Happy to announce our upcoming online 60-minute orientations for Lights! Camera! Access! (LCA) and Women’s eNews (application links and details below).
Please join us on any of the following Tuesdays from 10:00 to 11:00 am PT/1:00 to 2:00 pm ET.
Register for LCA/Women’s eNews Orientations: on these dates:
May 5 May 12 (For LCA Only)
Great news – applications are open for:
1) Women’s eNews - Loreen Arbus Accessibility is Fundamental Fellowship
2) Lights! Camera! Access! (LCA) Cohort (July to December 2026)
Both initiatives are ideal for aspiring storytellers, filmmakers and journalists with disabilities.
Women’s eNews selects two Fellows (one under 50 years of age; one over 50 years of age) who are aspiring journalists with disabilities who identify as female. Both fellows write up to six articles ($500 for pitch; $500 when published, for a total of $1,000/article). You will be mentored by Women’s eNews Editor-in-Chief Lori Sokol. Three finalists are offered apprenticeships with the LCA Newsletter, will be mentored by our LCA Editor-in-Chief, Kristen Lopez and paid $100/article.
Women’s eNews Deadline – May 11 at 9:00 pm ET
LCA is six-month online career development Academy meeting the second Tuesday of each month on Zoom from 12 Noon PT to 3:00 pm PT. LCA combines career exploration/development workshops, panels and career incubator activities with resume/cover letter review with our Career Development Team. Participants learn about media jobs in the "gig economy," polish soft and hard skills, and build their network of creatives with disabilities. Ten of the most accelerated LCA members are selected for our new LCA Media Entrepreneurs with Disabilities cohort where they build their business and pitch ideas to industry executives at our LCA Pitch Tank.
LCA Deadline – May 21 at 9:00 pm ET
Application Link
Stay tuned - ADA35 will be available on demand next week.
In celebration of ADA35, Disability Pride Month and the 40th Anniversary of the US Congressional Joint Resolution for National Disability in Entertainment Week, ADA Lead On Productions, Lights! Camera! Access! (LCA) and Disability Unite join forces to spotlight creatives with disabilities who take back the narrative across media platforms.
Welcome to Lights! Camera! Access! (LCA),
LCA was first launched as a Sector Summit by the U.S. Department of Labor’s Office of Disability Employment Office (ODEP) and was hosted as a one-day Summit by the Diversity Committee of the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences to coincide with the 20th Anniversary of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA20). Everyone was welcomed by DOL former Secretary Hilda Solis and Assistant Secretary Kathy Martinez.
Since that LCA launch, and until COVID hit, LCA was convened in major media markets and hosted by:
Hollywood: Academy of Television Arts & Sciences, CBS, and The Coelho Center for Disability Law, Justice and Innovation/Loyola Marymount
Check out the video to LCA at CBS/Television Academy Taking Action
Washington, DC: The White House and Gallaudet University
New York: BBDO Worldwide, NBC, and ReelAbilities Film Festival
Check out the video to LCA at BBDO in this TV Guide
Silicon Valley: Computer History Museum
Chicago: Chicago Mayor’s Office for Persons with Disabilities and Chicago Film Office; Department of Cultural Affairs and Special Events
San Diego: Options for All and San Diego State University’s Interwork Institute
Since the pandemic, LCA has pivoted to a six-month, online Career Exploration/Career Incubator Academy.
For questions, please email us at lights.camera.access2@gmail.com
In honor of ADA30, Tari Hartman Squire and Danny Woodburn created ADA Lead On Productions, to honor the legacy of the ADA and to create online variety shows featuring established and emerging talent with disabilities, many of whom are LCA alumni. Tari and Danny are considered pioneers in paving the intersection of disability and media and are featured in this Forbes article.
So far, ADA Lead On Productions has won the 2021 Audience Honors Shorty Award.
and the 2022 Gold Anthem Award in Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion.
For more information, check out ADA Lead On Productions - https://leadonada.org/ or write to us at ADAleadonproductions@gmail.com
LCA was built on the success of the Media Access Office, the groundbreaking original liaison between the disability community and the entertainment industry. Tari Hartman Squire (Founding Executive Director of Media Access) and Loreen Arbus (Founding Producer of the Media Access Awards with Norman Lear and Fern Field) founded Lights! Camera! Access (LCA). Here is their announcement at the Clinton Global Initiative on YouTube - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SyH1m-F8gAo
Thanks for visiting our LCA website…..Lead On!