Stereotypes Of Disabled People

The media plays a very important part in our lives, and many images that the society have made of certain types of people and even stereotypes are often based on the media interpretation. Disabled people are poorly represented. As a result, society is fed certain stereotypes on those with disabilities; these stereotypes in turn have led to debate on whether it matches the reality. Chapter 13 (Representations of People with Disabilities) assessed how the representations of disabled people has changed over the years, and the reasons behind it, which could relate to the negative or positive image society has given disabled people and even how the media has portrayed them in film, Tv, news and advertisement. The media seem to distinguish people
In our society people with disabilities are excluded, oppressed, treated unequally, seen as helpless and are victims of prejudice. Media often turns people into objects and this can bring terrible consequences as self-image can be deeply affected with their interpretations of what is acceptable and visually pleasing in contemporary bodies. The media continue to enforce disability stereotypes portraying disabled individuals in a negative un-empowering way. People with a variety of impairments have been exhibited for amusement and gain as 'freaks' for countless years and people suffering from a mental illness being stereotyped as being violent and unpredictable. This dangerous to society because it perpetrate fear and curiosity toward the disabled. The under-representation of disabled people in the media or the misleading portrayal of disabled people has far reaching consequences on the disability community. The media created the supercrip stories so the public could feel good about the disable. They are stories about superhuman, disable people and stories regarding cures, or overcoming the disability. These representations are not accurate or fair reflections of the actual experience of disabled people. Such stereotypes reinforce negative attitudes towards disabled people, and ignorance about the nature of
The roles of disabled characters in movies or dramas, were played by people who were not disabled in real life like Forest Gump, and “Glee”. Beautiful Mind was a movie about a supercrip played by an able bodied actor. It was a story about a brilliant scientist and mathematician who was a quadriplegic. In the movie Star Wars, Darth Vader was a handicap person that was portrayed as an evil person that used a breathing device to implement terror. He was played by an able-bodied actor. The Media Access Office would like to change that. They would like to see handicap people used. Movies like The Million Dollar Baby spend the wrong message to the handicap. The main character would rather die than live with a disable. The films ant need to made improvement in showcasing the handicap. The advertisement industry is doing a better job in showcasing the disable. Companies like Coke Cola, Target, and McDonald now have disable people in their