They're in New York. Oh, this is awesome. How do they attend? How do they get tickets? You know, what is the whole process?

So tickets are going on sale at the end of the month, March 30th, and you go to reallabilities.org/newyork or go to reallabilities.org and select New York as your city, and you'll be able to get tickets. We are running fully in person and virtually too. We learned during the pandemic that all these years we ran in multiple locations in order to be one of the ways of being more accessible. And during the pandemic, when we went virtual for the first time, we got all these wonderful letters from people who said, "All these years I've wanted to attend your festival and I couldn't do it. I can't leave my home. I can't, you know, get far enough to be able to get to whatever theater you're presenting in." So we are trying to keep that virtual element as long as we can. And this year will be fully hybrid. All of our films have captions. We show them with open captions and audio description. The audio description is not open. Our venues are all, of course, wheelchair accessible. We try to be as accessible as possible and looking for new ways to be even more accessible. So hopefully, nothing will stop anyone from attending.

You know, it's funny you would bring this up about the accessibility. Um, you know what I hate is when you go to a movie— like, I not only have epilepsy, I'm hard of hearing, and I love the movies, but that big contraption they give you if you're hard of hearing is terrible. Do you know what I'm talking about? They give you this contraption that you have to attach to your seat to read the captioning. I always say, oh, this is hard enough for me. Imagine if you're someone who is deaf. What do you think has to happen for— do you think that will ever change mainstream film?

Yeah. Yeah. Whoever designed that clearly did not speak to a deaf person. I actually test these things out sometimes because I'm always interested in accessibility. You can't watch a movie while looking at the contraption. The same thing with the theater. If you are looking down at your popcorn holder in order to read the captions, then you can't actually look at the screen or the stage, whatever it would be. First of all, people really need to listen. Accessibility is not just like checking a box and saying, "Oh, here, we made this accessible by giving you a little machine that will give you captions." It needs to actually allow somebody to truly access. So that's crucial. That's why we show films with the captions on. In New York City, there is a law now that for mainstream cinemas have to show a certain percentage of films open captions, with the captions there. Hopefully that is something that will spread everywhere and become the norm. I think captions need to be done right. Some people say, "Oh, I don't like captions. It distracts me." it distracts me. I think it wouldn't be distracting if they're done right. If they're done in a very— with a nice text that looks good, that is timed correctly, that doesn't interfere but is actually flowing with the film, then the same way we watch films with subtitles, you could have the captions there and it could only actually help you better understand the film. I know I watch all my films with captions on and helps me follow better.

You know, when you're talking about the— I am one of those people. I said I need captioning. Oh, here, we'll go get this for you. I said, you've got to be kidding. First, it's so hard to get it situated. Then once you do, you're having to look at that little box while you're trying to, you know, look at— watch the movie. So I really hope that day comes. When I asked someone, they said, "Why it won't come, that we don't like that captioning." I said, "Really? Well, we don't like not being able to see the film." So I really hope that day does come. But with that, it is time for our on-the-half-hour news break with Perri Jude Radesik. Perry, are you with us?

Joyce Bender.

Hi, Perry. Well, Perry, we've been talking about accessibility at movies, and Isaac is the founder of Reel Abilities Film Festival, which is so wonderful, but someday, Perry, we hope we have the same options. So with that, Perry, what news do you have for us today?

Well, Joyce, I— there's a big development on the horizon from the Center for Medicaid and Medicare Services, but we need some advocacy to make it happen. So CMS, also known as Center for Medicaid and Medicare Services, is out right now seeking public comment on a potentially significant independent living change for people who have certain power wheelchairs and are Medicare beneficiaries. It's called a seat elevation system, and it permits an individual with a disability to independently raise and lower their wheelchair. Now, these are some examples of how the system improves independence. It makes it safer to transfer from one place to another, It allows disabled people to talk to another person eye to eye. It realigns the body to prevent pressure sores. And if someone wants to reach higher, like in a kitchen for a cabinet, someone can do that with the seat elevation system. So currently CMS doesn't cover power seat elevation equipment for individuals who have this Group 3 power wheelchair. CMS says that the system is not primary— primarily medical in nature. So, CMS is out seeking public comment to change that and to make it a benefit for people to access. Now, we need public comment from our allies and the disability community to make sure CMS finalizes this decision. Advocacy matters. It's really needed now. The deadline for this public comment is Friday, March 17th. You gotta let CMS know that we endorse access to seat elevation systems for Medicare beneficiaries. Now Joyce, you know we make it easy to submit a public comment. Just go to disabilityrightsPA.org. That's disabilityrightsPA.org. Click on today's advocacy matters segment. At the bottom of the advocacy matters segment for today, you'll find a bunch of links, links that will talk to you about the change that's being proposed by CMS and a link that directly takes you to submit a public comment. It's just that easy. You don't have to say a lot unless you have a lot to say. About this change as a benefit for Medicare beneficiaries. But remember, the deadline is Friday. Don't delay. Do it today. Let's help get this across the finish line.

