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Jack Markell: Improving the Employment Bottom Line

by Joan Leotta

Jack Markell

Governor Jack Markell, Delaware. Photo by Kevin Flemming.

Delaware is known for being the first state in the union and for being the second smallest. But this little state is now making a big impact for employment of people with disabilities. Putting Delawareans back to work has been one of the state’s top five initiatives since Governor Jack Markell (D) took office in 2009. And, since his appointment as 2012–13 Chair of the National Governors Association, Markell has focused specifically on increasing job opportunities for individuals with disabilities.

Maintains Markell, “State executives have the responsibility to ensure that all citizens have the opportunity for productive employment.” His A Better Bottom Line: Employing People with Disabilities initiative focuses the work of all state chief executives on developing best practices, with the goal of increasing the employment ranks of people with disabilities across the country.

Markell says, “Today, Americans with disabilities are facing disproportionately high rates of unemployment compared to those without. This impacts the old, the young and many veterans returning with disabilities.”

But the consequences of unemployment among people with disabilities goes beyond their own circumstances. “While the impact on them is direct, the impact on the rest of the country cannot be underestimated,” Markell explains. “If they are not employed, their potential contribution to the community is stymied. When they are employed, life is improved for all of us by adding their ideas and ingenuity to the improvement of the workplace and marketplace and thus increases the strength of America as an economic power.”

Origin of His Committment

It is Markell’s position that when all facets of a community work together, their efforts will benefit all. Therefore, he is committed to forging cooperation among constituents and focusing on what individuals have the potential to achieve. Within Delaware, Markell has convened meetings of educational and business leaders to engage in dialogue on how workers and businesses can best suit each other’s needs.

“The climate for business in Delaware remains positive, while at the same time charged with a passion for helping the unemployed and underemployed at all strata,” says the governor.

Markell relates the experience that led to his own passion and involvement with the cause of employment for people with disabilities. “Ten years ago I visited a Bank of America Center, a major employer in our state and an employer committed to jobs for people with disabilities,” he says. “The facility I visited was making promotional materials. I talked to a guy who was making T-shirts. He was so excited to have the job. He told me that before this job he had sat at his parents’ home for six years doing not much more than watching television. The job was such a profound improvement in his life and the life of his parents! I realized that there are a lot of other people like him and I’m committed to making a change in their lives.

“This is an issue we can really move the needle on,” the governor says, “from empty, upward to hopefully full employment.”

Efforts Yield Reuslts

How to move that needle has been a part of his agenda from the beginning. Markell’s approach brings education, business and general community members together, changing both attitudes and, more importantly, the actual number of people employed. As of 2011, two years into Markell’s term, Delaware is above the national average for employment of people with disabilities: 36 percent over a national figure of 32.6 percent. The table below illustrates the success of Markell’s efforts in Delaware.

The following information is from tables in the 2012 Annual Disability Statistics Compendium which compiles disability-related statistics. The information below comes from the Current Population Survey – Annual Social and Economic Supplement (most recent data):

Employment—Civilians with Disabilities Ages 18 to 64 Years Living in the Community for the United States and States: 2011

 

Employment—Civilians with Disabilities Ages 18 to 64 Years Living in the Community for the United States and States: 2011

Total Number # Employed % Employed
US 19,988,156 6,521,860 32.6
Deleware 55,773 20,051 36

 

Importance of National Governors Association Role

Markell hopes to make his own state’s progress an example of what the can be achieved nationally. He sees his role as National Governors Association chair as an opportunity to raise the issue to a higher level, garnering national recognition for the work being done in Delaware. Markell says, “It is our work to ask questions that bring out the needs of people with disabilities and gather best practices—about how to improve the situation.”

Recognizing that some see government bureaucracy as one such barrier, Markell maintains, “We want to spread the word about the value of such employment and work to make government a partner with business, a help and not a hindrance. We want people everywhere to focus on the ability of each job candidate, not his or her disability.”

Specifically, his initiative, A Better Bottom Line: Employing People with Disabilities spotlights the employment challenges that affect individuals with intellectual and other significant disabilities and the role both state government and businesses can play in facilitating and advancing opportunities for these individuals to be gainfully employed in the competitive labor market.

