Columnist Helen Henderson writes in the Toronto Star about a scene on the ABC television series Private Practice, in which a hospital executive “feels trapped by the specter of political correctness” because she fears confronting a doctor with a disability.

Henderson says the scene underscores a real workplace problem: Employers are wary of disability hiring because they think “it’s harder to dismiss an underperforming person with a disability than one without a disability.”

A survey by Toronto’s Job Opportunity Information Network found that 36 per cent of executives said they felt uncomfortable reprimanding someone with a disability.

To be truly inclusive, Henderson says, a workplace must encourage people to speak up about legitimate concerns. She gives points to the producers of Private Practice for hiring Michael Patrick Thornton to play the doctor in the wheelchair. Thornton is partially paralyzed and uses a wheelchair in real life.

(Toronto Star photo from ABC)

On ‘Glee,’ the guy in the chair doesn’t really need one

From the Associated Press:

Disability advocates in Hollywood say the hit Fox series “Glee,” represents yet another missed opportunity. The show hired Kevin McHale, an actor without a disability, to play the role of Artie, a paraplegic high school student.

“I think there’s a fear of litigation, that a person with disabilities might slow a production down, fear that viewers might be uncomfortable,” CSI’s Robert David Hall told AP. “I’ve made my living as an actor for 30 years and I walk on two artificial legs.”

Disability rights activists say television casting doesn’t accurately reflect American society. About twenty percent of Americans have a disability, but a recent study found that fewer than 2 percent of the characters on television do. More than a third of performers with disabilities reported facing discrimination in the workplace.

“Glee” regularly celebrates diversity, and Wednesday’s episode featured a feel-good scene in which all the glee club members performed a dance routine in wheelchairs to demonstrate solidarity with Artie.

Show creator Ryan Murphy told the Los Angeles Times (with video of McHale dancing) that Wednesday’s episode represented a turning point for the show. “Writing this made me feel the responsibility of showing the truth of the pain that outcasts go through,” he said. “It’s not all razzle-dazzle show business. It’s tough, and it’s painful, and it was for me growing up, and it is for most people. So I think this made me realize that amid the fun and the glamour, it’s really great now and again to show the underbelly of what people who are different feel.”

See also:

Spinning their wheels — New York Post

Marlee Matlin on ‘Family Guy’ gag: ‘Lighten up, people’—Entertainment Weekly

(Photo from the New York Post)

The Axis Dance Company in Oakland, California, is made up of seven dancers. Four of them have physical disabilities and perform in wheelchairs. New York Times writer Bruce Weber says the collaboration among dancers with and without disabilities delivers a powerful message:

Sympathy is irrelevant. Forget what isn’t here, and pay attention to what is. Recognize the chairs for what they are and not as substitutes for what they are not.

From USA Today:

Crumbling sidewalks across the nation don’t meet federal requirements for disability access, putting people in wheelchairs at risk as they take to the streets.

Although there are no specific statistics on the number of accidents involving wheelchairs in streets, according to the U.S. Department of Transportation’s Fatality Analysis Reporting System, disability was a factor in 617 pedestrian traffic fatalities last year.

Disabled residents here take their lives in their hands getting from point A to point B, says Scott Crawford (above), a disability-rights advocate.

([Jackson, MS] Clarion-Ledger photo from USA Today)

See also: Cape gets mixed grade for access — Cape Cod Times

From the New York Times, with video:

A fencing club in New Jersey has opened a new program, reportedly the first of its kind in the Northeast, to teach wheelchair fencing to young people with physical disabilities.

The club’s first six fencers have conditions like spina bifida, cerebral palsy and spinal cord injuries. With only 27 wheelchair athletes represented in the United States Fencing Association, club staffers are hopeful that their new athletes could reach national-level competitions and even the Paralympic Games.

Fencing club president George Janto says the sport requires very few modifications to accommodate people with disabilities. Fencing coach Mickey Zeljkovic, a five-time Serbian national fencing champion, says it requires participants to think ahead — “like physical chess.”

Parents say the program brings unexpected benefits to the new duelers. “They have a lot more confidence in themselves, that they can do what other children can do,” said Colleen Mooney, whose 15-year-old son attends weekly. “They may have their own special way of doing it, but they can [do it] like anyone else.”

(New York Times photo)

Writing in Business Week, Ralph Braun says studies show that hiring people with disabilities does not create higher costs for businesses, and yet the myths persist.

He says employer bias poses significant barriers to hiring for people with disabilities, and quotes a recent study that found only 40 percent of American working-age adults with disabilities are employed, either full- or part-time. An excerpt:

The fact is, employees with physical disabilities can do for your business what they’ve done for themselves: Move it forward, one step (or wheel turn) at a time.

Ralph Braun, who uses a wheelchair, is CEO of BraunAbility in Winamac, Ind.

From CNN ‘Heroes’:

Brad Blauser came to Iraq as a civilian contractor in 2004, but quit that job to devote himself fulltime to distributing free wheelchairs to Iraqi kids.

So far, his Wheelchairs for Iraqi Kids has distributed nearly 650 free pediatric wheelchairs. He works without compensation.

UNICEF estimates that one in seven Iraqi children aged 2 to 14 lives with a disability. Blauser says his group is the only source of pediatric wheelchairs in the country.

“By providing what they need, I’m hoping to start a movement to change the way people think about disabled children,” said Blauser. “They are not a curse, they are a blessing and they deserve to have their needs met.”

See also:

• Texas Man Gives Help to Iraqi Children — My Fox Atlanta (with video)
• Disabled Iraqi children get wheelchairs, big smiles — CNN

(CNN photo courtesy of Brad Hauser)