#DisTheOscars was an advocacy campaign that I launched to discuss disability representation in media. During the first live broadcast of the Oscars for 2018. I wanted to use the popularity of the awards show to draw attention to the ways in which disabled people were demanding they be represented and what that would mean in their everyday lives. For the full 3.5 hour broadcast, I led a discussion among disabled twitter users.
First, I began advertising the talk the week leading up to the show, using images of myself with my crutches. Demanding representation takes not shying away from being seen.
The evening of the Oscars, I welcomed followers of the tag to the twitter chat using video of myself speaking with subtitles for those in the disability community who are deaf or hard of hearing. Throughout the night, I punctuated the discussion with similar videos to keep tweeters engaged.
Disabled representation is sorely lacking. We need disabled people at every step of the production process. You cannot profit off our stories while rejecting us and our bodies. #DisTheOscars pic.twitter.com/NKpvdAd6x3
— Crutches&Spice♿️ | Creator of #DisTheOscars (@Imani_Barbarin) March 5, 2018
Finally, I engaged audiences with questions such as the ones below:
This led to continued discussions and a several clips of earned media published on blogs and legacy news sites. Metrics show the following:
News Clips (Links)
Imani Gineva Barbarin 
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