In what the disability community has been saying all along, Kiewitz told GlobalPost in an interview that “it would be good if handicapped people started to be used to advertise other things.” (Handicapped is a term commonly used in Europe). “Why shouldn’t somebody with a disability be a model? It would make a change from those models who all look alike. Why don’t we have more people in wheelchairs speaking on TV, they can speak as well as anybody else,” she says.

Lots of opportunities come to mind, from models to actors to politicians. Today, Jonathan Phang, the host of Britain’s Missing Top Model, began backing a campaign calling for the fashion industry to use disabled models on the catwalk and in ad campaigns. And earlier this year Debenhams, a famous U.K. department store, became the first retailer of its kind to use disabled models in campaign photography. Debenhams has just announced they are supporting the Disabled & Sexy fashion show, which will be held October 25 in London’s Notting Hill.

“We need to look beyond stereotypes. Not only to encourage the fashion world to change their thinking, but to help raise a deeper understanding about the prejudices young, beautiful, disabled women have to overcome every day,” Chang says.

The next industry that should pick up cues Is Hollywood. Fox’s Glee has cast a singing and dancing wheelchair user who is not disabled. However, there are two actors with Down’s syndrome on the show. Out of a total of 587 characters on television shows this season, only six roles have disabilities and only one role is played by a disabled actor, according to Hollywood Reporter. That actor is Robert David Hall, a double leg amputee, who plays a coroner on CSI: Crime Scene Investigation.

Hollywood says it’s not always easy to find talented disabled people to fill their cast and crew. ABC, for instance, recently put out a Facebook casting call for a deaf actress and two male deaf actors for a new family series.

It’s Hollywood’s job to make art reflect life, but also for life to reflect art. Forrest Gump, I am Sam and Rain Man were all superb movies, played with aplomb by able-bodied actors. This is likely more a reflection of the business model of Hollywood; not wanting to risk a typically overblown movie budget on an unknown actor who has a disability.

In the consumer space, some companies have recognized the selling opportunity and are reworking their ads to include people with disabilities. Props to Milk-Bone for including a wheelchair user in a recent T.V. commercial, and for supporting service dogs for the disabled. Kudos, too, to Babies “R” Us, who is working with Autism Speaks on a collection of photographs titled “Faces of Autism” that are appearing on signs in stores and on a section of the Toys “R” Us Website.

For many years, ads and catalogs for Toys “R” Us have included children who are physically disabled. Consumers with physical disabilities, younger and older, have appeared in campaigns for advertisers like Cingular Wireless, Levi Strauss, Pepsi, McDonald’s and Target.

Some artists are taking matters into their own hands. In May, photographer Holly Norris shot a spoof of the hip-and-skinny, teenaged American Apparel print ads with her friend Jes Sachse. Calling it American Able, the ads featured Jes, who has a rare genetic disorder called Freeman-Sheldon syndrome, in a series of poses that have been called “a searing satire of fashion photography.”

Last year, American Airlines ran a campaign that honored the best local TV commercial featuring positive portrayals of the disabled. The winning spot — the Texas Lion’s Club — won free air time during the airline’s in-flight entertainment programming. After the dismissal of a disabled passenger by US Air this week, more airlines might want to look into this niche.

There are nearly 1 billion people globally with disabilities. Like or not, the message is getting clearer: Leave out the disabled and you’ll leave money, and customers, on the table.

- By Suzanne Robitaille

Today, the Wall Street Journal published the article, For Disabled, a Job Hunt Alternative, leading with the story of New Mexico’s David Shunkey, an autistic man who runs a dog-treat business with an $850 state grant. The story does a great job talking about the opportunities as well as the hurdles that face disabled entrepreneurs. While loans are available, they’re harder to get. And in Mr. Shunkey’s case, his difficulty with communicating and running a business has potentially hurt his sales.

A key program that WSJ mentioned is one I’ve written about in the past on my website, abledbody.com, is the Entrepreneur Boot Camp for Veterans. This excellent, week-long workshop is designed to give veterans with disabilities an MBA-style crash course in being an business owner. Six schools are participating, including founder Syracuse University: Here’s how to apply.

Another program that didn’t receive mention — perhaps it was too new to be considered — is the U.S. Business Leadership Network’s Disability Supplier Diversity Program. The program offers businesses that are 51% owned by an individual with a disability, including service disabled veterans, an opportunity to obtain certified disability-owned business status and get access to supplier networks in major corporations and federal agencies. It’s the disability version of being a women- or minority-owned business. My company, abledbody, successfully obtained certified disability-owned status on April 30, and I’m on of 16 other small businesses that hope use this certification to do business with private-sector companies including Ernst & Young, IBM and Walgreen’s.

In fact, many people with disabilities who start businesses go to great lengths to ensure that they’re using their strengths, not their disability, to make an imprint. (Abledbody offers writing and communications services.) Other companies in the program sell products and services that cater to the disability market — such as Braille signage or ADA consulting — and for these enterprises, business can be a windfall. Let’s hope another article shows up in mainstream media that highlights these success stories, too.

- Suzanne Robitaille

The Poynter Institute is talking about braille and literacy, a topic jump-started by a recent New York Times Magazine article, “Listening to Braille,” by Rachel Aviv. The author writes that new technology may be undermining braille literacy as people who are blind are now “reading” via e-books, iPods, telephone news services and other text-to-speech devices.

Note to New York Times headline writers: People who are blind read braille. They don’t listen to it.

Aviv delves into scientific studies that say learning English by “visual” or “feeling” mode is far better than anything audio can provide. With new technologies, she asks, do blind people lose more than they gain?

Probably not. Most blind people would never be able to assimilate into modern society without “talking” books, computers, mp3 players and smart phones — even if they were fluent in braille. One reason is the cost of producing a braille book – about $1,000, due to the cost of labor and materials. Aviv writes:

“Braille books are expensive and cumbersome, requiring reams of thick, oversize paper. The National Braille Press, an 83-year-old publishing house in Boston, printed the Harry Potter series on its Heidelberg cylinder; the final product was 56 volumes, each nearly a foot tall.”

Alternatively, a person who is blind can read Web-braille.  Such a book is translated into digital braille and “read” via braille on a computer or PDA using a “refreshable braille display,” which is like a braille keyboard. Still, these devices cost upwards of $6,000 and one must be fluent in literary braille to use them.

That’s why digital talking books make so much more sense for today’s modern person who is blind. Books can be read aloud on “DAISY readers,” which are like the Kindle — only much more accessible, or on MP3 players like iPods. Costs start from $350 and up. That’s more favorable economics.

The bigger problem is getting the major publishers to allow their books to be translated into audio for those with visual impairments.  The New York Times and BusinessWeek have covered the recent dispute over Kindle 2′s ability to read its books aloud, which was intended for use by the blind. In a Wall Street Journal article, Paul Aiken, executive director of the Authors Guild says: “Kindle users don’t have the right to read a book out loud…that’s an audio right, which is derivative under copyright law.”

Technology has caught up with the times, but the marketplace is still mired in old-school thinking. This debate will continue. Meanwhile, people who are blind will try to get their hands on literature any which way they can.

Suzanne Robitaille is the founder and editor-in-chief of Abledbody.com, a consumer Web site that covers disability news and assistive technology. She was the assistive technology columnist for BusinessWeek.com in New York from 2001-2005.

She also worked at The Wall Street Journal Online and continues to write for print and Web publications, including The Wall Street Journal, BusinessWeek.com, Disaboom and Media Post. She is the author of the book “The Illustrated Guide to Assistive Technology & Devices.”