Beverly Hills, Nov. 18 – Norman Lear co-founded the Media Access Awards to recognize and encourage the accurate portrayal of people with disabilities in 1979. In 2017, he had the honor of awarding fellow co-founder Fern Field with the 2017 Norman Lear – Geri Jewell Lifetime Achievement Award at this year’s Media Access Awards.
Lear and Field pioneered depictions of disability; they also hired Geri Jewell for Facts of Life in 1980, the first person with a disability on a sitcom.
Lear, who received a standing ovation during the morning awards ceremony, said 2017 is the “most successful year for actors with disabilities on TV.”