BBC must face up to reality

There was a time when the BBC made some of the most interesting, challenging and varied disability programmes anywhere. Sadly, not only are those days long gone, but the empowering philosophy which gave them their creative impetus has also deserted the corporation. What makes this doubly saddening is not just the programmes that are no more, but those which seem now to be regarded as good representations of disabled people. So it’s again thought appropriate to broadcast shows such as the recent series of Beyond Boundaries.

On a superficial level this might be regarded as reality television. After all, it’s a description which is used about I’m A Celebrity Get Me Out Of Here. In fact, Beyond Boundaries is as far removed from the reality of disabled people’s lives as I’m A Celeb is from reality of any kind.

In this series, a group of ten young disabled people have to get over the Andes and across the Ecuadorian plane to the Pacific coast. The question that begs to be asked is, “why?”

One answer might be, “Because they want to”. While that might be good enough in itself, it’s not a reason to put them on television doing it. There are many disabled people who want to have a decent job for a reasonable wage, but they don’t even get on TV to talk about, let alone actually do, that.

There are disabled people who argue that any kind of representation is better than none at all.

Some even go further and say it shows disabled people as ordinary and the same as everyone else. This doesn’t add up. For one thing, they are required to do things which in anybody’s book are extraordinary. Viewers will therefore regard them as extraordinary people.

Then there’s the question of the motivation for the series. Arguably, the only reason they’re in Ecuador, certainly the only reason they’re on television, is that they are disabled. In the final analysis, the only reason much of the audience is watching, and many of them marvelling at them, is that they’re disabled. It perpetuates the view that we’re really only worth looking at and thinking about if we’re made to do extraordinary things. Meanwhile, what we’d all benefit from is a good shot of true reality and just more disabled people on screen for our own sakes and as fully paid-up members of society.