Hollywood Inclusion

Credit: Apple

Los Angeles, Dec. 19 – As 2019 comes to an end, every major entertainment and tech company is launching a streaming service. Not to be left out, Apple recently launched its new original content service, Apple TV+. The service is notable from a disability perspective for both the content and the full user experience.

All content is subtitled and dubbed in nearly 40 languages, “including subtitles for Deaf and Hard of Hearing, or closed captions.” The real game-changer for Apple TV+ is that all series, movies and trailers are available with audio descriptions in eight languages, ensuring accessibility for blind viewers.

“We build accessibility into everything at Apple, and Apple TV+ is no different,” said Sara Herrlinger, Director, Global Accessibility Policy & Initiatives at Apple Inc, in an exclusive interview with RespectAbility. “Whether it’s extensive audio descriptions and captioning, or providing accessibility features for exploring our service in different ways, we want to connect with every user and enable them to experience these incredible stories.” [continue reading…]

Los Angeles, Dec. 19 – In the newly released The Parts You Lose, a young deaf boy named Wesley faces bullying at school and a father who cannot accept that his son cannot hear. He finds a father-figure in an injured fugitive (Aaron Paul) that he rescues, helping him recover in an abandoned barn. A heartfelt film with great acting and memorable scenes, The Parts You Lose’s central theme of a young boy looking for a positive male role model is relatable to all audiences.

“To me this story is universal,” Christopher Cantwell, director of the film, said. “Aside from Wesley’s deafness, he’s feeling emotionally isolated. He’s struggling to make friends. His family is under a lot of stress, which only amplifies and worsens his disconnection from a disappointed father. I think that story is something probably everyone can relate to… feeling cut off and in need of connection to others. We can empathize with the fear of growing up, and the hardening that often comes on the other side of that. The story isn’t about Wesley’s deafness, that’s merely a part of the aperture through which he sees the world.” [continue reading…]

Credit: A&E

Los Angeles, Dec. 17 – After four seasons, the multiple-Emmy Award-winning A&E docuseries Born This Way will conclude with a holiday special on Wednesday evening. Ahead of the finale, Good Morning America will be featuring a segment on Born This Way Wednesday in the 8:00 a.m. hour.

What people view on television influences how they feel and believe, leading to how they act. And shows like Bunim/Murray Productions’ Born This Way, which follows the lives of seven diverse young adults with Down syndrome as they seek to build independent lives, launch their careers and form lasting friendships, breaks down stigmas surrounding interacting with people with disabilities.

Born this Way, whose audience quickly grew to 1 million viewers in the first season, with 40 percent of those viewers being new to the A&E Network, showed that including disability is profitable. After all, the disability market is valued by Nielsen to be more than one trillion dollars. [continue reading…]

Emmy Award-Winning Docuseries to End with Series Finale Christmas Special, December 18

Credit: A&E

Washington, D.C., Dec. 5 – What people view on television influences how they feel and and believe, leading to how they act. And shows like Emmy Award-winning Born This Way, which follows the lives of seven diverse young adults with Down syndrome as they seek to build independent lives, launch their careers and form lasting friendships, are breaking down stigmas surrounding interacting with people with disabilities.

One of Born This Way’s cast members, Sean McElwee, brought his onscreen stardom to Capitol Hill to deliver a powerful message about entrepreneurship and jobseekers with disabilities. McElwee spoke about his personal “mission to show the world that people with Down syndrome can have a business and give back.” [continue reading…]

Sean McElwee

Washington, D.C., Dec. 3 – On Wednesday, reality television star, small business owner and disability employment advocate Sean McElwee will deliver a powerful message about entrepreneurship and jobseekers with disabilities. In remarks to be delivered to the U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Small Business, McElwee will speak about his personal “mission to show the world that people with Down syndrome can have a business and give back.”

At the invitation of Chairwoman Nydia Velazquez, McElwee and his mother Sandra McElwee, will give testimony about the difference he has been able to make in his community since founding his own micro-enterprise two and a half years ago. Seanese is a t-shirt company with more than 130 designs on 12 different styles of shirts intended to deliver a message of disability inclusion, Down syndrome acceptance and humor.

