Joe Strechay – Television and Film Producer, Business Consultant and Speaker

Joe is an enthusiastic expert on disability inclusion, accessibility in the entertainment industry, blindness, disability employment, and television production.

About Joe

Joe has been the lead for accessibility and inclusion for one of the largest productions in the world. He assesses accommodations for actors and background performers of all disabilities to assure access. He recruits actors with disabilities for productions around the world through his network and connections. He has advised some of the biggest filmmakers and streaming services. He combines creativity with his management experience in his roles. Joe has managed a government bureau, departments in film production, a web program, granted programs and services and hundreds of staff. He instructed in blindness services in New Jersey, Florida and around the United States. He has consulted on services for people who are blind or low vision in the United States, Canada and abroad. Joe did in his undergraduate work at East Carolina University in Public Relations and Media. His graduate work at Florida State University was in the Visual Disabilities Program: Teaching Children who are Blind or Visually Impaired, Orientation and Mobility, and a specialty in Transition from School to Work or Postsecondary. He brings his personal experiences as a person who is blind and from the thousands of people who are blind, low vision, or with other disabilities that he has instructed into his work in film and television.

Contact Joe Strechay

Services

Joe is able to move to new communities or cities, embed himself in their blindness community, recruit local performers, connect with resources and continue these relationships. He also excels with interviews with journalists and podcast interviews.

Joe Strechay has been an essential member of our producing team since day one – he has not only provided invaluable advisement and feedback on our inclusivity and accessibility efforts but has gone above and beyond to support every member of our cast and crew. Joe helped to craft and put into practice a movement training program that was vital to the creation of the characters and world of SEE and he has been an endless source of information, advice, and positivity for our actors, directors, writers and crew. We value his input as a producer and he is a crucial member of the team.”
Jenno Topping, President of Film and Television at Chernin Entertainment

Television and Film

Joe is versatile and provides many services, in the broad realm of Television and Film. These services include but are not limited to:

Consulting on scripts and script development around characters who are blind or have low vision.
Reviewing scripts with notes and follow-up meetings.
Assisting with the recruitment and casting of actors who are blind or low vision.
Creating lists of blindness ideas or details to be added to scripts or during blocking.
Consulting on television and film accessibility for studio, preparation, and filming.
Consulting on public relations and messaging related to film projects with blindness.
Assisting with media training for performers, producers, and public relations team around projects involving blindness.
Advising Art Departments, Production Designers, Set Decorators and Prop Masters.
Advising Producers and Directors on specific details for filming.
Assisting directors and actors in blocking scenes.
Supervising and advising on the creation of movements of background performers.
Creating processes for inclusion and accessibility within production from recruitment to casting to preparation to filming.
Speaking engagements.

Speaking and Workshops

Joe has provided hundreds of workshops to teenagers and young adults who are blind, low vision or have other disabilities. Joe has also provided countless professional development sessions for professionals working in blindness-related fields. Here are just some of the topics in which Joe has expertise, on which he has spoken, and would love to share again: