psychsurvivors-8825746

Lives Worth Living: A New Film on the American Disability Rights Movement

Shannon Des Roches Rosa www.ThinkingAutismGuide.com Psychiatric survivors during a protest in 1976 Lives Worth Living is a new documentary on the history of the American Disability Rights movement, specifically the critical years from World War II to the signing of the Americans With Disabilities act (ADA)  in 1990. It is a necessary, unapologetic, inspiring, instructive, and far-too-short film that could easily beome a series —  so many important people interviewed, so many topics covered, so quickly. (For those who want to dig deeper, the Lives Worth Living site includes an interactive timeline of international Disability Rights, and a list of interviewees.) Viewers are given no opportunity to adopt the too-common patronizing perspective towards the disability rights activists in the film — there’s no time, these people have urgent stories to tell about themselves and their movement’s history. Some subjects reject pity outright, as when Ann Ford tells how it felt…