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NORTHSHOREMAG.COM 76 MARCH 2020 I N - D E P T H PHOTOGRAPHS, TOP TO BOTTOM BY NIR LANDAU, BY BRENT UBERTY Think back to some of the most memorable Best Actor Oscar winners of the past few decades. For example, there's Eddie Redmayne in The Theory of Everything, Tom Hanks in Forrest Gump, Jamie Foxx in Ray, Dustin Hoffman in Rain Man, and Daniel Day- Lewis in My Left Foot. What do these performances have in common? Besides being brilliant achievements, they all portrayed someone with a disability—yet, none of the actors playing those roles was actually disabled. "Disability's widely presented in TV and film [characters], but it's usually not people with disabilities playing them," says Jay Ruderman, president of the Massachusetts- based Ruderman Family Foundation. The Ruderman Family Foundation advocates for the presence of disabled employees across all industries, including the entertainment industry. BY ALEX ANDRA PECCI ENABLING INCLUSION Since it was founded in 2002, the Ruderman Family Foundation has worked to advance disability inclusion through a combination of philanthropy and advocacy, and in recent years much of that work has focused on the entertainment industry. "We've become the leading organization advocating for authentic representation of disability in entertainment," says Ruderman. Michelle Obama has said that "For so many people, television and movies may be the only way they understand people who aren't like them." We've seen firsthand how that works in real time, with TV shows like Will & Grace helping to normalize the LGBTQ+ community, for instance. But when people with disabilities are CONTACT rudermanfoundation.org portrayed inauthentically—or not at all—that kind of normalization doesn't happen. Although the entertainment industry has moved beyond casting white actors as characters of color, the same can't be said for disabled roles. More than 95 percent of characters with disabilities are played by able-bodied actors on television, according to Ruderman Family Foundation research. That's despite the disability community's vast numbers. People with disabilities are the world's largest minority group; in the United States, 26 percent of adults have some kind of disability, according to the CDC. In addition, many able-bodied petople will become disabled, either temporarily or permanently, at some point in their lives. Even with these vast numbers, though, the disability community remains among the most invisible and segregated groups in the world. People with disabilities make up less than 1 percent of TV characters, says the Ruderman Family Foundation's research. And when people with disabilities are portrayed onscreen, it's often with an undertone of pity and sadness. "When you're segregated from society, and you're not working in society or participating in society, society doesn't see you as full members," says Ruderman. "We believe that the entertainment industry can do a lot— perhaps more than any other industry—to normalize disability, and that's why we're advocating for authentic representation." Marcia Ruderman (second from right) with her children, (left to right) Todd Ruderman, Sharon Shapiro, and Jay Ruderman. These four are all trustees. Jay is the president of RFF and Sharon is community liaison. Peter Farrelly, actor Nic Novicki, Nicole Newnham (co-director of Crip Camp), Lauren Williams (senior editor at The Atlantic), Bobby Farrelly, actor Danny Woodburn, Jay Ruderman, Jim LeBrecht (co-director of 'Crip Camp'), and filmmaker Rodrigo Garcia The Ruderman Family Foundation hosted a panel at Sundance with The Atlantic discussing disability inclusion in film.