The State as a Model Employer

Markell tries to model this approach in Delaware government jobs, working toward bringing the entire spectrum of individuals with disabilities  into the workforce in the state. He says, “We anticipate the employment trend lines of people with disabilities to continue to grow, but it is difficult to determine the exact percentage from year to year. We believe our best growth will come from the new initiatives in the hires of persons with disabilities in the Delaware state government.”

 

Delaware Trend Numbers

FY 2010 FY 2011 FY 2012
Employment Outcomes 705 948 1020
% with Significant Disabilities 92% 94% 93%
Average Hourly Wage $9.77 $10.05 $10.39
Annualized Earnings $12.5M $15.7M $17.5M
Number Served 6,470 7,014 7,486
Employment in DE state Govt. 53 65

 

Future

Markell hopes that by August 2013, through the National Governors Association initiative, he will have created a blueprint for businesses and states that identifies best practices and outlines steps that can be put in place to increase economic opportunity and heighten awareness. This blueprint would provide governors and state policymakers with more policy options to assess their own states’ needs and develop specific strategies to support their populations.

Why should state leaders care about employment for people with disabilities? Says Markell, “There are so many people with disabilities who have the time, talent and desire to make meaningful contributions to interested employers. What matters is what they have to offer and the tremendous impact this will have on their overall well-being and on the bottom line of the businesses that employ them.”

Employment of people with disabilities “is the ultimate bipartisan issue,” he asserts.

 

Edited by Mary-Louise Piner.

Dreams, Hugs, Achievements

Wouldn’t it be great if you knew a place with delicious meals for breakfast and lunch, accompanied by the best hugs in town? And better still if you knew your eating-out dollars were going to a worthy cause, like supporting a person who has overcome his disability and inspires people to achieve their own dreams?  If you’re in Albuquerque, you can have all this at Tim’s Place.

Tim HarrisOwning Tim’s Place is a dream come true for Tim Harris, a young man with Down Syndrome. As manager of the restaurant, Harris puts into practice what he learned while in college studying food service and restaurant hosting. He also continues a rewarding career that he started while working at many different restaurants during high school, college and after college. The restaurant also allows him to also give back to the community as an employer and a sponsor of Special Olympics and the National Down Syndrome Congress.

It All Starts at Home

For Harris, making the dream a reality began with a loving and supportive family. His abilities were further nurtured in a school that recognized his talents and allowed him to develop in sports as well as academics. Says Harris, “Growing up, I always knew that [my family] loved me just the way I am. My brothers treated me like a brother, not like anyone special.” Tim is the second in a family of four sons.

He adds, “My brothers tried to let me do things for myself. Sometimes they let me hang out with them and their friends, but other times they wanted me to hang out with my own friends.” As with any siblings, this kind of close relationship, mixed with times of independence, helped Tim to develop strong interpersonal skills.

Although his brothers no longer work at Tim’s Place like they did in the beginning, the fraternal bonds continue to this day. “We are a very close family,” he says. “We like to travel together, go out to eat, play games and sometimes I like to go to parties at my brothers’ houses. I always know they are there for me when I need them.”

This close relationship at home bolstered Harris’ confidence and helped contribute to his success in school. Harris attended Eldorado High School in Albuquerque and was graduated in 2004. His enrollment and that of some peers encouraged P.E. teacher Michelle Chavez to add Special Olympics to the curriculum. The Special Olympics team during Harris’ high school career was the Eldorado’s first, Harris relates. He helped make it a success, winning medals in several categories.

Special Olympics

Tim poses with his medals from the 2012 Special Olympics

Tim poses proudly with his medals from the 2012 Special Olympics New Mexico Summer Games.

Harris played poly hockey*, volleyball, and track and field for his high school Special Olympics team, but it was his responsibilities as captain of the basketball team that gave him an extra opportunity to shine. This role proved beneficial for Harris’ future as a business owner and manager. “My coach , Ms. Chavez, taught me about being a leader,” says Harris. “I had to make sure my team did all their warmups and introduced them at our school assemblies. Ms. Chavez was very tough and taught me a lot about being responsible for my other teammates. I think everyone at my school was proud of their Special Olympics athletes.”

