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Toronto-based film and accessibility critic Michael McNeely, who is deaf-blind, has faced many frustrating customer-service challenges over the years.

Toronto-based film and accessibility critic Michael McNeely, who is deafblind, has faced many frustrating customer-service challenges over the years.

‘Look beyond a label and find a human being underneath,’ says deafblind filmmaker Michael McNeely.

What does it feel like to be autistic? It’s a question raised by several films in ReelAbilities, a small festival of documentaries, features and shorts by or about the disabled. The second-annual Toronto festival, the first international edition of a U.S. multicity effort launched in 2007, includes films about a blind dancer and a deaf football team – as well as several about the experiences of people on the autism spectrum.

Toronto Presenter, Anthony McLachlan, sat down with some of the directors, cast and organizers involved.

Director Lesley Johnson and star Jack of “Princess Jack” chat with CP24 Breakfast Morning in May 2017.

There is a difficult moment in the U.S. documentary Swim Team in which a mother asks her teenage son if he understands that he is different from the other kids at school. His condition, she explains, is called autism.