Monday, April 22, 2019

RespectAbility.org: New TV Shows Featuring People with Disabilities

"Little Chef Ivy"

RespectAbility.org

With the influx of new television content on networks and in streaming platforms, there are new shows coming out featuring people with disabilities.

On MasterChef Junior,  “Little Chef Ivy" continues to break barriers as the MasterChef franchise gives chefs with disabilities opportunities to showcase their skills. Armed with her signature style – long braids topped with a fedora hat – Ivy is treated just like the other contestants, as she should be. Watch her Tuesday night on FOX. 

On May 15, a new television series The Employables on A&E Network is set to debut. The show chronicles the experiences of people with autism, Tourette Syndrome and others as they search for meaningful employment.


Ellen Gray writes how people are creating comedies, not just dramas, about people with disabilities. HBO, for instance will debut a new six-part series On Tour With Asperger’s Are Us, follows four funnymen with Asperger’s syndrome — a condition that clinicians recently folded under the umbrella diagnosis of autism spectrum disorder — on their first cross-country tour.

Are you a writer with a disability? David Radcliff, member of the Committee for Writers with Disabilities at the WGA, and Staff Writer on The Rookie, is compiling a list of writers with disabilities, as the number of people with disabilities in writers rooms is still in the single digits. Fill out this Google Form to be included on the list. 

On Broadway, people with physical disabilities are taking the rare spotlight. And BroadwayCon had an emphasis on both accessibility for theatergoers with disabilities to access tickets through websites and on casting actors with disabilities. RespectAbility's Communications Fellow Emily Kranking examines all of these issues. 

Happy reading!
Lauren Appelbaum

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