Additional Needs

Stoked for Speechless: Special Needs Parents Eager for New ABC Sitcom

Posted by Stacy Warden on 8th June 2016 Additional Needs, Disabilities

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Special needs parents are already building anticipation for ABC’s new sitcom, Speechless.

Airing this fall, Speechless centers around the life of a non-verbal child with special needs, played by Micah Fowler, who also has cerebral palsy in real life. 

ABC is no stranger to airing shows which have a character with a major disability, and in the past have tackled the theme of special needs within a family dynamic. 

In 1989, Life Goes On first aired, which depicted a family with three children, one of whom was a child with Down’s syndrome. This was the first television series to have a major character with Down’s syndrome.

NBC also had a television series Parenthood, which ran for over six seasons and had a character with Asperger syndrome. 

The special needs community applaud the effort of television networks willing to tackle hard and intense dialogs, conversations and life with a child who has special needs.

Speechless which is slotted to air this fall on Wednesdays from 8:30pm to 9:00pm stars Minnie Driver, who plays Maya Dimeo, a dedicated mom determined to better her children’s lives and the life of her child with special needs. 

The trailer offers viewers a glance at the realistic humor with hints of real life drama that resonates with familiarity within the special needs community.

If you ask many families who have children with special needs they often feel as if society has no real understanding of the real life challenges faced by those with a child with special needs.

Networks willing to dive into these topics and accurately reflect the real life challenges with a hint of humor, aim to bring awareness and offer sincerity to the gravity of special needs parenting.

Most importantly we want something on television we can relate to. 

We want something that we see in our daily lives.

When the majority of television programming featuring families that do not have a special needs family dynamic it feels alienating.

Like you are an outsider looking in, simply window-shopping a program that you can’t identify with.

We want to turn on the television and watch a family who is tackling day to day challenges just like ours.

Based on the newly released first trailer, Speechless aims to deliver just what we’ve been looking for!

Note Image credit: Speechless Official Trailer. Watch it here.