Entertainment Archives - The Mobility Resource

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In the whole history of television, I don’t think any show has done a better job than South Park of portraying people with disabilities as complex human beings. Instead of taking the easy way out and suffocating viewers with the typical inspirational hero or the bitter and angry victim, South Park points out plainly that having a disability is merely a circumstance. They understand society’s reaction to disability is often a much bigger problem for people with disabilities than it is to actually live with one.

So you’ve met someone amazing who just happens to use a wheelchair and the last thing you want is take them on a mediocre date where they can’t be fully involved. Yes, that would be bad form.

This year, a number of actors with disabilities enjoyed success in high profile television roles. From Emmy Award Winning Peter Dinklage as Tyrion Lannister in Game of Thrones to RJ Mitte as Walt Junior in Breaking Bad, both television programs have been commercially successful and have turned Dinklage and Mitte into red carpet regulars.

Everyone has hardships they encounter in their lives, but when someone with a disability is able to overcome all of the additional c#$!% a disability brings to not only survive, but to find mega success, that is an amazing thing to behold.

It’s been 23 years since the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 was signed into law. You would think by now, TV programming would have caught up with the activities trending for the disabled. On social media, people with disabilities are raising their voices and being heard around the world. Why traditional media has not capitalized on this potential is mind boggling.

Images of people with disabilities are finally starting to appear on regularly scheduled television shows. First, The Sundance Channel launched “Push Girls.” This docudrama is about four ladies who are wheelchair-users that live in LA–portrayed by actresses with authentic disabilities. Then there is NBC’s “Ironside,” which is about a disabled police officer. Yet, Blair Underwood, a non-disabled Actor has been cast to portray this wheelchair-using character.

When NBC announced that it was rebooting “Ironside” this fall and casting Blair Underwood as the lead character, you knew it wouldn’t be long before the protests came in.

Comic strip creator Jewel Kats introduced her and her funnies to The Mobility Resource’s accessible vehicle audience April 16th with her guest post “DitzAbled Princess: Sparking a Revolution for Women with Disabilities,” but today we go beyond and take a closer look at the DitzAbled Princess revolution. The Mobility Resource recently interviewed, separately, both Jewel Kats and illustrator Katarina Andriopoulos, asking the tough questions. For instance, “’Ditz’ tends to carry a negative cognition. Would you consider yourself a ‘ditz’ Jewel or is the comic strip’s title just a play on words?”

Singer/Songwriter Daryl Holmlund sat down with Jennifer Gorman via skype to talk about his made-for-YouTube song, “No More Wheelchairs.”

A father who lost his arm in an accident six years ago has been given a new lease of life by a hi-tech bionic hand which is so precise he can type again.