Yeah, may I ask, Perry, why is this— why is this so difficult to make happen? Is it cost? Is that what it is?

Well, You know, it's— I think it's how Medicare talks about coverage of durable medical equipment. They say it's not primarily medical in nature, but I think it can be, and that's where Medicare has to switch its thinking about people with disabilities. Yes, it is going to help— it could help alleviate a medical condition, like pressure sores, if you're able to move your chair independently, stand up, sit down, raise, lower, tilt back, tilt forward, it removes that pressure, but it also enhances people's lives by giving people more independence. So, you know, maybe it's cost, but it's also the way Medicare words their regulations.

Well, let's hope that happens because just helping with those pressure sores, oh my God, that would be so wonderful. It would be. So once again, where do we go? Where do we go for our comments and when do we have to have it done by?

Yeah, thanks Joyce. Friday, March 17th is the deadline. We've made it easy. Go to disabilityrightspa.org click on today's advocacy matters segment. You'll find a link that will get you right to the public comment page for CMS. It's just that easy.

And Perry, before you go, you're the CEO of Disability Rights Pennsylvania. Would you mind just taking a minute to share with everyone what the organization does?

Absolutely. Thank you, Joyce Bender, for the opportunity. Disability Rights Pennsylvania is one of 57 agencies across the country. We're called Protection and Advocacy, and we protect the rights of people with disabilities, of all disabilities, whether that's related to helping people navigate complicated systems like Medicaid waivers, whether that's helping them file an EEOC complaint. So we work on issues like abuse and neglect. Protecting rights. We do outreach, education, training, public policy, anything that, that moves us forward in terms of disabled people's civil rights. And yeah, we're, we're a great organization, and people should check us out at disabilityrightspa.org.

Okay, so if they have an issue or want to donate, what should they do?

Go to disabilityrightsPA.org. We have a donate button on our webpage. We have lots of legal rights fact sheets and information and booklets so people in Pennsylvania can learn more about their rights, whether it's voting or special education. We have lots of fact sheets. We cover lots of areas, and it would be so easy to get a hold of us. We answer the phones live Monday through Friday from 9:00 AM to 3:00 PM to do what we call intake, to take legally-based related claims from people with disabilities for us to look at. So, yeah, it's that easy.

And an absolutely great organization that I am so proud to be on the the board of. So take time to go there, make a donation. Uh, and Perry has been on the news with me how many years now, Perry?

5 years.

5 years. Well, let me tell you, no matter where you are, you will be on the show at the half hour. So thank you, Perry, and we'll look forward to hearing from you next week. All right, you know what, Isaac, we are the only place in the United States that every week, uh, gives news on what's going on in the disability community nationally. The only place. So, um, she is just awesome, and I'm just so thrilled to have her on every week. So I think we already explained Isaac where the festivals will be. If you want to find that, where do you go to find that?

The schedule. So the festival— yeah. So I'll share that. The festival— reelabilities.org is the website. R-E-E-L, like the film reel. And the festival itself runs in New York. Our main location is the JCC in Manhattan. On the Upper West Side, but we also run in over 10 other locations throughout the entire New York metro area in all 5 boroughs. And again, this is for accessibility so people can— don't only have to come to the heart of Manhattan in order to see these films. And of course, we run virtually too, so people can access these films from their home as well. A big thank Thank you to the pandemic for that one. But we are really proud to make these films as accessible as possible. We want to make sure everyone is able to access them. We try to create it with universal design so as many people can access as possible, but also with individual design and look into what the individual needs are for each person who is coming and to experience this in the best way possible.

Oh, awesome. Um, and you mentioned you can see these films online. Is that all of the films, some of the films? And do you go to your website to register for that if you want to see it on Zoom or whatever it's on?

Absolutely. So the films— so first of all, everything's available. The dates are April 27th until May 3rd. May 3rd, and the films don't go up for sale until the end of this month, the end of March, March 30th. So it's very soon, but we'll be announcing our full lineup very soon, so stay tuned and check out all those wonderful films. But then the window to watch them is April 27th until May 3rd, and you can watch them through our website if you go to realabilities.org. I will also share here this year. It's not yet public, but we're launching a streaming site for all of our past films, from the films for our last 14 years of fantastic festivals with these great films that some of them don't get screened anywhere else. We are going to have a streaming site to make as many of these films available as possible so people can experience other films as well. All of our conversations, every film is followed by a conversation.— we don't just show a film, as I said before. This is a form of education and we want to engage the community. So every film has a conversation and all of those conversations are recorded as well and also placed online so anyone can access them.

