"South Park," BBC up for British media & disability awards

From The Guardian in the UK:

When it comes to championing the cause of disabled people in the media, Trey Parker and Matt Stone, the creators of the decidedly un-politically correct South Park series, may not immediately spring to mind. But one of their creations, wheelchair user Timmy, has been shortlisted for a people of the year award from Radar, Britain's biggest pan-disability campaigning network.

Timmy, who has serious physical and learning disabilities, elicits mixed emotions, says Caroline Ellis, deputy CEO of Radar. "Some people just aren't comfortable with him. But what his popularity does show is a growing confidence in the disabled community. Just like anyone else, disabled people have got an active and sophisticated sense of humour, and are more than willing to take the mickey out of themselves."

As Kelly Knox, who earlier this year won Britain's Missing Top Model - in which eight disabled women vied for the chance to appear in a fashion magazine - puts it: "Timmy gives as good as he gets. He just gets on with it, and that is a really positive message."

Top Model, also up for an award, showed its contestants bitching, flirting and getting drunk - much like any other group of girls thrown together in an artificial scenario, says Ellis. "Disabled people are not inherently more virtuous, or heroic or vulnerable," she says. "They are just normal people who face extraordinary challenges, and at last we are starting to see that on our screens."

Andrew Bran, managing director of Top Model producers Love Productions, says that the clash of the fashion world with the disabled world made for good TV, and challenged preconceptions on both sides. "Many of the fashion team had never worked with disabled people before, and vice versa," he says. "There is more work to be done, but we are gradually moving in the right direction, using disabled actors in their own right and not just to fill a disability storyline."

Of the 11 Radar awards, the BBC is up for seven - a recognition of its commitment to portraying disability in "a positive and sympathetic way", says Mary FitzPatrick, head of diversity.But we are not there yet, says Ellis.

"It's getting better, but to a certain extent disabled people are still an invisible group in the media." She hopes that seeing a disabled person on our screens will become entirely unremarkable. "We'll know we've made a real breakthrough when we see a disabled presenter reading the 10pm news."