This petition is to address the current issues of misrepresentation of disability in today’s television programs. We have based our understanding of this issue around Fox Television Station’s past popular series “Glee” and their poor portrayal of various disabilities. Through our petition, we strive to achieve equal and accurate representation of those with disabilities in the media. Although the show is no longer running, the petition will be submitted to Fox in hopes of them changing current shows, editing future shows, hiring more actors with disabilities for these roles and eventually this movement spreading to other shows and networks. With your help we can change these inaccuracies and minimize obstacles people with disabilities may face in the television/media industry and hopefully shed light in the media to how living with a disability actually looks.

The Fox television series “Glee” used actors that did not actually have a disability to portray a character who did live with one. One of the main characters on the show was portrayed using a wheelchair. The actor playing this part did not have a disability and/or use a wheelchair. The casting of this character being given to someone who does not have a disability is a step back, as it takes away the role from an actor who does use a wheelchair, and possibly struggling to find roles to get hired for. When reading an article about what it is like to be an actor with a disability and seeing another actor play a role that uses a wheelchair they don’t need, a lot of the actors with disabilities said these roles being taken from them angers them. Some actors compared an actor playing a role in a wheelchair when they are able bodied, to being similar to a white actor using blackface (NPR.com; Bates, 2013). Research shows that 95% of the time, able-body actors are depicting people who struggle from physical disabilities (The Washington Post.org; Butler 2016). This comments and statistics highlight how offensive it is for these actors to watch able bodied actors take roles that should be rightfully theirs, as they are just as talented.

Another issue with the show, was that a character who has down syndrome, was only portrayed as the coach’s “pet” and not a girl who has potential to succeed in life. Reports indicate that twenty actors from T.V. shows, including “Glee” and the “Big Bang Theory”, portray someone with a disability. However, only one of these characters actually has a physical disability (The Washington Post.org; Butler, 2016). Although the character was actually played by an actor with down syndrome, her disability was her character’s defining trait when she could have many other important and interesting attributes. It was demeaning towards people who have down syndrome because they are not being represented as a character who is a participating member of the high school, but instead the coach’s pet that does everything she is told. As the producers and directors most likely did their research on how living with these struggles may look, it does not depict an entirely accurate picture of how it really is. It’s discriminatory towards those who do face these barriers in everyday life and can be embarrassing and dehumanizing to someone who may have a specific disability shown in the television show.

In an article by a “Glee” fan, they touch upon a serious and common problem happening which is how, “Television and movies often use actors without disabilities to play the characters with disabilities. This can be very negative for actors with disabilities because they may feel useless if they cannot be hired to play a character that has the same disability that they have” (“Disabilities in Glee: Socially Conscious or Misrepresentation?”, 2016). There are several people who chose to speak out on the matter and share their thoughts on how “Glee” misrepresents people with disabilities in the show. With this obvious following, it shows just how relevant this issue is and is all the more reason for this petition to be shared with Fox and beyond.