Basic Content Analysis/ Quantitative Coding
I firstly did basic content analysis on the twenty-six trailers of films between 1960 and 2020 which have people with disabilities in them. I decided to look at the amount of sentences spoken in the trailer, the type of disability, if they were born with it or attained it, their gender, their race/ethnicity, if they were an adult or child, if they were a primary vs secondary role, and the number of positive and negative words used to describe the disability. This gave me the general demographics of my trailers, and allowed me to see how much of a disability was present.
Qualitative Analysis
For my qualitative analysis, I looked at the different positive and negative portrayals of disability in the trailers. To do this, I took note of positive portrayals such as if it raised awareness, was inspiring, supportive, or courageous. In addition, I took note of negative portrayals such as the disability being seen as violent, dumb, overly heroic, a victim, used to induce humor/horror, or used to create a feeling of pity. For example, a positive portrayal would be in Me Before You (2016) when a girl sees past her boyfriends physical disability and falls in love with him for who he is as person rather than seeing him as a ‘helpless’ individual who is paralyzed. An example of a negative portrayal would be in Of Mice and Men (1939) when Lennie’s brother forces him to carry something heavy and says, “he won’t drop it until I tell him, unless the supper bell rings!”. This makes Lennie, the character with the disability, be used as a laughing stock by making him seem ‘dumb’ and ‘hopeless’.
Sampling
For my sampling frame, I looked at twenty-six trailers of films between 1960 and 2020. Thirteen films were from before the ADA was created, and thirteen films were from after it was created. This allowed me to find if there have been any differences in how people with disabilities are portrayed once the ADA was created. I used a non-probability convenience sampling method where I picked twenty-six well known Hollywood films where disabilities were present. I looked at Hollywood films because they reach a wide audience, which gave me a better understanding of the public’s perception, and the impact the ADA has on film portrayals of disabilities. I used trailers from YouTube to view this films. This helped me discover how disabilities were portrayed from before the ADA was created, and after the ADA was created.