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Things are a bit upside down on this episode. Our producer, Jack Rosen, is one of the guests this time, so David Card is a guest host (he’s guesting as a host, Jack is guesting as a guest). They are joined by Monica Wiley (also a guest) and Michelle Bishop (still a host) to discuss “Accessing Democracy” a documentary short directed by Jack and staring Monica focused on voters with disabilities. The documentary was produced by NDRN and created in partnership with Disability Rights New York.
Register for the world premiere of Accessing Democracy: https://us06web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZAuc-ugqzksGNBHggVvDOiyio-S29EWgca5#/registration
Full transcript available at: https://www.ndrn.org/resource/ndr-sep24/
Michelle Bishop:
I’m so sorry you didn’t get that part.
Jack Rosen:
I wish I did, but I mean, David Hutt would’ve made us censored anyway, so it’s fine and let’s just move on.
Jack Rosen:
We’re doing things very backwards this time, which is why I’m kicking us off. I’m actually the guest this week along with Monica. Michelle is the only permanent host present, and David Card is subbing in as a guest host because I don’t think I can interview myself, though if we do some more experimental podcasts in the future, maybe that’s something we’ll explore. With that, I guess I will throw it back to Michelle since I’m a guest and I’m not supposed to be doing the intro.
Michelle Bishop:
The only thing I heard in all of that is that Jack is not a host on the podcast.
Jack Rosen:
Damn it.
Michelle Bishop:
Victory is mine. All right, so this month we’re actually going to be talking about Accessing Democracy, a brand new short documentary that if NDRN does say so ourselves, is amazing and groundbreaking and about to change the world to make you cry all at the same time. With that said, our guests, would you like to introduce yourselves?
David Card:
Hi everyone. I’m David Card. I’m NDRN’s Deputy Executive Director for External Relations, which means I oversee our communications department. I am super excited to be a co-host today. I’ve been secretly very jealous of everybody who gets to be part of the podcast, so I feel like I’m the weekend host on the Today Show, who gets to fill in for one of the regular hosts during the week. This is really exciting for me.
Monica Wiley:
Thank you. It’s a pleasure to be here today. I am Monica Wiley, the Voter Engagement Specialist at the National Disability Rights Network in the voter department. I had the great pleasure of working on this project with Mr. Jack Rosen as we interviewed quite a few of amazing voters from our community. This project was something that was very, very important, very much needed, and also had some fun moments at times, but definitely a pleasure to be here and to talk about this today.
Jack Rosen:
I am Jack Rosen. Normally I am the producer and a co-host of National Disability Radio, but today I’m here as a guest. I served as director of Accessing Democracy. It was really a privilege to get to work on this project, and I’m glad that NDRN was willing to take the chance on a first-time filmmaker and invest in me and Monica going across the country to interview voters with disabilities.
David Card:
Could you tell us a little bit more about this project and what its message is?
Jack Rosen:
It’s a documentary short focused on voters in our community and the power of our votes and the issues that we wish those seeking office were addressing. Close to a year ago, we were trying to come up with ways to get our community excited about the upcoming presidential election. Marlene Sallo, our executive director, half-jokingly, suggested that we do a buddy comedy of me and Monica going around the country, interviewing the candidates running for president. We at first decided to actually pursue that. We reached out to all of the people running to be the next commander-in-chief.
Jack Rosen:
The truth of the matter is, we did not hear back from a single one. What we decided to do was instead focus more on the voters in our community because the voters in our community are rarely heard. We occasionally get a few news articles every cycle about these voters with disabilities went to their polling place and found out it was inaccessible or their absentee ballots were never sent out. We always hear about the barriers impacting people in our community, but we don’t hear what voters in our community want. We don’t have the media asking us, and we very rarely have those running for office actually take the time to develop a detailed disability platform. I mean, it’s so rare that our issues get addressed that it was newsworthy when a single question was asked about disability during the 2020 primary.
