Disability is not Inability

::Media:

Disability and the Media in the United Kingdom
By Simon Minty

Disabled people get involved with the media for a variety of reasons; because they are of a creative or journalistic nature; to improve the accuracy in portrayal or because they just want to show off in front of an audience. Whatever the reason, disability arts and the media in the UK have a firm base from which to flourish.

However, there is a long way to go until disabled people will be seen regularly in the media as whole human beings. Once the illusions of pity, of bravery and the medical elements are reduced to sensible proportions, then the situation will improve.

In the UK, there is some debate as to the best approach of harmonising disability arts and the media, to achieve a mutually beneficial collaboration. Differences of opinion are not restricted to media representatives and disabled people but also within disabled groups themselves.

The media is a notoriously difficult and agenda driven industry. I have lost count of the times I have read an interview with a non-disabled actor who explains how the work is scarce, the training hard and the rejections painful and plentiful. With a disabled actor, he or she often has the additional perceived disadvantage of difference that, supposedly, the audience will not be able to mentally accommodate. I say 'supposedly', as I think it is often the writer, producer or director who have the problem of accommodating.

Inclusion vs. Ghettoisation is the way most media value disability. We need to work towards some Good Practice.
Such will help us build the necessary structures to sustain the new way of doing things. A Disability and diversity databases is one such structure where talent can easily be identified.



By Simon Minty
simonminty@compuserve.com