EIN SOF Communications, Inc.

05/07/2025

Call to Action - As a proud 2nd generation Angelino who learned civics from LA Unified School District, I am angry about proposed egregious budget cuts to City of Los Angeles Department on Disability (DOD) - for real Mayor Bass?

Your billion dollar budget deficit should not be balanced on the backs of the Deaf/disability community. It is not the fault of DOD - a small, vital department that since its inception has been of service as the city’s "safety net" to propel access in the workplace, marketplace, public works, and community - from accessible public transit, emergency responses, HIV prevention funding, homelessness, disabled veterans and its excellent work to increase employment of creatives with disabilities with its vibrant ReelAbilities Film Festival: Los Angelesl LA, support of Lights! Camera! Access! and other Deaf/disability/arts programs that change the way society views people with disabilities. We can not risk slashing 20% of DOD’s budget, nor loose 1/3 of its great staff.

Why not allocate $890,000 that was referenced in the budget hearing from the City’s $27.5 million opioid settlement fund to restore overdose prevention, other life saving services and retain critical staff. These funds are eligible, available, and unspent.

Not saying that Veterans, people with disabilities, homeless and seniors are the “most vulnerable” but historically, they are the first dispensable. We can’t let that happen.

As a woman-owned small business focused on disability justice, and authentic representation, we must organize, mobile and take action.

No matter what zip Code. Your city could be next.

What can we do?

Please join our “call to action” -

Submit a Written Public Comment
Online at https://lnkd.in/gf9HkNVH
Council File Number: 25-0600

Email Your Councilmember
Let them know how these cuts will impact the services you care about.
Find their contact info in the City Directory.

Share This Message
Please forward this email to anyone who may want to support the Department on Disability at future hearings.

Lead On - in commUNITY

Image description - logo of the LA City Department on Disability & seal of the City of Los Angeles

04/29/2025

This weekend's Emmys / Television Academy FYC screening of Apple TV's DEAF PRESIDENT NOW (DPN) was spectacular with Q&A by co-directors Nyle DiMarco and Guggenheim.

The doc beautifully interweaves archival footage, backstory of the medical model that wrongly aspired to “fix, cure and eradicate” deafness and disability, intercut with current-day interviews by four student leaders - Greg Hlibok, Jerry Covell, Bridgetta Bourne-Firl, and Tim Rarus.

DPN shines a long-overdue spotlight on the true story of Deaf students at Gallaudet University during the Spring of 1988 as they took back their Deaf power, pride & culture, demanding the University appoint a Deaf President - the first in its 124 year history. That Deaf President was . King Jordan.

Witness the power of DPN as the launch pad that ignited increased cross-disability political action in DC organized by ADAPT and captured in the doc CHANGE, NOT CHARITY by Jim LeBrecht and other disabled filmmakers) - Two years later, disability activists protests led to the unamended passage of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) - that celebrates its 35th Anniversary this July 26th.

Thanks Apple TV for your commitment to accessibility & authentic representation. Here is to Deaf and disabled filmmakers taking back the narrative - PAH!

Streaming May 16th on Apple TV+ - you won't want to miss this!!

Image descriptions: Photos from Television Academy screening: 1) Beneath the sign "Apple TV+ DEAF PRESIDENT NOW," sits co-directors Nyle DeMarco & Davis; 2) Nyle & Tari; 3) Nyle & Davis; 4) Tari & Katie Farmer in front of the DPN "one-sheet" movie poster.

03/05/2025

Disability in Focus: Navigating Work Life
Getty Images + Verizon 2025 Creative Grant

Calling all photographers with disabilities - now is your chance to create authentic disability images that shatter myths - Deadline is Friday, March 7th.

https://grants.gettyimages.com/en/grants/disability-navigating-work

This year’s theme, Disability in Focus: Navigating Work Life.

Goal: highlight people with disabilities in the workplace—depicting their roles as active participants, industry leaders, and collaborators driving progress and innovation. This grant seeks to create imagery that expands representation to reflect professional achievements and contributions to society.

Judges will evaluate submissions that showcase:

1. Authenticity in the Workplace: Imagery that highlights people with disabilities as skilled professionals working alongside their non-disabled peers across diverse industries, highlighting their expertise and contributions.

2. Leadership and Collaboration: Stories that capture disabled individuals as leaders, decision‑makers, and team players shaping their organizations.

3. Representation in All Roles: Visuals that celebrate diversity of careers and contributions made by people with disabilities, from entry‑level positions to the C‑suite.

4. Workplace Inclusion: Narratives that reflect accessible work environments and conditions that enable people with disabilities to thrive and perform jobs effectively, like anyone else.

5. Balancing Work and Life: Photos that demonstrate the dynamic balance of professional ambitions and personal lives, showcasing disabled individuals as whole, multifaceted people.

