“If you aren’t seen and heard, you are invisible. People with disabilities are largely invisible within the arts and media landscape. I AM PWD will awaken the general public to the lack of inclusion and universal access for people with disabilities by uniting with a network of industry, labor, community, and government allies.”
With those words, Robert David Hall, National Chair of the Tri-Union Performers with Disabilities (PWD) Committee, marked the official launch of Inclusion in the Arts & Media of People with Disabilities (I AM PWD) campaign.
In a bold move to create an awareness and end discrimination against people with disabilities in the entertainment and media worlds, several unions joined together in the global civil rights campaign.
The PWD Tri-Union Committee includes Screen Actors Guild (SAG), the American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (AFTRA) and Actors’ Equity Association (AEA). With the intent of increasing the visibility and equal employment opportunities for actors, broadcasters, and sound recording artists with disabilities, this initiative is the first of its kind in the entertainment industry and news media.
In a true spirit of positive change, the official launch was announced simultaneously in Los Angeles, New York, and Washington, D.C.
“This whole disability movement is 30 years old. Sometimes it seems incredibly slow. I have friends who are very talented people and they are frustrated at the lack of entrée into the entertainment business. There are issues of accessibility, but more than that, there are issues of attitude," Hall noted. "I’m talking about people who are as qualified as any able-bodied actor. I look at this first as a big-picture issue. The more people with disabilities and able-bodied people see us as human beings in the media, the better the acceptance there will be. There may be 56 million people with disabilities in America, but there’s close to 700 million people in the world who have a disability of some sort or another. And especially in the American media, whether you like this or not, it infiltrates the world.”
As a series regular on the hit CBS television show CSI: Crime Scene Investigation, Hall knows the power of media exposure.
“CSI was No. 1 last week; we had 22 million people watch the show. We have 90 million people, sometimes close to 100 million people, watching the show around the world. A lot of what the media puts out is seen by the world—this entire planet, not just by people in America. It affects people,” Hall explained. “It’s time to shine a very bright light on this group of really underserved and undervalued people. We’re trying to make allies in the labor movement. I want every single disability office in every University in America, I want everybody who’s aware of disabilities and their friends, to know that people with disabilities aren’t going to meekly go and hide. We’re in this thing for the long run.”
Hall says creating awareness and outreach are the most important parts of the campaign.
“It has to start from within your own group. For people with disabilities, I hope and I pray that they’re going to see people working in entertainment and the media, working as broadcasters, actors, writers, directors, and people in front of and behind the camera. It’s really important that there are qualified, super-talented people who are disabled doing some of these jobs. Things aren’t going to change in the media until the world of people with disabilities recognizes the importance of the media to the movement,” Hall stressed. “Every single media entity, major networks, studios, HBO and Showtime, all have diversity offices and they’re all going to be targeted big time during the three years of this particular campaign.”
Danny Murphy, National Vice Chair of the Tri-Union Performers with Disabilities Committee, says that this civil rights campaign will have a global reach.
“This is the most aggressive activity we’ve ever had for performers with disabilities,” Murphy reminded. “It’s the first time in the entertainment business that we’ve said we have to stand up and shoot with real bullets. We have to get the attention of the industry; until now, no one’s been paying attention to performers with disabilities at all. It’s really getting bad."
"According to the existing contract between SAG and the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers (AMPTP), the producers are supposed to be working with us, but clearly they’re not. And we can’t do it with little armies of people anymore trying to get auditions. Our best efforts trying to work with the producers and the rest of the industry simply aren’t working," Murphy said.
"In the entertainment business, you hear about the NAACP advocating for the inclusion of African American performers or GLAAD advocating for the inclusion of gay and lesbian performers. But we have no voice for people with disabilities," Murphy said. "We represent the largest minority in the country by far at 20 percent. But we’re only seen in speaking roles on television one-half of one percent of the time. We really are invisible. Across America, we have all these different factions representing disability, but we are not united. We’re trying to reach out to all people with disabilities to make something happen worldwide, to create that voice for us. This campaign is a great start.”
In SAG, Murphy says disability is on the radar and they’re paying attention. But, it’s not the same story elsewhere.
“In most of the other guilds and in the industry media, disability isn’t even recognized in diversity discussions. We’re not part of the overall scheme, as casting directors are not really recognizing disability. PWDs are not getting called into auditions,” Murphy explained. “The Writers Guild of America (WGA) is vocal about it, though. They have become strong partners with the Tri Guild Committee. They held a social last week where I spoke as they’re trying to pull in people to encourage other writers in the guild to stimulate activity. They also reached out to some of the producers from the producers’ guild and one of their lieutenants attended. He said that raising awareness of disability was much needed and that they’re going to get more active with what we’re doing. I just hope he’s sincere, as PWDs have heard this time and time again. The problem of getting more PWDs work is complex. Many facets of the business need to be worked on and we need more people to join in the spirit of making change. We need grassroots efforts from disability organizations to band together on this with a unified voice and attack the industry together.”
The I AM PWD campaign will focus on the issues that performers with disabilities are facing.
“We want to focus on getting auditions and getting primary consideration for roles where the character has a disability. Secondly, they need to start counting us in diversity reporting. We’re the only minority group that isn’t included in the industry’s Casting Data Report (CDR), which tracks the actors on every set,” Murphy said. “This campaign is not a bells and whistles show where it only lasts for a day. Instead, this will be an ongoing campaign to inspire change. You’re not going to have strong performers with disabilities investing in training if there’s no access to the business. We want to turn that around and make sure there’s access, because performers with disabilities should be included. We are a significant part of the American culture and we need to be seen. It’s especially important that young kids with disabilities see people with disabilities on TV and in movies. They need to grow up with a strong self-esteem and feeling like they, too, belong in this world. The I AM PWD campaign works toward that goal of awareness and access.”
Over the next three years of the campaign, Hall hopes to see progress.
“I don’t want to see people with disabilities with talent give up on themselves. I want to see movement. I would like to see a landscape with provable data that shows there are more people working in entertainment and media. First, we have to get people in the entertainment industry, we have to get them counted and observed. I don’t want to hear any talk about diversity that doesn’t include people with disabilities. I want the disability advocates and activists to join with me and realize that you have to be seen in the mass popular culture.” Hall added, “I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again. If you’re not seen, you are invisible.”
For more information on how you can join to support the I AM PWD campaign, visit www.iampwd.org.
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