Literature
After analyzing several different articles and scholarly journals about media portrayal of people with disabilities, it became clear that the way these people are portrayed is a big issue in not only our society, but societies all around the world. Although there have been many articles published about this topic, there is little that has been done to try and fix the problem. To give some statistical data, in 2019 films in which included people with disabilities, 64.7% were physical disabilities, while 29.4% were mental disabilities (2020). However, only 2.9% of speaking characters were depicted with a disability across the 100 top-grossing films of 2019. They found that overtime, the number of movies with a lead with a disability was significantly higher more recently compared to a couple of years ago, which shows that some progress has been made (2020). However, of all characters depicted in the 100 top grossing movies (not just lead characters) the 2.9% had not changed much over time.
Aside from various legal actions that have been taken, such as the creation of the ADA, film makers often do not take into consideration the stereotypes that they may be enforcing on people with disabilities, and the effects they have on both the public and those who have a disability (Callus 2019). In addition, there were several articles published in which discussed the effects caused by showing these films in school settings, such as Of Mice and Men or I Am Sam (Maples et al 2010). It is true that showing these films to children may give them more exposure to those who have disabilities, however, when films include negative stereotypes it causes a damaging effect on how students perceive those with disabilities. The articles I examined can fall under three categories; the effects of media portrayals on the public, the effects of media portrayals on those with disabilities, and educational effects of media portrayal of people with disabilities. I will also discuss the changes the ADA has made for people with disabilities.
Theory
The theoretical framework that is important to understand for my research is the sociology of disability. Depending on what lense you are looking at disability through, your understanding may change. Two common ways to look at disability are through a medical perspective and a social perspective. In medical literature, disability is considered to be defined as, “a physical or mental impairment that substantially limits one or more of the major life activities” (Kutner 2008). This definition looks at the actual impairment located in an individual. However, it is more often socially defined than medically. In social literature, it is characterized by “considerable variation in the experience of impairment by large numbers of people who nonetheless share common conditions of exclusion, marginalization, and disadvantage” (Kutner 2008). The social definition looks more at the “distinction between impairment (physical/mental/sensory) and disability (as the experience of social oppression)” (Berghs 2016). It is very important to understand how society has changed the meaning of disability for my project, because the way filmmakers are portraying disability in film further affects the social lense rather than medical.
This theory shows us that there is a difference between the actual medical definition of a disability, and the way society has changed it to an experience of social oppression. If society did not dehumanize and alienate people with disabilities, it would solely be defined in a medical way. As Berghs (2016) states, “definitions of ‘impairment, ‘disability’, ‘illness’, ‘disease’, ‘disorder’ and ‘chronic illness’ are constantly shifting, especially in terms of how they are linked to what is understood as ‘disabling’” (Berghs 2016). Films have a major role in giving the public an understanding of people with disabilities. There is a constant debate about whether a disability is seen as an outcome of an impairment, or as a disability informed by social limitations. Although there has been a decent amount of research done on this topic, there is still much more that must be studied.