Disability Awareness Week

"I have cerebral palsy. I shake all the time," Maysoon Zayid announces at the beginning of this exhilarating, hilarious talk. (Really, it's hilarious.) "I'm like Shakira meets Muhammad Ali." With grace and wit, the Arab-American comedian takes us on a whistle-stop tour of her adventures as an actress, stand-up comic, philanthropist and advocate for the disabled.

Ricardo Thornton survived the notorious Forest Haven institution (outside of Washington, DC), a place he describes as a prison for people with intellectual disabilities. The residents were routinely hosed down, drugged and dressed only in diapers or sheets. Through the courage and skills that Ricardo developed through being a Special Olympics athlete, he helped shut down Forest Haven and went on to prove that people with intellectual disabilities can live lives full of love and leadership.

Wanda Diaz Merced studies the light emitted by gamma-ray bursts, the most energetic events in the universe. When she lost her sight and was left without a way to do her science, she had a revelatory insight: the light curves she could no longer see could be translated into sound. Through sonification, she regained mastery over her work, and now she's advocating for a more inclusive scientific community. "Science is for everyone," she says. "It has to be available to everyone, because we are all natural explorers."

On the heels of Woodstock, a group of teen campers are inspired to join the fight for disability civil rights. This spirited look at grassroots activism is executive produced by President Barack Obama and Michelle Obama.