Disability in television and film�Beth Haller, Ph.D., Email: bhaller@towson.edu
Who am I?
I became a university professor in Maryland.
present disability.
who has Down syndrome and is the first actor with
Down syndrome to star in an off-Broadway play.
She is also known for her roles on several seasons
of the TV show American Horror Story.
Why it is important that television, film, and the news have truthful information about people with disabilities
correct information about people with disabilities.
or films, communities will see they should
include people with disabilities.
films, employers might think about hiring people
with disabilities.
with disabilities with more respect and give them
equal opportunities if it sees correct information in the media.
(Pictured is Deaf actress Lauren Ridloff, who starred in the TV show, The Walking Dead, and the Eternals film.)
How do we get truthful information into television shows and films? �Hire disabled actors!
Mickey Rowe, who has autism and low vision, is the first autistic actor to play
the main autistic character in the play, “Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nighttime.”
Why hiring disabled performers is a good thing
Disabled actors can give the show or film’s writers
and directors information about how to create the best
and most truthful disabled characters.
Pictured in Geri Jewell, who has cerebral palsy, when she was
in the HBO series Deadwood in 2004. She played a character
named Jewel, and the creators of the show allowed her
to show the correct information about someone with CP
living in South Dakota in the 1870s.
Geri Jewell was on the TV show Facts of Life in the early 1980s
and is the first person with a disability to be featured
regularly in a TV series.
Actors with disabilities can’t find work �because nondisabled actors take those jobs
Pictured is Marlee Matlin, the Deaf actor who won the Academy Award for the 1986 film “Children of a Lesser God,” and starred in the 2022 Academy Award winner for Best Picture, “CODA” on Apple TV+.
Disabled performers can be role models for people with disabilities watching
Writer Esme Mazzeo says that as
a disabled woman growing up,
seeing disabled characters who were
played by actual actors with disabilities
would have helped her have bigger
dreams about her own future.
She is now a journalist who writes about
entertainment television and film.
Disabled actors can inspire disabled young people to understand they, too, can train to be performers
Pictured is Ali Stroker, the first actor who uses a wheelchair
to win a Tony Award, for her performance in Broadway’s “Oklahoma” in 2019.
“This award is for every kid who is watching tonight who has a disability, a limitation, a challenge, who has been waiting to see themselves represented in this arena. You are,” she said when she won.
Through shows that featured actors with Down syndrome, young people with Down syndrome saw that television actor was a possible career for them
Examples of disabled actors on scripted TV
Fear the Walking Dead (AMC)
“I got 99 problems... palsy is just one.”
Many TV reality shows now feature people with disabilities
Dancing with the Stars (ABC)
The reality show Born This Way (A&E) �helped change attitudes about Down syndrome
�My new book will be out later in 2023: �Disabled People Transforming Media Culture �for a More Inclusive World�
Topics covered:
For the book, I interviewed disabled people �in-person and on Zoom
The book highlights people like disabled filmmaker Dom Evans, who directed a 2021 music video in California remotely
“I want to make a TV show that I direct from my home in Michigan so people can see that any disabled person that has the talent can do it. And I don't want that to be seen as something inspirational but as something realistic. We can do these jobs if we're given the right accommodations. I have chronic pain but I was able to direct the [music] video ‘Spaces’ from my bed in the place I was most comfortable in,” Dom Evans says.
Disabled director Jim LeBrecht, co-director of the Oscar-nominated 2020 documentary Crip Camp (Netflix), says disabled documentary filmmakers need “to tell our stories because we can do so from our own perspective, not one that is filtered through someone else's lens…. We make films that go well beyond the worn-out tropes of what being disabled and Deaf is all about. Being able to view a broader perspective on life benefits us all.”
Annie Segarra speaks up for people with nonvisible disabilities on her YouTube & Instagram channels
Annie Segarra has disabilities
that you can’t see,
and she is critical of the media
for not representing people like her,
a part-time wheelchair user.
“You never see people like me
that can walk around the house
but that need their [wheel]chair to go out
… So people don’t think that’s real
because they’ve never seen it,” she says.
Questions or comments?��Beth Haller, bhaller@towson.edu��Please don’t hesitate to email me with:�� - Questions you think of later�- Anything related to what I discussed today��I look forward to hearing from you. ��