Disabled are only Discounted in Hollywood: Time for Change

by Pam Vetter,December 13, 2007--------------------- "It's sad. I go into businesses and companies and I'm fully accepted in the corporate world, but not when it comes to a TV show or film project," actress Teal Sherer explained. "I want to bring attention to the problems that performers with disabilities face. Nothing is going to change unless we speak out. We're a minority and we're being overlooked." If you sense Sherer is a strong woman with a vision, you're right. As the Communications Director of the Screen Actors Guild Performers with Disabilities Committee, she is using her voice for change. In 1995, Sherer was a freshman in high school when she got into a car to go see fireworks on Labor Day with a driver she had just met. "It happened really fast. I broke my back in the car accident and suffered a spinal cord injury. Paralyzed from the waist down, I found myself in a wonderful rehab center in Atlanta, the Shepherd Center, with other teenagers who were worse off than me. One of the girls had been shot and she couldn't move any of her limbs and it even affected her speech. I realized how lucky I was that I could move my upper body," Sherer remembers. "My life changed dramatically after the accident. Had this not happened, my life would be boring, I would have stayed in Tennessee, gotten married and drifted into middle age. After this happened, I realized I could do anything." Sherer went onto college and majored in Communications/Broadcasting, where she enjoyed an acting class and got involved in theatre productions. In 2005, the HBO project "Warm Springs," was filming in Atlanta. She earned a part in the film that focused on Franklin Delano Roosevelt, who was left a paraplegic from polio at 39. The film, starring Kenneth Branagh, followed FDR's struggle with paralysis and his return to public life and politics. "I helped Kenneth to understand disabilities. We went swimming together. I showed him how to walk with braces. It was a wonderful opportunity," Sherer said. "I moved to Los Angeles almost three years ago. I can't live on my acting income because I only have ten auditions a year. There just aren´t that many parts that are written for a wheelchair user. My goal is to get into the audition. I can play a teacher or a girlfriend, I can do anything anyone else can do. I don't only have to play disabled characters. We can play real people because we are real people." Sherer did find recent success on the pilot "I'm With Stupid" for NBC Television. "Wil Calhoun wrote the pilot. It was about a friendship with a guy in a wheelchair and based on the BBC series of the same name. I was cast as a regular, but it wasn´t picked up. Last week I had a commercial role audition and I booked another commercial for Highmark Insurance, but it´s only running in Pennsylvania," Sherer said. "The battle is clearly uphill. I know it´s hard for able-bodied actors as well to break into the industry. But, we just want to have the same opportunities. We feel hidden by TV and film producers. It's very rare that producers want to use us. Sometimes we get auditions but it´s only as a favor to someone we know." Sherer is simply searching for fair access. "We feel excluded from the process. If more writers were writing parts that showed disabilities or if producers had an open-minded spirit toward disabilities, it would be easier. They're already casting different ethnicities and colors, but we're far behind them. We're not even on a pie chart of the Casting Data Report showing diversity," Sherer said. With the upcoming 2008 performances of "The History of Bowling," which Sherer is co-producing with actor Danny Murphy, she hopes to bring attention to performers with disabilities. "I do have hope. I'm pursuing the entertainment industry because I'm positive we can make a change. It's about creating it for yourself and I'm interested in all aspects of writing, producing, and performing. I'm currently studying at the Improv with the Groundlings. With the recent writer´s strike, it's ironic, but with participating on the picket line, it's brought the performers with disabilities together and made us a stronger unit. In the meantime, I do temporary work as an assistant in the entertainment industry. In the corporate world, there is no discrimination. They all want to hire me and entertainment companies greet me with open arms. It's ironic," Sherer added. Not one to sit around and wait for opportunity, she is working on an idea for a documentary to take everyone to task who parks in a handicapped parking space. "It drive me crazy. Just the other day, I saw this beautiful woman leave Starbucks. I couldn't find a parking space, but she found one right up front. It was a handicapped space and she was walking just fine. She clearly wasn´t handicapped. We need a documentary to attack the subject. It's almost 2008 and there are too many handicapped placards being given out or misused," Sherer explained. "I see opportunities to create documentaries because you have to stand up for what is right." Sherer has also written articles for New Mobility Magazine and she's involved with Wheels for Humanity in North Hollywood. "Wheels for Humanity is an incredible organization. They refurbish donated wheelchairs and hand fit them to children and adults with disabilities in third world countries. We just got back from Tijuana where we gave 100 wheelchairs to people who needed them. A wheelchair can change a life. We receive corporate and individual donations, but a lot of wheelchairs end up in landfills. Wheels for Humanity has helped nearly 35,000 people with disabilities since 1996," Sherer added. "If we can get wheelchairs to people in third world countries, we can get performers with disabilities up on the screen." For more information on Wheels for Humanity link to www.WheelsForHumanity.org.