This initiative is an extension of The Disability Collection, launched in 2018 for Global Accessibility Awareness Day (GAAD) by Getty Images, Verizon, and NDLA to authentically represent people with disabilities in media. Tari Hartman Squire, Joseph Craig, Derek Shields, Dom Evans & Kings Floyd are proud to have connected Getty Images/Verizon (formerly Oath) with NDLA, curated, moderate and analyze NDLA focus groups and create Disability Guidelines for Authentic Portrayals that were disseminated to 240,000 Getty photographers worldwide. The Disability Collection now features thousands of curated images and videos devoted to this mission, and this grant will continue to advance these efforts. Thanks Zachary Michael Bastian & Getty for expanding this great initiative.

Image description - man in red apron smiles while at a door with the "open" sign.

01/30/2025

Apple Studios' Deaf President Now debuts at Sundance Film Festival today. The 1988 DPN was the lighting rod that ignighted the disability rights move that led to the 1990 passage of the Americas with Disabilities Act (ADA). Deaf storytellers take back the narrative. Thanks Apple for your disability-inclusive diversity leadership - we love you! PAH!!

Directors: DiMarco, Guggenheim

During eight tumultuous days in 1988 at the world’s only Deaf university, four students must find a way to lead an angry mob — and change the course of history. With two deaf candidates in the running for up the presidency, Gallaudet University students saw the possibility of finally being led by someone like them. But when the board of trustees — composed overwhelmingly of hearing individuals — selected the lone hearing candidate, the groundswell of student activism that followed forced a reckoning of more than a century of paternalism.

Panelists: Davis Guggenheim (director), Nyle DiMarco (director), Jerry Covell (student leader), Bridgetta Bourne-Firl (student leader/subject), tim rarus (student leader/subject), Greg Hlibok Hlibok, Esq. (student leader/subject).

Key quotes:
The Deaf President Now protest was a part of a much larger movement that was very much spurred by the actions of the deaf community in placing a deaf president as the head of Gallaudet. Not only did we succeed, but this protest, in fact, gave rise to the passage of the Americans with Disabilities Act, which protects so many of us in the community and allows us access in our daily lives. — Nyle DiMarco

We had three finalists [for Gallaudet president], with two of them being deaf. And prior to that point, people had used the excuse that, “Oh, on paper, the qualifications of the candidates were clearly that the hearing candidate was more qualified.” But that’s because a deaf person had never been given the opportunity. They’d never been given a chance to build that resume so that on paper they could prove that a deaf person could do it and have the opportunity. So we called a timeout. We said, you’ve got to give us the opportunity. — Greg Hilbok

https://deadline.com/video/deaf-president-now-nyle-dimarco-davis-guggenheim-sundance-studio/ =b47e587eca1a454dce2efc5b67075edf4c8d57f8ffd3d9f6f318f19b6b8e04e7&recipient_salt=a42e8942ef6c110af94f21df42b678db5af45c53301372e829c36c0a7c563d34&utm_medium=email&utm_source=exacttarget&utm_campaign=Deadline_BreakingNews&utm_content=583036_01-30-2025&utm_term=190473

Image description: photo of Deaf & hearing panelists at festival.

'Deaf President Now!' documentary highlights deaf students' successful fight against university administrators — Sundance Studio.

01/29/2025

Calling all actors & activists with disabilities

Now is your chance to audition for the upcoming movie RADICAL about this historic 504 demonstration at the San Francisco Federal Building in 1977. Protests across the country at 8 HEW regional headquarters were masterminded by Frank Bowe, and organized by the American Coalition of Citizens with Disabilities (ACCD), when then-HEW Secretary Califano refused to sign the 504 Regulations four years after passage.

The SF 504 demonstration was organized by Judy Heumann, Kitty Cone, Mary Jane Owen & others, lasting 25 days. That protest was featured in the Award-winning documentary CRIP CAMP, directed by Jim LeBrecht & Nicole Newnham Malarkey.

An Apple Studios Feature Film from Siân Heder, Academy Award-winning writer/director of CODA.

When disability activist Judy Heumann led over a hundred Disabled people to take over the San Francisco Federal Building in 1977, it ignited a 28 day sit-in. They quickly formed a tightly bound community, refusing to leave until the government enforced Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act, that prohibits discrimination on the basis of disability in programs that receive federal funding - the precursor to the ADA.

