Defying the Label

An extraordinary factual drama which tells the story of a disabled couple’s agonising struggle to keep their new-born baby. Based on real-life testimony, this emotional tale will call viewers’ prejudices and beliefs about the disabled community and society as a whole into question, as we learn about a situation many disabled couples find themselves in as new parents. Can 21-year-old wheelchair user Anna, played by newcomer Ruth Madeley, and partially sighted Tom, played by Adam Long (Happy Valley, Spike Island), provide the everlasting care and attention their daughter needs, or will social worker Belinda, played by Wumni Mosaku (Philomena, Dancing On The Edge, I Am Slave) have to consider alternative care?

Charlie Elmore suffered a brain injury in a snowboarding accident four years ago. Now she’s going to retrace the steps of her dramatic recovery and meet other young people adjusting to life after serious brain injuries, including 19-year-old car-crash survivor Callum, avid skier Tai and fashion buyer Hannah, who has to re-learn how to walk and talk after she collapsed while out shopping and hit her head on the pavement. With their help, Charlie embarks on a courageous journey to improve understanding of this 'invisible' disability - which is the biggest cause of acquired disability in young adults in Britain - and discovers the hidden ways it affects her own life too.

Adam Pearson is on a mission to explore disability hate crime - to find out why it is under-reported, under-recorded and under the radar. Adam challenges people to question their own attitudes towards disability and disfigurement, to try and uncover the roots of the issue. He has neurofibromatosis type 1, a condition that causes benign tumours to grow on nerve endings - in Adam's case, on his face. He is disfigured and disabled and has experienced disability hate crime first-hand, like a number of his friends, some of whom he meets with in the film. Their stories differ, but their disability as the motivating factor is constant, and just days into his investigation, Adam becomes the target of some grossly offensive online hate speech. For the first time Adam decides to take action, reporting it to the police – with some unexpected outcomes. Undeterred, he looks to understand the laws specific to disability hate crime, and finds that a mixture of ignorance and inequalities mean that these crimes often don’t make it to our courts, or are sentenced less severely than other hate crimes when they do. Adam looks to uncover what attitudes and influences may cause people to commit disability hate crimes in the first place, questioning whether the portrayal of disfigurement and disability in the media, for example, could be leading us to associate disabled people with being ‘the bad guys’. With help from Miles Hewstone, Professor of Social Psychology, University of Oxford, Adam conducts an experiment measuring people's innate prejudice towards disfigurement, which gives some shocking results, and leads him to question if he alone can hope to affect a change – and if so, how?

Just because you’re disabled, it doesn’t mean you can’t have fun, and if you’re disabled and in your 20s, that probably means going out, getting drunk and getting lucky, going to pubs, music festivals or football matches, or going on holiday abroad. The truth is, you might not be able to do any of this without one important person – your carer, or personal assistant, as they are often referred to by the people employing them. There are thousands of young disabled people in the UK who rely on carers for their daily needs, so finding the right carer means absolutely everything. This brand-new series takes a group young people who have never considered caring for the disabled before and invites them to an interview for a Personal Assistant job. What they don’t know is that their potential new boss is a disabled person their age and for 10 days, nothing is off limits as these new PAs tackle all aspects of intimate personal care, including washing, dressing, showering and toileting - they embark on life-changing adventures with their new boss. Will seeing the world from a different point of view help break down preconceptions of disability and unemployment? Could tackling challenging shared experiences lead to lasting friendships and even a rewarding new career? In part one, Michael's carer Denny Lee struggles with Michael's care needs, especially bowel management, Josh's carer Francesca battles with Josh's crude humour and his love of boozing, and Jasmine's carer Emily tackles the intimate personal care with aplomb - but fails dramatically on the domestic chores front.

Eleven year-old Dillon Chapman from Somerset wants to have his left leg amputated. His tiny body is ravaged with over 200 tumours caused by the genetic condition neurofibromatosis type 1 (NF1). He has one of the most extreme forms of NF1 UK doctors have ever seen; it has caused his left leg to grow four times larger and over six centimetres longer than his right, making life unbearable for Dillon. This strong boy is now adamant that his severely debilitating leg has to go, and he wants it amputated, but is it right for an 11 year-old to make the decision to have his own leg removed? Will the doctors and specialists agree with the family that the time is right for amputation? It is going to be a long and difficult road and he will encounter obstacles and face rejection; Dillon is a fighter and is determined to be heard, but will he ultimately be listened to?

Disabled journalist Sophie Morgan travels from London to Ghana to uncover the horrifying reality for many disabled people who live there. Sophie meets children who have been exiled from their villages for being 'cursed', and chained up in local prayer camps. Sophie investigates the ritualistic killing of 'spirit children' believed to have been possessed by evil spirits. Beginning in the country’s thriving capital city, Accra, Sophie sees first-hand how many disabled people end up with a life on the streets, and hears how much of the disabled community has been left out of this west African country's economic success. Shocked by what she finds in the city, Sophie heads to the countryside to find out the reality of life for disabled people there. Travelling with her brother Tom, Sophie finds herself in one of Ghana's popular prayer camps where many disabled people are taken to be 'cured'. She meets patients who have been brought to the camp against their will by their families, and chained up so that they can't escape. As Sophie leaves, she learns of an even worse reality for many disabled children, who are 'returned to the spirits' by some of Ghana's spiritual and traditional healers, and ritualistically murdered. A local disabled activist takes Sophie to where he says children are poisoned and killed, and she goes to meet a so-called Fetish Priest who admits that he will dispose of a disabled child for payment. After so many shocking discoveries, Sophie makes her way back to Ghana's capital city to put her findings to a government spokesperson, and to ask if Ghana really is The World’s Worst Place To Be Disabled?