Disabled people on the box

I should be cleaning my flat right now in preparation for my Mum visiting, but I've been meaning to blog about the representation of disabled people on TV for ages. So it's the perfect procrastination activity - the cleaning will be done later!

the Ouch! (the BBC website's disability section) message board used to run a thread called "I just saw a disabled person on the TV" I don't know if it's still going but if it is, last night would have lead to some discussion on the thread. Channel 4's "How to look good naked" ran a disability themed show. Gok Wan used his unique style of self esteem boosting on disabled women to make them feel great about their bodies. I'm not going to write about the programme its self, I was watching the Hairy Bikers cookery programme instead. I don't want to criticise Gok either I actually use a video of him talking about his experiences as a over weight, gay, Chinese lad growing up on a London housing estate, in my equality and diversity training sometimes. I think he's a cool guy with good intentions. My complaint is that these programmes about disabled women could and in my opinion should have been included in the usual How to Look Good Naked format and not dealt with separately.

What I really want to do is address the issue of why How to Look Good Naked with a Difference is a topic to talk about at all? Why is there a need for a thread on a message board about disabled people appearing on TV?

I think this goes much deeper than TV, this is about how disabled are viewed by society. If TV is a mirror of modern society, if something matters we expect it to be on TV. I know this isn't strictly true but lets just for now agree that TV reflects broadly what the viewers are interested in, what matters to them etc. If that's the case then in the UK around 10% of the public and rising once you hit 50+, are disabled. If you then think about how many people in the UK have a family member who is disabled your looking at a huge number of people who are affected in some way by issues relating to disability. So is this represented on TV?

The thing is, forgetting TV for the moment it is a history of extremes when it comes to how disabled people are viewed by society at large. Go back to pre war UK and disabled people were either just not seen at all, locked away in hospitals, institutions, charitable homes or a few were performing and being gawped at in traveling circuses and "freak shows," some by choice but many not. (TV could still be treating disabled people this way unintentionally but more of that later.) The two world wars began to change all this as service men returned disabled and the government had to respond, wounded soldiers couldn't be gawped at in freak shows, they'd be looked after instead usually at home or in institutions.

The last 60 years have seen a hard struggle by disabled people and a gradual acceptance by some in society that we should have rights, including the right to work, access services, transport, education, basically live life! Part of that struggle is the right to be recognised by society for who we are and on our terms. This is where TV comes in.

Disabled people just don't see themselves on TV very often? If we do see disabled people on TV they are often plaid by non disabled people. I'll argue now that disabled people are currently the most under represented "minority group" when it comes to TV. Think about it, TV caters for older people and kids, for men and women, religion, it's getting better when it comes to ethnicity and entertainment and TV has always had loads of gay and lesbian performers and is at last representing this honestly and openly. Disability lags behind, even though there are disabled performers, production staff, writers out there doing brilliant work.

The disabled people of my childhood TV watching (late 70s and 80s) were rather limited. There was the blind grandmother in Heidi, who was brought soft rolls to eat from the town. It became an in joke with my friends when I was older that like the blind grandmother I needed soft rolls too. Heidi also had the tragic, sickly sweet Clara who could not walk. I was often likened to her as a child because like her I had long blond hair. I was a kind of cross between the two characters blind, well partially sighted in my case, like the grandmother but had long blond hair like the tragic Clara. Of course all Clara needs is some fresh air on the mountain side and she's soon running about with Peter the goat herd, totally cured. It's the typical Victorian take on disability those who are good and deserving will transcend their disability on the green pastures of heaven! Those bad get struck down Rochester in Jane Eyer has to be blinded in order to learn humility. Shakespeare loved using disability as a metaphor too, when he was blind he could see when he had sight he could not see (see as in understand)

In the 1980's the other disabled people I'd see on TV would be on a Sunday tea time when there would be a charity appeal on quite often for things like the Variety Club sunshine coaches. I used to actually worry as a child that if I wasn't good and worked hard at school I might be sent to one of the special schools featured on the TV appeals. I didn't want anyones help. I have to say there were positive role models too, I knew who Ian Dury was as a child my parents have good taste in music thankfully!

But things must have moved on now surely. I am pleased to say they have but things still aren't good. I think there are still far too many cheap tawdry documentaries in the true spirit of the freak show. Mitchel and Webb have the brilliant sketch about a spoof Channel 5 documentary "the boy who has an arse for a face." We've all seen them advertised those documentaries just about a person with a particular rare or extraordinary impairment for us to gawp at and feel thankful that we aren't afflicted.

When was the last time you saw a disabled person in an advert? Yes an advert? I would love to know if anyone has spotted a disabled person even a celeb who is disabled in an advert. I guess ad agencies think disabled people have no money to spend so no point including them in adverts and I'm sure they have plenty of research that shows that audiences don't want to be flogged yogurt / car insurance or furniture by a disabled person. Stephen Fry doesn't count by the way I've just remembered he does the odd advert voice over.

Everyone needs role models, so where are the role models for disabled people?

This is such a huge area I can't cover it in one entry on my blog but I'll revisit this one again I'm sure.