Alexis attended Easter Seals Camp ASCCA last week. You can also view a video of Alexis and her counselor Christy.

This is just a truly precious young lady.

Katie and Danielle have been sharing profiles of campers and counselors in their summer social media internship at Easter Seals Camp ASCCA. All of them, about eight posts a day, appear in the Camp ASCCA Journal, ASCCA’s blog.

I’ll be honest, I keep hoping to see PR people visiting and commenting – or writing about it in their own blogs. I’ve tried to refrain from blatant pitches via email and only highlighting the effort by writing about it here in my blog.

…social media internship reaching out to parents and campers to spread the word about Camp ASCCA…

I hope you’ll check out the Camp ASCCA Journal and write about it. A few kind people have gone there and/or commented or written about it. Thanks Kami and Karen. But, alas, few others have gone there – or seen value in it to write about it. This makes me sad. I know of no other similar experiment with social media – anywhere. If you can show me one, please do. The students are trying and would really appreciate some interest and feedback from the PR blogging community.

I hope my fellow PR bloggers will go and check out the site. Critiques and criticism are welcome, actually. We want to get it right and improve. Also, the interns will likely take input from outside and put it into action. Hope you’ll visit the Camp ASCCA Journal and give it your consideration for a post in your blog. Thanks.

Google Video will also play host to our videos. The idea is to expose our camp activities to a larger audience via these online video sharing communities.

And below you may watch the “Day at Camp ASCCA” video. Click the screen capture of the lil’ camper climbing into the treehouse, to your right (pop-up window). The video runs 10:00 and, my apologies, is only available as a highspeed / broadband download right now. The video is currently a huge MPG file. Look for a smaller download version of this one down the road.

Using available online social media video sharing sites and our own blog/site, Camp ASCCA should be able to present the most comprehensive record of all the activities available. Now this is one truly positive aspect of social media, blogs and vlogs (video blogs).

Like no time before, we are now able to provide an almost real time presentation of Camp ASCCA’s programming. Parents and caregivers, campers and counselors (present and past) may follow along and experience camp’s activities each day. Summer camps start in less than two weeks, so please make sure you come back often.

Cross-posted in the blog over at Easter Seals Camp ASCCA.

Irreverent comedy, by people with disabilities, where no topic is safe. I have not been this happy in a long, long time. Finding the ouch! podcast is a special treat. For me, this is as if Monty Python took on the issue of disabilities and gave it proper comedic respect. Yes, I imagine this podcast will not be received by everyone with the same glee as I’ve expressed here. In fact, in show #2 the hosts report some rather unhappy listeners have shared their unhappy thoughts.

Actor Mat Fraser (on left) and comedian Liz Carr (on right) are the hosts. You will laugh. They are brilliant. Both Mat and Liz have disabilities. Actually, the site says that vitually all of those involved with the Web site and podcast are disabled individuals. A recent listener comment on the site stated about the most recent show, “Even better. Coupla ‘Oh my God, you did not just say that!’ moments. Fantastic.” Please listen to it – now!

Mat is, in his own words, “a thalidomide survivor.” Liz is “a wheelchair user.” You have likely never heard a more satirical view of disabilities. Some might call the program a dark comedy. I don’t. It is refreshing, actually. A social satire that, probably, only British comedy can pull off. They poke fun at all of the disability related programming that the BBC has produced in recent years. In particular, they speak of the BBC series of programs called “What’s Your Problem.”

In show #1, Mat and Liz take aim at the Paralympics. Terms like cripple and spastic are tossed about with ease. The show has old-style radio jingles interspersed. One says, “Confined to wheelchair. The ouch! Podcast.” A monthly podcast, Liz and Mat also conduct a gameshow like contest. They describe it on the site as “Another outing for our fiendishly unpleasant quiz, Vegetable, Vegetable or Vegetable. Can Mat and Liz guess ‘what’s up with’ a genuinely disablified member of the public on the end of the phone?”

Mat, in particular, likes to say, “You are very, very brave and special.” Another jingle-like aspect of the podcast is a “buffer/bumper” of someone with a very un-politically correct speech pattern providing the URL to the show’s Web site – “bbc.co.uk/ouch“. Trust me. This podcast has (or will have) all of the socially unacceptable references and parodies of disability. It is not for the faint of heart. Still, I hope you will check it out.

From the site: Ouch is a website from the BBC. Its aim is to reflect the lives of disabled people right here and now in the third millennium.

It’s not a help and support site. If we were to give it a label, it would probably be closest to lifestyle. We pride ourselves on not being a resource for useful information, though I’m sure you’ll find most things you’re looking for here. There are many help and support sites out there that do a fantastic job, far better than we could, so we in the BBC’s Learning & Interacitve department felt it would be good to do something completely different.

We’re about personal stuff, minutiae of everyday life and that fantastic dark sense of humour and inevitable cynicism that we disabled people tend to have. Oh, and we don’t shy away from subjects that other people might be a bit wary of.

The show is barely two months old. Both episodes are available from the BBC site and in iTunes. Go listen now. The shows last about thirty minutes each. I’ve listened to both twice. Best two hours I’ve spent in a long time.

