Access Media for Disability Justice
Friday, June 1, 2018
2:00 - 2:45pm
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Access to Media, Culture and Entertainment for the Latinx community with disabilities
Maria Victoria Diaz Our Latinx community with disabilities living in the United States has to overcome unique difficulties. Faced with the challenge of surfing a new culture, and language, those who are deaf or hard of hearing must learn American Sign Language; the blind must navigate in a world that is predominantly visual and “English oriented”, and for children, most of their families have to work hard to obtain health, work, and education; that is without mentioning immigration and communication difficulties. With that said, access to media, culture and entertainment is not among the priorities in the discussions. This presentation is an invitation to overview the current state of the art in the US of our right of having access to media in Spanish language. Having access to media we have access to information, education, culture and entertainment; media opens our mind to participate in discussions, to reach access to educational resources, and to have a better quality of life. But most important of all, it is our right and we are not claiming it. The presentation will cover examples of applications, current accessible media available in Spanish, and current regulation. With this presentation I will test the water and collect opinions among attendees to design an Action Plan to be presented to the National Coalition for Latinxs with Disabilities around this subject. |
Nos Why Not
Felipe Alsonso We are the first agency of photographers with intellectual disabilities. We seek inclusion by creating an ecosystem, an international network of photographers with disabilities, which will be a meeting point between photographers with disabilities and society, where there will be an inspiration to collaborate together creating products or services of value to society. We want to change the paradigm, which is the society that wants our services. For this, we intend to collaborate with technological companies that allow us to offer incredible products, and specialize the different groups of photographers, achieving social and labor inclusion through image. Being an international network, we will help people with disabilities from other countries, where their situation is difficult. We are building the first bank of images made by photographers with disabilities, for the intellectual moment. The Beta version can be seen at http://www.noswhynot.photoshelter.com Our project is open to all people with disabilities, especially the intellectual one. We come from Spain, we collaborate with some country (Norway, Argentina, ...) and now we try to expand our network of photographers in USA (at the moment we have contacts with 5 cities) |
María Vicky Diaz
Hard of hearing and an electrical engineer by training, she has earned two masters degrees, one in Entertainment Business and another one in Project Management. Ms. Diaz has been appointed to serve on the second term of the Federal Communications Commission's Disability Advisory Committee (DAC), which was established to advise the Commission on communications access issues for individuals with disabilities. Ms. Diaz, as president and founding partner of Dicapta, is the Director of accessibility projects in Dicapta for the United States Department of Education since 2005, serving the needs children with sensory disabilities through Television Access projects (Video Description and Captioning for Educational Programming). She serves as a member of the Board of Directors, representing the Hispanic community, for various organizations, most notably the National Coalition for Latinxs with Disabilities, the Described and Captioned Media Program (DCMP) under the U.S. National Association for the Deaf, and the Florida and Virgin Islands (FAVI) Deaf-Blind Collaborative. She is the pioneer of description and captioning services in Latin America. Maria V. has received several awards for her work in the past few years. The Don Quixote award for small business of the year by the Hispanic Chamber of Commerce, Orlando, FL (2008); Audio Description Project Award for Achievement in Audio Description - Media - recognition from The American Council for the Blind and The Audio Description Project (2009); Anna Maria Arias Memorial Business Fund for their innovation and community service in the United States, Washington D.C. (2009); and the Diversity Award and best business by Seminole County, FL in 2013. Most recently, she was selected among the top 10 remarkable leaders in Media (The John C. Maxwell Leadership Award 2014). María is a researcher and developer of technology to facilitate access to educational media, arts and culture with more than 25 years' experience in the television industry. |
Felipe Alonso Company Barcelona (España) 1959
Felipe Alonso Company Barcelona (España) 1959. Fotoperiodista que trabaja a favor de la inclusión de las personas con discapacidad intelectual a través de “Nos, Why Not?” la agencia internacional de fotógrafos con discapacidad. En 2011 se trasladó a vivir a A Coruña (España), donde inició su proyecto de fotografía para la Inclusión. El 19 de marzo del 2013 creó “Nos, Why Not?” la agencia de fotógrafos con discapacidad intelectual. Ahora está creando la red de fotógrafos con discapacidad en USA, y el primer banco de imágenes realizadas por fotógrafos con discapacidad. Trabajó en el diario “El Mundo del S XXI” donde llegó a ser jefe de fotografía en la edición de Barcelona, y colaboró con la agencia internacional Sipa-Press. Felipe Alonso Company Barcelona (Spain) 1959. Photojournalist working for the inclusion of people with intellectual disabilities through "Nos, Why Not?" The international agency of photographers with disabilities. In 2011 he moved to live in A Coruña (Spain), where he started his Photography project for Inclusion. On March 19, 2013 he created "Nos, Why Not?" The agency of photographers with intellectual disabilities. Now he is creating the network of photographers with disabilities in the USA, and the first bank of images made by photographers with disabilities. He worked in the newspaper "El Mundo del S XXI" where he became head of photography at the Barcelona edition, and collaborated with the international agency Sipa-Press. |
