rwwonwheels

As a wheelchair with Cerebral Palsy. I find "Speechless" to be an insult to the entire disability community. While humor can serve as a vehicle for education and enlightenment, this show is a complete disaster. The adults are unstable and the dialogue doesn't even try to even remotely emulate the real-life struggles of disabled children and their parents--while comedy is fine, real life isn't a joke. The parents come off as scammers and the male caregiver for J.J. (the disabled student) comes off in multiple episodes as an inappropriate sex-crazed pervert in his interactions with the other characters on the show (especially the teenagers) in a disjointed and failed attempt at humor. Finally, I was disappointed to learn that apparently Micah Fowler, the actor that plays J.J., can actually speak with difficulty--the non-speaking nature of the main character reinforces the stereotype that all disabled can't speak and therefore are stupid. This show does ZERO to improve public perception of disability and only reinforces current negative perceptions.