Amelia’s Interview

J - What disabilities do you have?

A – So I have Dyspraxia, dyslexia and dyscalculia and i also have chronic lung disease which comes with asthma and chronic pain and fatigue.

J - Why did you want to be apart of this project?

A - I’m really passionate about disability and having it being represented and it means a lot for me to have two and lived experiences of disability and yeah, thought it would be really fun to get involved.

J - What does representation mean to you?

A - I think as a whole, like it’s so vital. I mean, I wrote my dissertation around the kind of inclusive practice within the entertainment industry, specifically theatre, but kind of in general and looking at how important it can be to have Representation across all ranges of disability, whether that be visible or invisible. think it’s obviously really important to have a true representation, but in my experience as an actor, there has been tokenistic castings where I’m not disabled enough to go to a disabled casting call. Sorry, let me explain that again. So there’s general casting calls and then there’s disabled casting calls. Now when I’ve gone to general casting calls, I’ve been told that my body’s not fit enough to to work But then when I go to disabled casting calls, they say I’m not disabled enough, so it’s kind of looking at the tokenism within casting and to me, representation is really important and it’s vital for everyone to be represented And I think it’s a huge part of society and it needs to happen.