Healthcare Stories

Our Campaign for Disability Healthcare Justice

We are pleased to announce the launch of HEALTHCARE STORIES – free, short videos that illustrate as no policy paper can, the obstacles and barriers that still stand in the way of getting appropriate health care for many people with disabilities.

Video advocacy uses new image technologies to produce documentary campaigns for social and political change through visual evidence, personal stories, and precise audience targeting. Video advocacy has had a strong impact on organized advocacy and grassroots action in many areas and has become an effective new tool in the non-profit social justice community. As communications media change, digital technology, including widespread use of video storytelling, has exploded because it supports a culture of participation and sharing. HEALTHCARE STORIES takes advantage of this vital tool.

We are deeply grateful to The Special Hope Foundation and The Manuel D. and Rhoda Mayerson Foundation for their visionary support of the project, which began collecting stories in 2011.

Videos

Portrait of Elizabeth
Elizabeth Grigsby

Elizabeth Grigsby lives in San Francisco, California. An advocate with a non-profit organization, she has cerebral palsy and uses a motorized wheelchair.

Portrait of Luise
Luise Custer and Charlie Tygiel

Luise Custer lives in San Francisco, California and is Charlie Tygiel’s mother. Charlie, who has developmental disabilities including a seizure disorder, shares a home with roommates in Santa Cruz, California.

Portrait of Denise
Denise Sherer Jacobson

Denise Sherer Jacobson, a writer and disability educator, lives in Oakland, California. She has cerebral palsy and uses a motorized wheelchair. She is married and has an adult son who is 25.

Portrait of Fred
Fred Nisen

Fred Nisen, an attorney with a statewide nonprofit legal organization, lives in Berkeley, California. He has cerebral palsy and uses a motorized wheelchair.

Group photo of Dr. Clarissa Kripke, Susan Lee, Gordon and Aaron Reetz
Dr. Clarissa Kripke, Susan Lee, Gordon and Aaron Reetz

Aaron Reetz, his father, Gordon Reetz and step-mother, Susan Lee live in the San Francisco Bay Area. Aaron is autistic and has developmental disabilities. Dr. Clarissa Kripke is on the clinical faculty of the University of California, San Francisco and is Director of Developmental Primary Care.

Larry and Carol in their home
Carol Gill and Larry Voss

Larry Voss and Carol Gill, long-time residents of the Chicago area, both had polio and use wheelchairs. In six video segments, they candidly describe encounters with healthcare professionals and systems that were ill-equipped to provide the care they needed.


Frances Deloatch

Frances Deloatch was a wheelchair user who lived in the Boston, Massachusetts area. She had Osteogenesis imperfecta (brittle bone disease) and a hearing impairment. Fran passed away in April 2012.

Portrait of Nick
Nick Ziemer

Nick Ziemer, who is deaf, lives in the Bloomington, Illinois area.

Portrait of Nicole
Jennifer Thomas

Jennifer Thomas lives in Arlington Heights, Illinois with her husband and fraternal twins. She has cerebral palsy and uses a wheelchair.

Barriers and Solutions: Three Short Videos

Focusing on common and widespread barriers to care. Focusing on widespread barriers to care, these three, short video excerpts from our acclaimed HEALTHCARE STORIES series feature stories about inaccessible examination tables and weight scales and healthcare provider misperceptions and stereotypes. Advocates and practitioners alike recount their personal experiences and recommend actions for improving care. These downloadable videos present an all-important human perspective and affirm the barriers to care identified in a decade of research.

More soon…