Accessibility Matters: a disability advocacy video series

This series of six videos was a collaboration between students enrolled in Dr. Marion Quirici’s “Neurodiversity, Narrative, Activism” course and students enrolled in Professor Jim Haverkamp’s “Moving Image Practice” course. The students coordinated with Duke Disability Alliance for Disability Pride Week.

The videos examine the ways in which the physical environment and campus culture of Duke University are accessible and inaccessible, inclusive and exclusive. Accessibility is a disability justice issue, but it impacts the whole community. Universally designed spaces—environments that provide for the human rights and health needs of the whole community—are an ideal that surpasses the minimum requirements of the Americans with Disabilities Act. In other words, forms of physical accessibility like ramps, elevators, and parking spaces are just the beginning.

The structure of our institutions sends messages about power. What ways do our built environments produce barriers that prevent some bodies from participating? How do our culture and surroundings produce or reinforce trauma?

 

Campus Culture

By Dennis Harrsch, Mike Liu, Georgia Scott, and Symphony Webber

 

Physical Accessibility: The Bathroom Issue

By Andrew Bouffler, Daisy Fang, and Charlie Graham

 

Addiction and Peer Support

By Nina Kuprasertkul, Maria Pita, Lourdes Reyes, and Luke Whitten

 

Recreational Facilities

By Vincent Bivona, Danielle Chipman, and Brett Lardaro

 

Breaking the Silence: Sexual Assault

By Joshua Chin, Liz Finney, and Robyn Kwok

 

Classroom Accommodations and Pedagogy

By Feng Gui, Paschalia Nsato, and Hannah Zhuang

 

 

The videos below were created independently by students enrolled in “Neurodiversity, Narrative, Activism” taught by Dr. Marion Quirici, for Disability Pride Week.

Explaining Neurodiversity in 3 Levels of Difficulty

By Lucas Gonzalez

In this video, a Duke student explains the concept of Neurodiversity in three levels of increasing difficulty. He converses first with a child, then with a college student, and finally with an expert in the field of neuroscience, Dr. Len White.

 

Mental Illness and Homelessness

By Molly Monsour

This short documentary aims to show how the mentally ill homeless population is misrepresented in society. Through interviews with Duke students, it is apparent that homeless people with psychiatric disabilities are negatively stigmatized. The video incorporates personal narratives by psychiatric survivors who have experienced homelessness, to generate understanding and discredit the stigma.