Housekeeping

It’s time for some updates on the website and podcast ...

Looking Ahead

Friday, May 15 - Sunday, May 17

Disability Blogger Link-Up.

Monday, May 18

Disability.TV Podcast

Downton Abbey, with guests Kelly Anneken and Tom Schneider of the Up Yours, Downstairs Podcast.

Friday, May 29 - Sunday, May 31

Disability Blogger Link-Up.

Monday, June 1

Disability.TV Podcast

Red Band Society, with guest Christina Stephens, YouTube vlogger AmputeeOT.

Friday, June 12 - Sunday, June 14

Disability Blogger Link-Up.

Monday, June 15

Disability.TV

Beedie & Jessa, examining a short storyline in Girls.

Feedback

There are several ways you can comment on the blog and podcast. Most readers use the Disqus comment feature, where you can comment on any blog post by clicking the “Click here to comment”  or pencil icon link at the bottom of each item, just to the right of the post date and time. This feature also allows you to interact with other commenters, and you can comment as a guest, even if you’re not registered with Disqus.

If you prefer to communicate with me directly, you can use my email address: apulrang@icloud.com.

Finally, I would greatly appreciate your general feedback through the survey embedded below, which asks for your opinions and ideas for both the Disability Thinking Blog and the Disability.TV Podcast. The survey is completely anonymous, with no personal data coming to me or collected by SurveyMonkey. I hope to have enough responses to get a good idea of what people like and what they’d like to see here.

Create your own user feedback survey

Support

Aside from commenting and completing the survey, there are three main ways you can help support this site:

Subscribe to the Disability.TV Podcast and leave an iTunes review. Reviews help introduce the podcast to potential listeners, and subscriptions raise the podcast in the iTunes rankings.

Contribute through Patreon. It’s a simple way to make a small but important financial contribution towards maintaining and improving the blog and podcast. Believe me, a little help on this is going to go a long way.

You can also help by buying Amazon products through the Amazon Affiliate search widget on the upper right hand side of the blog. If you’re going to buy something anyway, doing it from here will generate a little money for the blog and podcast, while costing you nothing extra.

Thanks to all the readers and listeners. Your return visits and comments make this all a blast to do.

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Disabled TV Character Face-Off: Sixth Round

In the fifth round, Walter “Flynn” White, Jr. beat Max Braverman.

Here is the updated bracket:

Round six pits John Bates, of Downton Abbey, against Bran Stark from Game Of Thrones. Which character do you like best?

John Bates

Downton Abbey

Actor: Brendan Coyle

Disability: Limp from a leg wound.

Role on the show: Secondary character in ensemble cast.

Bran Stark

Game Of Thrones

Actor: Isaac Hempstead Wright

Disability: Paraplegia.

Role on the show: Secondary character in ensemble cast.

Create your free online surveys with SurveyMonkey , the world's leading questionnaire tool.

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Facebook

Twitter
Disability.TV Podcast

Which Kinds Of Ableism Do You See Most?

It’s a fun survey! Which kinds of ableism do you see most? At the risk of reinventing the wheel, I've come up with my own categories, which I hope covers all the necessary bases. See some explanations below the survey.

Why am I asking? Because I'm curious to see if there are any interesting patterns in the responses. Also, frequency of Twitter, Tumblr, and Facebook references can only tell you so much about what people are really feeling and experiencing.

Please feel free to share this with others. The more people respond, the better. I'll post results after about a month.

Added note: In response to a question on Twitter, I ask that you report things you have either experienced yourself or witnessed happening to others ... but not things you've only heard about or read about. Thanks!

Create your free online surveys with SurveyMonkey , the world's leading questionnaire tool.

Use of outdated terminology

• Handicapped, differently-abled, special needs … or whichever terms you don’t like.

Insulting jokes on disability themes or using disability language

• “I’m telling you, that guy is a total moron, a real mental defective!"

