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Tuesday, September 21, 2021
Emmys Blasted by Disability Advocate for Lack of Visible Ramp at Stage
Variety: Disability rights advocate James LeBrecht is “furious” with CBS after it seems the network didn’t fulfill its promise to install a fully accessible, visible ramp on the Emmys stage.
7 comments:
Jeremy Pitzer
said...
This article is fascinating, as well as the topic it addresses. Much of the activism performed by major companies, especially in hollywood, is performative at best and doesn’t mean anything behind the scenes. In this case, for the inclusive effort to really mean something, it has to be visible and near performative to actually mean anything. This is because hollywood’s history has been to downplay and cover up contributions of disabled people and to treat them as if they were monstrous. Therefore, activists wanted the emmys to proudly declare their inclusiveness by showing off the ramp. And yet, the emmy’s had a tiny little lift that was invisible to the televised viewership.Its so strange, that in an era where big business Hollywood is so desperate to show off how much they care about diversity that they would stimmy this ramp. It certainly does create a questionable image of the company in my mind if nothing else.
I think this article really clearly highlights the idea of optics and what is and is not perceived as “marketable” activism in the media. All too often productions will lead with promises of accessibility and inclusivity that are cut for design or a sense of urgency. The idea of “One Right Way” and an imposed sense of urgency on production are parts of white supremacy culture, which can touch every disenfranchised group. Productions will write off accessibility concerns as issues that “can’t be addressed under this time frame” as a cop out to say that they MIGHT be addressed in the future, just not right now. It enables the dominant able-bodied culture to create unsafe spaces for disabled people in the name of doing something “well”. I think that their decision to lie to LeBrecht is even more concerning. Usually production companies will cover themselves with an excuse, but this time they felt the need to lie about visibility and continue to cordon off differently abled artists to a small, invisible ramp. This shows a blatant disregard for the lives and visibility of differently abled people, keeping them as an “other” in the industry and perpetuating the idea that alienating them in the name of efficiency or aesthetics is fine.
Theatre has always been exclusive. From race, to gender, to sexuality, to ability status, people have always been shut up. However, out of those and many more unfortunately mainly excluded groups, ability status is often overlooked. Theatres are often created without thought for physically disabled cast, crew, and audience members. There is a lack of disability representation onstage and offstage. It is incredibly disheartening because these mistakes are usually made on accident, as people simply forget to include and have an awareness of disabled people. However, even more disappointing, in this situation with the Emmys, CBS explicitly promised to provide ramps for disabled members of the awards ceremony. I do know not if CBS purposely did not include ramps, or just forgot despite being formally told and promising to provide ramps, but either way, one thing remains the same. Disabled people are being forgotten, and that cannot continue. I do not know how to solve this issue, as I believe (and might be wrong) buildings must provide specific resources for those who are physically disabled. If not, they need to.
I appreciated the quote in the article, “separate is never equal.” Disabled people at these events deserve to have access to spaces that does not require them to take strange routes or go around blockages, especially not going backstage or using a lift as the article mentions was the plan. Hearing why using a lift is not ideal was illuminating, as it explained that it makes the person look helpless. Being honored with an award for your work should come with dignity and reverence, and being othered does not have that dignity. Even if the ramp was not needed for the ceremony, having it there shows everyone in attendance that people in wheelchairs have been thought about and designed for. Unfortunately as others have mentioned, the entertainment industry is very limiting, especially for disabled people, and this lack of visibility damages the lives of disabled people. Hopefully next year things will be better at the Emmys thanks to people like James LeBrecht.
The culture of cutting costs and making a show as inexpensively as possible does nothing but harm the final product and those responsible for making said product. This is no different at the Emmy’s. If there were more folx in the room when designing and planning this awards show, this may not have happened. This was really a breakdown in communication, promises were made that had not been confirmed or planned for. This cannot continue to happen in this industry. This is a glaring reminder to ALWAYS ensure you are speaking truth to a patron, especially in the case of ADA compliance and accessibility. This is point blank excluded folx from being in the room, and this is a pattern in our industry. Ability and accessibility should never be overlooked in any case, although so often they are when too few staff are putting on too large a show. It is disheartening to this happening even at a large budget, nationally televised event.
