At one session, a participant who has an intellectual disability spoke about working as a production assistant on major films. “I saw some execs drop their mouths in surprise,” recalls Appelbaum. “I think in their mind, they're like, ‘Of course, we could hire folks who use wheelchairs,’ but they were not thinking that someone with an intellectual disability could be on set.”
In 2020 and 2021, members of Sundance Institute joined 30 RespectAbility Lab participants in virtual conversations to encourage more disabled applicants for Sundance programming. RespectAbility team members also provide disability inclusion and accessibility trainings for Sundance employees.
As someone who became a member of the disability community herself after a fall damaged her sympathetic nervous system, Appelbaum brings personal experience to her work at RespectAbility.
“I was grateful that I knew folks within the community because I had to relearn how to do things,” says Appelbaum. “That’s why hiring disabled folks in the entertainment industry is such a good thing. Because we all had to think creatively. We all have certain things that we can't do the way that most people do, so we find out another way to do them.”
Appelbaum says remote collaboration tools have enabled more people to join their online training sessions. “We were using Zoom before the pandemic because we recognized that folks with disabilities can't attend live events all the time,” she says. “It's harder to travel, so we've been doing virtual events that have been free for a very long time. Switching to virtual for us meant more people could participate. It wasn't limited to a geographic location. People can participate from wherever they are.”
Improving the experience for every kind of audience
New technology is helping make Sundance more accessible, but Appelbaum says there are still more opportunities to improve the experience for an audience with disabilities.
“When I was at Sundance in 2019, I was in a boot due to my disability,” she recalls. “When it was kind of icy out, there were times where I had to ask people for help. The sheer fact of having it where people can [participate] from their home makes it so much more accessible. It's already made a huge difference. If you're low vision, being able to stream it on your TV is huge, because then you're not looking at a small screen.”
Her biggest wish is that every film would be accessible to the one-in-four adults who have a disability. While more films are now likely to have captions available, very few have audio description. “It does cost more money to audio describe a film than to have captions,” says Appelbaum. “Sometimes people are completing their film right up until the festival, then they'll add the audio description after that. But [not having audio description] excludes millions of viewers, especially if it's a darker video. Folks who have low vision or are blind are not going to be able to follow along.”
Appelbaum’s hope is that filmmakers will think about making their work accessible as they’re creating their work. “That's our goal, right? For people to take a step back at the early planning stages, and say, ‘How can I ensure everyone can participate in this?’“