SO AS part of my new year’s resolution I am trying to be more organised, God knows I need it.

So I find myself writing my column on a Monday night rather than an hour before the print deadline as per usual!

There has been much praise for the film chronicling the early life of Stephen Hawking – The Theory of Everything. This is especially true for the accolades flooding in for Eddie Redmayne, who plays Stephen Hawking.

Having seen him speaking on a talk show he doesn’t seem to share the Motor Neurone Disease that Stephen Hawking lives with, but I guess in order to tell a biopic a non-disabled actor is necessary to do the before and after. I haven’t seen the film, so I am not here to comment on the portrayal and whether actors ‘cripping up’ is acceptable. I’m all for films that get people thinking – be it good, bad or indifferent; at least it starts the conversation.

But as its Monday I must get done as I want to watch Silent Witness – a great BBC forensic drama.

Of course, the main leads are a beautiful blonde slim woman and a tall, dark and handsome man – but thankfully the stereotyping ends there.

There is a third character named Clarissa (played by Liz Carr), who clearly has a disability that makes her look unusual, and she uses a wheelchair. What’s super cool about this series is that this character happens to be disabled but it’s not part of the plot. It just is. And why not, I say!

So often use of disabled actors is to portray disability as part of a plot. TV and film should portray reality (when intended to!) and often disabled people do most of the jobs that the non-disabled do.

It’s so refreshing to see someone articulate, witty and intelligent portrayed on a level playing field as the other characters. There is no hand holding nor pity.

There is even humour – yes, we are not all sad!

I really enjoy working in a big office with loads of other people. They see me make coffee, do work that is equivalent to theirs, we chat over lunch about all the normal whinges.

It makes me feel part of the community, ‘normal’ (even though I don’t like that word) and hopefully it makes my colleagues think about how they view disabled people as well.

People don’t always realise that even though we often look different – be that a wheelchair or another physical abnormality – we are similar in our ability, life goals, humour, etc.

It seems that actresses like Liz Carr and the casting director for Silent Witness are leading the way in exposing the public to this via TV.

After watching for a while you don’t notice, everything normalises and the plot grabs your attention not the disability. Hopefully, this is a start of a trend that will help mainstream visible disability as just part of life and help integrate the disabled and the non-disabled.

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