I have been wanting to write a blog on T.V/Film & the media for a while but had no idea where to start. My plan is to simply do a series of blogs where I ramble about the media as a whole with a few added interviews chucked in. ive started with some stats I found that are even lower than I imagined (I thought they would be pretty low) They should be about accurate but please correct me if there not, I found them scattered around different websites & really hard to find.
According to a report by the vulture written in 2016 showed that 95% of actors playing disabled roles were in fact not actually diabled. Whilst an article by Disability talk revealed around less than 2% work within production & even less in distribution.
Although disabilities are being shown on screen it is clear that the people playing them are not the people who are living daily with these conditions.
But why is this?
When I first got ill I didn't really stop to think about it, I was asleep most of the time & couldn't do a lot. But as I got better, I realized I was looking around for something where I felt I was being represented. Something that made sense to me in my new sick reality.
The thing to remember is that within these moments I felt all alone & wanted something that showed my reality but there didn't seem to be anything or anywhere to find it.
This was the point where I felt the world was dismissing the fact I existed
It was as if I was living this life where everything was going on around me & in the eyes of everyone else other than those closest to me I wasn't actually there. Disabled people didn't seem to exist as there was none in wheelchairs on the T.V or in the media.
Having had a passion for writing fanfiction/script writing in my early teens I looked up disabled script writers. I was heartbroken when I found absolutely nothing online. I'm sure that this probably is a thing google does not have all the answers (I hope).
I would like to think that disabled people are writing. I would also like to believe that they are creating pieces of media weather it be articles online or visual pieces of TV,Film or Vlogs that they post online.
I will admit after having to actively look for it I did start to notice more diabled characters in shows but you have to look a lot harder than you should.
I watch a lot of kids T.V because it tends to be simple plots that even on my tiredest of days I can follow , but also because I feel represented. I looked back at old shows I watched as a child & realized that inclusion has always been there through apart of it. I remembered Layla in The story of Tracy Beaker & then later on Frank in Tracy Beaker returns I wasn't unknown to disability on television it was ingrained in me from a young age,it was normal so I didn't notice.
Having realized this, I started to notice how good the BBC actually are with their inclusion, especially on their children's channels.
Many CBBC shows I began watching years ago now have characters with some form of disability. What is also really well done is that other than the odd comment (mostly by the character who is disabled) it is rarely questioned so just becomes normal, which is how I believe we should be viewing these issues.
Children seeing themselves within the media from an early age will make sure that they never feel isolated & that they know they are not alone in having the issues they do on the other side of the coin
If you grow up with them you don't question them.
You know or at least have some idea on how to react around disabled people what to or what not to say & how to start up a conversation. It all begins by showing children that not everyone can do what they can & that some of their peers need more care or have additional needs.
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