Hollywood Inclusion

Winner of the 2018 Christopher Reeve Acting Scholarship, Media Access Awards

Beverly Hills, California, Nov. 2 – There is a conspicuous lack of disability representation in media. The Center for Disease Control estimates that nearly one in five Americans has some type of disability. Yet people with disabilities often are absent in acting, advertising and modeling. Today’s beauty standards often do not include depictions of disabilities. Tatiana Lee, an actress and model with Spina Bifida, is working on improving representation of disabilities in media. “Society is ready for disability representation,” she says.

Lee’s work toward inclusion within the worlds of both modeling and acting led to her receiving the Christopher Reeves Acting Scholarship at the Media Access Awards, which recently has formed a partnership with Easterseals Southern California, Thursday. The ceremony honors media and entertainment trailblazers advancing disability awareness and inclusion.

“Thank you all for giving me the tools to have a fighting chance to finally not feel invisible to the world and to ensure that future generations don’t feel the same,” Lee said while accepting the award. “I’m so honored and I will continue this journey and do all I can to ensure Hollywood is accessible to anyone else that dares to dream big!” [continue reading…]

Los Angeles, California, Oct. 31 – All month RespectAbility, a nonprofit fighting stigmas and advancing opportunities for people with disabilities, has been celebrating National Disability Employment Awareness Month (NDEAM). More than 343,000 Americans with disabilities got new jobs last year, a fourfold improvement in job gains compared to the previous year. An annual celebration, NDEAM is dedicated to raising awareness about disability employment issues and celebrating the incredible contributions of people with disabilities.

In a PSA he created for RespectAbility, Micah Fowler called attention to the fact that while “more than 300,000 people with disabilities joined the American workforce last year, there are over 14 million more people with disabilities who still want to work.”

So he issued a simple challenge: “I challenge each and every company and corporation in America to hire at least one person with a disability before the end of 2018.”

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Beverly Hills, California, Oct. 30 — As the “only agent in the country with a specialty of representing actors with disabilities,” Gail Williamson says that it is her ultimate goal that the need for specialty agents is eliminated. Someday, she hopes, agents, casting directors and producers will be able to accommodate actors with disabilities themselves, without needing to call her. First and foremost, Williamson considers herself an advocate for people with disabilities.

“I’m not an agent because I love being an agent. I’m an agent because I love the power of changing society through images,” she said. “I love that a simple image can change [people’s] minds.”

Williamson will be presented with the Norman Lear – Geri Jewell Lifetime Achievement Award at the Media Access Awards, which recently has formed a partnership with Easterseals Southern California, on November 1, 2018. The ceremony honors media and entertainment trailblazers advancing disability awareness and inclusion. Williamson is an indispensable advocate for disability representation in television and film. She demonstrates that with a simple phrase: “Any kid with Down syndrome in the U.S. who wants to act, I’ve probably got their picture.”

“We are honored to present the Norman Lear – Geri Jewell Lifetime Achievement Award to Gail Williamson who has done so much for the inclusion of people with disabilities in media,” said Deborah Calla, Chair of the Media Access Awards. “Gail was knocking on doors decades ago when the conversation about inclusion wasn’t a conversation at all. We owe her so much.” [continue reading…]

Los Angeles, California, Oct. 26 – GLAAD’s 2018-2019 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.

The amount of regular primetime broadcast characters counted who have a disability has slightly increased to 2.1 percent, but that number still vastly underrepresents the actualities of Americans with disabilities. There are seven characters across all three platforms tracked (broadcast, cable, streaming) who are HIV-positive, a substantial increase from last year’s two.

While the 2018-19 season will see 18 characters with disabilities, versus 16 in 2017-18, that number still vastly underrepresents the actual number of people with disabilities, representing less than one-sixth. Furthermore, while more than one-third of LGBTQ+ adults have a disability, GLAAD’s report found only four LGBTQ+ characters with disabilities.