CASTING ROLES of the 504 PROTESTORS WITH DISABILITIES

Characters portrayed are ANY AGE, GENDER, OR ETHNICITY. Individuals with disabilities sought to portray characters with disabilities who join in the fight for accessibility, including, without limitation:

* PEOPLE WHO USE MOBILITY DEVICES, SUCH AS WHEELCHAIRS AND CRUTCHES

* PEOPLE WITH CEREBRAL PALSY, SPINA BIFIDA, MUSCULAR DYSTROPHY, OR MULTIPLE SCLEROSIS

* PEOPLE WHO ARE BLIND OR LOW VISION

* PEOPLE WHO ARE DEAF OR HARD OF HEARING

* LITTLE PEOPLE

* PEOPLE WHO ARE AMPUTEES OR HAVE LIMB DIFFERENCES

* PEOPLE WITH INTELLECTUAL OR DEVELOPMENTAL DISABILITIES

NO EXPERIENCE NECESSARY

For more information please visit https://app.castittalent.com/Radical

Any questions? Email us at [email protected]

"We are committed to diverse, inclusive casting for every role. Please submit qualified performers, without regard to disability, race, age, color, national origin, ethnic origin, sexual orientation, gender identity, or any other basis protected by law unless otherwise specifically indicated."
~ the Telsey office.

Characters portrayed are 18 and over, any gender or ethnicity, who join in the fight for accessibility. Characters with Disabilities more... include, without limitation: • PEOPLE WHO USE MOBILITY AIDS, SUCH AS WHEELCHAIRS AND CRUTCHES • PEOPLE WITH CEREBRAL PALSY, SPINA BIFIDA, MUSCULAR DYSTROPH...

01/08/2025

Congratulations to Marissa Bode for her SAG Award nomination for her role of Nessarose in WICKED - Way to go Universal! Here’s to the proof and power of authentic casting of performers with disabilities. Brava!

Nominations for the 2025 SAG Awards were unveiled on Wednesday, January 8. See the full list here.

10/28/2024

Check this out - from the SAG-AFTRA collection - Inclusion: Time to Get Real. Great, funny, smart and important messages from creatives with disabilities who flip the script and take back the Disability Narrative. Brava --

Share your videos with friends, family, and the world

10/28/2024

Excellent event at Warner Bros. Pictures last week with its DiverseAbilities ERG. Thanks Eileen Grubba for the invite. Bravo to Calamar, Nutter, Lowry and Nicole Santolo. Great time with Eileen, Gwyn LaRee, Andrea Jennings, Nic Novicki, Chrissy Marshall, John W. Lawson, Robert J Romani and other creatives with disabilities.

Image description: various photos of this great event.

10/24/2024

A great close to CSAVR conference. Employers - look out for great talent with disabilities coming your way. Very impressed with this national network of VR professionals. If you, or someone you know has a disability, sign up for VR services to build your career and live the America Dream.

Image descriptions: D.C. Rehabilitation Services Administration Commissioner Dante Allen,, United States Access Board Alison Sutton Levy & Gregg C Vanderheiden of the Trace Center giving their AI fireside chat.

3 amigas - CSAVR's Kathy West-Evans, Alison Sutton Levy& me - with two "I love you" signs.

Catching up with American Association of People with Disabilities (AAPD)'s Maria Town & National Disability Institute's Lydia X. Z. Brown - Autistic Hoya J.D.

Beautiful sunny blue skies & glistening treetops of Seattle; flying home over beautiful mountains.

10/23/2024

More GREAT content at CSAVR Central here In Seattle -

Image descriptions:
Kathy West-Evans moderated an awesome Plenary with Jessica Rafuse of Microsoft, Thomas Ficca of Hands On Education Consultants, & Leah Levar, PHR, SHRM CP of Hyatt (long-term disability-savvy employer & where I first met Salvador Mendoza(now heading up Diversity at NBCUniversal& Doug Patrick);

Dante Allen, Comish of U.S. Department of Education, Rehabilitation Services Administration, Taryn Mackenzie Williams, Assistant Secretary of the Department of Labor's Office of Disability Employment Policy, T-Mobile's Winer, head of Accessibility Resource Center & me signing "I Love You" next to Dante's head.

California Department of Rehabilitation Director Xavier, & CSAVR's Kathleen West-Evans

United States Access Board's Alison Sutton Levy & T-Mobile Accessibility's Ayelet Winer

10/22/2024

Greetings from Seattle at the CSAVR conference - What an honor to co-present Careers In Media: Increasing Employment Outcomes today with Kathy West-Evans, Xavier, Director of California Department of Rehabilitation and Gwyn LaRee, Veteran Outreach Coordinator for Lights! Camera! Access! Media has the power to shatter disability myths - here's to people with disabilities taking back the disability narrative with authentic casting and storytelling by creative with disabilities. Image description: Gwyn LaRee, Kathy West-Evans, Joe Xavier and Tari Hartman Squire standing in front of a PPT side that sys "Careers In Media: Increasing Employment Outcomes with the photo of people with disabilities participating in resume review and speed interviews.