Video: The 2005 Disability Rights Concert with Bruce Hornsby and Friends

CNN Headline News on Comcast televised coverage of the 2005 Disability Rights Concert  celebrating  the 15th anniversary of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). The event benefited ADA Watch and the National Coalition for Disability Rights.   

This segment features photos by Tom Olin, music and statements by Grammy Award winners, Bruce Hornsby and Sweet Honey In the Rock, Laura Dodd, as well as Congressman Chris Van Hollen, Pat Wright, Curt Decker, Nancy Starnes, Janine Bertram Kemp, Judy Heumann,  Comcast’s Craig Snedeker and ADA Watch/NCDR Founder and President,
Jim Ward.

Click Here for the Video:

http://www.comcastnews.com/media/Partner/884075.wmv

A transcript of the audio (with video descriptions) is below...  

Bruce Hornsby 

Bruce Hornsby won the Best New Artist Grammy Award in 1986 and went on to sell more than 10 million albums worldwide with a string of hits including “Mandolin Rain,” “The Valley Road,” “Every Little Kiss,” “A Night on the Town,” and the socially conscious No. 1 single “(That's Just) The Way It Is.”

An extraordinary pianist and vocalist, Hornsby has also made his mark as a songwriter for others: Huey Lewis had a number one hit with his “Jacob's Ladder,” as did Don Henley with “The End of the Innocence.” Bruce became a part-time member of the legendary Grateful Dead and, from September 1990 to March 1992, performed with the group on more than 100 concerts in America and Europe.

Bruce's latest album, “Halcyon Days,” (which features Eric Clapton, Elton John and Sting) draws from a wide array of influences including jazz, pop, classical, bluegrass, rock, vaudeville and and more, all the while bringing his patented blend of playful lyrical whimsy and formidable musicality to the table.

Sweet Honey In the Rock

Sweet Honey In The Rock is a Grammy Award-winning African American female a cappella ensemble with deep musical roots in the sacred music of the black church - spirituals, hymns, gospel - as well as jazz and blues.

The Sweet Honey experience is like no other. They join their powerful voices, along with hand percussion instruments, to create a blend of lyrics, movement and narrative that variously relate history, point the finger at injustice, encourage activism, and sing the praises of love.

The music speaks out against oppression and exploitation of every kind. Their words are simultaneously interpreted in uniquely expressive American Sign Language and they call for a just and humane world for all.

Laura Dodd

Laura Dodd is a 24-year-old vocalist, model, and actress originally from Gadsden, Alabama, who began performing publicly at the age of ten. She has co-hosted a local Birmingham, Alabama television show, and has appeared in several television and radio commercials.

Her single, Wow, was on the Nashville Music Row country breakout chart for ten weeks and her single, 10,001, was rising on the European country charts. A 2003 VSA arts Young Soloists Award winner, Laura was named Entertainer of the Year at the American Talent Showcase and Best Actress at the International Model and Talent Association competition.

Laura was diagnosed with CIDP (chronic inflammatory demyelinating polyneuropathy), a neurological disorder, at the age of 12.

 

Text of Audio with Video Descriptions:

Intro: News Show Music 

CNN Headline News: Comcast Local Edition   

Singing and applause as Sweet Honey In the Rock take the stage at the Music Center at Strathmore before an audience of more than 1300 individuals.

 Sweet Honey In the Rock, Grammy Award Winning Recording Artists:

 “We are delighted, really delighted, to be a part of this evening’s program and we understand that laws like the ADA need to be monitored, need to be supported, need to be enforced and need to be expanded where necessary… and so we are glad to be a part of this evening’s program.”   

 Cut to Disability Rights Tour banner with Tom Olin’s photo of disability rights action with Justin Dart.

 Cut to Comcast reporter interviewing participants at the reception prior to the concert:

 Jim Ward, President and Founder of ADA Watch/NCDR:

 “ADA Watch and the National Coalition for Disability Rights were formed in response to numerous threats to the ADA – the most important civil rights law for people with disabilities – and we were founded to provide a response to the critics and opponents who are looking to weaken the ADA.”

Cut to Disability Rights Tour banner stating: “Campaign for the Human Rights of People with Disabilities.”

