Disability Rhetoric

Crip Camp was released in January of 2020, and features footage of campers in 1971, and the disability rights movement in 1973. I bring this up because of the major historical richness this film possesses. This film’s most prominent focus is on community. The hardships these people faced in their everyday lives was relieved during their visit to Camp Jened in 1971, and it is through the bonds formed there, and the accommodation and social environment of that space that the people there realized that they no longer wanted to be “in a world that wasn’t made for me”. They banded together in 1973 and protested for the passing of the 504 plan, which was being jeopardized at the time as people discussed if it was really necessary. 

So much of the value in this film lies in how personal story — and even footage — is used to cast a more in-depth light on the history of disability. All too often disability rights and disabled people are written out of history. But here we see their role up close. The footage from Camp Jened in 1971 is literally shot from the perspective of campers. We see the intimate lives of the campers, their physical needs, their discussions, their fun camp activities. Very quickly the audience could tell that people were happy and free at the camp. The narration also emphasises how different it was from the “outside world”, how disability was not an irregularity or something to be mocked, shunned or stared at, it was normal, expected, and there was an overwhelming amount of understanding in such a place. This contrasts with the fight they must undertake two years later, as they protest for the 504 plan. However, we still see that same sort of community unity during these protests. Everyone’s needs are considered, and people care for one another. There is compraderie in people planning what to say, making places to sleep, delivering food, fasting, heating and electricity, all sorts of specific conditions for living that everyone must be considered when making these decisions. It was a smaller protest, and a very personal one. This personalized account of such a historical event — especially an event that was avoiding publicity and has been for the most part less known outside of the disabled community — really makes the audience (particularly a nondisabled audience) quickly understand the importance of such protests.  

One quote that stood out a lot to me was, “The problem was not with disabled people, the problem was with nondisabled people.” My keyword reading was on ableism, although it was titled “ability”, it discusses how the term “ability” came to be what we now know it as today. It seemed to start as a measurement of what a person was able to do, and usually was legally used to benefit men who owned property. To not “be able” was to be disabled, and to have less value socially. This disabled term was applied to pretty much everyone other than property owning men. This would later evolve into being applied specifically to bodies that were given less value because they were not able to produce as much profit. I go more in-depth for how this is messed up in my keywords RAB, but I think in relation to Crip Camp a lot of similarities could be drawn. The general concept of a body being valued as “lesser”, of a person’s presence and their necessary accommodations that would be needed, is explored a lot in Crip Camp. There is a lot of contrast to how people’s lives were before the 504 plan was passed, and before, and the change between the historical footage and today are impossible to ignore.

There is a lot of value to this video being shown in class to high schoolers. Not only does it open students up to unique perspectives, some of which nondisabled students in your class may not have known about, but it also provides an important historical context to American history, one that is often overlooked or only briefly touched upon. This in-depth telling of history by the actual people who lived and experienced it is also extremely valuable, it is in a way timeless. I mean timeless in that it is extremely valuable to have a historical documentary that includes the actual people that lived through such events. Years from now, people will be able to hear the thoughts and insight of the actual protesters and campers. I think that’s really valuable.

Some notable quotes:

“The problem was not with disabled people, the problem was with nondisabled people.”

“I was in a world that wasn’t made for me.”

“I don’t think I felt shame for my disability. What I really felt was discussion.”

“Schools and even hospitals didn’t want to spend the money to make their buildings accessible.”