Snubbing, freezing out, shying away from social engagement

• When it’s obvious someone is avoiding dealing with you because your disability makes them uncomfortable.

Condescending attitudes, speaking to disabled adults as if they are children

• “Heeey buuuddy! That’s a pretty snazzy hat you’ve got there!"

Physical barriers that shouldn’t be there, could be removed

• When you can’t even enter because of the way a place is constructed.

Explicit exclusion based on disability

• “I’m sorry, but you’re going to have to leave.” “We’ll need to see a doctor’s note if you want to participate."

Refusing to accommodate

• “I don’t have time to deal with you … why don’t you bring someone to help you?” “But the policy says …” “If we let you do it that way it’s not fair to everyone else."

Assumed to be incompetent, unreliable, immature

• When people ask the person with us instead of us. When we say what happened and people just don’t believe us; we must have misunderstood. Most employment discrimination.

Unsolicited advice

• When someone we don’t know graces us with their brilliant idea about how to cope with a disability they know nothing about.

Held to a higher standard of polite behavior than most non-disabled people

• It’s very important for us to be patient, civil. There’s no call to get mad; people just don’t know.

Administrative rules and procedures that impede our progress and independence

• Nobody actually wants us to end up in a nursing home, dropped from college, denied benefits. It’s just policy.

Disability.TV Ep. 19 - American Horror Story: Freak Show

"Don’t you get it? This place is as good as it gets for folks like us … but we take care of each other.”

“The way they look at us. The way they treat us. It ain’t right!”

“That’s showbiz."

American Horror Story: Freak Show … Is it a degrading abomination or an exhilarating walk on the wilder side of disability? I’ll explore this and other related questions with disabled activist, artist, and podcaster Jane Hash.

Use the links below to subscribe, comment, and read more about topics mentioned in this episode.

American Horror Story

Wikipedia: Freak Shows

Hash It Out With Jane

Plain Jane: The SHOCKUMENTARY
YouTube profile of AHS: Freak Show actor Matt Frasier
YouTube profile of AHS: Freak Show actor Jyoti Amge 

AV Club Season 4 Reviews by Erik Adams and Emily Stephens

Vox.com Season 4 Wrap-Up by Todd VanDerWerff

Hear More and Subscribe:

Podcast Page

iTunes

Stitcher

If you are so inclined, please leave an iTunes or Stitcher review. Positive reviews help more people discover the Disability.TV Podcast.

Comment:

Disability Thinking Blog

Facebook

Twitter: @AndrewPulrang

apulrang@icloud.com

Podcast Survey

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Disability.TV Podcast

Disabled TV Character Face-Off: Fifth Round

Tyrion Lannister beat Geordi LaForge in the fourth round.

Here is the updated bracket:

The fifth round features Max Braverman vs. Walter “Flynn” White, Jr. Which character do you like best?

Max Braverman

Parenthood

Actor: Max Burkholder

Disability: Asperger Syndrome.

Role on the show: Secondary character in ensemble cast.

Walter “Flynn” White, Jr.

Breaking Bad

Actor: RJ Mitte

Disability: Cerebral Palsy.

Role on the show: Secondary character in ensemble cast.

Create your free online surveys with SurveyMonkey , the world's leading questionnaire tool.

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Disability.TV Podcast

Disability.TV - Ep. 18 - Top 5

In which I count down the Top 5 Disability on TV Happenings of 2014. Not necessarily the best … just the most consequential.

5. Red Band Society

4. Cancellations

3. Asperger’s on Parenthood

2. Tyrion’s jail cell conversations on Game Of Thrones

1. American Horror Story: Freak Show

Videos sampled in the podcast:

Red Band Society

Ironside (2013)

The Michael J. Fox Show

Growing Up Fisher

Parenthood

Game Of Thrones

American Horror Story: Freak Show

Don't forget to take the Disability.TV Podcast Survey at SurveyMonkey.com. Vote for the TV shows and topics you'd like me to cover in 2015!