McElwee rose to national prominence as a co-star on the Emmy Award-winning reality television show Born This Way. Over four seasons, the A&E show, created by industry legends Bunim/Murray Productions, followed the lives of seven diverse young adults with Down syndrome as they sought to build independent lives, launch their careers and forming lasting friendships. [continue reading…]

Washington, D.C., Dec. 3 – From Capitol Hill to Hollywood to Canada, the entertainment industry is joining celebrations of the International Day of Persons with Disabilities. Individuals and organizations have been working with the entertainment industry to help them realize their potential in helping to influence how the public views people with disabilities. As the industry explores ways to ensure that the 20 percent of North Americans with disabilities are not excluded – and when included, done so in an authentic way – a new coalition is calling for more accurate representation of people with disabilities on North American TV.

Since the public rarely sees people with a disability featured in popular media, a group of disability-focused organizations from Canada and the United States have formed a coalition calling on the media to be more inclusive of people with disabilities. Launching on International Day of Persons with Disabilities, the campaign, called Visibility for Disability, aims to change how people see disability by changing what they see in popular media. [continue reading…]

Winner of the 2019 Christopher Reeve Acting Scholarship, Media Access Awards

Tatiana Lee, last year’s winner, with Lauren “LoLo” Spencer, this year’s recipient of the Christopher Reeve Acting Scholarship

Beverly Hills, California, Nov. 26 – Earlier this month, actor, model and content creator Lauren “Lolo” Spencer was honored with the Christopher Reeve Acting Scholarship during the 40th Anniversary of the Media Access Awards, which was presented in partnership partnership with Easterseals Southern California. The ceremony honors media and entertainment trailblazers advancing disability awareness and inclusion.

“I didn’t see it coming, which was an even greater surprise when I got the news initially,” Spencer said in an interview with RespectAbility’s Tatiana Lee, who received the scholarship in 2018. Spencer plans to use the money from the scholarship for acting classes to further her career.

Spencer recently starred in Give Me Liberty, which premiered at the 2019 Sundance Film Festival. Like many films starring actors with disabilities, the film struggled to find initial funding for the project. “Investors didn’t want to invest in the film because, one, they didn’t know if characters with disabilities in lead roles was gonna work, and two, if they weren’t going to cast an able body-like a popular able body actor in the role, they double thought that it wouldn’t work,” Spencer said. “So there were a lot of investors that they passed on for the sake of wanting to keep the story authentic.” [continue reading…]

Los Angeles, Nov. 24 – Writers often write what they know and when it comes to writing stories about disabled experiences and characters, the same is true. When Kelli McNeil’s family member became paralyzed, she viewed life through their eyes, as they continued to live it through a humorous lens. She wrote Daruma, a film that features two characters who just happen to have disabilities – one a paraplegic and the other a double amputee, inspired by her family member and hospital roommate. But the heart of Daruma is not about disability, rather it is about friendship and forgiveness.

When Patrick, a bitter paraplegic, discovers he has a four-year-old daughter, he enlists the help of his cantankerous neighbor Robert, a double-arm amputee, to transport the young girl to live with her maternal grandparents on the other side of the country. Central to Patrick’s and Robert’s tale, however, is that neither character is defined by their disability. A universal story that doesn’t focus on disability is very much the point of the film.

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As representation grows, disability still widely underrepresented in comparison to U.S. public with disabilities

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Los Angeles, California, Nov. 7 – Scripted broadcast programming added nine more series regular characters with disabilities for the 2019-2020 season in comparison to last year, a new report by GLAAD found. This means that the percentage of characters with disabilities has risen a full percentage point to 3.1 percent. While this is a record high, the report cautions the data “still falls far short of reflecting reality,” as more than twenty percent of people in the U.S. have a disability.

Of the 879 series regulars on broadcast programming, GLAAD found that 3.1 percent (27 characters) have disabilities, in comparison to 2.1 percent (18 characters) last year. There are nine characters across all three platforms tracked (broadcast, cable, streaming) with HIV and AIDS, an increase from the seven characters counted last year and a substantial increase from the two counted two years ago.

GLAAD’s 2019-2020 Where We Are on TV Report includes the only analysis of primetime scripted series regulars on broadcast networks of characters with disabilities. Largely known for tracking the number of LGBTQ+ characters on broadcast and cable networks, as well as streaming services, the Where We Are on TV Report also tracks racial, gender and disability inclusion on television. [continue reading…]