Change, Not Charity: The Americans with Disabilities Act is a new documentary that weaves together archival footage and interviews to tell the story of the decades-long fight for access and inclusion that led to the passage of the Americans with Disabilities Act. The 52-minute film is directed by Jim LeBrecht (Crip Camp) and narrated by Peter Dinklage.
“There are many things I hope our film accomplishes, and certainly one of them is a better understanding of disability,” says LeBrecht. “When we understand more about a community that we may not be part of or adjacent to, it helps us understand folks and be more tolerant. Sometimes when people push back on something, other folks don’t know why, but if you understand the history behind it, it makes more sense.”
This message feels especially timely in light of the current lawsuit brought by 17 states to get rid of Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act, proposed cuts to Medicaid, and news of major airlines suing to nullify the new Department of Transportation rules strengthening protections for disabled passengers.
Change, Not Charity shows how disabled activists put their bodies on the line fighting for the rights the community has today. From a cross-disability coalition occupying a federal building in San Francisco for 28 days (known as the 504 Sit-In), to ADAPT members chaining their wheelchairs to buses, abandoning their mobility aids to haul themselves up the U.S. Capitol building stairs, and getting arrested for civil disobedience in the Capitol Rotunda, activists were unrelenting. “Civil Rights aren’t given. You have to fight to get ‘em, and then you have to fight to keep ‘em,” says longtime disability rights activist Anita Cameron in the documentary.
The film is a reminder of how powerful people with disabilities are when they work together and how much work remains to be done. “The ADA is not a panacea that took care of everything,” says LeBrecht. “I feel like it’s up to me to continue the work of those people who risked their lives so that people could go to college, have their independent education plan and have what most people strive for, which is lives of their own choosing.”
Change, Not Charity: The Americans with Disabilities Act premieres Tuesday, March 25, 9-10 p.m. EDT on American Experience on PBS, PBS.org and the PBS app.
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