The baby shower was just a natural outgrowth of story for us…What would happen next? The new mother would probably be thrown a shower. Okay, how would a shower for a baby with Down Syndrome be different? Well, it probably shouldn’t be any different but would some guests feel anxious or sad or precious and say inappropriate things? Probably. Okay, who would be most likely to say something completely inappropriate? Probably a woman of science. And then we realized we got to engage in a pretty interesting debate about eugenics and ask questions like ‘Do we want to eradicate difference? Why? Is difference necessarily a bad thing? Do we have to adhere to the notion that faster/stronger/smarter is better?’ And that’s a pretty radical question that I’m proud to say I’ve never seen raised on any other show.
The show creators knew that Down syndrome, prenatal testing, and abortion were major issues within the disability community and American society overall. What they couldn’t have predicted is that, thanks to a proposed ban on abortion because of a prenatal diagnosis of Down syndrome in Ohio, their new plotline would tie into front page news.
Well that was one of the things I was content about. I didn’t know when [Daredevil‘s audio description] was going to happen, and it actually didn’t happen until just after the show was released. I remember Joe asking me when we were midway though production: did I know if it was going to be audio descript. So I was so thrilled when that happened.
I think it’s absolutely vital and incredibly important and good for Netflix to pull the trigger so quickly like that. They were really on it. It says a lot about who they are as a company, and I believe now all their shows are going that direction. They’re in the process of making all their shows accessible to people who are visually impaired. It’s brilliant; it’s a great thing.
