“The mission of ReelAbilities is to celebrate and highlight artists, directors, and writers with disabilities. But I always think of it as really just normalizing disability in the film industry and pushing away those ideas and tropes, that idea of inspiration porn, where somebody with a disability is inspiring to you because they do something despite their disability.”

“In the movie industry, there’s this idea of ‘inspiration porn,’ where films about individuals with disabilities have to be about people overcoming their disability,” she says. “Or the film has to be about someone working through their emotions around their disability. In reality, people are just living with their disabilities and trying to figure out their lives like every other human being.”

“Since we’re a public institution, the public is everyone, and everyone has different needs,” Marshall said. “In accessibility, it’s like, ‘Who’s here? Who isn’t here?’ and ‘Why are people that are missing not here?’”

“As far as we know, this is the first film of its kind to use actors on the spectrum to play a nonverbal character in a scripted film,” Swift said.

“To lend the film authenticity, and to provide autistic employment opportunities, the filmmakers and producer/screenwriter Audrey Todd cast nonprofessional actors on the autism spectrum to play the roles of Will and Tatum. “

“The work of a pair of Ohio State alumni will now be featured on the virtual big screen…”