Vicki, good to see you again.

Good morning, Portia. It's lovely to be here.

This episode is focusing on how people with disabilities are portrayed in TV and movies. Maybe on the radio, too. Podcasts, possibly, But media. And so why is that something that you felt there was a need to address, the media portrayals?

Most people when they think of disability, get good ideas from from what they see on TV. You know, and what they see on TV often isn't positive. It's always one of two stories. It's "oh look how sad they are. Their life is awful." Or, "Look how awesome they are for just living a life with a disability." Living life with the disability doesn't make you awesome. It makes you an average human.

I get praised by some people for just getting out of bed. We all do that. You know, I get called an inspiration for walking in the grocery store by myself. No, I'm just trying to buy some produce.

A lot of these interactions actually happen in grocery stores.

Really?

Cause that's where I interact with the most public, I guess.

Yeah

On a one-to-one basis.

I'm just trying to give my life. There's nothing inspirational about that. Unless you want to find it inspirational that I'm still able to maintain a positive attitude even when the world outside treats me like crap.

Are you hungry to see just portrayals of people like yourself in ordinary circumstances?

Absolutely

Not excelling, just just living Your life.

Yeah and I mean what I'd really like is for there to be a show about a character with a disability where we don't focus on the disability at all.

It's not the not the central point.

No, it's just like here's Vicky and she has a disability, but we're not going to talk about that.

Because that's not the most interesting thing, yeah.

We're going to talk about here's Vicky going on a date. Here's Vicky, you know, trying to figure out how to do taxes, you know, and how frustrating that is.
Not, oh look at Vicky and let's delve into her diagnosis and talk about her misshapen body. Like no, no.

Yeah, I hear what you're saying. Well, let's give Episode 2 a listen, Vicki. Thanks for being here.

You're welcome. Thank you for having me.

No, I don't know about you, but I watch a lot of TV and movies.
Honestly, it's probably unhealthy.

Media is one of the first places we learn about the world and our place in it. Unfortunately for people with disabilities, if we're represented at all, it is often with pity or were some sort of hero simply because we have a disability.

In the disability community. This is what is known as inspiration porn.

Many people with disabilities, including myself, find this type of representation problematic or insulting. This is because we are portrayed as an inspirational not for what we do, in particular, or our achievements, but for simply existing in a body that is not like theirs.

SOUND CLIP FROM MOVIE - ME BEFORE YOU

(British voices)

Voice 1: Do you have any experience of caregiving.

Voice 2: I've never done it, but I'm sure I could learn

Voice 1: Then that's going to be...

VICKY

Movies like Me Before You, which is about an inter-able relationship, the male partner happens to have a disability and makes the female partner a better person for allowing her to appreciate what she has.

SOUND CLIP FROM MOVIE - ME BEFORE YOU

Woman's voice: (Screams Woo hoo) I have become a whole new person because of you...

VICKY

And at the end of the film, the character with the disability decides to kill himself, not because he's terminally ill, but because he is disabled after an accident.
He can't bear to live like this.

SOUND CLIP FROM MOVIE - ME BEFORE YOU

Man's voice: I promised my parents six months and that's what I've given him

Woman's voice: But that was before me.

Second man's voice: I want him to live, but only if he wants to live.

Now, he has everything he needs to do so. He is wealthy enough to afford private care and he lives in a grand house with all the equipment he needs.
I'll be honest, I did not see the film because I knew it would upset me and send me into a rage.

Instead, something you should be watching is The Brooke Ellison Story.

SOUND CLIP FROM MOVIE - THE BROOKE ELLISON STORY

Woman's voice: Hi.

Man's voice: Hi

Woman: I'm Brooke.

Man: I'm Lee.

Woman: I'm in a wheelchair because I was hit by a car when I was 11. But the condition's not contagious as far as we know (she laughs).

It is a made-for-TV movie directed by Christopher Reeve, who himself was a disabled person who was paralyzed from the neck down after horse riding accident.

The movie is about a young woman paralyzed in her childhood after being hit by a car, who then went on to Harvard to get a degree.
The film does not shy away from the fact that being disabled is hard, but positions itself to sympathize with Brooke, not because she is disabled and therefore sad, but that the world around her is the problem, not her.

(Light, upbeat music begins)

As far as TV goes, it too can be hit or miss. Glee was the first mainstream TV show that I watched that had a disabled main character and sometimes portrayed disability with empathy and understanding. Primarily in the episode Wheels in Season 1, in which the class all has to be in a wheelchair for a week in order to understand what their classmate already goes through on a daily basis.

(Music ends)

As good as these portrayals are, I find it important to note that the actor who plays Artie, Kevin McHale, does not have a disability and therefore he cannot fully understand or appreciate the complexities of such character. If you want to see something that portrays disability accurately and as people with disabilities, not only in the acting roles but in the creative team as well, you should watch Speechless.

SOUND CLIP FROM SHOW- SPEECHLESS

Voice 1: Excuse me, there's no handicap placard on your car.

Voice 2: I'm sorry love, you were saying?

This sitcom was on ABC and it's about a non-verbal teenage boy with cerebral palsy and his family as they negotiate the world around them.

Lastly, let's just talk about the fact that many villains are portrayed as people with disabilities who become villains simply because their disability makes them angry.
This can be seen in things like the Flash, and then there's Wonder Woman, Inspector Gadget, and even Detective Pikachu, for goodness sake,

Don't get me started on the James Bond movies or anything that portrays mental illness as something to be feared.

No wonder people have such strange ideas about disability: look at what they've been exposed to.
We talk way more than ever in regards to race and LGBTQ representation.

I hope this acts as a catalyst for the disability community to follow suit.
Until then, I will not support films about people with disabilities that do not include people with disabilities in the process of making this art.