[Visitaccess] Clearly, Frankly, Unabashedly Disabled

[Terri O'Hare]

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-Terri O'Hare


http://www.nytimes.com/2007/05/13/fashion/13disabled.html?ref=fashion


May 13, 2007


Clearly, Frankly, Unabashedly Disabled


By MIREYA NAVARRO
LOS ANGELES


WHEN Josh Blue won NBC¹s ³Last Comic Standing² last season, he
did so with riffs like this:


³My right arm does a lot of crazy stuff. Like the other day, I thought
someone had stolen my wallet.²


It¹s funny only if you know that Mr. Blue has cerebral palsy.


The public image of people with disabilities has often hinged on the
heroic or the tragic. But Mr. Blue, 28, represents the broader portrait of
disability now infusing television and film. This new, sometimes
confrontational stance reflects the higher expectations among many
members of the disabled population that they be treated as people
who happen to have a disability, rather than as people defined by
disability.


³What we¹re seeing is less Œovercoming¹ and more Œjust being,¹ ² said
Lawrence Carter-Long, the director of advocacy for the Disabilities
Network of New York City, which last year started a film series,
³disTHIS: Disability Through a Whole New Lens,² celebrating
unconventional portrayals of the disabled.


³More people are saying, ŒThis is who I am. If you have a problem with
it, that¹s your problem,¹ ² he said.


Because the entertainment media often function as a bellwether of
changing attitudes, the drive to expand beyond the stereotypes is
particularly visible on television. The heart-wrenching movie of the
week and fund-raising telethons striving for cures have given way to
amputees rock climbing on reality shows like ³The Amazing Race²
and doing the jive on ³Dancing With the Stars.² Sitcoms and crime
shows have jumped onto the bandwagon, too: an actor who is a
paraplegic, for instance, depicts a member of the casino surveillance
team on ³Las Vegas.²


³It used to be that if you were disabled and on television, they¹d play
soft piano music behind you,² said Robert David Hall, a double
amputee who plays a coroner on ³CSI.² ³The thing I love about ŒCSI¹ is
that I¹m just Dr. Robbins.²


In film, too, tragic stories starring able-bodied actors, like ³Million
Dollar Baby,² are being countered by depictions featuring the disabled
themselves, from the wheelchair rugby jocks of the 2005 documentary
³Murderball² to the 2005 Special Olympics romp, ³The Ringer,² by
Peter and Bobby Farrelly.


Hollywood¹s embrace of a franker depiction of disabilities is mirrored
in everyday life in trends such as the jettisoning, by both child and
adult amputees, of cosmetic covers for prosthetic legs. Instead,
prosthetics experts say, many patients wear their legs openly, often
customizing them with designs that are flaunted like tattoos.


³Some people say, ŒThat¹s really cool¹ and some people don¹t act very
nice,² said Kylee Haddad, 40, a mother of two from Walkersville, Md.,
who decorates her prosthetic leg with palm trees, fish and the
American flag.


Ms. Haddad, whose right leg was amputated below the knee in 2003
after a car accident, said she has no problem wearing shorts when
she goes shopping. Neither does she shy from removing the
prosthesis in order to swim at the neighborhood pool.


She said people gawk and some have even tapped her on the
shoulder to ask her to put her leg back on. She said she¹s been told,
³It is upsetting my child.² But she refuses to hide.


³You either accept me as I am,² she said, ³or you don¹t have to look at
it.²


Jillian Weise, 25, a teacher and doctoral student at the University of
Cincinnati, released a poetry book this year to undermine what she
called ³the stereotype of the disabled as asexual² and ³to try to get
away from the idea of the disabled as freak.²


She titled it ³The Amputee¹s Guide to Sex² and filled it with deeply
personal verses. ³You trace the scar along my spine, and I imagine
what it must feel like,² reads one poem.


Ms. Weise, who was born with a rare disease that led to the
amputation of one leg below the knee when she was 11, said that in
the United States ³there¹s a history of don¹t look, don¹t stare, just
ignore the disability.²


³I¹m hoping that there¹s a middle ground, that this is just another kind
of difference,² she said.


The hunger to be regarded like anyone else means even negative
portrayals can be welcome. When Simon Cowell of ³American Idol²
teased a Special Olympics athlete with a mental disability about his
weight during this year¹s televised auditions, he was widely criticized
for having crossed a line. Special Olympics International fired off an
open letter. It thanked the show for ribbing the contestant, as it does
nearly everyone.