Wow, that will be awesome. That will be awesome. So we were talking about your upcoming work. What are you working on or what do you see in the future? That you would like to work on?

I mean, Reelabilities has really been the heart and soul of my work for the last 15 years, and that's something that's just growing so much. So we're hoping to expand it further and take it to new places and continuing to bring programs to new places and share these wonderful films with other communities.— so that'll keep me busy for a little while.

Now, do you design? Do you create these films? I assume you have a team that works with you, and how do you find the actors for the film?

So we don't create any of these films. I'm lucky enough not to have to do that hard work. We select these films. What we do is we have a call for submissions and now we've established ourselves enough that we get every year hundreds and hundreds of submissions. We also search, just in case somebody missed us, we search out all the films that are related to disability and try to get as many as we can. And we have a few different committees that view the films and work really hard to find the best Of of the best. the best. And as I said before, there is not room, not enough room, not enough slots in one week to be able to include every film. But we try to get a good number of them and try to make them as diverse as possible so not all the films are about the same disability, but we see a real variety within the programming. And then we have all the films captured and audio described and prep them so we could present them in the best way possible.

Wow, I can't believe how many movies are sent to you. That's unbelievable. That's great.

That's wonderful. It's a lot of movies. I see a lot of movies every year. And it's amazing to see how the quality has gone up over the years and how many more films are being done in first person. At the beginning, it was really rare to find a film that was actually made by a person with a disability too. Now it's really a lot of first-person stories, and that's what we love.

Well, a question I have for you. What would you say over the past, we'll say 15 years, what do you feel has been your greatest accomplishment?

Ah, within RealAbilities? It's, I mean—

Your life, anything.

I mean, Real Abilities has been my greatest accomplishment. Within Real Abilities every year, it's hard to really decide. Every year I find something new that just amazes me and changes me and reminds me that this is why we do all this hard work. Why we're there and how much this work is needed for the community. And it could be as simple as sitting there in a theater and taking a question from an audience member who is non-verbal and giving them the opportunity to feel comfortable and ask a question with everyone else and not have to feel like they're an outsider in the experience. It could be that simple. That moment is like, ah, this is why we do this.

Now, for any young person listening to this show with a disability that has aspirations, uh, in the arts of some type, whether it's film, painting, radio, whatever it is, but feel as if non-stop obstacles, someone like me will never get that chance, uh, what would you say to them?

I'd say first of all, of course, never give up. You have to work hard. You have to— I think we're at a time when people are actually starting to pay a little bit more attention to disability. That means that everybody's story can get told. Anyone can have that opportunity. You just have to work really hard. And have talent. I think that's the bottom line. What we look for is just good storytelling, and that's what makes a good movie to me. Of course, production quality too, but that's something that's technical. Storytelling is really something that's a craft that needs to be worked on and should really be developed. And I think, you know, disability is not something that should ever Never, ever hold anyone out or be a reason for lack of inclusion. If anything else, it gives you an edge.

Well, the one thing you said, never give up. No matter what anyone says or how they try to lower the bar, just never give up. And it's time for our What's Going On at Bender. I think we have Gerald Homi on the line. Gerald, are you with us?

I'm here. Thank you so much, Joyce, and what a great show with you and Isaac.

Yes, it is, isn't it? But Gerald, I don't know if you heard the very beginning of the show. Would you mind sharing with Isaac what your disabilities are?

Sure. I have dysgraphia, dyslexia, um, and mental health disability.

Well, guess who has dyslexia and dysgraphia? Isaac! So there you go. You've got something in common. And Gerald, by the way, is the leader at Bender Consulting, which of course, Bender Consulting, we focus on the employment of people with disabilities across the United States in IT, finance, engineering, really across across the board because people with disabilities have great talent but with stigma have been left out. And we've worked with the public sector intelligence agencies like the NSA. People with disabilities are there, just give them the chance. Gerald is the manager over 20 people that work in talent programs. Gerald, I'll turn it over to you to see what's going on at Bender.

