It’s not Superman. It’s not Spiderman. It’s the Access Avengers, a group of disability themed superheroes, and they’re here to crash through stereotypes at this year’s “Cripping the Comic-Con” festival.

The heroes, some female and some male, all with disabilities, represent the main idea of the convention that will take place in the Schine Student Center on Wednesday and Thursday — that people with disabilities deserve representation in the media.

“All of them are disabled and they’re proud of it,” said Diane Wiener, co-coordinator of the event. “It’s part of their identity and they’re not trying to overcome it. They’re not trying to triumph. They’re just who they are and they’re heroic.”

The Access Avengers were designed by Syracuse University alumnus Jill Stromberg to show a more accurate representation of reality and society. This theme will be carried throughout the event, which will host speakers like Naomi Grossman from “American Horror Story: Asylum.” She will put on a one-woman show, titled “Carnival Knowledge.”

This year’s convention marks the second year of the symposium. Speakers will talk about topics including disability and mainstream media, how well people with disabilities are represented in mass culture and the idea of doctor-assisted suicide. Put on by the Disability Cultural Center, the event is held in the style of a Comic-Con convention.

“It’s kind of taking this structure, this idea of a Comic-Con convention, and ‘cripping’ it, changing it, looking at disability in all these popular genres that are out there today,” said Rachael Zubal-Ruggieri, co-coordinator for the event.

Other events include a “Zombie Walk N’ Roll.” Participants will dress up in zombie apparel and makeup and walk through and around the quad. The entire route of the walk is wheelchair accessible.

“It is a major event,” Wiener said. “It is the only thing like it in the world. There is no other fully disability themed Comic-Con in the world to our knowledge.”

One of the main goals of the event is to make it accessible to everyone who wants to go. Interpreters will sign in American Sign Language at every session, and everything is wheelchair accessible.

“I think that we want people to get the message that this is about accessibility on multiple levels,” Wiener said. “I can come and go as I please if I’m at a session and want to hear a friend of mine give a presentation at the end another session … but if you’re deaf, you don’t have that same kind of access and that’s unfair, so we have (sign language interpretation) all day.”

The purpose of the event is to point out how disabilities may be misrepresented, but also how they are represented well.

“I think that quite often people, they listen to the radio, they watch TV, they read the newspaper, et cetera et cetera, and they see these people with disabilities and sometimes they want to connect with people who are like them, they want to know more,” Zubal-Ruggieri said.

During the convention, there will be downtime where participants can go to various rooms and participate in gaming and costume play, allowing people to mingle with others who may have similar passions.

“I met people who had the same interests as me, who were weird in the same ways as me,” said Ethan Lewis, a Disability Cultural Center intern who helped plan the convention. “I made friends who I still talk to from last year who I’m looking forward to seeing again. So I think the number one reason people should come is to have fun.”

Lewis sees the event as a way to open people’s eyes to opportunities they may not have thought possible in the past.

“This is a space that might challenge some people to look at the world differently,” Lewis said. “And I don’t want to be dramatic, but I think that for some people this is the kind of event and the kind of space that opens up possibilities for the world … I hope that it changes some people’s mind about what’s possible.”

Published on April 9, 2014 at 1:00 am

Contact Emma: ekbaty@syr.edu