Just Part of the Crowd

The first thing striking about “Include Us!,” a sunny, new children’s home video from TiffHill Productions, is that many of the kids who are seen at play in it have disabilities, ranging from Down’s syndrome to cerebral palsy.

But if you think pity or inspiration is what the film is supposed to spark in viewers, think again. Because, in watching this live-action musical romp, written and directed by veteran Hollywood writer-producer Lou Shaw, what’s interesting is how soon you stop paying much attention to those disabilities. The kids on the screen are just having a blast together. And that’s the point.

High-quality production values and notably tuneful songs written by Shaw and professional composer Norman Sachs give the film universal appeal, and fun is the overriding spirit that carries the subtle message of acceptance and inclusion.

“I hate patronization and I hate proselytizing,” said Shaw, who co-produced the award-winning video with Christy Johnson, an Iowa mother whose toddler daughter was born with Down’s syndrome. “Basically what I wanted to say is that whatever you are, you are. Each person has his or her own value. We don’t want pity for children with disabilities. We just want them to have a chance at a good quality of life.”

In the video, which is divided into musical segments, kids go to school, and later they make music in a number called “Kitchen Band.” In “Getting There,” some kids take the stairs at a single bound, others use a crutch or wheelchair, and “one way or another, we all get there.” Another song expresses how “A Little Cuddle” can reassure any kid, while “Noah’s Ark,” a creative animated segment, comically underscores the value of differences and variety.

The video is the result of a chance meeting between Johnson and Shaw, who has been one of Hollywood’s most established writer-producers (“The Fall Guy,” “Quincy, M.E.” and “McCloud”), and who is himself the parent of a daughter with Down’s syndrome and an activist in the field. Frustrated at the lack of video entertainment for and about children with disabilities, Johnson approached Shaw at the National Down Syndrome Congress, where he was signing his book, “Honor Thy Son,” about a man with Down syndrome.

“She said, ‘I don’t know what to do, there’s just nothing out there. We should do something,’ ” Shaw recalled. Her plea struck a chord.

“My daughter [now 18] has changed my entire life, in terms of understanding and acceptance,” Shaw said. “It has been the most important experience of my life.”

Although video was a new medium for him, Shaw had long been recognized for including people with disabilities in both casting and story lines in the adult action TV series on which he worked.

With the involvement of a host of professionals, from animators Kevin Petrilak and Frank Furlong, who created the spiffy ‘60s-style “Noah’s Ark” cartoon segment, to veteran cameraman Chuck Barbee “who gave it a motion picture look” and composer Sachs who “put wings under the lyrics,” the video took shape.

The challenge was to not preach to kids about inclusion of peers with disabilities. “I just wanted to show it,” Shaw said.

Shaw also made a point of spotlighting children without discernible disabilities in some segments. One of the video’s most moving and subtle moments is a lullaby sung by a mother to her baby about her hopes for his bright future.

“Every mother when she has a child has a dream [of what that child will be],” Shaw said. “At a certain point we all have to learn to accept the child we have, rather than the child of our expectations.” What is painful sometimes, Shaw said, is the “shattering of an expectation,” not so much the reality of what occurs.

“It’s the rebound from that that I think is the most important. That’s what I was trying to say, as simply as possible in this little love song between a mother and child.”

In “The Little Cuddle,” which features a boy who sucks his thumb, “the idea was that so-called ‘normal’ children have their problems, too,” Shaw said. “It may not be obvious, but every child and adult has something to deal with. We all have baggage. Why should one thing seem so different than another?”

Among the accolades the video has received are the Film Advisory Board Award of Excellence and the President’s Award of the National Down Syndrome Congress. It also has been endorsed by Sen. Tom Harkin (D-Iowa), one of the authors of the Individuals With Disabilities Education Act.

However, good intentions and do-gooding don’t propel this video, Shaw stressed. “My main drive was to make it totally entertaining, so that kids sit there and laugh, then walk away without thinking that they’ve learned a thing. I wasn’t out to teach. But if you watch this, you’ve got to learn.”

* “Include Us!,” TiffHill Productions, ages 2-11, 33 minutes, $14.95. (888) 462-5833.