It may come as a surprise to some that high schools can field Special Olympics teams but, explains Erin Gallegos of New Mexico Special Olympics, “the high school Special Olympics program in New Mexico is available to any school that wants to take advantage of it. Athletes up to age 21 enrolled at the school can participate. However, high school programs are not as common as community-based programs in New Mexico.”

Harris’ high school achievements were not limited to the athletic field. He was also named Homecoming King and selected by students, staff and faculty as Student of the Year when he graduated in 2004. He accomplished all this while working after school in a local Red Robin franchise, where he first realized his love of working in the restaurant industry.

Making a Dream a Reality

With help from his dad, Harris found a postsecondary program at Eastern  New Mexico University at Roswell that would suit his career goals. “I knew I wanted to be in the restaurant business and chose to study food service and restaurant hosting,” he says. “Eastern  New Mexico had a program to help students learn the rules,” he relates. While a student, Harris worked at a variety of local restaurants including CiCi’s Pizza, Golden Corral, IHOP, and Peppers Bar and Grill.

Tim Harris and Tim's place employees

Tim (left) posses with Tim’s Place employees.

Harris stresses that in order to live on his own, he had to know how to keep a schedule and be on time, but these skills were already familiar to him. He also had to do his own laundry and clean up after himself—which he’d also already done while living at home. He notes that friends of his who did not really want to be in college or who weren’t as prepared to be independent were not as successful.

“My experience in college was fun,” Harris relates. “I made good friends that I will always stay in contact with. I was scared at first, but I decided to join in, make friends and work hard.” His dedication to his goal helped him succeed as well. “I wanted to own a restaurant when I was a kid,” he relates. “That was my dream and dreams come true.”

After graduating college in 2008, Harris worked as a host at Applebee’s restaurant in Albuquerque and then, living aboard a sailboat with his parents, he traveled throughout the Bahamas, where he first earned his nickname “Tim the Man.” When the family returned, Harris was ready to work again, and his parents were ready to help finance his employment dream of having his own restaurant.

Tim Harris speaking as a Special Olympics Global Messenger.

Tim Harris speaking as a Special Olympics Global Messenger.

Although at present there are no other people with disabilities working in the restaurant, Harris hopes to hire some in the future.  In addition to offering delicious food and free hugs seven days a week, the restaurant also supports Special Olympics of New Mexico and the National Down Syndrome Congress.

And, when he’s not at the restaurant, Harris is a popular speaker on the topic of achievements for people with disabilities. Anyone who talks to Harris can easily see why people seek out his public-speaking presentations. His positive attitude and desire to help others come through immediately. His love of his family comes through as well. For example, in conversation for this article, Harris was bursting with pride at the fact that  his brother had just graduated and became an Albuquerque firefighter. He can be reached through his speaker website, http://timtheman.com. Or you can check out the food, hugs, and positivity on the menu at Tim’s Place.

 

*Poly hockey is adapted from the game of ice hockey. It’s an indoor floor sport that gives athletes who live in warm climates the opportunity to compete in the normally winter sport of hockey. Poly hockey once was, but is no longer, a recognized Special Olympics Incorporated sport as is floor hockey, which is played with wooden sticks (without blades) and pucks that are large felt discs with an open center.

Museum of disABILITY History: Museum as Public Forum

By Joan Leotta

Museum of Disability HistoryWhat’s one of the best ways to have fun while learning history? Museums around the country champion history through various lenses, from the stalwart Smithsonian museums in Washington, D.C. to smaller venues that showcase more targeted segments of human history. The disability community now has a museum—complete with traveling exhibits and featuring an ever-growing robust online presence—to call its own.

The Museum of disABILITY History in Buffalo is much more than a collection of exhibits and impressive library of achievements of people with disabilities. In addition to documenting the role that people with disabilities have played in American history, the Museum reaches out across the country to benefit employment, social acceptance, and advocacy for people with disabilities. Through its Web site, museumofdisability.org, people from around the world can view virtual exhibits and inquire about arrangements to have traveling exhibits to come to their localities.

Purpose of the museum

Dr. James Boles, President and CEO of the institution’s parent organization People Inc., founded the Museum in 1998. At the time, Dr. Boles was teaching a Disability Studies course at the University at Buffalo and looking for a disability-history perspective that highlighted archival and library collections. “When he found there were no museums or libraries dedicated to this topic,” says Theresa Fraser, current Museum Director, “he chose to start the Museum of disABILITY History.”

The Museum was a natural fit for People Inc., the non-profit, which started in 1970 to address the needs of individuals with intellectual disabilities, expanded from a small grassroots organization of parents and professionals to include a wider variety of services to address the needs of people with developmental disabilities and disabling conditions in many geographic locations and numerous sites.

The primary mission of the Museum is to advance understanding, acceptance, and independence of people with disabilities. The museum’s collections, archives and educational programs create awareness and a platform for dialogue and discovery. “We started as a small traveling exhibit and grew gradually,” explains Fraser, “moving to our current location in October of 2010.”

Brie Kishel with students

Brie Kishel, education coordinator, prepares students to learn about disABILITY awareness from the “Kids on the Block of WNY.”

The museum’s adept use of social media such as Facebook and Twitter allows the institution to act as an advocate for people with disabilities. For example, through the Museum’s Facebook page staffers weighed in to decry outspoken Republican pundit Ann Coulter’s disparaging use of the term “retarded” during the 2012 presidential campaign. The Museum became an active participant in the dialogue over this term and advocated for its constituency by posting a rejoinder written by a girl with Down syndrome. Such posts also serve to raise the awareness of the general public toward people with disabilities.

More than a Job

Working at the Museum is more than simply a job for Fraser. She says, “My role as Director of the Museum combines all of my passions in life.

“Having had a family member with a disability and having worked for People Inc. for five years prior to coming to the Museum, I have always been connected to disability,” Frasier explains. “I received my Masters Degree in Library Science from the University of Buffalo in 2006 and wanted to focus on rare and specialized collections.” Finding a job at the Museum put her skills and her passions together. “Being able to combine my experience and education in my current role have been incredibly rewarding and fulfilling,” she says.

Brie Kishel, the Museum’s Education Coordinator, brings a certain zeal to her job as well. Her association with the Museum began through Kids on the Block of Western New York, another People Inc. venture. Kids on the Block originated as a puppet show featuring characters with disabilities during the push for mainstreaming in the mid-1970s, providing children a comfortable environment to discuss questions or concerns they might have about their peers. An international program with 1,700 troops worldwide, Kids on the Block is now an educational outreach program of the Museum and one of the several responsibilities under Kishel’s purview as Education Coordinator.

Programs for All Ages

In addition to Kids on the Block, which is geared toward third graders, the Museum approaches other age levels with appropriate types of learning experiences. “Curriculums have been developed for each grade level, along with an accompanying annotated bibliography providing additional literary resources,” Kishel explains. “For example, for K–2, we offer ‘Reading with a Puppet’ programs, which incorporate a trained puppeteer using the character to read a book about accepting differences and facilitating a discussion geared towards encouraging students to celebrate their own differences and those which they see in others.”

For grades five and six, the Museum offers Disability Etiquette Program seminars, available for presentations at schools or other localities. Lesson plans for older children, grades seven through twelve, are also available for download from the online Museum. These feature topics designed to hook young interests, such as the successes and achievements of athletes, actors, and musicians with disabilities. Starting in 2013, a program in conjunction with “Dignity for All Students Act” will focus on prevention of bullying.

Mark Riley talking to students

At a Kids on the Block of WNY event, Mark Riley talks to students at Parkdale Elementary in East Aurora, NY about what it’s like to have cerebral palsy.

The Museum also offers other outreach efforts aimed at the community at large, such as a recent presentation entitled “Changing Paradigms form Accessibility to Universal Design,” held in cooperation with the University at Buffalo School of Architecture and Planning.

Fraser adds, “We are very lucky to partner with the University at Buffalo Center for Disability Studies right here where the museum is located. The Director of the Center, Dr. Michael Rembis, serves on our exhibit development committee and consults with us on various projects throughout the year.”

Even without a particular program, the online museum provides educational opportunities. “Our virtual, online museum offers a wealth of educational resources and tools that can be utilized in teaching younger students up to and including those at the college level,” says Kishel.

