RespectAbility announced their new Children’s Content Lab for Disabled TV Creators, to provide education and training for disabled writers, animators, and creative executives interested in preschool and children’s television. 

Supported by Netflix’s Fund for Creative Equity, the Children’s Content Lab will span five weeks and include programming by New York-based production partners 9 Story Media Group and Silvergate Media. Over the course of the program, participants will join in-person and virtual workshops, trainings, panel conversations, and networking events. Each Fellow will be assigned a mentor and participate in a talent showcase with table reads of each writer’s project performed by disabled actors. To further help program participants secure employment opportunities, the Lab will also include a week of career development training with industry experts. 

RespectAbility will provide ASL interpreters and captioning for all educational and related networking events and welcomes other accommodations requests. In addition, screenwriting software Final Draft, which forged a multi-year partnership in 2020 with RespectAbility, will provide free licenses of Final Draft 12 for Lab participants, as well as other educational resources.

This Children’s Content Lab builds on the success of the annual RespectAbility Entertainment Lab, which has seen program Alumni go on to work for a variety of studio partners including DreamWorks Animation, Netflix, Nickelodeon, Paramount Pictures, Sony Pictures Entertainment, and The Walt Disney Company, as well as in a variety of writers’ rooms. 

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“We founded the RespectAbility Entertainment Lab in 2019 to show the industry that there are disabled writers, directors, and crew available if you take the time to look for us,” said RespectAbility Senior Vice President and Lab Founder Lauren Appelbaum. “The Children’s Content Lab is a natural offshoot of this. Over the past five years, we’ve worked with more than 40 episodic series in the preschool and children’s space, as well as a variety of kids and family films, placing disabled creatives in dozens of productions. We see a clear need to provide additional bridges between disabled creatives and those who create kids and family content.”

The Children’s Content Lab is supported by a group of Faculty Advisors, who will be reviewing participant applications. Faculty Advisors include Kiah Amara (Production Accessibility Coordinator, IndieVISIBLE Entertainment), Danielle Pretsfelder Demchick (Casting Director, DPD Casting), Noriko Louison (Sr. Research and Curriculum Manager, 9 Story Media Group), Shea Mirzai (Writer and Co-Chair, WGA Disabled Writers Committee), Delbert Whetter (COO and Head of Business Affairs, Exodus Film Group), and Diane J. Wright (Screenwriter and DEIA-Certified Media Consultant).

In addition to Appelbaum, the programmatic team includes RespectAbility Entertainment Media Team staff members Vanni Le, Lesley Hennen, and Jacquill Moss, as well as Lab Apprentice Isabella Vargas.

Source: Netflix