Not only does media portrayals of people with disabilities affect the way the public perceives them, but it affects those with disabilities themselves. Blasco et. al (2015) discusses how when watching a film, emotions play key roles in learning attitudes. Acosta-Alzuru (2013) looks at the character “Micaela” who is the first telenovela protagonist with Asperger’s syndrome. Although it has taken a long time for writers to accurately portray people with disabilities, the scenes in this show seemed to not reinforce stereotypes. People from the Aspergers community shared that they could see themselves reflected in this character, and how much it meant to them that this show accurately depicted people with disabilities (2013). In addition, Nordahl-Hansen (2017) also talks about a more recent show, Atypical, which actually helps raise awareness about ASD, and does not reinforce stereotypes and stigma (2017). This does not only help contribute to a public understanding, but it can help those with ASD feel as if they can connect to someone.
It is common for kids with ASD to have “an outstanding skill/knowledge clearly above the participant’s general level of ability and above the population norm”, so when positive aspects like this are present in films, it helps reinforce positive attributes to people with ASD (Howlin, Goode, Hutton &Rutter 2009). However, not all shows/films are like this. For example, Zhang and Haller (2013) conduct a study to see what people with disabilities think about media representations of their community, and how it impacts their identity. They find that people with disabilities are usually portrayed in a negative way. Mass media often creates unattainable goals for the disability community, which makes those who have a disability feel inadequate that they can not attain the achievements they are seeing in the media. It also leads to denial of their disability and identity. This makes the disabled community feel as if they are less precious than an “able-bodied” person, which causes them to have low self esteem about their self identity (2013).
Clearly, people who have disabilities are greatly affected when negative stereotypes are attached to films which are supposed to be representing their disability. Occasionally this can be a positive effect, however this is rare. More times than not disabilities such as ASD are portrayed using unrealistic stereotypes. This allows those with disabilities to either feel as if they are not living up to their full potential, or feel as if it is normal for people like them to get laughed at and be dehumanized.