It is clear that representation matters. Just as GLAAD will continue to work alongside the industry to tell LGBTQ+ stories on screen and further the conversation through their year-round work, RespectAbility, a nonprofit fighting stigmas and advancing opportunities for people with disabilities, will continue to do so for full representation of people with disabilities – including those with disabilities who are LGBTQ+. [continue reading…]

Los Angeles, California, Oct. 15 – The third season of This Is Us continues to tear at viewers’ heartstrings while carefully using its platform to shed light on an important issue that often goes unspoken in today’s society: mental health. According to the National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI), one-in-five Americans lives with some form of mental illness. Not only is the show written in a way that people can connect with but it also is subliminally inviting the everyday viewer to join the conversation about the inclusion of people with disabilities.

Spoilers ahead.

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Los Angeles, California, Oct. 15 – When 20^th 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.

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A show focused on emergency responders and the behind-the-scenes intricacies of their rescues is bound to tackle some issues relating to disabilities. But 20^th Century Fox Television’s 9-1-1 has taken disability inclusion a step further by including a recurring character with a disability and providing an opportunity for further discussion of issues relating to disability access and belonging.

The two-night Season 2 opener introduced two new lead characters – Maddie (Jennifer Love Hewitt), a nurse escaping an abusive relationship who becomes a 9-1-1 operator, and Eddie Diaz (Ryan Anthony Guzman), a LAPD firefighter and single dad to seven-year-old son Christopher (Gavin McHugh), who has cerebral palsy.

“Ryan’s character has his own issues: He’s a single father with a son with special needs, with cerebral palsy,” said executive producer Tim Minear. “And he’s an Army veteran who’s left the Army in order to raise his kid.”

The fast-paced opener shows both the lead-up to and the aftermath of a 7.1 earthquake and aftershocks. In the opening scene of the second episode, Eddie and Christopher have a conversation about dogs as Eddie walks his son to school, which appears to be a mainstreamed school. “Do you think dogs know they’re dogs?” Christopher asks. ”Do dogs just think we are bigger, less hairier, smarter dogs that walk funny?” The audience then sees Christopher walking with crutches into his school.

When Eddie works to save people trapped in a high-rise, fellow Firefighter Evan “Buck” Buckley (Oliver Stark) attempts to reassure Eddie that Christopher is in the safest place he could be right now – a school, which had been reinforced after a recent earthquake. However, another scene in the episode lets viewers know that some students may still be trapped in the school. The episode ends without viewers learning of Christopher’s fate. [continue reading…]

Washington, D.C., Sept. 17 – When entertainment heavyweights convened at an annual disability advocacy summit this summer, they stressed the role of film and television in building understanding between communities by shattering prejudices of disability.

The “Fighting Implicit Biases through Film and Television” panel kicked off with Jonathan Murray, an expert film and television-maker with more than 30 years of experience in the television industry. Murray is the co-creator of The Real World, often credited as being the first modern day reality show, which premiered in the 1990s and posits the question “what happens when people stop being polite and start getting real?” This question drives the spirit of his works’ central theme: “to introduce and celebrate marginalized communities.”

The summit was sponsored by RespectAbility, a national nonprofit organization fighting stigmas and advancing opportunities for people with disabilities. The event consisted of panels on education, employment, media representation and intersectionality. Murray serves on the board of directors for RespectAbility. [continue reading…]

Follows Season 4 of Born This Way, unscripted reality show breaking down disability stigmas, which was nominated for four Creative Arts Emmy Awards last weekend

Los Angeles, California, Sept. 10 – On the heels of the Creative Arts Emmy Awards this weekend, a new documentary special will air on A&E on Wednesday. Executive produced by Academy Award-winner Marlee Matlin, Deaf Out Loud follows three predominantly deaf families as they raise their children in a hearing world. With many differing opinions about how deaf children should be raised swirling in the social consciousness, these families work to forge their own paths forward and combat the daily social stigmas many deaf people face.

Misconceptions exist about deaf individuals – from schooling, to employment and raising a family. Shows like Deaf Out Loud aim to change these misperceptions and has the potential to bring awareness and better understanding about people who are deaf. This show delves into the various ways Deaf culture is expressed and embraced in the United States. The three families will show viewers the diversity of Deaf culture today, and how it differs from hearing cultures.

“People of all backgrounds need to see positive representations of themselves, both as people with satisfying personal lives and as people who can perform successfully in the workplace,” Executive Producer Jonathan Murray said. “Those positive images will change for the better the way the greater society sees people who are deaf and those with disabilities, opening up more opportunities for them.” [continue reading…]