Subscribe:

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Comment:

Disability Thinking Blog

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Twitter: @AndrewPulrang

apulrang@icloud.com

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Disability.TV Podcast

Disability.TV Podcast: Looking Back, Looking Ahead

The most notable development for me in 2014 was the start of the Disability.TV Podcast. Beginning in August, several guest hosts and I dug into disability depictions on several TV shows of the past and present. All of the podcast episodes are available on the main podcast site, and through free subscription using iTunes or Stitcher. If you want to jump right to the TV show discussions, here is the list so far:

Ironside (Original Series)

Friday Night Lights

Game Of Thrones - Part 1

Game Of Thrones - Part 2

Glee

Ironside (New Series)

The Big Bang Theory

I plan to go back to weekly episodes sometime in January, 2015. Which TV shows with disabled characters should we look at the year ahead? What other related topics should we discuss? I would really appreciate you letting me know by taking the Podcast Direction Survey.

Meanwhile, look for the next episode this coming Sunday, including my list of the Top 5 Disability On TV Events of 2014.

Disability.TV - Ep. 17 - Mini-Cast

In which I return from a long hiatus to talk about some listener feedback, ask you for input into what shows to cover next, and generally attempt to get back into a weekly podcasting routine.

As promised in the episode, here is the original comment Tweet from Amanda, and the video comments she posted a couple of days later. The video, in particular, explains her concerns in more detail.

Wow what an ableist podcast. http://t.co/cQIcQaQ7PL #ableismis saying that you understand ASD as a punchline because we're so "bizarre"
— AmandaMills (@NaturentheCity) November 16, 2014

Disability.TV Podcast Direction Survey at SurveyMonkey.com.

Subscribe:

iTunes

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Comment:

Disability Thinking Blog

Facebook

Twitter: @AndrewPulrang

apulrang@icloud.com

Disabled TV Character Face-Off: Fourth Round

President Josiah Bartlett beat the original Chief Robert Ironside in the third round.

The fourth round features Geordi LaForge vs. Tyrion Lannister. Which character do you like best?

Geordi LaForge

Star Trek: The Next Generation

Actor: LeVar Burton

Disability: Blindness.

Role on the show: Major character in ensemble cast.

Tyrion Lannister

Game Of Thrones

Actor: Peter Dinklage

Disability: Little Person.

Role on the show: Major character in ensemble cast.

Create your free online surveys with SurveyMonkey , the world's leading questionnaire tool.

What's Next for the Disability.TV Podcast?

There are 16 episodes of the Disability.TV Podcast so far. I’ve had some terrific guests to talk about some interesting TV shows that have disabled characters. Some we loved, some we liked, some were disappointing, and some I change my mind about approximately twice a month. I have also received some really interesting feedback on the episodes so far, that I think will help me make Disability.TV a better, more engaging podcast. I’ll have more to say about that next weekend, when I plan to post the 17th podcast episode.

Since I have lost the original calendar of episode topics I had all planned out, now is probably a good time to reassess where to go from here. What other TV shows should I discuss next? Are there other topics related to disability on TV worth exploring? Which topics are listeners most looking forward to?

To answer that last question, I have put up an online survey at SurveyMonkey. It would help a lot for as many people as possible to complete the survey so I can make my plans with some sort of direction.

[Click here to complete the survey]

The survey has two parts:

First, which TV shows with disabled characters would you like me to cover? Here is a list of possibilities, with a note on the disabilities portrayed:

Parenthood

Autism / Asperger’s

Red Band Society

Amputation, chronic Illnesses

American Horror Story: Freak Show

Various physical deformities

Deadwood

Cerebral Palsy

Downton Abbey

Mobility impairments

House, M. D.

Mobility impairments, chronic pain, drug addiction

Star Trek Franchise

Various disabilities over 5 TV series

The West Wing

Multiple Sclerosis, Deafness / Sign Language use

Derek

Intellectual disability (unspecified, not clear?)

