HOW TO WATCH
On TV: "Push Girls airs at 10 p.m. Mondays on the Sundance Channel. This Monday's episode is the 11th of the 14-episode season.
Catch the first 10 episodes of “Push Girls” in a marathon from 3 to 8 p.m. today on the Sundance Channel
On the computer: Past episodes available on Hulu and iTunes.
California sunshine. Hollywood houses. A-list nightclubs. Stories of sex and relationships.
And car crashes. And wheelchairs.
That’s what an audience of students, faculty and community members saw at Wright State University this May, during a special screening of the critically acclaimed TV docu-series “Push Girls.” The show highlights four outspoken women living in wheelchairs in Los Angeles. By accident or illness, all four women in the series have been paralyzed from the neck or the waist down.
Airing Monday nights on the Sundance Channel, the episodes document their lives, loves, joys and challenges as women and as people who depend on wheelchairs and other support systems to take part in life.
WSU connection
In May, just before the show’s world premiere, one of its four stars took part in a special screening and question-and-answer session at Wright State University.
WSU was selected in part because of its excellent record of serving students with disabilities.
“When I initially talked to the producers, I was a little bit concerned,” said Jeff Vernooy, director of disability services at the school. “The way disabilities have been portrayed in the past – mostly by able-bodied actors – it tends to be overdramatized.”
Since the screening, however, Vernooy said feedback has been positive.
“There’s significant viewership for the show among both students with disabilities and students who don’t have disabilities,” he said. “I hear conversations going on back and forth with a lot of the students that come into our office about that week’s episode. People say they really like the show, because the way things are portrayed is appropriate and the way life is.”
Vernooy said the school is working to invite the show’s stars and directors to the campus and, if another season is picked up, potentially shoot an episode here.
‘Being a role model’
One of the “Push Girls” stars, Mia Schaikewitz, was scheduled to be at WSU for the premiere in person, but flight delays led to a live video conference from California instead.
“I was really impressed with the questions — they were very intelligent,” Schaikewitz said in a post-event interview with the Dayton Daily News. “I could tell the audience was very diverse, and it sounds like everyone there really knows about the issues at hand and is really passionate about making a difference.”
At age 15, Schaikewitz was a rising star on her high school swim team when, one evening, she suddenly found herself unable to move her legs. Within 12 hours, doctors discovered that a spinal cord malformation had ruptured, leaving her paralyzed from the waist down.
“From the very beginning when I got paralyzed, I really saw the importance of being a role model for people and opening up people’s minds,” Schaikewitz said. “The hardest thing about being in a wheelchair was other people’s ignorance from not knowing what was involved. But I didn’t want to do it in a preachy way – I wanted to teach by example and show that we do all these things and our lives are not hindered. It helps people to know it’s not the end of the world.”
She said the show is presented in a format that allows for awkward moments, which can help viewers “get out of their comfort zone. Those are the moments where people grow, where your world expands.”
Changing stereotypes
And its message is having an impact.
“Television is a great attitudinal tool,” Vernooy said. “One of the things I’ve said for a long, long time, is the day we have people with disabilities depicted doing normal, everyday things – coming home from work and saying, ‘Hi, honey, I’m home,’ and sitting down and cracking open a beer – we’re going to do a lot to help people understand that people with disabilities are just like everybody else..”
Schaikewitz said her inspiration comes in part from growing up in Atlanta, where she was always fascinated by the city’s history with civil rights, including Rosa Parks. “She gave me the strength to know that change is possible, so I didn’t get into this box where you give up hope.”
She said one of the biggest tools that helps recent paraplegics is humor. “It breaks the ice, and it helps people feel more at ease,” she said.
“Push” for change
The humor is fast and furious in “Push Girls” around the topics of sex (yes, people in wheelchairs can and do have it) and relationships.
“I’m such a private person in general,” Schaikewitz said, “but I felt deep down that if I could let people into a world that they fear because they simply don’t know about it, I was willing to give up my personal privacy for the greater good. And it’s not gratuitous. I feel there’s a purpose to it, and it’s a purpose in line with my mission. I know it’s helping people open up and get to know us.”
That awareness goes beyond social acceptance and more opportunities for work, housing and relationships.
“When there’s a lack of understanding, there’s a disconnect,” Schaikewitz said.
WSU background
Wright State University’s director of Disability Services, Jeff Vernooy, said WSU became a leader in education for people with disabilities soon after its first building opened for classes in 1964. That building was accessible to people in wheelchairs. In 1970, the school officially recognized the disabled students and employees who’d been attracted to the campus by opening an office of disability services, which happened before U.S. schools were required to do so.
Today, the office provides services to more than 550 students, including those on life-support systems, and WSU is one of only 50 colleges in the nation to provide personal assistants for students in need.
“We estimate there’s another 200 students on campus who don’t come to us for services, but take advantage of our accessible buildings and handicapped parking in order to attend college,” Vernooy said. “Students come to us from at least 14 or 15 states because they’re not able to find what we’re able to provide in their home states. Those kinds of things have driven us and supported us in our mission to be one of the best schools for students with disabilities.”
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