I was re-watching the movie Hot Flashes, with the actress Brooke Shields, tonight. It's a fun movie involving middle-aged women playing basketball against the championship high school girls' team. I noticed during one of the games, there's a blink-and-you-miss-it woman in a wheelchair sitting in the stands. Now, obviously she's still in the wheelchair, and in the front row. But the movie makes a point to include her in a sea of extras. She's not just the token disabled person in town. She's just a Texan in a high-school gym, watching a basketball game.
A show that also includes a woman in a wheelchair, without rubbing it in your face or making it an after-school special "teachable moment", is Madam Secretary. Obviously, this a show about a female Cabinet member, specifically Secretary of State. I have noticed two different instances, seasons apart, where a woman in a wheelchair is shown wheeling past the main actors into an office or the elevator. Thereby showing that we can be in positions of power. Maybe she's not the Secretary, but she works for her. I'll take it!
We might get to the point where the boss is someone in a wheelchair, but if it doesn't happen, fine. Even ten years, ago, I can't remember any show that had someone who was in a wheelchair in a starring. Yes, that kid in Glee, but the actor was never disabled. Speechless is the only one, but I want to see a show where I can see myself in the character; someone who has gone to college and is not just seen as "that wheelchair lady".
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