On February 18, the Acton Commission on Disabilities, and Director of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Wanjiku Gachugi, hosted a showing of the award winning documentary, “Crip Camp”, at the Senior and Social Services Center. About thirteen people watched and enjoyed tortilla chips and salsa donated by El Huipil Mexican Restaurant.
The documentary is about the decades-long struggle to get the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) passed. Many of the adult activists involved in the effort met as teenagers at Camp Jened in the Catskill Mountains of New York, including Director James Lebrecht and Judith Heumann, author of “Being Heumann: An Unrepentant Memoir of a Disability Rights Activist”. According to the film’s website, “Down the road from Woodstock, a revolution blossomed at a ramshackle summer camp for teenagers with disabilities, transforming their lives and igniting a landmark movement.” Much of the film takes place at the camp, which ran from 1951 to 1977.
Reactions from the audience included, “I had no idea about this,” “How prescient that the filmmakers captured so much of the historic camp life and conversations,” “This should be taught in school,” “This is a great thing in America. In the country where I grew up, we still don’t have rights for people with disabilities,” “This film is about the whole disability rights movement, using the camp experience as the touch point,” and, “I had thought [the ADA] was just something the government did to help people with disabilities; I had no idea people had to fight for this.”
“Crip Camp,” which won the audience award for U.S. Documentary at the 2020 Sundance Film Festival, can be seen on Netflix or for free on YouTube.
Lisa Franklin is chair of the Acton Commission on Disabilities.
