The museum exhibit, titled “Patient No More: People with Disabilities Securing Civil Rights,” focuses on the late 1970s when disabled people launched protests across the county to finally get the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 signed into law. Museum Director of Education Diane Knispel said this was an overlooked moment in U.S. history.
“Apparently there were a couple of people who were holding off signing the bill, Knispel said. “And so, they took over, or they tried to take over a couple of federal buildings. And they did a 26-day occupation of the federal building in San Francisco. And, because of that, they had the last person sign the Disabilities Act into law. And that makes it easier for them to access federal buildings and put in the ramps and other things that make it easier for them to move around.”
The exhibit remains on display through April 16. Park City Film Director Katy Wang said it pairs well with the Sundance Audience Award-winning film from 2020, “Crip Camp."
"What's really interesting about coupling with Park City Museum on their exhibit with the film is that it really kind of takes you a little bit farther back, you get kind of the meta view on the passage of the Americans with Disabilities Act," Wang said. "Because the documentary starts, one of the directors went to this camp. He's someone who uses a wheelchair. And he used to go to this camp called 'Camp Jeanette' and which is this ramshackle camp for the handicapped in the Catskills that really just redefined and defied what expectations were of what was possible for people with disabilities at the time.”
The film will be screened Thursday at 7 p.m. at the Jim Santy auditorium using open captions. While subtitles are used for foreign language films, open captions can’t be turned off, they’re part of the film. Wang said captions can help those who may have hearing loss or for those who may have a difficult time understanding some of the film’s dialogue.
“We decided for this film that we would show with open captions so everyone can see the subtitles, just so that we can accommodate more people who might need that,” Wang said. “And just for a lot of people, we hear particularly with a film like “Crip Camp,” where sometimes some people's dialogue might be a little bit harder to interpret to the untrained ear. Then it will make what they're saying, the spoken language, more accessible to the audience.”
As part of their new Raising Voices film series, Wang said they hope to showcase and represent more communities that are traditionally underrepresented in the arts. The April 27 film “Stranger at the Gate” will also be shown with open captions.
For most of the weekend films, she said there is the option for closed captioning and audio descriptions which are available for those who are blind or can’t read captions. Park City Film also provides assisted listening devices, which increase the volume of the film for those who are hard of hearing. Patrons can ask the box office for assistance with them.
