It’s Political

Posted by Lara Masters at 15:03 on 3 Feb 2009

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There are 11 million disabled people in the UK. A disability is "a physical or mental impairment that has a substantial and long-term adverse effect on a person's ability to carry out normal day-to-day activities" so does not include having a stupid, lying boyfriend but does include those stupid, lying (now ex) boyfriends who have had their fingers (or other appendages) accidentally bludgeoned to a pulp by being slammed repeatedly into their laptop, leaving them unable to conduct their daily activities.  

However, many people don’t consider themselves “disabled” because it’s such a clunky, unsexy word and not mellifluous like “gorgeous” or “delicious”, plus it’s got an inbuilt “dis”; you’re cussing yourself if you say you’re "dis-abled" and cussing someone else if you’re labelling them "dis-abled". I have to call myself “disabled” because I have an obvious disability but if I could just secrete it in my handbag like a condom and then reveal it at the appropriate moment (or when I was too drunk to care), I would.

The BBC and Channel 4 commissioned a survey to find out what disabled audiences thought of disability portrayal on TV. As television has such an influence on social attitudes it was an opportunity for disabled people to say how they thought disability portrayal could be improved.

I was invited to the Beeb to chair the discussion about the results with a panel of TV cheeses and audience of producers, commissioning editors and Ofcom (the communications industries’ regulatory board.) Many TV types don't stop talking, talk over each other, talk for sake of talking, talk loudly without making a relevant point and don't put their hands up so it was a very lively discussion but ultimately informative and I hope pivotal.

The research revealed that disabled viewers want to see more disabled people on TV particularly in everyday situations and in soaps/dramas (not disability-specific programmes), preferably with disabled actors playing disabled characters. They/we feel work needs to be done as disabled people are often shown as wheelchair users (when this is a tiny percentage of the disabled population), as "unattractive, old, asexual, dependent ", and are often patronised. In an effort to make up for my perpetuation of the wheelchair-using sterotype I wore thigh-high lace-up stiletto boots, ate my almond croissant courtesy of the BBC practically all by myself and shouted at those TV cheeses/was quite obnoxious. Just doing it for the disabled. That's not me naturally at all.

And all the people in TV Land said they would get right on it and fill our screens with disability talent so I am sure we’re only nanoseconds from a diversity TV coup.

A lot of people wanted to know what research into able-bodied people's view of on-screen disability portrayal would reveal. Feel free to add your thoughts in the comment box below. Apart from the BBC’s outstanding, award-winning Britain’s Missing Top Model I haven't noticed many disabled people on TV recently/ever,  have you? And Andrew Lloyd Webber’s not actually disabled, he just writes bad songs. Which have an adverse long-term impact on our day-to-day lives.  Not his. We have so lost the Eurovision.

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