What is the most underrepresented minority group on television today?
They make up one-fifth of Americans, and more likely than not, you probably didn’t even think of them — people with disabilities (PWDs).
Off the top of my head, I can count on one hand the number of major TV shows that feature PWDs — Artie, the wheelchair-bound high school student on “Glee”; Tyrion, the cunning, badass Lannister dwarf on “Game of Thrones”; Carrie, the bipolar CIA agent on “Homeland”; and Walt White Jr., Walter White’s son with cerebral palsy on “Breaking Bad.” Come to think of it, I’ve mentioned “Glee” both last week and this week as including diverse characters. It is a sad day, folks, when “Glee” turns out to be one of the most inclusive shows on television.
Beyond underrepresentation, though, is the bigger problem of misrepresentation. But who am I to say anything about how the disabled community is misrepresented on TV? So I called up a few folks.
“One of the things that’s extremely frustrating to me is that when it comes to people with disabilities on television, we don’t see them portrayed by people with disabilities,” said Hamza Jaka, a UC Berkeley senior and former external affairs president of the Disabled Students Union. “People with disabilities are cast in inspirational roles, and I’ve had people come up to me and say, ‘You’re so inspirational. How do you put up with it? You’re so brave’ … We are more than just inspiration or poster boys — we are people.”
A 2005 Screen Actors Guild report showed that less than 2 percent of characters on television have a disability, and of those, only 0.5 percent of characters with disabilities on TV have speaking parts.
“The flip side of the inspirational disabled character is the villainous or evil or murderous stereotype … The two go hand in hand,” said Marsha Saxton, who teaches disability studies at UC Berkeley. “Either way, the person is being objectified and being used as a device in a plot.”
It’s not as if the industry has little to no PWDs to choose from when making casting decisions — Robert David Hall, a prominent actor with a disability, pointed out in his introductory letter to the SAG report that there are more than 1,200 performers who have identified themselves as PWDs looking for work. “When roles are played by nondisabled actors, it reinforces this idea that disabled people can’t act,” Saxton said.
Two shows premiering this fall will feature protagonists with disabilities — “The Michael J. Fox Show” (NBC), a comedy starring the famous actor and his day-to-day experience with Parkinson’s, and “Ironside” (NBC), a reboot of an old show starring a New York City cop. The former looks promising, but the latter falls into the trope mentioned above — Blair Underwood, an able-bodied actor, will play, according to IMDb’s description, a “tough, sexy and acerbic police detective relegated to a wheelchair after a shooting … who is hardly limited by his disability.”
Sounds like yet another “inspiring and brave” role, because what could possibly be more uplifting than a sexy, acerbic and “tough” cop wheeling around the streets of New York? Maybe Underwood can finally win a coveted Golden Globe now. I’m sure he will diligently do his research, as will the creators, but will the week-to-week writers’ room and show-runners maintain a level of believability?
“It would be helpful if there were more emphasis on disability as a lived experience and disability as part of a person’s identity,” said UC Berkeley English professor Georgina Kleege, who is blind. “The participation of actors, directors and writers with disabilities will improve the situation just by adding complexity to the stereotypical representation.”
Kleege points out that on a few episodes of “Glee,” Artie dreams about being cured or getting up and dancing. These themes are presented without really questioning the values behind them or if they’re actually something he would want.
“Because nondisabled people have grown up in this medical model that disability needs to be fixed or cured, anything that would be done ordinarily is seen as spectacular,” said Tari Hartman Squire, former executive director of the Media Access Office and current CEO of EIN SOF Communications, a PR firm specializing in disability advocacy. “I think there needs to be more listening on the part of creators. We would like you to build alliances with the disability community so you can have more authentic portrayals … Your sector, above all the other sectors, changes attitudes and has the power to change attitudes.”
If NBC on “Ironside” and “The Michael J. Fox Show” makes solid hiring decisions in the behind-the-scenes show-runners, then the peacock can really break through this fall for PWDs. Either that, or we’ll all be left with overwhelming feelings of inspiration and awe.