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9-1-1 Works to Normalize Children with Disabilities and Set High Expectations

Ryan Guzman and Gavin McHugh eat cereal on the show 9-1-1 on Fox

Ryan Guzman and Gavin McHugh eating cereal in the opening scene of “Stuck”

Los Angeles, California, Oct. 15 – When 20th Century Fox Television’s 9-1-1 introduced a recurring character with a disability, it provided an opportunity to both normalize the inclusion of people with disabilities in all areas of society and highlight the importance of setting high expectations for children with disabilities.

Spoilers ahead.

The opening scene of Season 2, Episode 4, “Stuck,” shows Eddie Diaz (Ryan Anthony Guzman), a LAPD firefighter and single dad, and seven-year-old son Christopher (Gavin McHugh), who has cerebral palsy, getting ready for the day:

  • Diaz does push-ups; Christopher is on the floor doing a modified version.
  • Christopher pours himself some cereal – pouring too much, as many seven-year-olds do.
  • They brush their hair and teeth together.
  • In scenes showing each of them getting dressed, Christopher struggles with getting his socks on. Diaz starts to offer help, then stops himself, giving his son an opportunity to achieve on his own. Viewers are rewarded by hearing Christopher say “finally” and then flash a bright smile.

This two-minute opening scene does two things:

  • By juxtaposing the two getting ready together, viewers see that people with disabilities get up and do the same things each morning that everyone does. Later in the episode, Christopher spends a day with his dad’s fire department, going with them to calls, playing pinball and eating lunch. As Fellow Firefighter Evan “Buck” Buckley (Oliver Stark says, Christopher is “smart, adorable, funny, in a kid way, just needs a little extra help.”
  • It sets up the idea that parents of children with disabilities need to set high expectations for their children – giving them opportunities to both fail and succeed on their own. This theme is then present throughout the rest of the episode. When dropping Christopher off at his grandmother’s house later, she tells Diaz “help him out,” to which he firmly responds, “he wants to do it.”

Bureaucratic Tape

Buckley notices how Diaz is struggling with the bureaucratic tape in ensuring that his son receives childcare services through city, state and county. “The requirements are all different,” Buckley explains. “You can apply for one and it can disqualify you from another. It’s a whole giant bureaucratic mess. I can’t get my head around it.”

He sets Diaz up with Carla, a home healthcare aid that his girlfriend had used for her mother. As Buckley explains, she has years of experience navigating giant bureaucracies.

“I’m red tapes’ worst nightmare,” Carla says. “I’ll get you through this in no time.”

Cerebral Palsy (CP), which Christopher has, is a nonprogressive group of disorders that affects an individual’s muscle tone and movement, caused by brain damage before, during birth or within the first few years of a child’s life. People who have cerebral palsy can have mild to severe issues with balance, muscle and motor control, but how cerebral palsy affects each person is very individual. This can include walking (possibly requiring the use of a wheelchair), balance, fine motor and gross motor skills and speech (ranging from very mild to severe). Some people who have cerebral palsy may require accommodations (for example, a ramp) while others may not. According to cerebralpalsy.org, about 746,000 children and adults currently have CP.

Gavin McHugh getting a piggy-back ride from his father on the set of 9-1-1

Gavin McHugh and his TV father Ryan Guzman

The fact that Christopher is played by Gavin McHugh, a young boy with cerebral palsy, is important. Actors without disabilities play more than 95 percent of characters with disabilities on television and 9-1-1 is bucking that trend with the casting of McHugh and ensuring his full inclusion.

“I love playing Christopher on 9-1-1,” McHugh said. “My dad, Ryan, helps me by giving me piggy back rides. Everyone on set is so nice because they help me all the time and they give me a lot of time to practice and walk places and the director even changes things to help me, like one time they wanted me to walk up a couple steps but there wasn’t a rail so they just moved it to the sidewalk so I could do it easier. It is so much fun to go to set and everyone is my friend and I miss them when I’m not there. I wish I could go every day!”

9-1-1 airs on Fox on Mondays at 9:00 pm ET / 8:00 pm CT. 9-1-1 is produced by 20th Century Fox Television in association with Ryan Murphy Television and Brad Falchuk Teley-Vision. Follow along with Gavin McHugh at @iamgavinmchugh on Instagram.

Meet the Author

Lauren Appelbaum

Lauren Appelbaum is the VP, Communications and Entertainment & News Media, of RespectAbility, a nonprofit organization fighting stigmas and advancing opportunities so all people with disabilities can fully participate in every aspect of community. As an individual with an acquired nonvisible disability – Reflex Sympathetic Dystrophy – she works at the intersection of disability, employment, Hollywood and politics. She regularly conducts trainings on the why and how to be more inclusive and accessible for entertainment executives throughout the industry. Appelbaum partners with studios, production companies and writers’ rooms to create equitable and accessible opportunities to increase the number of people with lived disability experience throughout the overall story-telling process. These initiatives increase diverse and authentic representation of disabled people on screen, leading to systemic change in how society views and values people with disabilities. She has consulted on more than 100 TV episodes and films with A&E, Bunim-Murray Productions, NBCUniversal, Netflix, ViacomCBS, and The Walt Disney Company, among others. She represents RespectAbility on the CAA Full Story Initiative Advisory Council, Disney+ Content Advisory Council, MTV Entertainment Group Culture Code and Sundance Institute’s Allied Organization Initiative. She is the author of The Hollywood Disability Inclusion Toolkit and the creator of an innovative Lab Program for entertainment professionals with disabilities working in development, production and post-production. She is a recipient of the 2020 Roddenberry Foundation Impact Award for this Lab. To reach her, email LaurenA@RespectAbility.org.

2 comments… add one
  • Maya Brown Oct 16, 2018, 7:00 pm

    I absolutely LOVED this episode of 911 and have rewatched it 3 times. My older sister is hearing impaired and I think it is extremely important for everyone to see that people with disabilities are just like people without them. Very well done to the producers, directors, writers, and actors, especially Ryan and Gavin for bringing heart ❤️ to this storyline!

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