UC UCEDD takes part in Cincinnati Reelabilities Film Festival to Reach 12,000+ with Films on Disability

March 20, 2017

This year, March 9-12 marks the fourth year University of Cincinnati UCEDD will participate in the Cincinnati ReelAbilities Film Festival. ReelAbilities presents award-winning films by and about people with disabilities, while also planning initiatives around town related to accessibility and inclusion. The film has grown exponentially in recent years to expand to year-round programming that has led to city-wide discussions around employment of people with disabilities to school-based film screenings to promote inclusion of students with disabilities.

This year's festival is expected to attract more than 12,000 people for over 75 films/events. Over 25 disability-related non-profits will receive proceeds from the event; and over 30 companies in the Cincinnati community are sponsoring the festival. RJ Mitte from TV shows Breaking Bad and Switched at Birth will provide the luncheon keynote address. Several other celebrities and film stars with disabilities will also be in town during the Festival.

"Cincinnati ReelAbilities is a spectacle of human relationship in its purest form, generating an awareness of issues relative to us all. Awareness creates understanding, which in turn gives rise to perspective - and it is through perspective that we are able to fully appreciate and relate to others in our lives." Richard Bernstein, Michigan Supreme Court Justice remarks. Justice Bernstein was elected as the country's first blind state Supreme Court Justice in January 2016.

Kara Ayers, UC UCEDD's Associate Director, served as Co-Chair for the 2014 Festival. She is an Honorary Co-Chair this year and has provided consultation on accessibility and branding for the event. UC UCEDD has actively contributed to many of the initiatives that have resulted from the city's active engagement with the Reelabilities Film Festival. "This is much more than a film festival," Ayers states. "It's the opportunity to celebrate diversity and also identify what work we can do together to make our community more inclusive of people with disabilities and their families."  Dr. Ayers has responded to a number of requests from the media to promote this year's film festival. Watch her television interview with WLWT, Channel 5 here and listen in to her radio interview with Amy Tobin from Q102 here.