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Rockville, Md., Oct. 23 – Speechless had two important teachable lessons in this week’s episode. This episode highlighted the importance of being an aide to a child with a disability and the value of parents letting their children try new things before deciding if they can or cannot do it.

J.J.’s mother Maya took on the task of training underachiever teachers at the school to become aides for new students with disabilities. At first it seems like the aides were not very interested in learning, so Maya decided to make them quit, which would allow the district to hire qualified aides. However, Kenneth secretly gave them advice and told them not to quit, and they prove themselves worthy of the position.

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Rockville, Md., Oct. 8 – The most recent episode of Speechless focused on the importance of inclusive education.

Maya is pleasantly surprised to learn a group of families with kids with disabilities have joined them at Lafayette after hearing a speech she gave at a conference about “mainstreaming and the parent-educator-student partnership.”

“It’s the school that teaches the child, but it’s the parents who teach the school,” Maya said, stressing how that as a parent you want to make sure that the school has the tools needed for your child to succeed in class that will help them later in life.

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Rockville, Md., Sept. 29 – In the season two premiere of Speechless, the DiMeo family is trying to discover new things about themselves as J.J. (Micah Fowler) was away at summer camp. In doing so, the episode had an important theme: Don’t blame your problems on your kid with a disability for “disability is not an excuse.”

Last season introduced viewers to the interesting lives of the DiMeo family, and Kenneth (Cedric Yarbrough) who essentially “speaks” for J.J., who has cerebral palsy and is unable to talk. Fowler has cerebral palsy in real life but is able to talk. Speechless is one of the only shows in television where the actor has a disability in real life.

More than 95 percent of characters with disabilities on television are played by actors without disabilities. Fowler bucks that trend and is one of the rare actors in Hollywood who has a disability, despite the fact that one-in-five Americans has a disability.

In the season two premiere, the Dimeo’s decide not to use J.J.’s disability as an excuse (with the exceptions of parking tickets) to why they do not do certain things. They ask Kenneth tell them “all the madness that they have gotten use to that they don’t see anymore.”

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Speechless’ Cedric Yarbrough, Scott Silveri, Melvin Mar and Micah Fowler (Photo Credit: Michael Hansel)

Los Angeles – As Hollywood came together to celebrate people with disabilities, media creators recognized the importance of accurate representation of the largest minority in the U.S.

Scott Silveri’s new hit show on ABC, Speechless, which features a young man with cerebral palsy (Micah Fowler), won three awards including two for Silveri (Writers Guild of America West Evan Somers Memorial Award and SAG-AFTRA Disability Awareness Award along with director/producer Jake Kasdan and producer Melvin Mar).

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Washington, July 20 – As Hollywood executives are looking for the next big ideas for film and television, they are learning that disability is a winning theme.

Many people are writing about the fact that disability often is absent from mainstream film and television – both the depiction of and, even when a character has a disability, the actor often does not – as detailed in the recently released Ruderman White Paper on Disability in Television.

However, the box office success of Finding Dory and new TV shows such as Speechless are showing that audiences want to see strong, capable role models with disabilities.

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The Miracle Project was founded in 2004 by Elaine Hall, a Jewish woman who felt compelled to ensure that all people with disabilities felt accepted, included and loved. She created this organization to pass her love of the arts on to other people who feel the same. Hall’s desire for working with people with disabilities started when her own child was diagnosed with Autism at a young age. She wanted to make sure that all people with disabilities, specifically those diagnosed with Autism, feel included in society and in anything they do. Additionally, many of these people have felt judged or bullied by peers at school or in social settings. Therefore, Hall has worked tirelessly to create this “safe space” for people to come and be whoever they truly want to be without fear of judgment. [continue reading…]

Los Angeles, Dec. 3 – In celebration of International Day of People with Disabilities, Hulu has launched a new content collection celebrating disability representation with 34 television series and films including new Hulu Originals thriller Run, film I am Greta and TV series Ramy, as well as shows like Freeform’s Everything’s Gonna Be Okay and NBC’s Speechless.

The featured content is representative of both visible disabilities including those who use wheelchairs and are Deaf as well as nonvisible disabilities including mental health conditions. [continue reading…]

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#ADA30 Summit 2020

Natalie Gross is a model, writer, actress and dancer. A California native, she is from a small city in the suburbs of Los Angeles county. Currently Natalie freelances as a publicity coordinator, creating pitches, press releases and blog posts, as well as coordinating media placements. She earned her B.S. in Communications, with an emphasis in public relations, from California State Polytechnic University, Pomona in 2014. 

In addition, her acting career began in 2017 when she played the young firecracker named Harmony in her first theater production Insight. Last year she appeared on ABC’s Speechless as a young film student. She currently is working on her first short film Worthy. Natalie is also a talented dancer and dances with the professional team infinite flow. She’s also a very unique vocalist and songwriter and expects to release her debut EP Tears by the end of 2019.