Josh Widdicombe Quotes

I would love to switch on my TV and see a disabled person talking about something they are genuinely interested in or acting out a part that doesn't just focus on their impairment.

Disability is as visual as race. If a wheelchair user can't play Beyonce, then Beyonce can't play a wheelchair user.

It's really important to remember that disability is diversity, and that disabled actors and disabilities are something that is hugely under-represented in film.

Paralympic sport and other disability sport can and should be celebrated in its own right.

It became very clear to me that Yooralla was not as interested in media coverage that explored issues faced by people with disability as it was in giving a pat on the back to journalists who maintained the status quo by giving readers the warm and fuzzies over their morning paper.

A lot of people don't want to hire disabled actors. They think you're going to take twice as long over a shot, or they don't want have to put up a ramp for disabled access. They think, 'Why would I do that when I can just hire an able-bodied actor to play the disabled character?'

I made a film about a person living with a disability. Those kinds of films are often about the disability, not who a person is.

I think one in five Americans has a disability of some sort. That's 20% of the population, and yet we rarely ever see people with disabilities on-screen, and their stories and their resilience and their zest for life and their humor and their humanity.

If you support diversity and think shows should give a portrayal of what America truly looks like, then performers with disabilities must be included in that equation...People have been very good at being politically correct.

People with disabilities are simply part of diverse communities in the U.S.

Sometimes I wonder if I'm as famous for my wheelchair and disabilities as I am for my discoveries.

We think we know what it's all about; we think that disability is a really simple thing, and we don't expect to see disabled people in our daily lives.

The situation in disability sport is growing, and girls like Ellie Cole are doing wonders.

I love working on 'Glee,' and I hope that there are more and more parts for me and other actors with Down syndrome in television and in movies so I can keep working for a long, long time.

I have a strong sense that I have to educate people about disability.

I played a paraplegic on a show called 'Neighbours.' Just turned up on set, sat in a wheelchair. The producer came up to me one day and said, 'We have to cut around that entire scene because your leg was moving.'

I was recently appointed by President Obama to the President's Committee for People with Intellectual Disabilities. I am so excited that the President trusts me to advise him on things that are important to people with disabilities!

Disability doesn't make you exceptional, but questioning what you think you know about it does.

Disability informs almost every part of my life. It's as important, if not more so, than my gender and sexuality. It's certainly a great deal more important to me than my religion or whether or not I caught a tram, ferry or bus to work.

I'm not an advocate for disability issues. Human issues are what interest me. You can't possibly speak for a diverse group of people. I don't know what it's like to be an arm amputee, or have even one flesh-and-bone leg, or to have cerebral palsy.

We know lots of progress is being made, but the industry must do more to help disabled people work both in front of and behind the camera.

Paralympics has always had to push the media into it being about sport and not focusing on the disability.

I am so proud of being a Paralympian because I think the Games are a very good platform for disabled persons to perform themselves. Within the Paralympics movement, it's not just talk about excellence; it's not just talk about the competition. It's also talk about the equality and how your world accepts those disabled people.

There are 58 million people with some kind of disability in America, so it's the largest minority, really, in America, and it lags behind in education and economics and jobs, so outside of 'CSI' and outside of my music, I serve on a couple of boards, and I'm trying to be a part of the movement that changes this.

I didn't find out about the Paralympics until I was 18 years old. Once I found out what the Paralympics were, I was so excited to know I had a chance to represent my country and wear Team U.S.A. on my back.