Jack Rosen:
We wanted to give folks in our community, in the disability community, a chance to say what they want, what their lives are like, what kind of barriers they encounter that could be given political solutions. While I don’t know if the next commander-in-chief can solve ableism at a societal level, they absolutely could make it easier for people with disabilities to get jobs, to have access to accessible and affordable housing, to have access to healthcare and to the service providers they need. We interviewed about a half dozen people across our community about just that, about what they want and what they need from the next commander-in-chief.
Michelle Bishop:
Monica, could you talk a little bit about what it was like working on this project?
Monica Wiley:
Absolutely, Michelle, and thank you for the question. Working on this project from a personal, I’ll speak for it from a personal and professional perspective. From a personal perspective, as a person with a disability that has been very involved in voter engagement work in the cross-disability community, it was very eye-opening in certain ways in terms of others with different types of disabilities that their disability has impacted their ability to be confident and wanting to do their civic duty, which is voting, helping to promote voting for our community. Just how society just uses our disability against us as someone or as individuals, that don’t know what we want from our leaders or that we’re not capable of being able to vote, of having the ability to exercise our voice, whether it be in voting or whether it be in advocacy.
Monica Wiley:
To hear firsthand in a one-on-one discussion, I called it a conversation, was what I called it when I was interviewing the different voters, people in the cross-disability community, because that’s what we were having, we were having a conversation about these challenges, about what we want to see from the next commander-in-chief, and furthermore, what we want to see from our elected officials period.
Monica Wiley:
The next commander-in-chief is going to need these leaders to be in support of the work that needs to take place in our community, the policies, the laws that need to be for the betterment of our community. If we don’t have elected officials on the local level and state level to work closely with the next commander-in-chief, then we would continue to have these roadblocks. Being able to speak with individuals up and down the East Coast about their needs, about the challenges that they have faced, especially some of those who were first-time voters when they voted in the last election and are looking forward to voting again in this election. The feeling that I experienced when hearing these individuals talk about their level of excitement for wanting to be involved in voting, it was just simply amazing, Michelle.
Monica Wiley:
I would highly encourage the media and others to really pay attention to what, because we do know what we want to see for the next commander-in-chief. We do know what we expect from these leaders. We are very, very aware of what we’re voting for, what to take place, and making sure that we have the accommodations to be able to vote. I hope that answers your question,
Michelle Bishop:
Ew, David, if you want to be a co-host, you have to ask a question. Failing.
David Card:
Sorry, I was muted.
Monica Wiley:
I was like, “Is David supposed to go?”
Michelle Bishop:
He is. He is and he just ghosted us.
David Card:
I know. I’m sorry. This is my first time.
Michelle Bishop:
Excuses.
David Card:
Okay. Monica, what did you learn about voters in our community? Was there anything that surprised you as you talked to voters?
Monica Wiley:
Actually, there was. There was some things that surprised me from voters. One was, and I know that we are in the process of trying to expand technology and making sure that we have better access digitally, but I was surprised at how there are voters who are deaf and blind still encounter some of these challenges even when the HAVA Act says that you should have at least one voting machine that is accessible. As a person who’s not deaf and blind, but is a person that has a physical disability, I couldn’t necessarily connect with that challenge because that wasn’t my challenge. I would have thought that we would have done better with this, especially since I’ve been involved in organizing around voting and voting access for quite some time.
Monica Wiley:
To still hear and witness from these individuals that we have spoken to about their lack of access to the voter ballot, was still pretty interesting. I would say that was probably, for me, the biggest thing that I learned in terms of access. We talk about everyone having the right to vote and having access to the voter ballot, but then yet there’s still these various challenges as it pertains to a particular group within the cross-disability community. I was pretty perturbed by that piece.
