Disability in Television

[someonewillcare]

I posted this last week on my Tumblr but I thought I could post it here to see if anyone had an opinion on it.

I’ve just watched a very interesting program on BBC2 about Disability on Television through the last 50 years. Seeing things like ‘Help your local Spastic’ signs go to complete outrage when someone who is not disabled portraying a disabled

Comments

[merle_p]

I think the main problem here is that screenwriters/casting directors/directors still create roles that are defined by things like gender, color or disability. There are many characters on screen that could easily be played by a black actor, or a partly paralized actress without taking anything away from the role - but if those roles are not specifically written for people of a certain gender, race, disability, whatever, then they are almost always cast with white, heterosexual, "able bodied" actors, because that's what is considered "normal".

And I'd assume that "disabled" actors are even more affected by this kind of thinking than, let's say, gay or lesbian actors/actresses.

Because a gay actor/actress may be discriminated by casting directors, but of course they could still be cast as straight characters (and vice versa), and occasionally, that actually happens