You-Tube Gems
Many Americans with free time nowadays may find themselves perusing You-Tube. Although I cannot say that this is one of my favourite sites (it can be difficult to navigate), on occassion I have found some great video clips. The clips below offer striking examples of how effective and influential video can be on the perception of disability.
The following link is to U.S. teenager, Benjamin Snow’s brilliant short film about Hollywood’s obsession with portraying characters with a disability in a patronising and pitiful way.
Thumbs Down to Pity – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BszOnGFC9E4
Unfortunately, although this video is one of my favourites, without the video description or a friend who’s willing to tell you some of the great visuals, you might miss out on some of the clips from famous films that Benjamin uses to illustrate his point.
Next is a two-part video called ‘Talk’ from the U.K. Human Rights Commission. It is an award-winning piece that portrays a society in which non-disabled people are a pitied minority and disabled people lead full and active lives. Jonathan Kerrigan, of BBC’s ‘Casualty’ fame, plays a business executive whose negative preconceptions of disability are dramatically shattered. I thought it profoundly amusing and a quite striking illustration of what the world would be like in a ”role reversal.”
Part 1 – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FZfOVNwjFU0
Part 2 – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A9a2ZqLhuAw
It is also available on You-Tube in subtitled and signed format. Unfortunately, I haven’t been able to find an audio described version as yet, however it is understandable (or at least I could follow it).
I hope at some point to be able to include descriptions to go with the videos.
[...] About how quickly people deem others ‘crazy’ if their behavior isn’t understood. Day in Washington has dug up two video gems to demonstrate what our world might look like if it were only accessible [...]
[...] clip is totally visual– thanks to Day for pointing this out about youtube videos. Basically is a french commercial that shows a city [...]
Thanks for posting these. Being I’m totally blind, I opted out of trying to sort out the non-verbals in the first clip. However, the two-parter about the U.K. was right on the mark. Even without being able to see everything that was going on, there was enough to pull me through most scenes. My, how I could relate to some of the experiences that the able-bodied man endured.
Thanks for sharing.
Thank you so much for contributing some multimedia fun to the carnival-it really made it awesome! I’ve always admired your site so it meant alot to me that you joined in on the fun.
~Kara
Glad ya’ll enjoyed the video clips! And it is wonderful to see how the community comes together to share experiences and put that knowledge and experience and support to good use.
I love Snow’s video, but had not come across the DRC’s Talk video before. That was fantastic – thanks for introducing me to it!