Expanding the Reach and Assessing Impact

Although many of the live outreach programs are generally only available in Western New York, the virtual museum opens the benefits of these programs to national and international audiences as well.

Another way to expand the reach of the museum is as a model for best employment practices for people with disabilities. Through People Inc.’s People through Services program, the Museum employs a number of part-time employees with disabilities. Fraser says, “We currently have three individuals through this program. They perform various duties, currently they are serving as docent museum tour guides, working in the catalog area, and assisting with several Boy Scout and Girl Scout programs.

Fraser concludes, “Our mission has always been and will continue to be to promote education and awareness, in order to play an active role in advocating for individuals with disabilities and helping to create a more accepting society.”

Visiting Online or in Person

Museum of DisABILITY History
www.museumofdisability.org
store.museumofdisability.org
3826 Main Street
Buffalo New York 14226
Phone (716) 629-3626
info@museumofdisability.org

Hours:
Tuesday – Friday 10:00 am – 4:00 pm
Saturday 10:00 am – 2:00 pm
Other museum hours can be scheduled upon request. Group tours are also available. Please contact info@museumofdisability.org

The Museum is a non-profit organization with a nominal admission fee:
$5.00 – Adults
$2.50 – Students, seniors, and Human Service Employees
$2.00 – Children ages 6-17
Free – Children 5 and under

 

Edited by Mary-Louise Piner.

CertifiKid: Special Deals for Special Needs

By Joan Leotta

CertifiKid logoBargains! They’re the clarion call of every shopper. The Internet has become an ideal platform for finding discounts on a multitude of goods and services. Although there were already many services offering deals and online coupons in the Washington DC metro area, Jamie Ratner, a Bethesda, Maryland mom and author of a popular blog on bargains for families, saw an unserved niche: She noticed that most deals offered on websites such as Groupon and Living Social were primarily aimed at young singles.

The idea for her website, www.certifikid.com, came to fruition when Ratner realized that she could make her wish for more coupons and services for families a reality. Her company was one of the first to provide deals on a variety of family-friendly items and services including amusement park visits, summer camps and more. And from the beginning, she also identified a more targeted grouping of families who might love coupons: those with special needs kids.

Jamie’s sister, a teacher of students with special needs, along with friend Sunday Stilwell, a popular DC/Baltimore area blogger, influenced Jamie’s decision to expand into this area. The disability deals are an option available in each city where CertifiKid has a presence. From the homepage, readers can find a “Special Deals for Special Needs” icon along the right-side column that leads to www.certifikid.com/special_needs.

What CertifiKid has to offer

CertifiKid works by offering subscriber families limited-time deals on local goods and adventures. The site aims to be, according to its “About” page, “an online playground for families to build relationships with each other and local businesses that will last beyond the initial transaction.” Once customers find and purchase a deal through the site, they can print out an exclusive coupon to be redeemed at the business. Other deals are also available at CertifiKid’s Facebook page and through Twitter. Families who refer others to CertifiKid.com receive referral credit through the site.

Ratner and her crew connect with their target market because they are the target market. Ratner, a mother of two living in a high-cost area, understood her market well—families with children, looking for a way to stretch their dollars and still enjoy activities together as a family. The site’s tagline, “Your playground for great family values,” emphasizes this search for family-fun activities at bargain prices.

Since its 2010 launch in DC, the coupon site already operates in six East-Coast cities. A May 2010 article in the Maryland Gazette quoted Ratner on the early progress of the company, indicating that the site garnered 1,200 subscribers and eight purchases on its first day alone. Speaking to SMG in July 2012, Lara DiPaola, CertifiKid Marketing Director, said that the company had 10,000 subscribers to the special needs portion of the site alone.

Why “Special Deals for Special Needs”?

CertifiKid is the first deal site to offer bargains focused on families of children with special needs. “’Every family deserves a deal’ is Jamie’s philosophy, so she immediately expanded into that direction,” says DiPaola. “When you go to that area of the site or when you click the ‘Special Deals for Special Needs’ logo on the site, you are prompted to sign up for a free account and then you will receive an email each time we have a new deal to offer.”

