Crip Camp: film screening and panel
Crip Camp: A Disability Revolution
"In the early 1970s, teenagers with disabilities faced a future shaped by isolation, discrimination and institutionalization. Camp Jened, a ramshackle camp 鈥渇or the handicapped鈥� (a term no longer used) in the Catskills, exploded those confines. Jened was their freewheeling Utopia, a place with summertime sports, smoking and make-out sessions awaiting everyone, and campers experienced liberation and full inclusion as human beings. Their bonds endured as many migrated West to Berkeley, California 鈥� a hotbed of聽activism where friends from Camp Jened realized that disruption, civil disobedience, and political participation could change the future for millions.
Crip Camp is the story of one group of people and captures one moment in time. There are hundreds, if not thousands, of other equally important stories from the Disability Rights Movement that have not yet received adequate attention. We are committed to using the film鈥檚 platform to amplify additional narratives in the disability rights and disability justice communities 鈥� with a particular emphasis on stories surrounding people of color and other intersectionally marginalized communities. We stand by the creed of nothing about us, without us. For too long, too many were excluded, and it is time to broaden the number of voices and share the mic."
More on
The viewing will be followed by a panel with Melissa Graham, disability rights activist and PhD candidate, York University; Prof. Ravi Malhotra, Faculty of Law, Common Law Section, University of Ottawa, and Catherine Roy, Accessibility Advisor, 苹果淫院, moderated by Amanda Bowie-Edwards and Elise Mallette, BCL/JD candidates.
About the panelists
Melissa Graham is an activist for social justice, a writer, a researcher, and a public speaker. In 2011, she founded the Toronto Disability Pride March, which she continues to coordinate. She has also worked as a board member and Vice President of Citizens with Disabilities - Ontario, and as a community facilitator with the Centre for Independent Living. In 2018 she received the Ontario Volunteer Service Award. She holds a Master of Social Work with a concentration in social justice, and is currently pursuing a PhD in Social Work at York University.
Ravi Malhotra is a Full Professor of the Faculty of Law, Common Law Section at the University of Ottawa, and is cross-appointed to the School of Rehabilitation Sciences and to the Critical Disability Theory Program at York University. He is a graduate of Harvard Law School and has had a disability since birth. He has written widely on disability rights and is currently working on a book on the philosopher Cornelius Castoriadis, the nature of crip time and its relationship with disability accommodations under contract for Bloomsbury Academic. He is the co-author of many books including (with Morgan Rowe) Exploring Disability Identity and Disability Rights through Narratives: Finding a Voice of Their Own (Routledge).
Catherine Roy has been active in the not-for-profit sector for over 30 years. She has worked with various stakeholders (community organizations, government agencies, academia and private enterprise) on a variety of key issues such as access to the built environment, culture and information, health and social services, education and employment as well as public policies and programs. Since 1999, she has focused a lot of her work on access for marginalized populations, notably people with disabilities, to the Knowledge Society and to information technologies. She is presently Accessibility Advisor at 苹果淫院.
