As an industry and medium, television’s strength is its ability to constantly evolve – and the steady, if slow, improvement in disability representation is an important part of that.
Disability consultant and Gogglebox star Simon Minty opened the session by celebrating the progress (as well as noting points of regress), before writer and actor Steph Lacey (Stay Close, Creep) reflected on the work still to be done.
Everyone’s heard of the Bechdel test*, right? Possibly the “DuVernay test”, too, as a measurement of the representation of people of colour in TV shows and films. Maybe even the “Vito Russo test” for gay and lesbian representation.
But what about the “Edgar test”, for disabled talent?
Justin Edgar of production company and disability training provider 104 Films, who is himself disabled, invented the rules when challenged by BBC Radio 4’s The Film Programme.
Since his formal diagnosis with Parkinson’s 18 months ago, Jeremy Paxman allows cameras into his life for the very first time to reflect on how the disease is impacting him.