Bargains on the special needs area include general-interest items like amusement park tickets and moonbounce rentals but also feature deals such as 50% off for individual education plans (IEPs) and occupational therapy services and products designed specifically for special needs. While of course, many public school jurisdictions offer IEPs as a free service, the “for pay” IEP can be of help to a home schooling parent, those sending children to private schools that may not pay, and anyone wanting a second opinion on the public school IEP,

DiPaola explains, “What we want to achieve by creating the Special Deals for Special Needs site is more than simply bargains. We hope to achieve inclusion.

“So many people use that word when referring to this community,” she continues. “We want to make it a real, tangible thing. When Jamie founded the company it was because she didn’t see the needs of families being met. With Special Deals for Special Needs we are simply taking that and doing our best to be sure that all families can benefit from a great deal.”

She adds that sometimes the special needs portion of the site may not have offers as are available on the main sight. “The number of offers ebbs and flows. My advice is to check frequently. There is no charge to families to be a part of our community either on the site or in our active social media outlets.”

Expansion and honors

The CertifiKid program already offers deals in the Washington DC metro area, Baltimore, Pittsburgh, Philadelphia, Delaware, and Hampton Roads, Virginia. Says DiPaola, “We already consider ourselves national because we help introduce businesses all over the country to families in the cities we are in right now. We plan to expand, but we’ll do that slowly, taking time to focus on building the right team in each new market that is key for us.”

Media coverage and opportunities have been key to spreading the word about the site. CertifiKid was recently recognized as the “Best Deal Site for Parents” by Washingtonianmagazine. Their CEO was named one of the top 40 under 40 Business Leaders by the Washington Business Journal in 2011. Additionally, in August 2012, founder Ratner was a featured speaker at The Power Conference: Women Doing Business in the DC area.

DiPaola says that the company measures success not necessarily by numbers of subscribers but by connections made. “Every time we get an email or see a post on Facebook that says that a family used a deal and loved it, that is success,” she asserts. “It’s something you have to work to take care of every day.”

How do they approach that task? “We do things differently from most deal sites,” she says. “We don’t have call centers or huge marketing teams. We like to keep it local, employ other parents, and be a part of the community. When we’ve been able to do that in every city, everywhere—that will feel like success.”

 

Edited by Mary-Louise Piner.

Take the Stage, Take the World: Theater Breaking Through Barriers

A character from William Shakespeare’s As You Like It famously states, “All the world’s a stage!” Ike Schambelan, artistic director of Theater Breaking Through Barriers (TBTB), expands on that quote to declare, “The stage is the way to change the world!”

Actors Shannon DeVido and David Marcus

Shannon DeVido (Melanie) and David Marcus (Ben) in Samuel D. Hunter’s “Geese,” part of TBTB’s MORE OF OUR PARTS. Photo by Carol Rosegg.

How? As he explains, “Theater leads the way to bringing people into the mainstream.” He notes that although “thirty percent of all families have someone with a disability…we still need to bring disability into the mainstream. Theater does that. It gets the conversation going.”

TBTB (www.tbtb.org), a theater company funded by multiple sources, works for social change in the heart of New York City’s Theater Row. It is the only multiple-disability presence on the Off Broadway stage in New York at present. Although Schambelan founded TBTB in 1980 as the Theater of the Blind, four years ago the theater broadened its scope to include all disabilities. He says, “There are other good companies coming up.”

What does Theater Breaking Through Barriers do? According to its mission statement, TBTB is “dedicated to advancing actors and writers with disabilities and changing the image of people with disabilities from dependence to independence.” This is accomplished not only through the hiring and prominent inclusion of actors and writers with disabilities to work in off-Broadway productions, but also through a 10-Minute Play Festival of commissioned plays about disability.

10-Minute Play Festival

actors Joshua Eber and Shawn Elliott

Joshua Eber (Lewis) and Shawn Elliott (Eli) in Jeffrey Sweet’s “A Little Family Time,” part of TBTB’s MORE OF OUR PARTS. Photo by Carol Rosegg.

The idea of the 10-Minute Play Festival came from Beth Blickers, TBTB board Chair. Schambelan notes, “Being in New York gives us access to some of the best actors, directors and writers in the world.” Last year he put that mix of potential talent to the test by soliciting ten-minute plays from a variety of writers for a festival called Some of our Parts. He explains, “We chose the ten-minute play format because it is easier to get someone to write that size play for you.”