³Whether on the stage of ŒAmerican Idol¹ or on the field of competition
for Special Olympics, people with intellectual disabilities don¹t want to
be pitied,² the group¹s statement read.


The drive for more participation is not new, but it is finding strength in
numbers. The government census and population surveys have
expanded the definition of disability over time to reflect more
conditions and impairments, including mental disabilities. The most
recent population survey, in 2002, showed the disabled population to
be the country¹s largest minority: 51 million, or 18 percent of all
Americans. Most ‹ 32 million ‹ suffer from a disability classified as
severe.


Although this huge and complex group includes both the man with a
$30,000 computer-controlled prosthesis and the brain-injured woman
who is immobile, stereotyping and stigmatization are still a problem,
particularly for the mentally disabled.


And while public perceptions about the capabilities of the mentally
disabled have improved, said Dr. Stephen B. Corbin, a senior vice
president of Special Olympics International, they are still ³mixed and
inadequate.²


Nevertheless, the gradual gains in access to education and
independent living have allowed many disabled people to take their
place in society¹s mix. Surveys show that people with disabilities are
voting and going to restaurants, for example, at rates comparable with
the non-disabled. With increased access has come visibility.


The public image of the disabled is increasingly ³informed by actual
experience of disability rather than an imagined understanding of it,²
said David T. Mitchell, an associate professor of disability studies at
the University of Illinois at Chicago. Mr. Mitchell, who is also a
filmmaker, uses a wheelchair because of a neuromuscular condition.
His 1995 documentary, ³Vital Signs: Crip Culture Talks Back,² focuses
on the concept of a cultural identity.


But, he cautioned: ³We shouldn¹t go too congratulatory yet. Our
progress is largely a measure of the fact that we were so regressive
for so long.²


The arts have become one of the most visible vehicles for
participation. In the last few years particularly, said Kari Pope, the
coordinator at the National Arts and Disability Center at the University
of California, Los Angeles, there has been more exposure of disabled
artists ³getting out there² through film festivals, dance companies,
theater and the visual arts.


In Hollywood, disabled members of the Screen Actors Guild and other
entertainment groups are agitating for plots that include more
disabled characters and for the hiring of more disabled actors to play
both disabled and nondisabled roles. Though jobs are still scarce, the
quality of roles and the diversity of characters has improved. Some
disabled actors noted that they are no longer relegated to maudlin or
villainous roles.


It is a sign of the times that Marlee Matlin, a deaf actress, who won an
Oscar for the 1986 film ³Children of a Lesser God,² has been playing
roles as varied as a political pollster on ³The West Wing² and the love
interest on ³My Name Is Earl.²


Meanwhile, the Farrelly brothers are at work on a pilot for a comedy for
Fox with Danny Murphy, an actor who is a quadriplegic, in a supporting
role. And NBC may produce the first comedy starring disabled actors
to air on network television. The pilot for this show, ³I¹m With Stupid,² is
based on a BBC series of the same name, which revolves around an
apartment building designed for the disabled whose tenants include a
wheelchair user with cerebral palsy who speaks via a voice box, and a
double amputee with high-tech leg prosthetics.


³All the actors feel this is not a television show, it¹s a movement,² said
Wil Calhoun, the executive producer. ³People will begin to look at
things in a different way.²


Mr. Calhoun, who was an executive producer of ³Friends,² said the
comedy is an attempt to depart from the predictable, but the material
is considered risky because of concerns that viewers may find it sad
or in bad taste. On the other hand, Americans already have been
exposed to fuller portraits of disabled people, especially through
reality shows.


³The representations on reality television tend to be much
higher-stakes than the fictional narratives because that¹s how real
people behave,² said Kathleen LeBesco, the chairwoman of
communication arts at Marymount Manhattan College.


She said that there¹s debate over whether some representations are
³exploitative or affirmative,² but said that the depictions parallel the
trajectory that gays and racial minorities also tread as they gained
more visibility.


Sarah Reinertsen, 31, an athlete who runs with a prosthetic leg, is a
member of the hard-charging vanguard. She was a contestant on
CBS¹s ³Amazing Race² last year (her team came in 7th of 12) and has
no qualms about competing against the able-bodied.


³Believe me, I get a thrill when I do pass two-legged people,² she said.


But she said she never leaves the house without sunglasses.


³People always stare,² she said. ³It¹s part of human nature and it¹s
tough to be this animal in the zoo.²


But Ms. Reinertsen said people have stopped looking at disability as
³total tragedy.² ³People have changed a lot,² she said. ³They ask, ŒAre
you wearing one of those cool legs?¹ ²