ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on reality TV and TED Talks that star disabled people. It argues that by giving a platform to disabled people, reality TV shows and TED Talks can educate viewers about disability in an authentic and personal way, because in these formats disabled people are speaking directly to their audience. The chapter discusses the parasocial contact hypothesis about television audiences and posits that reality TV performances by disabled cast members could lessen prejudice against disabled people because the audiences form a parasocial relationship with disabled cast members. TED Talks from disabled people are purposefully connected to disabled reality TV stars in this chapter using the discourse analysis research of Italian English scholar Giuseppina Scotto di Carlo. Her analysis of TED speakers discovered how significant the personal connections of the speakers to their topics are for audiences. Disabled people around the world are connecting to millions of viewers through their TED Talks about their lives and experiences. This chapter is based on interviews with Born This Way reality star Rachel Osterbach and German disability rights leader Raul Krauthausen, who has done four TED Talks. The chapter also discusses the reality shows The Specials in the UK, Love on the Spectrum and Employable Me in Australia, the newest iteration of Little People Big World that focuses on Zach Roloff and his family, Push Girls and its critique by several DS scholars, and Deaf producer/actor/model Nyle DiMarco’s work as a winning cast member on America’s Next Top Model and Dancing with the Stars and as a producer of Netflix’s Deaf U. These are disabled people who are “cripping” reality TV to use American Disability Studies scholar Carrie Sandahl’s term.