Carnivale

Various physical deformities

Becker

Blindness

Push Girls

Paraplegia / wheelchair users

Britain’s Missing Top Model

Various disabilities

Breaking Bad

Cerebral Palsy

LIttle People, Big World

Family that includes several Little People

Life Goes On

Down Syndrome

I, Claudius

Cerebral Palsy, stuttering

Second, which other topics would you like included in the podcast. For example:

Familiar disability tropes and clichés.

Disability in comedy.

Disability in sci-fi and fantasy.

Disability in horror.

Disability on reality shows.

Disability on shows for kids.

Supporting and guest characters with disabilities.

Cognitive impairment on TV.

Sensory impairment on TV.

Physical impairment on TV.

Mental illness on TV.

Aging on TV.

What is "representation" and why does it matter?

Should disability depictions on TV be realistic or idealistic?

How important is it to cast disabled actors in disability roles?

How important it is to for portrayals of specific disabilities to be completely accurate?

In each section of the survey, you can also make your own suggestions of TV shows and topics.

I’m looking forward to getting lots of feedback and suggestions!

[Click here to complete the survey]

Disabled TV Character Face-Off: Third Round

Dr. Gregory House beat Dr. Kerry Weaver in the second round.

The third round features President Josiah Bartlett vs. Chief Robert Ironside. Which character do you like best?

President Josiah Bartlett

The West Wing

Actor: Martin Sheen

Disability: Multiple Sclerosis.

Role on the show: Lead character of the show.

Chief Robert Ironside

Ironside

Actor: Raymond Burr

Disability: Paraplegia.

Role on the show: Lead character of the show.

Voting in round three will stay open for two weeks.

Create your free online surveys with SurveyMonkey , the world's leading questionnaire tool.

Disabled TV Character Face-Off: Second Round

Becky Jackson beat Artie Abrams in the first round.

The second round features two TV doctors who both have disabilities. Which do you like best?

Dr. Gregory House

House, M.D.

Actor: Hugh Laurie

Disability: Chronic pain, walks with a cane, prescription drug addiction.

Role on the show: Lead character of the show.

Dr. Kerry Weaver

ER

Actor: Laura Innes

Disability: Unspecified mobility impairment, always walks with an arm crutch.

Role on the show: One of the principal doctor characters in a large ensemble cast.

Voting in this round will be closed Monday, November 3, 2014.

Create your free online surveys with SurveyMonkey , the world's leading questionnaire tool.

Vote For Your Favorites

This is going to be my last round of campaigning for votes in the Disabled TV Character Face-Off. If you’re not familiar with this, I plan on identifying 16 of the most loved or admired disabled characters on TV shows, and using a bracket-style face-off competition to decide who is the greatest disabled character in TV history. At this stage, you can vote for any characters you like, as many as you want. After this weekend, I will set up the bracket using the top 16 characters. If enough people want to add characters not on the list below, I may add additional characters to the competition.

If you haven’t done so already, have a look at the list, and vote for your favorites!

Create your free online surveys with SurveyMonkey , the world's leading questionnaire tool.

Disabled TV Character Survey - Update

Some favorites are starting to emerge in the Disabled TV Character Face-Off. 16 of the 32 characters in the initial survey have votes, and a few of those have quite a few … most notably, Dr. Gregory House, Sheldon Cooper, and Walter White, Jr.

That’s only based on 9 people taking the survey, though, and I would like to get at least 20 peoples’ votes before setting up the character one-on-one “face off” brackets.

So, if you haven’t voted already, please do … just click here!

(P.S.: It occurs to me that I should probably say that this survey isn’t a marketing tool. Nobody will get your contact information for any purpose. I have no way of knowing who voted, unless you say so in the comments. It’s just an opinion survey … nothing more).

