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If you’ve ever spent your morning commute daydreaming about starting afresh with your career, this feature is for you.
Each Monday, we speak to someone from a different profession to discover what it’s really like. This week we chat to wheelchair user Julie Fernandez, an access coordinator and former actress best known for playing Brenda in The Office and Vanessa Lockhead in the ’90s soap Eldorado.
Rates vary according to budget… The Casarotto access team I co-run with my business partner Sara Johnson has set guidance of no less than £350 per day for unscripted and it ranges from £350-£900 for a drama depending on their budget. They work as freelance consultants and we ask for a minimum of five days (where there is no connection to disability in the crew or content). We are worth the money and always aiming to challenge the disability pay gap and ensure disabled-led expertise is well paid.
My days are spent… carrying out one-to-one meetings to learn what a cast or crew member’s access requirements are; advising them and production on appropriate adjustments; working with the locations team on how to make sets and venues accessible; advising the production secretary on what accessible travel and accommodation really looks like. Every day is different and I love it.
My favourite regular job is on… Silent Witness, who continue to work hard to embed access-first thinking across every process on and off-screen.
I love my job but… it’s hard when you feel like a tick box or when people don’t value your advice. It’s frustrating when productions don’t embrace all they can to improve accessibility, and instead grudgingly use us to help them put in ramps for that one disabled actor they have hired. Thankfully, that’s not as common nowadays.
I had to really fight for whatever I needed on Eldorado… when I was flown to Spain and expected to just get on with it. Thirty-five years on I can’t believe I’m still having the same conversations about ramps and…
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