Disabled People in The Media

Disability in the media normally comes with pity and sympathy. Below are some statistics from the Disabled Rights UK, and they surveyed disabled people and their thoughts of how they are portrayed in the media.

Over three quarters (77%) could cite negative press articles about disabled people; only a third (35%) a positive story;

94% suggested press portrayal of disability equality issues was ‘unfair’ and 76% said the volume of negativity was ‘significantly increasing’;

91% said there was a link between negative press portrayal of disabled people and rising hostility/hate crime;

Nearly half (42%) suggested the government was responsible for rising press negativity and hostility towards disabled people. 

(http://www.disabilityrightsuk.org/press-portrayal-disabled-people-rise-hostility-fuelled-austerity)

From these statistics we can see how the majority of disabled people feel that they are being negatively portrayed. This is evident in the media, and certainly influences our outlook on disabled people.

One reason disabled people may feel inferior, could be strictly due to the fact that, when it comes to casting actors who are required to play a disabled role, TV shows and Movies are infamously known for hiring actors who are perfectly able. 

Artie from Glee is an example of this. Kevin McHale plays the role of Artie in the hit US show Glee. Kevin is a perfectly able actor, yet he was casted to play in a paraplegic role. Disabled activists have protested since the pilot episode, and in episodes such as 'wheels' and 'Laryngitis', the disabled have complained the portrayel of Artie 'is offensive,appropriative and wildly inaccurate.'

However, nondisabled viewers gave the episodes praise and positive reviews, with the majority of 'Gleeks' enjoying the Glee season as a whole. 

In the show parenthood Max Burkholder (a perfectly able child actor) stars as Max Braverman. Max is a sufferer of  Asperger syndrome, and though characters such as Artie and Max, create a buzz for raising awareness on the disabled, the disabled community would argue that having disabled characters is not enough and that these characters are often stereotyped and negatively portrayed with sympathy and pity.

With this being said, that is not to say that there has been a change in stereotypes. In Employee of the Month, Danny Woodburn has Dwarfism, but yet he plays an angry area manager, who is full of charisma and bosses people around. However, some audiences would suggest that the narrative of the movie targets Danny as a joke, and a few-one liners in the movie could suggest that they are being satirical about his disability. Similarly, Mini-Me in Austin Powers, is portrayed as Dr' Evil's sidekick, who seems to have no power and he is seen to be kicked around, and dismissed all throughout the movie. 

On the otherhand, there has been an increase in casting disabled actors to play disabled roles. In the opening scene in Saving Private Ryan, a soldier is seen to have his legs blown off. This character had his legs blown off in real life years before. Resident Evil Retibution features a deaf girl called Becky. Played by Aryana Engineer, she is deaf in real life. Becky's character was originally planned to not be deaf, but after an outstanding audition, she was given the role.

In the succesfull franchise 'Spy Kids' Juni and Carmen Cortez' grandfather Ricardo Montalbán uses a wheelchair in real life. 

Overall, I would say that the media has changed and the representation of the disabled is improving. In channel 4's paralympic advert 'Meet the Superhumans', the paralympians are portrayed as people who have overcome barriers almost like 'superheroes'. To the nondisabled audience, this makes you feel somewhat bad, as being perfectly capable of doing anything - causes you to question yourself and ask 'what's my excuse?' - that is personally.

To properly overcome the controversial topic of able actors playing disabled roles, we need to see disabled actors playing roles in which characters are able. This does seem unlikely, so an alternative which is to make disabled actors/characters the star. 'The Michael J. Fox show', premiers in the US on September 26th 2013. Michael J. Fox (most known from the Back to the Future franchise) suffers from Parkinson's disease, and the shows storyline is loosely based on his actual life.