Nancy Starnes, Vice President National Organization on Disability and ADA Watch/NCDR Board Member:

 “Before I had a disability, I was endowed with all sorts of rights as an able-bodied person. Once I became a person with a disability, I found that I did not have access to places where I needed to shop, places where I worked. Opportunities to access government services might not be available either.”

Cut to ADA Watch/NCDR banner with Stephanie Thomas leading an ADAPT action.  

Pat Wright, Director of Government Relations, Disability Rights Education and Defense Fund:

“So as a result of that, we came up with the theory that we should pass a law so that people with disabilities could stop being second class citizens and so that we could work, recreate and travel independently and so that we could participate in communities all across the country no matter where we live.”  

Curt Decker, Executive Director of the National Disability Rights Network (formally NAPAS), and ADA Watch/NCDR Board Member:

“We are talking about over 54 million Americans with a whole range of disabilities from physical disabilities to sensory or cognitive disabilities, mental illness – any kind of impairment that limits a person’s functioning.”

 Cut to Ms. Wheelchair America, Juliette Rizzo, Brewster Thackery of AARP and others at the event.

 Janine Bertram Kemp, ADA Watch/NCDR Board Member:

 “This includes soldiers who are returning from Iraq with disabilities, elderly people and people with HIV/AIDS. People with disabilities are having to fight way to hard to maintain inclusion in society in America.“

 Honorable Nancy Floreen, Member, Montgomery County Council:

 “We are all aging – the Boomers as much as anybody else are going to need disability attention. In a couple of years, I am going to need a ramp, I am going to need a way to get around my house, no doubt, just as my folks did. I think that fact is slowly creeping into the national consciousness.”   

 Judy Heuman, Advisory on Disability and Development, World Bank and member of the ADA Watch/NCDR National Advisory Council:

  “What’s very important about the Americans with Disabilities Act is that it really has enabled people around the world to see what disabled people can do to make a difference in their lives working with their governments.”

 Honorable Chris Van Hollen, Member of U.S. Congress:

 “I want to thank the National Coalition for Disability Rights and the ADA Watch program – because vigilance is required.”

 “We have made tremendous progress in this country in many areas over the last 15 years but there are also areas where we need to continue to make progress. We need to make sure that people with disabilities are never treated as second class citizens in this country.”

 “We have made great progress in the areas of access to secondary education and greater access to buildings. We still have a long way to go in the area of employment.

Pat Wright:

 “People with disabilities want to be tax generating not tax depleting citizens. We are often people with money. Until this society recognizes people with disabilities as a future market, we won’t get to the point of integration.”

 Piano music by Bruce Hornsby begins playing…

 Bruce Hornsby, Grammy Award Winning Recording Artist:

 “If you talked to the average person in the street, they would be unaware of the problems facing people with disabilities.”

 “And so I wanted to be involved. That’s why I am here.”

Cut to Bruce Hornsby on stage playing grand piano and singing “Going to Be Some Changes Made.” [For the Disability Rights Concert, Bruce included a special verse in this song demonstrating solidarity with our cause and highlighting the Lane v. Tennessee case on access to courtrooms.]

Jim Ward:

“We are happy to be here tonight at the Strathmore with Bruce Hornsby, Sweet Honey in the Rock, and Laura Dodd and also the images of Tom Olin’s images of the disability rights struggle – which is a photographic history of the struggle for disability rights.”

Cut to Tom Olin’s photos which include people with disabilities chanting, holding signs and being arrested at ADAPT actions,   

Tom Olin, photojournalist:

“There are poepl that when they get to see these images for the first time the’ll will see someone that they can look at and not pity. Because as soon as you look at and pity someone in a chair or hwo uses a cane then they are someone who is not like you.”

“You are not going to pity a friend.”

 Craig Snedeker, Area Vice President and Manager, Comcast of Montgomery County:

 “Comcast is really please to support not only the ADA’s 15th anniversary, but we are also here to support the awareness of Americans with disabilities as a civil rights issue.”

 Judy Heuman:

 “The voices of disabled people are really being heard more and more. Too slow in many cases, and too low in many cases, but they are becoming louder.”  

Cut to Laura Dodd performing on the stage of the Music Center at Strathmore. Laura’s performance was sponsored by VSA Arts.  

 Jim Ward:

 “This is a really valuable evening for us because we got to put a human face on disability rights and show that it is about more than just the law and lawyers, and indeed is about sharing in the American Dream.”

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