7 comments:
This article is fascinating, as well as the topic it addresses. Much of the activism performed by major companies, especially in hollywood, is performative at best and doesn’t mean anything behind the scenes. In this case, for the inclusive effort to really mean something, it has to be visible and near performative to actually mean anything. This is because hollywood’s history has been to downplay and cover up contributions of disabled people and to treat them as if they were monstrous. Therefore, activists wanted the emmys to proudly declare their inclusiveness by showing off the ramp. And yet, the emmy’s had a tiny little lift that was invisible to the televised viewership.Its so strange, that in an era where big business Hollywood is so desperate to show off how much they care about diversity that they would stimmy this ramp. It certainly does create a questionable image of the company in my mind if nothing else.
I think this article really clearly highlights the idea of optics and what is and is not perceived as “marketable” activism in the media. All too often productions will lead with promises of accessibility and inclusivity that are cut for design or a sense of urgency. The idea of “One Right Way” and an imposed sense of urgency on production are parts of white supremacy culture, which can touch every disenfranchised group. Productions will write off accessibility concerns as issues that “can’t be addressed under this time frame” as a cop out to say that they MIGHT be addressed in the future, just not right now. It enables the dominant able-bodied culture to create unsafe spaces for disabled people in the name of doing something “well”. I think that their decision to lie to LeBrecht is even more concerning. Usually production companies will cover themselves with an excuse, but this time they felt the need to lie about visibility and continue to cordon off differently abled artists to a small, invisible ramp. This shows a blatant disregard for the lives and visibility of differently abled people, keeping them as an “other” in the industry and perpetuating the idea that alienating them in the name of efficiency or aesthetics is fine.
well explained about disability rights
Lead Generation in India
superb article on Emmys Blasted by Disability Advocate for Lack of Visible Ramp at Stage
Outsource cad drafting
Theatre has always been exclusive. From race, to gender, to sexuality, to ability status, people have always been shut up. However, out of those and many more unfortunately mainly excluded groups, ability status is often overlooked. Theatres are often created without thought for physically disabled cast, crew, and audience members. There is a lack of disability representation onstage and offstage. It is incredibly disheartening because these mistakes are usually made on accident, as people simply forget to include and have an awareness of disabled people. However, even more disappointing, in this situation with the Emmys, CBS explicitly promised to provide ramps for disabled members of the awards ceremony. I do know not if CBS purposely did not include ramps, or just forgot despite being formally told and promising to provide ramps, but either way, one thing remains the same. Disabled people are being forgotten, and that cannot continue. I do not know how to solve this issue, as I believe (and might be wrong) buildings must provide specific resources for those who are physically disabled. If not, they need to.
I appreciated the quote in the article, “separate is never equal.” Disabled people at these events deserve to have access to spaces that does not require them to take strange routes or go around blockages, especially not going backstage or using a lift as the article mentions was the plan. Hearing why using a lift is not ideal was illuminating, as it explained that it makes the person look helpless. Being honored with an award for your work should come with dignity and reverence, and being othered does not have that dignity. Even if the ramp was not needed for the ceremony, having it there shows everyone in attendance that people in wheelchairs have been thought about and designed for. Unfortunately as others have mentioned, the entertainment industry is very limiting, especially for disabled people, and this lack of visibility damages the lives of disabled people. Hopefully next year things will be better at the Emmys thanks to people like James LeBrecht.
The culture of cutting costs and making a show as inexpensively as possible does nothing but harm the final product and those responsible for making said product. This is no different at the Emmy’s. If there were more folx in the room when designing and planning this awards show, this may not have happened. This was really a breakdown in communication, promises were made that had not been confirmed or planned for. This cannot continue to happen in this industry. This is a glaring reminder to ALWAYS ensure you are speaking truth to a patron, especially in the case of ADA compliance and accessibility. This is point blank excluded folx from being in the room, and this is a pattern in our industry. Ability and accessibility should never be overlooked in any case, although so often they are when too few staff are putting on too large a show. It is disheartening to this happening even at a large budget, nationally televised event.
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