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Disability in the media

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As a direct response, there have been increasing examples worldwide of people with disabilities pursuing their own media projects, such as creating film series centered on disability issues, radio programs and podcasts designed around and marketed towards those with disabilities, and so on.

Common depictions

The media generally depicts people with disabilities according to common stereotypes such as pity and heroism. Disability advocates often call this type of societal situation the "pity/heroism trap" or "pity/heroism dichotomy" and call instead for its supporters to "Piss On Pity" and push forward with inclusion instead.

When reports are about the "plight of the disabled" they rely on the pity or medical model of disability. Telethons are an example of this, such as the Jerry Lewis MDA Telethon which has been heavily criticized and sometimes even physically protested by disability rights advocates.

Negative day-to-day reporting may occur chiefly by depicting a given person or people with a disability as a burden or drain on society.

The "super-crip" model, in which subjects are portrayed as heroically overcoming their conditions, is also often used when reporting on people with disabilities.

The social model tends to be used for reporting on the activities of disability rights activists if the report is positive.

The term "inspiration porn" was coined in 2012 by disability rights activist Stella Young in an editorial in Australian Broadcasting Corporation's webzine Ramp Up. The term describes when people with disabilities are called inspirational solely or in part on the basis of their disability.

Researchers note that information is prioritized for people with disabilities, with communication as a hard distinct second and entertainment is framed as a luxury.

Stereotypes and Tropes

Stereotypical depictions of disability that originate in the arts, film, literature, television, and other mass media fiction works, are frequently normalized through repetition to the general audience. Once such a stereotype is absorbed and accepted by the mainstream public, it continues to be repeated in the media, in many slightly varied forms, but staying close to the stereotype. Many media stereotypes about disability have been identified. They are sometimes referred to as "tropes", meaning a recurring image or representation in the mainstream culture that is widely recognizable. Tropes repeated in works of fiction have an influence on how society at large perceives people with disabilities. Other forms of media, in turn, then portray people with disabilities in ways that conform with tropes and repeat them.

Some of these disability tropes that have been identified in popular culture include:

  • "Little People are Surreal"
The "Little People are Surreal" trope often plays on the use of dwarfism to enhance the fantasy aspect of the movie's universe. Examples of this include the character Tattoo on the television series Fantasy Island; a recurring use of a dwarf as a motif in American film director David Lynch's works, such as Mulholland Drive; and a dwarf actor who appears as a prominent cast extra in the film The Eyes of Laura Mars.
  • "Single Episode Disability"
This is where a regular character on a television series obtains a temporary disability, learns a moral lesson, and makes a rapid, full recovery. Examples include episodes of M*A*S*H and Happy Days where Hawkeye and Fonzie are temporarily blinded, and an episode of Law and Order: SVU where Detective Stabler is temporarily blind.
  • "Disability Superpower"
This is where fate removes one ability, it enhances another, so that a disabled character has one superpower. This has resulted in the creation of several subtypes of this disability trope, such as Blind Seer, Blind Weapon Master, Genius Cripple and Super Wheel Chair.

Sometimes, characters that are given a disability are only seen as their disability. Through the medical model, their disability is explained and narrated in a WebMD style. This disability stereotype, as Jay Timothy Dolmage describes it, is known as the "Disability as Pathology" myth. It is harmful because it feeds into the idea that disabled people are their disability first before their personhood.

Other disability stereotypes that have been identified in popular culture include:

  • The object of pity
The "object a pity" trope is where disabled people are used to inspire bodied people to achieving their goals, which is coined as Inspiration porn. With this, disability is commonly associated with an illness or disease. Examples include Auggie in the film Wonder (film), or Tiny Tim in A Christmas Carol.
  • Sinister or evil
Characters who are portrayed as having physical disabilities are cast as the anti-hero, such as in the films Ant-Man and the Wasp (the character Ghost) and Split.
  • Eternal innocence
Eternal innocence, paired with people with intellectual disabilities, such as in the films Forrest Gump, I Am Sam and Rain Man are given a childlike mentality.
  • The victim of violence
This is the trope in where a recently disabled individual cannot accept their new life and attempts to reverse their disability. This cliché is often connected to the "object of pity" trope and inspiration porn.
  • Asexual, undesirable, or incapable of sexual or romantic interactions:
Like "Eternal Innocence" disabled individuals are seen with an innocent childlike mentality and therefore have no sexual desires. Examples include adolescent coming-of-age storylines such as Artie Abrams on Glee, and "teen sick-lit" such as The Fault in our Stars.
  • Disability con:
The "disability con" or "disability faker" is not disabled but pretends to have a disability for profit or personal gain. Examples include the character Verbal Kint in the film The Usual Suspects, who fakes a limp in order to take advantage of others, and is shown at the end walking out of the police station scot-free, and without the limp.

While there are con artists who fake a disability such as Belle Gibson, they are rare, while people with genuine disabilities are relatively common. Media, and especially current affairs reporting, that focuses on the few fraudulent fake-disabled people while ignoring or systematically under-representing the many genuinely disabled people creates a misperception of disabled people which encourages negative stereotyping. This is especially problematic for people with hidden disabilities, who may be disbelieved and abused by members of the public for "faking it," as they believe that disability fakers are more common than genuine disabilities. One example is wheelchair users not being able to walk.

The existence of disability tropes in mass media is related to other stereotypes, or tropes, that have developed when other marginalized groups in society are depicted, such as the Magical Negro trope identified, and criticized, by film director Spike Lee. The mocking names often given to these tropes when they are identified indicates a rejection of the harmful stereotypes that they propagate.

Stereotypes may endure in a culture for several reasons: they are constantly reinforced in the culture, which mass media does easily and effectively; they reflect a common human need to organize people and categorize them; they reinforce discrimination that allows one group of society to exploit and marginalize another group. Several studies of mass media in Britain and the United States have identified common stereotypes, such as "noble warrior", "charity cripple", "curio", "freak", and "Pollyanna", where the researchers identified a position of "disapproval", on the part of the media, of some aspect of the disability. It has been shown that media portrayals of disability became more normalizing and accepting in the years immediately after World War II, when returning veterans with war-related disabilities were being reintegrated into society. A backlash of intolerance towards disability followed during the mid-20th century, with some researchers speculating that this may have been related to society's reaction against any identifiable "difference" as a result of Cold War tensions. Depictions of disability in media soon reverted to emphasizing the "freakish" nature of disability.

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