THE DISABILITY JUSTICE PROJECT is a strategic partnership between the Disability Rights Fund (DRF), an international NGO funding grassroots organizations of persons with disabilities (OPDs) in the Global South, Center for Independent Documentary, and journalism educator and human rights filmmaker Jody Santos and other nationally recognized media makers from Northeastern University’s School of Journalism in Boston, Massachusetts. Based on a fellowship model, newer professionals with lived experience of disability from the Global South are paired with mentors/professional journalists in the U.S. In an exchange of ideas and experiences, the fellows learn about digital storytelling from some of the best in the industry, while the mentors learn about the global disability justice movement from frontline activists – with the goal of incorporating that new understanding into their reporting for publications like The New York Times and The Guardian or for broadcasters like PBS and ABC.
Recognizing the centrality of storytelling to systemic change, the Disability Justice Project (DJP) trains human rights defenders with disabilities in Asia, Africa and the Pacific in documentary storytelling. Sending camera kits to fellows across the globe, we support persons with disabilities to “take back the narrative” on disability justice. Our website is the first media platform dedicated to disability justice in the Global South. Its purpose is to build a sustainable network of media makers with disabilities, with collaborators from all over the world.
A Disability Rights Fund Project