I don’t regularly watch Glee, mostly because my husband can’t handle all of the singing. But also, because I’m hooked on The Biggest Loser. But, last night I was flipping back and forth – Biggest Loser… Glee… Biggest Loser and so on. And it turns out Glee was a rerun but I had never seen it before. I happened to catch Jane Lynch’s character using the term “handicapable” when referring to her onscreen sister who has Down syndrome.
I had never heard this term before, but a quick Google search revealed that it is everywhere, from handiCAPABLE Guide Service and Handi-Capable Hands to the US Handicapable Square Dance Association and the Handicapable Camp. Apparently, it’s the new, go-to term when referring to those with disabilities. And I love it.
For far too long now, people with disabilities have been viewed and labeled by their disability. A person in a wheelchair was seen as a wheelchair – with limitations on where “it” could go and what “it” could do. People are finally starting to see a person in a wheelchair as a person who is able to do so much because of the chair. The wheelchair allows for more freedom and independence. The same goes for those of us who use sign language, or a computer to talk for us, and those of us with a hearing aid or a walker. These devices are advances.
But the best advances have come from the help of other people in moving along the disability rights movement. Inclusive education and recreation programs are helping us all to view people with disabilities as people first. So do shows like Glee help or hurt this movement? The actor who portrays a teenager in a wheelchair does not use a wheelchair in real life. But at the same time, people with Down syndrome are regularly featured on the show. Should the part of the boy in the wheelchair have gone to an actor in a wheelchair? And are the actors with Down syndrome portrayed in a positive light? What do you think?