DisLabeled Season 2

With DisLabeled, Season Two, Brian McCarthy, fueled by a new sense of self and purpose, takes off across the globe in pursuit of trailblazers who refuse to be kept-down by any obstacle.

  • Media | 01

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    Youth with disabilities are taking to TikTok and Youtube to express themselves and build community. Brian travels to Los Angeles to meet with young social media stars who have given up on traditional media outlets as they have always under-represented persons with disabilities. He learns how TikTok’s special features, like text-to-speech, non-animated thumbnail options, auto-captions, and photo-sensitive warnings make the app accessible. Brian meets with a Hollywood casting director. He learns that non-disabled actors play 95% of TV characters with a disability. The casting director partly attributes that to the small pool of actors from which to choose from, as the disabled are discouraged from seeking a career in entertainment. Brian offers himself up as a challenge to that notion, and even auditions for the casting director.

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  • Paralympics | 03

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    Brian travels to Colorado Springs, to partake in training at the Olympic and Paralympic flagship training center. He asks himself what sport he would choose were he to compete in a Paralympic competition? And how would he get in shape to be a real contender? During an apprenticeship with the US archery team, Brian fails to hit the target. A medal winner, known as the “Armless Archer” politely suggests that archery might not be his sport. Brian then meets a female swimmer who is a double amputee since the age of 18 months. Her inexhaustible taste for competition will put Brian through the ringer. Thrown into the deep water, he acquires skills he never imagined he could possess when he was sighted. It’s when he meets the US wheelchair rugby team that Brian realizes that to succeed in adaptive sports you need tenacity of mind.

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  • Do Touch The Art – Please! | 03

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    Brian takes a tour of the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s old masters collection with a docent who specializes in guiding the visually impaired through museum collections. He hadn’t set foot in a museum in years but now Brian’s curiosity about art is revived. As they explore the MET’s collection together, the docent describes the art using metaphor, or even musical analogies sometimes. With his curiosity piqued about what it takes to make art professionally when you are disabled, Brian sets out to meet a painter who creates all of his artwork using just his feet. After living most of his life without arms, Peter considers his right foot to be like the right hand of most people, using it dexterously to open doors and perform many other everyday tasks. Brian accompanies the artist to the Mouth and Foot Painters Association. While working alongside these artists, Brian is able to explore the possibilities of creating art and how an artist’s impairment can actually nourish his talent.

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  • Survivalism | 04

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    When climate disaster strikes, will able-bodied allies be there for us? Or will our disabled bodies be treated as disposable? We flashback to news reports from Florida in 2017 when 12 nursing home residents died in the suffocating heat in the aftermath of Hurricane Irma. We hear from a NIH representative who addresses the high mortality rates in nursing homes during the COVID-19 pandemic. Since institutions often fail to protect the vulnerable, there is a need to teach self-reliance. Brian turns to a “prepper” who is a member of the International Preparedness Network. He (or she) will lead Brian and a small group of people with varied disabilities, as they plan for disaster. We follow the rag tag group, some in wheelchairs, as they attempt to escape a New York City under a hypothetical state of emergency – with roads and infrastructure shut down.

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  • To Infinity and Beyond! | 05

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    Brian meets with an aspiring female astronaut who got her first telescope at age 10. Now, in her 20s, she has her heart set on becoming the first deaf astronaut. Having been mentored by former NASA astronauts, she is at the top of the list of civilian candidates to be a crew member aboard a future mission. With the aid of an ASL interpreter, Brian visits Julia’s childhood home and learns about her life-long fascination with outer space. They visit NASA together where Brian undertakes some training exercises. After a few scary moments, he realizes that as a person with a disability he may have already been better prepared for space travel than an able-bodied person since they are in the habit of finding work-arounds to every day constrictions.

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  • Alternative Thinking – Psychedelic Therapeutics | 06

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    From treating patients in palliative care and hospice to treatments in mental health for Veterans and less able-bodied patients, the therapeutic benefits of psychedelics are reaching the mainstream. Clinical trials with veterans suffering from battle fatigue PTSD, researchers at Johns Hopkins have shown that psilocybin therapy, in concert with support therapy, can ease symptoms of depression for up to a year. Could psychedelics help someone like Brian who, since his diagnosis, has struggled with depression? Looking for answers, Brian travels to a shaman retreat in Berkeley, California to take magic mushrooms. Brian trips with a group of disabled soul-searchers, he sees how complex the universe can be as seen through the prism of individual and collective disability.

