This is a quote pulled from the TED Talk “I got 99 problems… and palsy is just one” performed by Maysoon Zayid. It was one of the many impactful statements she said throughout the 14 minutes because it tackles head on the underrepresentation of people with disabilities in entertainment, despite being the largest minority in the world.
In this TED Talk, Maysoon Zayid is a female identifying comedian who discusses her life and experiences of discrimination in the entertainment industry while being a Muslim-American woman with cerebral palsy (CP). Maysoon shared an experience she had while in college where an actress without cerebral palsy was cast for a role as a female with CP over Maysoon, who is a female with CP. When she asked the head of the department, they told her that it was because they were worried she wouldn't be able to do the stunts. She replied "If I can't do the stunts, then so can't my character". There have been so many examples in the entertainment industry of able-bodied actors playing (usually visible) disabled roles. And it all comes down to employment opportunities being taken away from individuals with disabilities. There is already a small pool of opportunity for characters with disabilities and majority of those roles still are played by individuals without those disabilities. Because of this, there are fewer opportunities to create more positive images of disability in the media and everyday life because none are being portrayed. Therefore, there needs to be a greater conscious effort to create more inclusive platforms. Maybe then there will be less tolerance and threshold to foster hate against the “other”. Â
