You should Get the pBS App this weekend
I have a couple loosely-related content recommendations for you, dear reader.
First, before bed last night, I watched the latest American Experience documentary about the history of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). The hour-long film, called Change Not Charity: The Americans with Disabilities Act, offers a detailed look into disability inclusion in this country and the disability community’s (ongoing) fight for our recognizance and civil rights. The film includes a bunch of good interviews, including with renowned disability activist Judy Heumann and retired senator Tom Harkin (D-IA), who authored the Americans with Disabilities Act and was its chief sponsor. He delivered parts of his speech introducing the bill on the senate floor in ASL such that his Deaf brother could understand him. As to Heumann, she passed away in March 2023.
Watching the documentary obviously resonated with me; it was a poignant reminder of how very much spiritually and actively aligned I am with the missions of people like Heumann, Harkin, and more. Disability rights sits at the core of what I’ve done for the past dozen years as a technology reporter. Back in 2013, I carved out a beat, virtually all by my lonesome, covering accessibility and assistive technologies that I knew was risky because it was—and remains—abstract and esoteric and misunderstood by the majority of folks in the press. Believe me, disability decidedly isn’t a hot topic at tech desks in newsrooms; despite the proliferation of equally narrow beats like AI, social media, and media, accessibility sits at the narrowest of margins. With precious few exceptions, like my good friend at The Washington Post in Amanda Morris, disability simply isn’t a priority like race and sexuality when it comes to social justice reporting. I’ve lamented this before, as well as hawking my own wares on LinkedIn, both because I love working in journalism and, more pointedly, I’m utterly devoted to the representational cause. It’s precisely why, with a reporting résumé that includes interviewing Apple CEO Tim Cook, one of the feathers in the proverbial cap of my career I’m most proud of is interviewing Tony Coelho in 2020. Coelho, the retired Democratic congressman from California, copes with epilepsy (as my mother did) and is perhaps best known as being the ADA’s primary sponsor alongside the aforementioned Harkin.
It’s hard to believe the ADA turns only 35 years old come late July. Harder still, the ADA was signed into law by a Republican president in George H.W. Bush. I cannot fathom today’s ghoulish Republican Party, let alone Trump’s signature, even passing muster in Congress. As with other marginalized communities, it isn’t a stretch to surmise today’s Republicans give not even the slightest of shits about people like me. I’ve no doubt they would institutionalize us posthaste were it possible and politically expedient to do so.
Which brings me to my second recommendation. Capitol Hill has been in a tizzy this past week over the “Signalgate” scandal involving sensitive military operations and the accidental addition of Atlantic editor-in-chief Jeffrey Goldberg in the group text chat. Goldberg is host and moderator of one of my favorite nerdy shows in Washington Week which, like American Experience, airs on PBS. I watch it faithfully every Friday evening, usually in the living room over dinner. This week’s episode promised to be must-see TV given the show (a) covers the hottest political stories of the week; and (b) Goldberg himself is a central figure in the story. I thought it would be riveting television, and it turned out I was exactly right. To me, it was just as enthralling and entertaining as the Season 2 finale of Severance that, coincidentally, dropped just last Friday on Apple TV+.
Anyway, if you want good things to watch this weekend, the PBS app is your friend.