Last year’s inaugural festival showcased the work of seven writers whom theNew York Times reviewers called “an intriguing group of established and emerging playwrights”: Bekah Brunstetter, Samuel D. Hunter, Neil LaBute, Kate Moira Ryan, Diana Son, Jeff Tabnik and Emily Chadick Weiss. Fourteen actors, many with disabilities, displayed their talents for the 2011 production at the Clurman Theatre on W 42nd Street.

This year, TBTB’s More of our Parts, the second installment of the festival, ran from June 20 to July 1 and featured a new set of shorts, several by the same playwrights who wrote for the 2011 production. This time, Schambelan solicited scripts from other sources as well, reaching out to include new and younger writers. He says that although “two writers with disabilities said ‘no’ to me this year, [they] promised scripts for the future.” New to TBTB this year were playwrights Bruce Graham, A. R. Guerney and Jeffrey Sweet.

More of our Parts had lots of positive critical response and showcased 13 terrific actors, according to Schambelan. The Times said it was an “entertaining and worthwhile 70 minutes, witty and potent.” New York Theater Buying Guide said, “Our highest recommendation–don’t miss this dazzling package of one-acts by outstanding playwrights, delivered by an enormously talented creative team.”

Reaching out

Actors Nicholas Viselli and Shawn Randall

Nicholas Viselli (Guy) and Shawn Randall (Homeless Dude) in Neil LaBute’s “The Wager,” part of TBTB’s MORE OF OUR PARTS. Photo by Carol Rosegg.

In 2011, TBTB took several of that year’s ten-minute plays to a festival in Croatia. Actors from Britain and Croatia did small parts in the shows, extending the reach of the festival’s work to an international audience.

Word about this year’s festival reached the Kennedy Center in Washington D.C., leading Betty Siegel, the Director of the Kennedy Center’s VSA and Accessibility Office, to invite the company to perform. “The Kennedy Center is always looking for dynamic and exciting new work by performing artists with disabilities or featuring issues relevant to the disability community,” says Siegel. “I’ve known of TBTB for a long time, and their 10-Minute Play Festival is something new and interesting.”

She explains the festival’s appeal like this: “They have gotten well-known playwrights, some with and some without disabilities, to write on a disability issue/theme/topic and produce those by casting actors with and without disabilities. This makes for the kind of engagement with the disability community and the theater community that I find really energizing. So, this seemed to be the right time to collaborate with TBTB to bring this work to DC. We wanted to produce something to celebrate the ADA anniversary.”

TBTB More of our Parts performance was held on July 24 on the Millennium Stage, a Kennedy-Center venue whose core philosophy is: the arts are for everyone. Performances there are free and some, like the TBTB production, are streamed live online.

Schambelan thinks that the Kennedy-Center appearance will promote even more positive inclusion for people with disabilities. He says, “We have been getting a lot of additional interest in the company…. I think that we have the Kennedy Center to thank for that.”

He points out that, as disabled playwright John Belluso once said, “disability is the only minority that anyone can join at any time.” Fear of this possibility is what often keeps others from accepting people with disabilities. Schambelan notes, “It is the mission of [our] theater to decrease this fear by showing the exuberance and independence, as well as the challenges, of lives lived with disability. The potential of this mission is the great source of power for us; power for change and inclusion.”

Schambelan hopes to build on the momentum of the 10-Minute Play Festival series by getting some of the plays published and enticing companies across America to produce them. He explains, “We believe that through artistic excellence and the development of role models we can best make our claim for full inclusion of people with disabilities in our society.”

Siegel agrees that the work of TBTB and theater in general has an important role to play in changing perceptions of people with disabilities in society. She says, “Theater is a wonderful way to look at the world around you. I love theater because I can experience other people’s stories perspectives and worlds. I think that is what the arts do well—help us understand ourselves, one another and the world around us. The Kennedy Center really strives to include all people with and without disabilities in the art that we do and hopefully, our audiences get the message that we are a wonderful and diverse country with so many different people with so many different and amazing talents.”

Edited by Mary-Louise Piner.