What does “One in 5″ mean?
According to census statistics, one out of every five Americans have a disability of some kind. These are their stories.
Why does this matter?
Disability doesn’t necessarily refer exclusively to your elderly (great)(grand)parents anymore. Disability culture is a vibrant culture, and like with other minority cultures, it deserves mainstream exposure.
People with disabilities are one of the last remaining minority groups where systemic discrimination is commonplace and considered acceptable. Three quarters of all people with disabilities who want to work cannot find jobs. So-called reasonable accommodations are not made by fearful employers who worry about liability and productivity, not understanding that people with disabilities can be and often are contributing members of society.
Government benefits awarded to people with disabilities are meant to improve lives, but societal costs would be far less if people with all kinds of different disabilities could become contributing members of society (as so many wish to become) rather than recipients of government aid.
Are these people who tell their stories heroes? Exceptional? Praise-worthy?
Mainstream culture tends to classify people with disabilities who are seemingly “high-functioning” as heroes, almost “superhuman.”
Most people with disabilities who achieve more than what is “expected” are merely combatting prejudicial assumptions. Taking away the disability, these individuals aren’t extraordinary. Rather, they are just people who want to live their lives, just like you and me.
Should I feel bad about these people and their situation in life?
Although life with a disability isn’t always easy or convenient, it is life, and it is (or becomes) ordinary day-to-day life to the person in question.
Everyone struggles, even members of the mainstream population. Like there are people who hate their hair color or career choices, there are people with disabilities who are unsuccessfully integrating their identity as a person with a disability into the rest of their life.
On the other hand, so many people with disabilities have successfully accepted their disability and have moved on to the more exciting parts of life, like sports, arts, activism, or any of the other parts of life that make it so interesting.
Well-adjusted people with disabilities are not seeking your pity.
How did this project come into being?
In 2003, Susan and David Levitt Waxman began working on a feature length documentary about five people from Chicago with different disabilities. In 2004, before production could be completed, they left Chicagoland due to employment opportunities elsewhere.
In 2008, with partial funding from the Best Seat in the House Festival (made possible with a grant to promote the broadcast of the documentary “Rolling,”), KRCB Public Television produced profiles of San Francisco Bay-area people in wheelchairs.
Later in 2008, the new “One in 5 Project” will add excerpts from the original five interviews from Chicago to this website, along with new stories created both by professional video producers and submitted videos and podcasts created by other Americans with disabilities.
More questions?
Register with our website and post a question after any video or audio story. Or, ask a question anonymously.
Attend the Best Seat in the House Festival, coming to the San Francisco Bay Area April 1 - 12!