People with disabilities have never had great representation in popular media. There aren’t many people with disabilities with starring roles in television shows or movies. The experience of people with disabilities in the media probably mirrors the experiences of people of color. For whatever reason, entertainment executives think there isn’t an audience for content that features characters with disabilities. But other identity groups have one advantage that we don’t: they have established niche media markets. Telemundo targets Hispanics. Lifetime and Oxygen target women. Bravo has a lot of gay-themed programming. And then you have all the other niche channels like the Outdoor Network and the Food Network. But people with disabilities are left to observe the media explosion from the sidelines.
I’m working with a few other parties to explore possibilities for creating a disability-focused media outlet. Everything is very preliminary; we’re basically testing the waters to see whether there’s a market for something like this. I think the trick is to create something that doesn’t have too narrow of a focus. Imagine a hypothetical cable channel for people with disabilities. Ideally, the channel should have a variety of programming; drama, comedies, reality shows/documentaries, all of which feature people with disabilities. But the programming should be able to appeal to a general audience as well. The problem with web portals like ICan (which seems to be down right now) is that they never make much efforts to reach a broader audience. If you’re not disabled or closely involved with someone who is disabled, you’ve probably never heard of ICan. But most people know about the Food Channel, even if they never watch it.
What do you think? Is there a market for a disability-themed channel? What kind of programming would you want to see? I don’t know if this concept will go anywhere, but I want to hear your thoughts.
I saw this one last night;
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0344510/
It’s the best film I’ve seen in a long while, and incidentally has a disabled lead character.
I think most of us would like to be integral to the whole before we go off on our own tangent in the media… it’s a bit like schooling. “They’ve got *that over there*, so why should we let them into our bit?”
If there is a travel segment, I nominate you to do a Charles Kuralt thing, on the road. Convince the few airlines that we have left to take out 1 row of 3 seats out to accomodate a motorized wheelchair. Or ride around the country and world in a large coach visiting other places that are inaccessible. Thereby, showing the places to avoid. Or get others to be activists for change in the “right wing world”. Show the quality of nursing homes around the country, could be another topic. Call the channel “Food for thought”, the galloping gimp,or Your highway my way!
Actually, iCan was making great progress in reaching many people with many different types of disabilities (not just spinal cord injury, wheelchair, deaf, blind, but ALL.) Unfortunately, their founder and leader, Heidi Van Arnem, died in 2001 and the pretty much the whole endeavor went TITANIC.
Just read an article how HBO is going to let PBS air some of its movies after HBO is done with them.
Remember, Oprah started with just a talkshow, now she’s got her own channel, production company and mag to boot! Plus, she’s still doing the show.
The disability community needs their own Oprah. Nominations?
I agree with the above poster who points out that it’d be nice to even be involved at all. Movies like the one Gunnhildur mentioned are good, but the actress playing the main character is not disabled. We need more disabled actors getting work as disabled characters. That said, it would be wonderful to see an eventual channel. I’d like to have something like that and I have friends (both disabled and not) who would be interested as well.
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