The Role of Media in Negatively Raising Awareness of Disability

For too long, the media has inaccurately represented the disabled community. In the industry, only 31% of actors are disabled, according to Aruma. The media, particularly movies portrays disabled people as villains, superhero’s, victims, a joke and angelic like. However, we know that the problem doesn’t just exist in movies, it also exists in mainstream media.

Villains are anyone who sets out to be evil towards or harm other people. In movies, this is what disabled people are portrayed as. They are seen as people who are bad for society. Particularly sending out messages that they are not wanted here. The Nora Project writes of something called the Disabled Villains Trope - where writers use a disabled actor to make the villain seem more scarier or evil. This idea came as a result of the belief that we in the disabled community are morally corrupt or bad. Most villains we see in movies commonly have a mental illness, such as schizophrenia, which sends a message that all those struggling with their mental health are violent and/or aggressive.

An example of a poorly portrayed villain is Darth Vader from Star Wars. Darth Vader engages in a fight with his trainer/mentor. As a result of this fight, he was thrown into a pit of lava and sustained 3 lost limbs, burns all over his body and internal damage. Luckily his friends on “the dark side” gave him life saving procedures and equipment to help him survive. However, the big black suit and all the helmets and machinery that we see him wear was purposely designed to make him look intimidating. The helmet he wears covers up all the scars on his face, leaving him expressionless. The mask deepens his voice and makes the sound of his breathing louder, putting fear into others. This sends a message to all those wearing oxygen masks, prosthetic limbs or those who have scars, that they must keep covered up. 

Photo Alt Text - Darth Vader in his all black suit holding a red light saber. Photo is against a white background

If someone is portrayed as a victim as a result of their disability, they are seen as someone who needs/deserves pity. Stephen Hawking is a perfect example of this. Many viewed Stephens wheelchair as a cage or a barrier to him living a full life. When he died, people spoke about how he was finally free from his disability, like it was limiting his capabilities. Baring in mind he was an accomplished physicist. After the passing of Hawking, a cartoon was put out showing him being free of his disability. This sends a message that the only way you can live a happy and healthy life is if you don’t have disabilities. Another example of this which is more recent is Children In Need, where children are put on TV to encourage the public to donate. 

Photo Alt Text: Stephen Hawking sitting in his wheelchair against the backdrop of a green chalk board. Stephen looks directly at the camera

Too often in the media, disabilities are a laugh and a joke. One specific example is Embarrassing Bodies, a TV program where people go to specialist doctors to have body abnormalities fixed. Now, obviously many people find this cringey and often make jokes at the people on the show. Shows like these are made deliberately to make people laugh. However, unless a disabled person gives you permission to laugh at there expense, please don’t do it. You might also hear the words “retard” and “spastic” a lot in tv shows and movies - especially American ones. In the UK those words are highly offensive and so upset a lot of us in the disabled community. As a result, these words are often used by the younger generation 

Photo Alt Text: Embarrassing Bodies Logo 

Conclusion

As you can see, the media contributes a lot to the stigma and misinformation around disability. As mentioned at the beginning, there is a real lack of awareness and recruitment of disabled actors in the Media & Entertainment industry. The most common issue, mostly for movies, is that when a disabled character is present, this is usually played by a non-disabled character. This is unacceptable and the movie industry needs to be looking for the talent of the disabled actors we have in the UK. I’d like to give special mention to the amazing Rose Ayling-Ellis, who made debut on Strictly come dancing with her silent dance to Symphony by Clean Bandit, which if your interested you can watch here. This dance was a momentous and emotional moment for the Deaf Community and really gets the post across of how disabled people can be utilised positively in media. In Scotland, we have our first wheelchair user of the Scottish Parliament, Pam Duncan-Glancy. This was a momentous moment for Scotland and again shows that disabled people can live fully, happy and independent lives!