Let's start with a question......

Anyone ever wonder why people with mixed abilities are under-represented on stage and in film? I wonder if it is because there is no material that has been written yet? Or there are not enough actors with Mixed Abilities? Or because there are still the stereotypes that linger and have control over the real material that could be generated? Like all social groups, the Mixed Ability community has not been spoken for on television or on film. The Mixed Ability community is not represented in the Reality TV World yet either. Why not have a cast member on the Real World in a wheelchair? On Survivor? On Big Brother? Why not cast one each time? Imagine if Networks still denied the Latino/Latina culture representation, or the African-American culture, or even Gay&Lesbian? The ever quiet stepping-off-to-the-side members of the Mixed Ability community will never be heard or seen if we don't create our own beginning. We can't let someone else write our story for us. Our culture is one that no one can paraphrase or reconstruct from observation. We must tell our stories or else we will soon be represented by those who are not from our culture. Our image will be created so that it is appealing and eatable. Of the many different flavors in the Mixed Ability Spectrum each one of us must come together and create our own representation. If not, the fake reality makers will do it for us and the story they will tell will be one that makes money and does not tell the truth. We need to use our own members. We need to use the real people whose truth needs to be told not some "prettier" version for the squeamish or to be aesthetically pleasing.