AFL-CIO resolutions to cultivate more disability diversity within its ranks

From the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette:

Resolutions passed Sept. 16 by the AFL-CIO may help to change the face of popular entertainment -- and Robert David Hall (pictured) couldn't be happier.

Mr. Hall, known to millions of viewers as Dr. Albert Robbins, the coroner on the durable NBC drama "CSI: Crime Scene Investigation," addressed the national convention on behalf of disabled people, who have in the past been largely overlooked in diversity efforts.

One of the Sept. 16 resolutions calls for the AFL-CIO's member unions to cultivate more diversity within, including disabled people along with women, minorities and lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgendered people. Another specifically challenges unions to advocate more strongly for disabled workers' rights, beginning by supporting a campaign launched a year ago by the three unions of which Mr. Hall is a member -- the Screen Actors Guild, the American Federation of Television and Radio Artists, and Actors' Equity Association.

Speaking in support of the resolutions, Mr. Hall said, "We know that realistic portrayals of people with disabilities can change hearts and minds around the world."

Perhaps the first challenge is not to portray disabled people realistically, but to portray them proportionately: Adam Moore, the Screen Actors Guild's associate national director for affirmative action and diversity, noted that one in five Americans is disabled. That includes many of his group's 120,000 members.

"When we go back to our employers and make the case for the value of portraying people with disabilities, it won't be the voice of just performers and broadcasters; it will be the collective voice of all workers with disabilities," he said.

The goal of the unions' campaign is not simply to see more disabled people portrayed in television shows and movies, but to have them portrayed by disabled performers.

"What you see on television and film right now is akin to blackface to the disabled community," Mr. Moore said, referring to the once-common practice of white performers darkening their skin to portray black characters. "Having a nondisabled performer portray a disabled person is unacceptable."

Mr. Hall is that rare disabled person who has found success as an actor.

His legs were amputated after a 1978 auto accident that also left 65 percent of his body severely burned.

"Somebody told me you can't be an actor if you don't have any legs. And I said, 'Oh, yeah?'"

He persisted in pursuing his craft, but found the challenges faced by all new actors multiplied by a lack of opportunity.

"There were never very many auditions," he said. While fully abled actors may audition dozens of times a year to build their careers, disabled actors are called in "two or three times a year to play the angry crippled guy. ... We aren't asked to play men: fathers, lovers, judges, whatever."

Roberta Reardon, national president of AFTRA, described yesterday's vote as a huge event for the entertainment industry, and said it would help drive home the message to studios that "society expects to see [the disabled] in their entertainment and in their news."

The resolutions were part of a day of activity intended to focus on diversity, with Benjamin Jealous, president of the NAACP, scheduled as keynote speaker.

But Mr. Jealous' appearance at the David L. Lawrence Convention Center was canceled after an auto accident in Washington, D.C., created a traffic jam that caused him to miss his flight.

Still, diversity has emerged as a strong subtext throughout the week, with speakers at plenary sessions recalling the labor movement's history of becoming increasingly inclusive, and attendees in breakout sessions pushing discussions about how unions might better serve populations that are still marginalized, from immigrants to ex-prisoners.

Mr. Hall could have been speaking for members of any marginalized group when he said in an interview after yesterday's vote: "We're people first. Everybody is a person first, then you describe them -- a person who is disabled, a person who is a Jew. ... Every group has some talent and something to offer."

In other business yesterday, the delegates elected Richard L. Trumka president of the AFL-CIO to succeed retiring president John J. Sweeney. Liz Shuler, the assistant to the president of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, was elected into Mr. Trumka's previous job as secretary-treasurer of the federation, and Arlene Holt-Baker was re-elected executive vice president.