Thanks, Joyce, and it's great that you made that transition talking about talent because we have an exciting opportunity for talent with disabilities and employers looking to hire people with disabilities. Coming up next month in April, we have our Bender Virtual Career Fair on April 26th. We host these frequently with our wonderful partner, CareerEco Virtual Events, where we create a public platform for employers to recruit directly candidates with disabilities all across the United States logging in online. We've been doing this since, I think, around 2012, something like that, a long time with we've been doing these career fairs. And if you go to benderconsult.com to our careers page, you can learn about the career fair. Get registered right now as a candidate looking for a job to give employers early access to your resume. And as an employer, get early access to our candidates that have signed up if you register right now for this event. Job seekers, it's totally free to apply. Gives you a lot of direct contact with large corporations, federal agencies, and other employers all throughout the U.S. So, wanted to highlight this great opportunity coming up soon. So, thank you for giving me the chance to talk about it, Joyce.

So, Gerald, just so I have one thing straight, if anyone listening to this show with a disability is interested in registering for the Virtual Career Fair, there is no fee to them. Is that correct?

Absolutely correct. If you just go to our website under our career section to learn about the virtual career fair, you can register, get the link to register right there. No fee. You just instantly get your resume shared with a bunch of employers interested in hiring people with disabilities.

And what, what about if you need accessibility?

Oh, I'm glad you asked that. See, CareerEco's platform is accessible. Our ITES digital accessibility team has done testing on the site, and additionally, to support that effort, we always have one member of our digital accessibility team present during the career fair in case somebody runs into any accessibility issues, that we're there to support and help them navigate through the technology. There's even a whole screen reader guide we wrote for individuals as using a screen reader to navigate the platform, although we know accessibility expands beyond just that. So, CareerEco has been a great partner in that, and that's one of the reasons we engaged this platform in the beginning is we saw the potential for it to be an early accessible platform for housing virtual employment events. Even before the pandemic era, CareerEco was really onto this early. So, very inclusive.

One last question, Gerald. If a company or business manager is listening to the show, what do they do if they want to be a sponsor?

Same thing. Go to the career section of our Bender Consulting site to learn about the job fair. If you click that register link, you can then register as— click organizations learn more. Learn more. Everything's out there for information. Pricing for a company right now, the— we're still in the early registration deadline, so you save $100 if you register right now. It's $395. That's it for a company to participate. Usually we get at least 1,000 candidates with disabilities participating in this event. So, really low cost, great opportunity to get connected with candidates with disabilities. Right now, we have one sponsor, Wells Fargo. So, you can also sponsor the event for additional visibility. There's a lot of options there. Definitely go check it out.

Thank you, Gerald. And we'll look forward to more news next week.

I look forward to the rest of the show.

All right, thank you so much. Well, before we end the show, you know, Isaac, first of all, thank you for joining us. I just loved having you on as a guest.

Thank you so much for having me, and it's great to hear that you have another dysgraphic on the show. And if only I knew how to spell dysgraphia.

Yep, that's right. So, you've obviously been successful and innovative and creative and came up with an idea and just made it happen. So, you must have been influenced by others or someone. So, who would you say is your role model?

There are so many out there. I mean, I'm only grateful to everyone who has helped forged this path before me. And I mean, today, this week, I am thinking so much about Judith Heumann, who unfortunately passed away and has been a good friend to Real Abilities. She spoke at one of our closing nights during the pandemic and has been really such an activist and a leader in the community that I can't not think about what an influence influence she's had in my life. But I also want to highlight another unsung hero, a friend named Lawrence Carter-Long who has been with our festival since day one and helped guide our festival and continues to present— I'd say he's the greatest expert on disability film in the world. He's like the ultimate Yoda of disability film. Disability film and really, I think, has a keen understanding of the importance of kindness and good storytelling.

I can't believe this. Last week I had a dedication to Judy Heumann that was the entire show where different disability rights leaders called in. If I had known you, I would have told you, but but we'll be doing something else. But I had 19 people call in, uh, national leaders, to talk about Judy and how much she meant to them. It was really hard for me, as my listeners know, when Judy passed away. She was one of my closest friends. And do you see how everyone was impacted by Judy? I don't care who you talk to, everyone, everyone was impacted by Judy Heumann. And then Lawrence Carter Long, another great person. So isn't it amazing how we know the same people? But like, who doesn't know Judy, right?

It's— the community is way too small. You'd think there were 5 people in this community when actually it's, you know, 25% of the population.

I know, isn't it amazing? Well, I want to thank you again for being with us today. And wait, Isaac, until you hear the quote for the day. "I don't think I felt really shame about my disability. What I felt more was exclusion," said Judy Heumann. This is Joyce Bender, America's Voice, where disability matters, at voiceamerica.com. Talk to you all next week, and in the words of Mary Brocker, remember, choose joy.

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