Cerebral Palsy
Living with cerebral palsy, I had difficulty seeing myself as an ambiguous disabled character. Cerebral palsy is a spectrum, and I’m in the middle as an ambulatory wheelchair user. I acknowledge there is a privilege in my ability to be independent.
I was born after the Americans with disabilities act was passed and never faced the possibility of being institutionalized. I also have access to multiple types of therapy to improve my quality of life.
“A patient with cerebral palsy is not a single isolated person conditioned by his situation;
rather, he is part of a family and society which will have an influence on him and vice versa.
Disabilities and the handicapped are topics and characters in many movies, cerebral palsy and those afflicted, among them” (Marco, 66).
That is a very clinical acknowledgment that
multiple factors contribute to a disabled person’s success and level of integration in society.
Autobiographical Films
Numerous movies portray cerebral palsy. The most accurate depictions of disabled people are often true individual stories.
This is precisely what the TNT television movie Door to Door (2002) did. The film focuses on Bill Porter, a salesman born with cerebral palsy. The film is about his career. It characterizes Bill as a persistent person that perseveres through prejudice.
“The film shows the discrimination suffered by the disabled when finding work and how they can triumph in doing so.
Those with cerebral palsy are not always affected mentally, and the physical limitations, which could limit their capacities for work, can be overcome with adequate jobs and using systems and procedures adapted to their deficiencies.” (Marco, 70)
The Life of Bill Porter
Bill Porter entered the workforce in the early 60s as a door-to-door salesman, despite the physical labor of walking miles a day.
Bill had a knack for sales. As a teenager, his mom encouraged him to be a salesman for the United Cerebral Palsy Association. His father was also in the sales business.
Bill was inspired by his family to be a member of the workforce. His mom fought for Bill to go to mainstream schooling.
Ultimately Bill went to school for disabled children first and went mainstream at 16. Once he graduated, Bill’s dad emphasized that Bill needed a job.
His conviction that Bill was going to find work propelled Bill to refuse disability money. He would not be excluded from the workforce because of people’s assumptions that he was “retarded”.
Cerebral palsy is a movement disorder and doesn’t affect mental capacity usually.
“Besides his physical problems, Bill’s cerebral palsy affected his speech. In 1955, he tried to work for the Fuller Company as a door-to-door salesman, just as his father had.
Against the wishes of the company, and thanks to the persistence of his mother, he finally got the job with a competing company, The Watkins Company.
Sources
Marco, M. L. (2005). Cerebral Palsy in Cinema. J Med Man 1, 66-76. https://campus.usal.es/~revistamedicinacine/Indice_2005/Revista/numero_3/ing_3_pdf/pcerebral_i