Review by Dylan Rothbein for Disability Pride Month!

“Best Practices in Action by Dylan Rothbein When it comes to best practices in media and accessibility, which is my main concern with Dylan Rothbein Liberty Coalition, too many companies have decided to ignore disability or tokenizing disabled in their brand which is not accessibility or social model of disability. There is one company however that deserves to be celebrated for their leadership and best practices which is Crip Video Productions. Crip Video Productions has put out 4 short films which showcase disabled actors in their natural habitats and each actor get accommodations. Crip Video Productions follows the ADA to the letter which is a best practice. Crip Video Productions exists to make sure everyone has value from conception to natural death. Crip Video Productions has also partnered with many organizations like Students Unlimited at Kingsborough, Teatro Paraguas, and Dylan Rothbein Liberty Coalition, and embodies Nothing About Us Without Us because everyone has a disability or is an allay. I was hired by this company to produce “What The Body Believes” a collaboration between Crip Video Productions and CUNY. Crip Video Productions also conducts ethical business practices every day because our director makes sure everyone is compensated in some way. So many times disabled people are exploited but not at Crip Video Productions. This is why it is an honor to be affiliated with this company which is disability oriented, stands for free speech and free expression, and knows every life matters. Crip Video Productions excels and employs best practices at all stages, our director makes sure shoot locations are accessible so we can contribute our skills as human beings not just because we are disabled. In casting our casting director sees the potential in every actor regardless of experience because Crip Video Productions believes in opportunity and responsibility. In post production Crip Video Productions excels at audio description, with audio description on each production and screen reader access so I am honored to work there as a blind person and I know that no matter how impaired I get I will always have a place at Crip Video Productions. Crip Video Productions is a role model for the disabled because many disabled people feel like they can’t start a business but our director is also a writer and editor with Cerebral Palsy, which teaches us you can succeed with a TBI. ”

References Cole, Margot. “Crip Video Productions” 2023 www.cripvideoproductions.com “Dylan Rothbein Linkedin” 2023 https://www.linkedin.com/in/dylan-rothbein-a86140147 Cole, Margot. ”3 presentations in a single day!” Crip Video Productions 2020. https://cripvideoproductions.tumblr.com/post/190517942026/3-presentations-in-a-single-day “Students Unlimited” https://www.kbcc.cuny.edu/access-ability/contact.html “Teatro Paraguas” teatroparaguasnm.org This is a review of Crip Video Productions by Dylan Rothbein posted with permission. Dylan Rothbein is the producer on a new Crip Video Productions film project which is a collaboration. Happy Disability Pride Month/Disability History Month from Crip Video Productions! Dylan Rothbein Liberty Coalition is seperate from Crip Video Productions. Crip Video Productions is collaborating with PSC CUNY via generous donation on "What The Body Believes" co directed by Mary Lynn Navarro. I(Margot Cole) also wrote biology essays that combine biology with disability studies themes. This one covers Cerebral Palsy, the Moro Reflex, and neurodiversity. https://medium.com/@dylanrothbein/the-moro-reflex-guest-post-by-margot-3d9ccc4758b2 This essay was generously consulted on by Dylan Rothbein

Live Video Presentations Summer 2020

As the COVID19 pandemic is ongoing Crip Video Productions continues to operate well online. 

On July 21 2020 Crip Video Productions did another video call presentation on disability. We had more of the disabled and non-disabled cast members of “Crips Not Creeps” and “A Stroke Of Endurance” presenting.  A lot of the presentation was focused on Cerebral Palsy, as well as visual impairment and another disability called dyspraxia. We talked about the ongoing effects of coronavirus on the disability community since our last COVID19 talk. We talked about IEPs, disability terminology, social model vs medical model of disability, hypotonia, hypertonia, and AFOs. We talked about the 30th anniversary of the Americans With Disabilities Act and the positive impact and rights the Americans With Disabilities Act provides to our cast and crew and all other disabled citizens. One person asked if everything was hard with a disability and we responded that disability is not suffering or tragedy. We discussed media and disability portrayal and noticed non-verbal people were more rarely depicted in the media. One person asked if “disability” should be used instead of “disorder”. One person asked if disabled kids tend to be overprotected. One woman asked us if we had advice for disabled kids and parents of disabled kids and even brought up the idea of Crip Video Productions talking to kids and parents as well as more college faulty in the Fall of 2020.  We got very positive feedback about the presentation after it ended. 

Please contact Crip Video Productions via email if you want to use the films as online teaching tools. 

Please note that we have full permission from all people involved with the presentation to write this post. 

3 Presentations in one Big Day

On January 27th 2020,  I did 3 presentations about Crip Video Productions films with members of my cast. John Diodato and I did the first regular presentation together where we discussed Cerebral Palsy, IEPs, the Moro Reflex as it relates to Cerebral Palsy, and diabetes. One student asked how large my fanbase was. I told her about my various fans from India, The Netherlands, Canada, Italy and Ghana Africa. One person asked why some people with disabilities may be offended if they are called inspiring so I tried my best to explain “Inspiration P#rn” as a term and the difference between good and bad forms of inspiration.  One disabled student said he loved acting and was kind enough to offer his services to Crip Video Productions future projects. 

This disabled student ended up coming with us to film the first of 2 video recorded presentations for the TV show created by Professor Mary Lynn Navarro of Kingsborough Community College titled “Students TALK”. https://cripvideoproductions.tumblr.com/post/189108164086/video-interview https://cripvideoproductions.tumblr.com/post/189483544466/video-interview-2 

 Tim Snoha, John Diodato, Izabela Ginda, Betty Lewin and myself from “A Stroke Of Endurance” participated as well as Daniel Liriano from the films “Only Those Who Limp Allowed” and “Crips Not Creeps”. It was so nice to have my actors input. We had a mix of my disabled and able bodied performers presenting together in a panel with a documentary like style. Many of the questions were either disability or media related like what movies we liked, and how we met each other. Some of the actors talked about how they originally found my casting calls for my films on this blog. Tim Snoha mentioned “Inclusion In The Arts” which has since been disbanded and shut down unfortunately. 

During the second of the video recorded presentations for “Students Talk” we got into a more serious discussion of instances where my actors had been discriminated against for being disabled, instances where my able bodied performers saw disabled people they knew having their privacy violated, and what each performer thought of terms like “Differently Abled” and “Disabled”. Some of the answers surprised me, I learned a lot of good new things, and I was reminded how wonderful it was to work with these individuals! Some of the student audience shared their own disability related experiences and  really connected well with us.

Super special thanks to Mary Lynn Navarro, Tim Snoha, John Diodato, Izabela Ginda, Betty Lewin, and Daniel Liriano as well as everyone else involved in all the presenations for such a fabulous experience! 

See our tumblr page to view photos from that day. 

Please note: "Students Talk" has NOT been released yet. "Students TALK" is NOT owned by Crip Video Productions!