Spotlight on the Silver Screen: California's Media Access Office

By Joan Leotta

According to Census estimates, people with disabilities constitute between ten and twenty percent of the US population. But when we look to TV and movies, where are these citizens who mirror ourselves, our neighbors, friends, and colleagues in real life?

One organization is making strides to bring actors with disabilities to the silver screen—and to bring recognition to those directors and producers who hire and showcase actors with disabilities. Since 1980, the state of California's Media Access Office has worked to promote the employment and accurate portrayal of persons with disabilities in all areas of the entertainment industry.

How it All Started

The Media Access Office is a unique partnership of volunteers and staff of the California Governor's Committee on Employment of People with Disabilities and the California Employment Development Department. Entertainment and media industry professionals worked with the Governor's Committee to establish the Office more than two decades ago. Since then, even before it began advising industry leaders on appropriate portrayals of characters with disabilities, the Office has offered individual assistance to hundreds of adults and children seeking roles on the small or big screen, often acting as a paid talent agent would, but at no charge to the client.

The Office is guided and overseen by the Governor's Committee in Sacramento. Working with clients in Los Angeles are Gloria Castaneda, Gail Williamson, Frances Gleason and volunteer staff. Douglas Gordy, PH.D., heads up a satellite office, Media Access North, in the San Francisco Bay area, established in September 2001. As of January 2004, Gordy is working with a base of about 130 clients, sending more to theater jobs than to film or TV roles, due to the makeup of the local industry.

Charles Kaplan, the Governor's Committee's Associate Director, notes, "Our work is a result of a collaboration formed between the Governor's Committee and the Employment Development Department. In the late 70s and early 80s there opportunities for actors with disabilities came about thanks to some ground-breaking television casting work done by Gary Marshall and Normal Lear. However, for the most part, Hollywood opportunities were—and are—slim for actors with disabilities."

Helping an actor get a chance at a starring role is not only good for the individual. With an estimated twenty percent of California's citizens employed in entertainment or recreation services, what's good for entertainers is good for the state's budget.

Kaplan further explains, "Entertainment is a big industry in California—and it helps shape images. The groundwork for the Media Access Office as a casting office was laid by work already being done by many volunteers, one of whom was Gail Williamson. Once the office was officially established, we started doing more outreach looking to work with studio and network people to ensure accurate portrayals of people with disabilities in the media and to promote employment opportunities for performers with disabilities."

Gloria Castaneda, the Media Access Office's Program Director, also credits Williamson as being instrumental in helping organize the Office, first in her role as a volunteer and then as a paid consultant. Williamson helped establish within the Office services that commercial casting agencies offer—classes to build skills, advice in posing for a headshot and tips on places to obtain headshots services at a discount.

Says Castaneda, "The expansion of our work into classes was aided by the gift from the state: [the donation of] space to give the classes. We write for grant money to use to pay for the teaching—which is offered free to our clients—and use donations as well. Williamson works for us as a consultant, and her entire salary is paid for by grants."

As part of systematizing the Office, Williamson also helped to establish a separate children's division. Williamson's own son, who has Downs Syndrome, began working as an actor 16 years ago at age eight. "She is very experienced in child employment issues," in part from her own experience, Castaneda explains.

The Media Access Office currently has 799 adult clients on its books and 152 young performers. The only difference between Media Access and a commercial agency, Castaneda says, "is that we offer all of this to our clients for free."

To respect client's confidentiality, the Office often does not disclose the disability of the performer. "Sometimes a person with a learning disability, or with HIV, does not want to have that out in the open on the resume," Castaneda explains. "Sometimes the Media Access Office is not even the contact reply number on their resume—some clients put their own number or another agent's number on, so that the receiving agency will not even realize that the resume came from the Media Access Office. We fully respect the client's wishes and confidentiality in all cases."

Measures of Success

The Media Access Office has only recently begun to record data on the roles received by clients. However, early results show that the Office is succeeding in its mission. "In the year 2000, when we began tracking statistics, we had approximately 134 hires," Castaneda notes. "In 2001, we submitted 1087 resumes and 64 were hired. In 2002, we submitted 961 and 166 were hired." The fluctuation is often a result of other nontraditional casting options available in the industry.

"As of October of 2003," she continues, "we had submitted 903 and already had 89 hires. In addition, we have been able to do some advocacy and proactive work to get more groups to take resumes from our clients; to begin to think that people with disabilities can play an ordinary person such as a mall manager, a secretary, or the like—whether or not the story line calls for that person to be disabled."

An example of the industry taking note is the situation of Robert David Hall, an actor who sustained severe burns in a car accident that resulted in the amputation of both legs, has a recurring role as coroner Al Robbins on the hit series CSI. While Media Access was not directly involved with his hiring, Hall works actively with the Office to promote the hiring of other actors with disabilities. In addition, he is the National Chair of the Performers with Disabilities Committees of both the Screen Actors Guild and AFTRA. His recent rise to the SAG Board of Directors represents the first time that an actor with a physical disability has been a part of that Board.

Mitch Longley, a wheelchair user who makes fairly regular appearances on the new shows Joan of Arcadia and Las Vegas, obtained his agent through a California Media Access Office showcase. Two actors with Down syndrome, Brandon Bauer and Jennifer Cunningham of the new series Kingdom Hospital also obtained their roles through the efforts of the Office.

A Time to Shine

The events that most represent the glamour of Tinseltown are the awards shows. On November 2, many of Hollywood's glitterati graced the 21st Annual Media Access Awards ceremony at the St. Regis Hotel in Los Angeles. This ceremony, which predates the establishment of the Media Access Office by two years, honors personalities and programs that have made strides during the previous year to advance the employment or image of persons with disabilities. Created by the Governor's Committee on Employment of People with Disabilities, the awards were the brainchild of producer Fern Field and her late husband, Norman Brooks.

Presenters Melissa Gilbert, Barry Manilow, and John Landis, among others gave out awards for achievement to individuals and shows. Awardees included TV talk show host Montel Williams, jazz recording artist Diane Schuur, and Verne Troyer, best known as Mini-Me in the Austin Powers movie series. The program That 70s Show was honored for its pioneering work in video description for the blind.

Today and the Future

The recent expansion of the Media Access Office to the San Francisco area represents just one sign of the program's growth. In addition to providing services that parallel standard talent agencies, the Office now supports other efforts such as translating shows into formats that are more accessible for deaf and blind people. Actor Rick Boggs, who is blind, runs a company that translates video work into audio descriptions for the blind, works closely with the Office and often trains some of their clients to work for him.

Kaplan describes the big picture of what the Media Access Office is striving to achieve: "In addition to actually securing jobs in the industry for persons with disabilities, the main point of the office is to recognize what is going on in the entertainment industry regarding the employment of persons with disabilities and to encourage the decision makers of the industry to do more with our client base both on screen, behind the camera, and more—to make their entire body of work accessible to audiences with disabilities."

Kaplan continues, "We want the entertainment industry to reflect America's true diversity—that includes people with disabilities as well as people of color and various ethnicities. We want disabilities portrayed accurately and want people with disabilities to have a chance to perform in mainstream roles—not be restricted to roles where the disability itself figures in the plot. In the past, people with disabilities often hid those disabilities for fear of not getting work.

"As more actors with disabilities are visible on the large and small screens, then more opportunities will be there for others. The media has enormous power to affect public attitudes regarding people with disabilities.

For more information and contacts for the California Media Access Office, visit http://www.disabilityemployment.org/med_acc.htm and http://www.edd.ca.gov/eddpwd.htm.

Edited by Mary-Louise Piner