Sometimes I feel the weight of the world on my shoulders. Often, actually, as the lack of blind film critics means that my experiment could either lead to more of me, and inspire others to pursue representation in the field, or studios could have an immediate and negative reaction to my existence. for example, can an extremely niche critic like myself have a place on the Tomatometer when the overwhelming majority of people who seek a score do not use the accessibility I need, or people like me? I am acutely aware that while there are critics circles and guilds that represent a wide array of specific representation from African-American to LGBTQ to even just women, there’s no gathering of disabled film critics. certainly, there’s a lack of a deaf critics organization, and I’m unaware if anyone on the Tomatometer is deaf. Imagine your entire worth being constantly determined and decided by people who do not fully understand what it is to be disabled on any level, or have to experience any denial of accessibility. even in simply my advance screener of Deaf President Now, it meant I had to use Apple’s press screening app which is poorly designed. Honestly, the app itself is unusable with Apple’s own screen reading technology, so I watched over the portal on the internet. And why would they make it accessible? There isn’t a presence to worry about, though I would say that considering all of the guilds at awards season, it is highly unlikely no one is visually impaired in any guild.

that also meant that I watched Deaf President Now for the first time without audio description. Because, again, why bother? I think that is what is so inspirational and powerful about Deaf President now,is that it unapologetically demands to be heard, from a community that cannot. For all the visibility I push for, i am also representing a community that cannot see. Despite disability, we deserve to be heard, and we deserve to be seen.

Now, I have to find the words when i truly have none. This was like a religious experience watching a film give voice to a moment in disability history when a group of people reached their breaking point at being “less than’ and demanded equity. the audacity for the board of Gallaudet University to determine that qualified candidates at a deaf college were not qualified to run a deaf college because they were deaf is insulting. It also goes against everything higher education stands for. Reach for the stars, you can be anything, dream big, and take on tomorrow. To ask students to come to a University so they can seek education while acutely aware of the ceiling directly above them seemingly goes against everything that college is for. This is why Howard University isn’t run by a white guy. the message at HBCU’s certainly isn’t for students to learn how to still remain second class to someone else, and it is shocking in my lifetime, that was the message at Gallaudet University. Come here, but temper your expectations.

I’m aware of my blindness, and I’m not out on the road driving cars, or asking to land planes. I know some people out there have no problem sending the message tht blind people are the reason we’re having so many problems with planes landing now, but the fact is that some jobs or tasks require sight for the logical reason that people could die. As technology continues to advance, that will likely change, but for now, I think there’s definitely a reasonable ask in certain areas. i do not consider it to be a reasonable ask at all that deaf students be led by one of their own. I mean, they aren’t even being led by people who know ASL at this point. And, yes, the film does point out all the preconceived old fashioned notions about how deaf people shouldn’t use ASL, and need to learn how to lip read. You will learn all about how we used to educate deaf kids to feel someone’s face to know how a word is shaped. After all, this predates the Americans with disabilities Act, so all disabled people really had at this point was a sliver of legislation making federally funded buildings accessible.

We do not get represented enough in cinema, nor do we get thought of enough on a day to day basis. A film like this being given a platform at Sundance, and now a release by Apple, can go a long way if anyone watches this film. And you absolutely need to watch this film. it moved me, and I wasn’t even given the accessibility I needed. I was thinking so much about trying to communicate with a deaf person without an intermediary. I don’t know ASL, but I also don’t know how I would know if someone was using ASL to speak to me. Like I said, I often feel the weight, and I felt the weight of so many things during this movie not even directly related to just how the history unfolds. it made me realize that while we certainly have moved the needle since 1988, I’m not sure we are anywhere near where we need to be so that we aren’t just representing ourselves, or telling stories to our own communities, and being employed by people like us. And all of this comes just two days after a group of disabled advocates were arrested at the capitol for daring to make noise at the defunding of Medicaid, which will in turn lead to the loss of funding for a battery of services that help keep disabled people independently living and not in facilities with a degraded quality of life.

Deaf President Now was the cry in 1988 for a group of students to be led by one of their own, but where is the leadership and representation now? Since 1988 how many disabled politicians have won elections? how many current members of the House or Senate come from the disabled communities? Is it possible that the cry should still be “Deaf President Now”, because of the still lack of true representation in places that matter?

it mattered back then because the board, and the president of the school would make decisions that would trickle down to the students they supposedly served. But even with the best intentions, you can get it wrong. And, there’s no real belief that the best intentions even existed from a group of hearing individuals who couldn’t be bothered to learn ASL to talk to their own students. No wonder we feel constantly fragmented from society, because people like the barrier board in this film still exist, and often they are in charge of our accessibility. they decide how inclusive they want to be, and who gets to be included in the rooms where it all happens. this is a movie, a cry, to just be heard, and for most of the film, they are ignored. it takes national attention, being put on a public stage and shamed, in order for the needle to move.

I wish I could make my voice louder for this film, because it is not just the overused “triumph of the human spirit”, but it feels like breathing. It feels like a story about people who were at first asking for permission to breathe, and being told no, so they had to demand for the right to breathe. The ask here, for a def president seems so benign by today’s standards, that even someone unaware of our needs would assume a deaf college had deaf leadership. It’s deeply troubling to know how much we have to fight to enact common sense change, and how the only way anyone will ever remember or learn about what happened at Gallaudet University is by watching a documentary.

tht’s what hurts the most,is the realization that the contributions by disabled people in history is almost so specific that it is easy to name the few. There is very little taught about the moments that matter in the development of disability rights, whether with the rehabilitation act, or how it was Abraham Lincoln who founded the first deaf college in the country. you don’t learn about the protests at Gallaudet University in your middle school history classes. kids who grow up disabled in public schools don’t even know the lack of representation, because for generations the only people seemingly aware are the people it directly affects. And, if we continue to keep members of the disabled community out of spaces where they have a voice that can actually speak from a place of understanding of what something would mean, it remains this conceptual thing to a group of people who it is not a priority to, and we are frequently the ones who suffer. We, whether deaf, blind, or otherwise impaired, are the ones still asking for permission to be somewhere, to have basic accessibility, and still in search of equity.

I’m sorry to the team of Deaf President Now that I’m not Tomatometer approved, and I can’t put on their site just how much this film means to me. Even in a place where Apple has no problem ignoring my accessibility, this is stil the most impactful film I’ve seen this year. deaf President Now is the best film of 2025 so far, and unless there’s something monumental coming this way, I don’t know how I could be swayed form that opinion.

Final grade: A+