Monica Wiley:
I am trying to think, because there were so many great individuals that we spoke with that had different types of disabilities. I would just say, David, that when you look at this short film, this short documentary, you will definitely see a reflection of the cross-disability community of those with different types of disabilities, their advocacy, their passion behind wanting to vote in this election, and their desire to really make an impact, and also make sure that society knows that they know what they’re doing, they are educated voters, and that they will be at the voter ballot in this election cycle. I hope that answers your question.
Jack Rosen:
I just want to add on to that, that one thing that really struck me was we had the chance to interview this gentleman, Jim Piat, and he is a retiree, and he grew up in what you could simply call the bad old days before the ADA, before HAVA, I mean before the disability rights movement really. I mean, he was even at the signing of the ADA. What struck me was some of the things he described. I mean, you hear about it when you talk to elders in our community. You read about it. You see it in films like Crip Camp. It was just striking to me when he described what things used to be like.
Jack Rosen:
I mean, he grew up going to school in a segregated environment. He tells this story in the movie that we made where he describes the first time he voted, he had to do it from a car because the polling place, forget having an accessible machine, he couldn’t get into the polling place. He couldn’t even mark the ballot himself because they didn’t have the technology at the time. He had to tell someone who he wanted to vote for. It really reminded me why we need politicians to promote change for our community because 50 years ago, that was the baseline. In spite of the progress we made, people like Jim and all of the voters we spoke to, are still not satisfied. They want more. They want and deserve a society that really meets the needs of people with disabilities.
Michelle Bishop:
This is amazing. Y’all know I get hype about elections, so I’m into it, but it’s also entirely too serious for this podcast. Do you all have any funny stories from filming?
Monica Wiley:
Actually, I do. We were filming in an area in North Carolina. It was an individual we were considering for the documentary. This person had, I would say, at least 15 cats. I may be exaggerating a tad bit, but there was quite a few cats. I get very scared and nervous around certain animals. While we were filming, the respective voter said, “Oh, they won’t come near you because they’re not familiar with you. They’ll probably just stay away and some of them will hide.” Well, there were two of them, maybe even three, that did not pay attention to those instructions or was just wanting to do their own thing.
Monica Wiley:
While I was about to ask the first question, the cat jumped up on the couch and I think, I believe I may have screamed, I may have screamed. Jack had to say, “We got to cut. We got to cut.” Of course we had to because at that point I was out of focus, I didn’t know how to handle it, and it was just a little bit scary for me. The cat was getting very close, and I would shy away a little bit. It was funny. I think the second time was, I think the cat actually, I’m not sure if the cat actually got on my leg but was close to my leg and so I had to keep my composure. I think the first one was me, actually, I think I did scream. I think I screamed a little bit. After we finished filming, I think we had to do it maybe two or three times. I can’t remember, Jack.
Monica Wiley:
For me, that was actually kind of funny now that I think about it and once we left. I actually screamed as if I was being attacked and I wasn’t. I was not used to cats and especially animals jumping up on the couch. I was trying to make sure that I was doing my job and being professional, and I was very focused. The cat took me off of focus. Yeah, I actually screamed. To me, that was funny.
Jack Rosen:
Oh my God. Yeah. I think with maybe one exception, every single voter we interviewed had cats. Yeah, going into this, I did not know Monica was afraid of cats. I never really thought to message people, “Hey, if you have cats, if you can get them to go in another room,” or whatever. Just by the end of it, I was just sending everyone, “If you have any pets, please, please try to put them in another room,” because it was literally every person had pets. You’d think at a certain point, statistically someone wouldn’t, but they all did. It was always a challenge because they would also try to jump on the cameras, on the lights. There are a lot of cords. A filming environment is barely a safe place for a person to try to walk around. There are a lot of tripping hazards, but then you add cats into the mix and every shoot was a bit of a challenge.
Monica Wiley:
Yes, I second that. Yeah, they wanted their spotlight. They wanted their five seconds of fame as well. To a certain extent, I can’t quite blame them, but yes, they were everywhere. They were on the cords, near the cords, but they would just jump around. To Jack’s point, just about everyone had a cat. Yes, I think the funny part was when I screamed. I think the other funny part was when one of the cats was actually behind me in the actual filming, and I believe we had to cut again because the cat was moving around and that type of thing. Yes, those were the funny moments.