Disabled TV Character Face-Off - Survey

Following up on yesterday’s post, here’s your chance to help start the Disabled Character Face-Off. The top 16 of these 32 characters will compete in a “bracket” style elimination tournament, to determine the best disabled TV character of all time!

Create your free online surveys with SurveyMonkey , the world's leading questionnaire tool.

Health Care Survey

If you have a disability, or are connected in some personal way to the disability experience, I urge you to click the link above and complete the online survey from the University of New Hampshire, about your experiences with health care. I’ve done it, and it seems really well-designed, and best of all, brief.

It’s good to see some attention focused on the gaps and differences in how disabled people experience health care.

Disability Thinking Survey

A little less than a year ago, I set up a survey to get feedback on ideas for an expanded version of “Disability Thinking”. The site is still mainly just a blog, but I haven’t given up on expanding, so here is another survey. The main thing I want to find out is what people want to see in a multi-featured website by and for people with disabilities.

Please take a few minutes to complete the survey. I would really appreciate it!

Note: Make sure you scroll down and click the "Next" button after giving the first set of answers. Thank you!

Create your free online surveys with SurveyMonkey , the world's leading questionnaire tool.

Survey

YOUR Opinions on Employment and Disability!

Andrea Shettle's Tumblr blog - November 14, 2013

This is a "signal boost" for a potentially valuable survey on employment and people with disabilities. I did it, and I encourage my readers to do so as well, especially those who have disabilities.

Survey on Employment and Disability.

Just Trade The Word "Disability" ...

Why a teen fashion blogger / feminist is my newest role model.

I first learned about Tavi Gevinson three months ago, at about the time I was getting ready to re-launch my blog about politics and popular culture. It was also a couple of months after I'd quit my Executive Director position at an a small Center for Independent Living, where I had worked for over 22 years. One of the reasons I left was because I felt burned out, and wanted to explore other ways of helping people with disabilities understand their experience. I also wanted to understand it better myself. Yet, here I was, getting ready to revive my old blogging habit with posts about Fiscal Cliffs and TV shows. They're fine topics, and I have gone ahead with that, but do I have anything unique to say about disability?

Then I read a New Yorker article about Tavi Gevinson and her website for teenage girls, Rookie.

In her presentation here, Gevinson talks about the difficulty of finding strong female characters in popular culture. You can find strong female characters in movies and on TV, their strengths tend to be defined by singular, narrow characteristics:

"They're not strong characters who happen to be female. They're completely flat and they're basically cardboard characters. The problem with this is that then people expect women to be that easy to understand, and women are mad at themselves for not being that simple. When in actuality, women are complicated, women are multifaceted. Not because women are crazy, but because people are crazy, and women happen to be people."

Now try this. Replace the words I've colored red with "people with disabilities", or your favorite "disability" term, and these observations are just as true. The same holds for lots of the articles and blog posts on Rookie about being female and a teenager.

After reading the New Yorker article, and then exploring the Rookie website, I came to what should have been an obvious thought. Disability is at least as varied, vexing, and misunderstood as being a teenage girl. Why not apply the techniques, models, and attitude of Rookie to the disability experience?  Start a blog on the topic of disability, and expand it into an online magazine / community by and for people with disabilities. Most importantly, give it personality and a point of view. Make it a site people with disabilities want to visit.

I am by nature cautious and, frankly, lazy. It is like me to think about a project like this. It is un-like me to implement it. I'm going to give it a real try though, and when I start to feel discouraged or bored, maybe I'll visit Rookie and see what Tavi and her crew are up to.

In the meantime, please do my online survey about what you'd like to see in a disability-themed website.

What Kind Of Disability Website Would You Visit?

I just set up an online survey on what kinds of features and styles people with disabilities might be looking for in a disability-themed website. One day I hope to expand beyond this blog, but there are so many options that I'd like some feedback first.

Click here to take the survey.

I'll also leave a link to the survey up on the right-hand column, more or less permanently, so future visitors can add their input.