What do you think. Could I get away with this at the Camp ASCCA Podcast? Would I want to even try?

Our discussion revolved around language and how its use may perpetuate stereotypes of people – who happen to have a disability – as “unable.” And, those who know better realize that people with disabilities are actually quite able. This issue of language use has tremendous implications for public relations.

For instance, some research has shown that someone that has a disability is likely to be a more loyal employee and will actually present their employer with fewer sick days than average employees. This depends upon what you define as a disability, of course, but it is those definitions – used casually by all of us in everyday conversation – that set the tone for how we perceive disabilities.

One aspect of Camp ASCCA that I have always enjoyed and appreciated is how people without disabilities react when they are exposed to the recreational activities the campers engage in from high adventure to something as casual as swimming. It changes your perceptions of what is a disability. It actually removes the stereotypes.

When you see how an appliance – like a wheelchair or an adaptive harness – can enable a tennis game or climb up a treehouse or tower, you realize that these are not confining devices (as Dr. Martin points out) but really devices of liberation. Another aspect of this is the barrier-free architecture of camp. When people see that the cost per square foot is minimal to create such an environment they may think twice when building their own facilities. A little thought and consideration can be liberating for millions of citizens.

Of course, above I used the term “appliance” and that also is an unfortunate word. But, what do we call these things and these conditions? That is one area I hope the Camp ASCCA online community will address in the months and years to come.

Length of the podcast is 18:39 and the file size is 17.0mb.  Listen below.

Yes, I know that “Supercrip” is not the most PC term, but it does tell a powerful story in just one word. After over 20 years of disability advocacy, I can say that this has been done over and over in the media. “This” being the portrayal of people with disabilities as the “super crippled” over-achiever. I am even guilty of it, too.

Once, I created a PSA for Camp ASCCA that got tremendous play by media. It was video and commentary of an amputee and hemophilia campers rappelling down a mountain side – a 100 foot cliff. At the end, the young amputee – Eddie Lee Wright – is asked how it makes him feel. He responds, “It makes me feel like Superman.”

When we pitched the story to TV, one station even sent their helicopter out to cover it. Now that’s quite unusual for a story of this kind.

Why did I make that particular PSA and why did it work so well? Why did it gain such play by TV stations? Why did it win PRCA/PRSA Medallions? Well, truth be told – probably because it was a “Supercrip” story. No one had ever seen anything like it before. No one else was doing this kind of thing with kids in a therapeutic recreation facility. And, it was something I knew would play into the perception and practices of those gatekeepers at media outlets. So, I’m guilty. I felt it also illustrated that people with disabilities are much more ‘able’ than common perceptions allow. Still, I’m guilty.

Nathasha Alvarez has posted a very interesting piece about how the media portrays people with disabilities.

Soflow – View a Forum – Version 1.0

The media has a tendency of using the disabled as either a pity story or making the person “supercrip” which I strongly suggest you don’t say to a disabled person.

Interestingly, if you work with people with disabilities enough, you’ll learn that they use these terms quite often themselves when discussing disability issues. But, yes – you shouldn’t use it “on the fly” in a casual conversation with someone you don’t know well. If you do, expect to be pounded – severely.

I have suggested that you join and visit the Adrants Soflow Forums before, but this one post by Nathasha Alvarez makes the trip and effort even more worth your while. Please visit and join.

I think I’m in love. Nathasha sounds absolutely wonderful. Hmm? Wonder if she would participate in our blogs? Ya’ think? She’s working on a newsletter of her own, but perhaps some cross-promotional participation in MarcomBlog might help her gain even more visibility? I think she deserves it.

Visit Nathasha’s online magazine Audacity.

Related post: My First Camp ASCCA post.

My first PR job was with the Alabama Easter Seal Society. Yes, students, I’m talking about Camp ASCCA (Alabama’s Special Camp for Children and Adults) – again.

For those of you few people, other than my students, that read this – you need to know that I tend to talk about ‘camp’ from time to time. It has become a joke, of sorts, since students will sometimes ‘sigh’ when I use a ‘Camp ASCCA’ analogy. But, this is my reality. So, here goes …

I wanted to try new things. I wanted to make Camp ASCCA the voice of new ideas about dealing with, and responding to, people with disabilities. I wanted people to think differently about them. I wanted to put more focus on their abilities than their disabilities.

Some people thought what I was doing – was a deal with the devil.

My deal with the devil, in the eyes of the administration and Board of Directors of the camp, was with mainstream media. Everybody wanted the attention. They didn’t want the ‘message’ to be contrary to the (then) accepted theme of ‘No man stands so tall when he stoops down to help a crippled child’ … honest, that was the phrase of that day. You see, ASCCA originally stood for ‘Alabama Society for Crippled Children and Adults’. I didn’t like that saying or the term – crippled. Certainly, the campers didn’t like being called crippled. So, it occured to me – why not talk about this raw reality. Let people see what it is like to live with daily ostomy bag changes. What is it like to be confined to a view from three feet off the ground 24/7?

