By: Valerie Tonn
Within society, those who are facing disabilities are met with stereotypes on top of lack of adequate care (Lind, 2023). Our culture often devalues those with disabilities and even will consider them, and as a result people with disabilities (Lind, 2023). If they are represented, then usually these people are put as villains and broadcasted into a negative light (Lind, 2023).
Currently, there are 26% of U.S. adults with disabilities, yet representation of this group is only at 4.2 percent in a survey of 164,000 films and tv shows (Bahr, 2022). In another survey of 2,000 cellphone users, 34% of people with disabilities said there weas not enough representation within media of their group (Bahr, 2022). Additionally, people in this category were 52% more likely to to find displayed characters with disabilities in the media to be inaccurate. This statistic is especially important because 95% of the characters on TV with disabilities aren’t even portrayed by people with disabilities (Bahr, 2022).
People with disabilities are often put into categories on their portrayal being villain, helpless victim or the inspirational hero depending on the frame of the movie (Reid, 2022). The villain type can create fear around disabilities that is misconcieved as a result of many people not being aware of disabilities often portrayed in the media (Reid, 2022). The helpless victim makes it seem that a person must be saved from their condition and evokes sympathy rather then just viewing them as a normal person (Reid, 2022). The inspirational hero suggest that people with disabilities need to be cured in order to be happy (Reid, 2022). All of these portrayals are extremely harmful for people with disabilities as it devalues them without showing inspiraritonal figures in the media of those with disabliities living a normal life (Reid, 2022).
Ultamitely, society needs to look less towards stereotypes and categorizing people and more towards finding ways to include people with disabilities accurately in the media (Bahr, 2022). Including those with disabilities is a step that needs to continue to be taken to continue to encourage inclusivity (Bahr, 2022). However, proper education behind disabilities is also needed to dispel inaccurate information (Bahr, 2022).
References:
Bahr, S. (2022, July 26). Study shows disability representation onscreen is increasing, but still falls short. The New York Times. https://www.nytimes.com/2022/07/26/arts/television/disability-representation-tv-movies-study.html
Lind, R. A. (2023). Race/gender/class/media: Considering diversity across audiences, content, and producers. Routledge.
Reid, L. (2022, February 21). Misleading media: Disabilities in film and television. UAB Institute for Human Rights Blog. https://sites.uab.edu/humanrights/2019/11/27/misleading-media-disabilities-in-film-and-television/
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