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National Diversity Forum
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Mission
| History | Current Initiatives | |
How the Blind Man Sees It
by Steve Gladstone
With respect to witnessing
changes in the industry, speaking as an actor who is blind, I have recently
noticed that some of the major networks (ABC and CBS) have executed
"diversity" showcases primarily in
With regard to
experiencing changes over the past five years, it's hard to quantify. There are
no meaningful numbers to measure the use of performers with disabilities. Hard
numbers have been absent from the Casting Data Report (information provided by
producers to Screen Actors Guild) that does in fact count and publish
statistics for senior performers, female actors and performers of color used on
the set. Besides a few broad television
studies since the late 60's which showed the portrayal of disabled characters
to be 1.3% of prime time players, there are no meaningful numbers to illuminate
just how pervasive the problem is.
My sense of it is that the
number of disabled characters continues to lag well behind any other group.
With over 54 million Americans who have a disability representing 20% of our
population, the number of disabled characters portrayed is egregiously out of
step with the landscape.
Then there is the question
of a disabled character being played by a like disabled
actor. I'm not talking about the blind Pacinos or the
developmentally disabled Hoffmans who are box office
draws, but the journeyman actors with disabilities (1200 in SAG) who are rarely
considered for a disabled role. That
role falls to an able bodied actor who then pretends to be disabled. We moved from using male actors playing
female roles in Shakespeare's day, took the black face off white actors in the
early 1900's, and we need to take able bodied actors out of our wheelchairs and
their hands off white canes and dog harnesses.
First, however, we need to get more disabled characters written into
scripts.
The core rub is to get
writers, directors, and producers to think "non-traditionally:” to
include judges, mothers, and basketball coaches who have a disability but where
that disability is not germane to the role. There are blind lawyers, CEO's in
wheelchairs, and children with Down syndrome throughout our landscape who are
rarely seen on our stages, small and big screens. If the images changed to reflect the
landscape, corporations and advertisers could put some of the $700 billion of
assets from the disabled community to their bottom lines. If we change the images in the media and
theatres, we would not only get a better idea of who we are, but we would go a
long way in changing the perceptions of the public regarding people with
disabilities. This, in turn, could have
a positive impact on not only how people with disabilities are viewed, but also
in how they are treated.
My own work has shifted from on-camera to the
stage in recent years. I find that I win a role based on my talents, not my
disability. I would like to have more
on-camera work and trust I will.
I have found being a
member of Screen Actors Guild (SAG)) and Actors’ Equity is a boon. Both unions are eager to help or
at least think outside the box when a unique issue surfaces. When a local
theatre would not hand out scripts before the day of the audition, evoking
Equity’s stance on making scripts available 48 hours in advance for
visually impaired performers worked! SAG
Affirmative Action departments in
The primary barriers to
achieving inclusion that remain are the same barriers that existed and still
exist in this country since the 1850's: bias and prejudice. The controlling
bodies make decisions in vacuums about what you can and can't do. Deciding without discussing
plagues us still.
There appears to be an
element of fear as well – fear that actors with a disability will hurt
themselves. This is clearly a myth: there is no evidence that people with
disabilities get hurt more often than people without disabilities in any
workplace. Notwithstanding, if able
bodied actors can get hurt on the set, actors with disabilities should have the
same privilege.
There is also a perception
that an actor with a disability may need extra assistance at a substantial cost
to the producer. In my experience, those
costs have been rare and always affordable.
It is always the people in power who are emotionally and intellectually
paralyzed who create the biggest problems.
Regarding support to
alleviate some of these barriers, I feel initiatives from appropriate
institutions directed toward our film and performing arts schools are key. The first step
is to sensitize and educate the up and coming writers, directors and producers
about the disabled community - the size of its population, its vast abilities
and treating people with disabilities as people who are not to be feared but
embraced. The next step would be to
supply incentives to these students and established filmmakers, artistic
directors, screen writers and playwrights to write disabled characters into
their stories and to use disabled actors in the making of their films and the
staging of their plays. This would put
positive miles on this highway of inclusion.
More initiatives like the
landmark UCLA study, which has interviewed a wide body of disabled actors and
will provide meaningful narratives and statistics regarding their core issues,
are critical. If we can't measure
results, we can't measure the progress.
Getting disabled workers
in the front office would be very helpful.
Proximity changes perception.
Also, it is important to
seek damages from producers using able bodied
actors to play disabled roles where like disabled actors were not adequately
auditioned or interviewed.
A final
note on barriers. Curiously, the terms we use can help or hurt
us. The term "disability" is unfortunate in that it puts the focus
where it shouldn't be. More terms like
“otherwise abled” or “differently abled” need to creep into our vocabulary.
Regarding my work and
whether issues of inclusion and/or diversity are a factor: I recently played a blind author for which I
was nominated for a Carbonell (
Steve Gladstone
Actor
Screen Actors Guild Florida
Branch President
Co-chair SAG Performers
with Disabilities Committee