Michelle Bishop:
Do we have enough footage for a blooper reel of Monica being attacked by house pets?
Jack Rosen:
I’m going to need to look back in the footage. We might have to put that out.
Michelle Bishop:
Give it some consideration. Just something to think about.
David Card:
I agree. As a cat lady, I would appreciate a blooper reel of cats.
Monica Wiley:
You know what, David? At times I thought about you, at times.
David Card:
Jack, you guys are premiering the film soon?
Jack Rosen:
Yes. October 10th at 3:00 P.M. Eastern Time. We’re going to be doing the virtual world premiere for Accessing Democracy. I’m going to put a link in the show notes. You can also find it under the events tab on the NDRN website. Be sure to register for that. Spots in our Zoom are filling up pretty quickly for that.
Jack Rosen:
After we show the film, we’re going to be doing a panel featuring Monica, myself, and hopefully a few special guests talking about how this film came together, what we learned in the process, why we think it’s so important for politicians and those who want to be in positions of power to listen to our community, and answering any questions that attendees have. Please be sure to register for that.
Jack Rosen:
You can also catch Accessing Democracy at a couple of film festivals. We’re going to be at the Utopia Film Festival that is in Greenbelt, Maryland. It takes place October 19th to the 21st. If you are a DMV local, be sure to buy a ticket and come out to that. We were also accepted to International Social Change Festival. We’re waiting back to get a little more info on how you can view the film through that festival, but be sure to check those both out. If you are a organization interested in organizing a screening, please reach out to me at [email protected].
Michelle Bishop:
I see. Okay. The special guests for the premiere panel are supposed to be people who are actually related to the film. I didn’t know that. I’m going to go ahead and not send you the list, Jack, of special guests that I was going to recommend. Hold on, let me get it out. My list was Kendrick Lamar performing Not Like Us, or Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce. Don’t take my word on that. I don’t think those people are coming to the premiere. Otherwise, it should be amazing and we hope to see all of you there.
Jack Rosen:
We’re not saying they won’t be there, we’re just not saying they will. Show up. You never know.
Michelle Bishop:
You never know. You never know who the surprise guest might be. Y’all, thank you so much for giving us your time today. This was really fantastic. I’m so excited for the premiere. I’m excited for the premiere, and I’ve actually already seen the film, so you know it’s that good. All of you should come check it out. Definitely if you’re in the area, come see us at some film festivals because that’s really cool. To close this out today, I don’t actually know where half of the podcast team are, and Stephanie usually tells us a joke, like a bad, I don’t want to say a bad joke, but a bad joke to close this out. David, our special guest host, do you have a joke for us?
David Card:
Oh, geez. I think any joke I would tell would end up with a visit to HR, so I’m going to decline.
Michelle Bishop:
Oh wait, I have a joke and it’s on theme. It’s on theme from the interview. Okay, you guys ready? Okay, so a cat walks into a, see it’s a cat, so it’s on theme, a cat walks into a library and goes right up to the front desk of the librarian and says, “I would like some tuna fish, please.” The librarian’s like, “You’re in a library?” The cat says *Michelle whispers* “Oh, I’m so sorry. Forgive me. I would like some tuna fish, please.”
Monica Wiley:
Oh my God.
Jack Rosen:
And you boo Stephanie after every single one of her jokes.
Michelle Bishop:
That joke is hilarious. He whispered because it’s a library. That joke is funny. That joke is funny. Stephanie is somewhere laughing and she doesn’t even know why.
Jack Rosen:
Oh my God. All right folks, as always, you can follow us on Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn, Facebook, Threads. You can follow the TikTok we don’t use. You can visit us at ndrn.org and you can email the podcast at [email protected]. Until next time, folks.