The camp had never received significant media attention. It was still young. Only 7 years old. Today, the camp has over twice as many buildings and facilities as it did then. A multi-million dollar facility operating year-round. The site covers 260 acres and sleeps up to 450. In camping terms, it probably more resembles a resort. Why? All the buildings and cabins have air conditioning and wide, spacious interiors. Why? Hey, we serve people that are not used to the rigors of ‘roughing it’ in the wild.

Still, we actually did (and still do) rustic camping trips. I’ll just ask you to imagine, for a moment, what it is like to get a wheelchair deep into the forest. Heck, just imagine what it is like to get one 10 feet deep into the forest.

My ‘deal’ was to invite (in intervals) all of the major print and television markets in the state (Birmingham, Mobile, Montgomery and Huntsville) to visit the camp for a few days, or a week – as long as they wanted to stay. We provided them with a place to stay (private rooms – unheard of for camp visits at that time). We provided camp meals and full run of the facililty. This last part – full run of the facilities – was the part that scared the camp’s directors and leaders.

I’ve always believed that if you trust your employees and trust your program (the mission, the purpose) you can’t go wrong with exposing it to anyone – even in its rawest of forms.

So, surprisingly, when I was successful in attracting attention from each of these markets (they actually came over for visits), the administration was a bit surprised and – well, wary.. We were so successful that they came just about every other year and also for special events. Some of them came several times a year.

Upon arrival, I met with the reporters and photographers and shared that I would, of course, be available for anything they wanted – but, I would really prefer it if they would just – have free run of the camp. I wanted them to be in the camp cabins in the morning when campers are getting ready and at night when they were going to bed. I wanted the reporters to see – everything!

We secured all of the appropriate releases – separating out those campers that were wards of the state and could not be included for legal reasons – and released the hounds, so to speak. Anything was fair game.

Why did I do this? Well, does anyone really think that a reporter would be cruel to a camper? Put them in a bad light/situation? No. If anything, they (the reporters and photographers) became – advocates. They saw everything. They experienced the relationships developing between campers and counselors. They saw kids that rarely even got out of the house, now riding horses, going canoeing and much more.

I won’t go into all the details, but just sit for a moment and imagine what it must be like to be quadraplegic. To have little, if any, movement abilities. What is it like to live with an ‘ostomy’ of any kind? How does it make you feel to have to depend upon others – always? Once the reporters experienced this (and most had no clue as to what they were in for) they were taken with the relationships that can develop between camper and counselor in just a few short days.

It was funny, sort of. Almost all of the reporters took the Cinema Verité form in their reports. The reporters saw that the story would tell itself. I don’t know of one story from all of those visits (and there were lots of them) that did not win some sort of AP or UPI best news series/story/feature award over those years. They were powerful.

At the end of their visits, I always provided the reporters with [a] blank video tapes (then 3/4) and home 1/2 VCR tapes, and [2] a request that they provide us with a copy of the finished projects. Every station always provided b-roll footage and complete stories. Later, when we made presentations to groups – we just showed these stories. What could be more powerful? Then, local TV had great respect among viewers. OK, it still does to a large degree, but back then – WHOA! It had real impact.

These stories came with built in trustworthiness. And, later on, when we needed to make PSAs, I just wrote to the stations and asked for permission to use the video from the b-roll tapes. Everyone of them ‘always’ said yes. We edited the spots ourselves. Hey, we had great video, ambient sound, etc… and those spots? All of them won awards, too. Go figure.

Why were we, a little camp serving children and adults with disabilities, so successful in attracting attention? Typically, my experience was that these media outlets looked upon these stories as fluff. They were seen as ‘public service’ spots … void of real value for their target audiences.

I tried to change that. I wanted the stories to bring out the real lives of these people dealing with (not suffering from) their disabilities. Back then, that was a new idea. Very new.

First, I pitched the camp’s attributes in what was then considered an almost sacrilegious way. I was talking about disabilities just as the people with disabilities talked about them. In a raw, personal and (sometimes) painfully open form. I actually had people say (only a few times) that my ‘pitch’ was irreverent and contrary to a topic that is held to be sacred. Children with disabilities.

I pointed out that many of our campers (ok, ‘clients’ if you want the sterile view) were essentially shut-ins. Some looked at their one or two week stay at ASCCA as their vacation from boredom. Schools, if they were lucky enough to be in one, didn’t offer much (if anything) for their recreation needs.

It was at Camp ASCCA that I learned direct mail, outdoor advertising, TV production, media relations, government relations, public speaking (thousands of ‘em, actually) and much more. This kind of experience is invaluable to any new PR practitioner. Working for a non-profit often requires that you be jack (or jill) of all trades. It develops you into a zealot, of sorts. I worked 12 to 18 hour days without blinking an eye. It was wonderful.

So, perhaps this gives you a better idea of where I come from in my PR career. I strongly encourage students to consider work or internships with non-profit organizations. I do believe that you will both love, and benefit from, these experiences. Helps you develop the ‘servant philosophy’, too.

Camp ASCCA was the greatest experience of my life. I would never exchange those 10 or so years for anything in the world. Part of me actually wants to go back – every day.