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  • DisLabeled’s Kids | 07

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    Brian’s wife, Jocelyn, and their two young daughters had to quickly adjust to his vision loss. In this episode, Brian’s daughters Mia and Bella question how they had both been attended NYC schools for many years without ever having interacted with disabled students. Brian and his family meet with two organizations (NYC Kids Project and SocialEyes Together) whose mission is to help students talk about inclusion, diversity, respect, empathy and community in a way young people can understand easily, and, with a sense of humor.

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  • Playing in the Band | 08

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    Brian meets an African-American singer/guitar who, since the age of 3, has been unable to speak a complete sentence due to her severe autism, but – miraculously – she was able to belt out a tune. She grew up to become a dazzling stage performer and founder of the rock band featuring musicians with autism and other disabilities. Brian attends rehearsals for the band’s
    European tour but learns that a couple of the musicians won’t be available this time. With the help of a specialized talent agency they reach out to the disabled community and hold open auditions. Brian does his best Simon Callow imitation as they tryout various candidates. Once they’ve narrowed their selection, the agency books a gig for the re-formed band at a local venue. The night of the show, Brian is called on to introduce the new line-up. He rises to the occasion, connecting to a live audience again for the first time in years.

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  • Running Blind | 09

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    Doncaster, England – Brian travels to England to catch up – if he can – to British marathoner Simon Wheatcroft. Brian is eager to pick up where he left off in Season 1, when he tested out a form of haptic technology that helped Simon run solo in the NYC Marathon in 2017. We learn that Simon has since been using Runkeeper a haptic technology he has used to run ultra-marathons from Boston, MA to NYC and run across four deserts in Namibia. Brian joins a running group comprised of Simon’s students, and tries his best to keep up.

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  • Equality for Everyone | 10

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    Brian flies to Japan to understand why Japan has been a leader in inclusivity for persons with disabilities. He meets with two politicians who were elected to political office, one has Lou Gehrig’s disease, and the other has cerebral palsy. We understand how their election was a crowning achievement in a disability rights activist movement that goes back to the 1960s. Brian joins a protest with the group Aoi Shiba, formed by people with cerebral palsy, the first group of its kind to reject Japanese cultural biases that had families hide disabled family members as if their condition was shameful.

    Brian meets with captains of industry, as well as Moriaki Kida, the CEO of EY Japan, founder the Diverse Abilities Center (DAC), which enables individuals with neurodivergent needs to experiment with flexible work styles while acquiring professional skills and a career. Visiting a variety of work places, Brian discovers how imposed quotas for hiring persons with disabilities has changed the landscape and provided opportunities for persons with disabilities.

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  • Getting Around – Japan | 11

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    (This is a precursor to the long format documentary where DisLabeled travels to multiple countries around the world, looking at how they have integrated people with varied abilities into their society. The film will seek to understand why the US is far behind many other countries in terms of accessibility and inclusion.)

    Tokyo & Kyoto, Japan – In this travel oriented episode we follow Brian as he navigates airports, train stations and city streets while sight-seeing in Japan. He meets with The Mitsui Fudosan Group which has been developing technologies to improve accessibility in parts of Nihonbashi (a district of Tokyo, Japan). Brian tests out their navigation app“Inclusive Navi” which is designed to assist users navigate the streets. The app provides GPS-like turn-by-turn optimized directions with specific visual map and auditory directions, even throughout the underground sections of the neighborhood.

    Meeting with transit activists, Brian learns how the 2006 “Barrier-Free Act” made the streets, public buildings and transit systems all more accessible. Brian boards the Shikansen “bullet train” to Kyoto with a wheelchair-bound tour guide. Once in Kyoto he and his companion tour the 400 year old Nishiki food market and meet with a disabled chef who introduces Brian to the local cuisine. The crowded market is the ultimate test for visually impaired Brian and his wheelchair user tour guide.

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