Karen Wootten, PRPL Accessibility Coordinator

Please join us for a free film screening of the accessibility rights movement documentary Crip Camp, to mark the International Day of Persons with Disabilities. In the early 1970s, people with disabilities often lived lives defined by discrimination, isolation, and institutionalization. However, when a group of teenagers arrive at Camp Jened, a freewheeling camp “for the handicapped” (a term no longer used) in the Catskills, they suddenly see beyond those boundaries. Jened offered sports, self-exploration, and the opportunity for relationships, like every summer camp, but unlike other summer camps it also offered campers liberation and full inclusion as human beings. After their camp experience many of the Camp Jened alumni moved on to Berkeley, California where they realized that disruption, civil disobedience, and political participation could change the future for millions. Crip Camp is a snapshot of a moment in time: a moment and a movement that created a better world for us all to live in.