12 Feb Journalism Project – Draft – Eva Carrette

‘The Visible Truth’

(Title in progress)

How would you define disability? In your daily life, do you pay attention to people with impairments? A large part of the society associate disabled people with a wheelchair user whereas among the 13.3 million persons with disability in the UK (Scope) less than 8% require the use of a wheelchair (DisabilitySport). In fact, most of the disabilities are invisible, not perceptible by the eye, in consequence not obvious to detect. Each invisible impairment has their specificity and requires diverse amenities in the work place. “Nearly 4 in 10 people thought of disabled people as less productive than non-disabled people, and 75% of people thought of disabled people as needing to be cared for some or most of the time. This suggests a degree of ‘benevolent prejudice’ exists towards disabled people” (Papworthtrust). Even though the Equality Act in 2010 participates in changing attitudes toward people with disability, especially within employers, it seems essential to awaken the rest of the population who unconsciously and politely ignores the daily challenges faced by disabled people. This film is about opening the dialogue, informing, raising awareness and breaking down the barriers so that only the skills are visible. The documentary is telling the story of Herbierto, Sam, Xavier and Umber: four main characters living with invisible disability and how they are going through each of their individual journey to be included in society and more specifically in the work place. To reinforce their story I invited subject matter specialists to talk about inclusion but also the main characters entourage to present an exhaustive vision of disability.

Here are the main characters featured in the film:

• Heribierto

The character of Heribierto gives the story an additional outlook from a less developed country, Colombia, South America. I’ve chosen to show Heribierto to open up my story with a global perspective and give a sense of universalism to the issue of disability, and not only as something that exists here in the UK. Heribierto is a farmer in a rural region working through daily life with invisible disabilities which are post traumatic psychological disorders, hearing impairment and muscle pain. He talks about his previous and present experiences, troubles he and the population face, and his role as a Handicap International promotor.  This will set the tone for my story by showing great contrast in the interviewees. I believe that this will also give more depth to my story, by having multiple cultures and people speaking multiple languages, as well as showcase my international journalistic potential.

• Sam Cleasby

Sam is a digital community officer at Scope, a writer, public speaker and a disability and health activist from Sheffield, UK. Diagnosed with Ulcerative Colitis in 2003 and having undergone diverse surgery she decided to create a blog called “sobadass.me” that is about “support, life stories and information along with fun, laughter, honesty and jokes”. She also is a mom of three. Sam is a great interviewee in the sense that she both is an expert on the subject and a person with a disability. The idea is to dress her portrait from two different angles, the first one being her role as a senior digital community officer at Scope: her experience in the working environment, her role at Scope and her opinion about the difficulties for person with disability to get access to employment. The second angle being more personal as she would explain what disability means to her, the obstacles she has been facing in the past and in her daily life and how she overcame/overcomes it, how it is to be a mom/woman when having ulcerative colitis.

Interview confirmed for February, waiting for a precise date, Sheffield.

• Umber Ghauri

Umber is a make-up artist, writer, model and public speaker. Being part of the LGBT community she is an activist in the fields of gender, sexuality race and image. Diagnosed with endometriosis, she is a very charismatic character as she identifies herself as a queer. Umber will represent marginalized people in the creative industry and explain how she managed to break into such a competitive niche. She’ll also talk about her experience, give her own definition of disability and her opinion about employment in the UK.

Interview confirmed for the 7^th of March, TW8 0BQ, London.

• Xavier White 

Xavier is an artist based in South London and also a teacher at South Bank University. After an accident in 1985 he was victim of an head injury following which he had to learn how to walk and talk again. He was part of many exhibitions, in particular at the Bethlem Gallery. His art work is a way of expressing his trauma and overcoming it. Xavier considers “he’s not the best at fitting in” which is interesting since he seems to be integrated and recognized within society. He will therefore represent disability from another angle. He’ll talk about his trauma, his path to recovery and acceptation, how art work helped him, his opinion about disability and inclusion…

Interview confirmed for the 19th of February, South London

I choose to interview two women in England as they represent the major part of disabled people, 6.4 million. I found it interesting to deliver Sam and Umber’s message, which both live in the same country, supposedly facing the same problematics but having two completely different paths. The contrast between these two women and Heribierto is even more interesting since it questions the impact of each individuals’ environment: rural in Colombia and urban in London and Sheffield. Xavier will round up the diversity of interviewees which span across culture, age, race and invisible disability type. (Xavier doesn’t appear in the storyboard since his interview was confirmed on the 13th of February. His portrait will be filmed similarly to Sam, Umber and Herbierto.)

The supporting characters are:

• Elodie Maitre is a filmmaker that travelled the world (Australia, France, Japan, South Korea, Senegal, Colombia, Canada) during a year for the purpose of her documentary named “Skill Bill”, a period in which she met disabled people. In the interview, Elodie evokes the society’s look on disability, its stigmatisation and gives approaches to be more inclusive.

• Hermelinda, Beatriz, Anderson are Heribierto’s collegue. They talk about Herbierto’s personality and role at Handicap International.

• Sam Cleasby colleagues, presently unknown, will talk about disabled person insertion in the work place and Sam’s personality. February.
• Expert to talk about the Equality Act and the Blue Badge in relation with invisible impairment. Email in progress.

Targeted Audience

This film targets the millennials, since they are the employee and employers of the future, they need to be aware of invisible disability in order to include the people concerned. Plus, the format, which is fifteen minutes, fits the online video medium mainly watched by the viewer born between 1980 and 2000.

EXAMPLE:

Storyboard

Story Board, Annexer (Examples):

Social Media:

Blog:

GV’s Elodie: 

GV’s Colombia

GV’s London: 

GV’s Sheffield:

Graphics (animated):