Disability and the Media

One billion people live with a disability, each with their own unique experience of the world, yet the media still largely portrays people with disability using traditional and inaccurate stereotypes. 

In this episode, Amelia is joined by Curtin University Professors Katie Ellis and Mike Kent, who discuss how disability is a social construct, rather than a medical one. They explore some of the ways people with disability are portrayed in the media, highlighting both progressive and entrenched examples. They also take a look at some of the ways COVID-19 has made technology and daily life more accessible for all people. 

• COVID-19 improves accessibility [02:35]
• The social approach to disability [04:41]
• ‘Charity case’ or ‘an inspiration’ [07:53]
• Ableism in film and TV [12:00]
• Progressive representations of disability [14:07]
• What is audio description? [16:19]

Learn more

• Digital Inclusion and Media Access
• Stella Young: I’m not your inspiration, thank you very much
• Pandemic highlights need for digital equality action

Got any questions, or suggestions for future topics?

Email [email protected].

Curtin University supports academic freedom of speech. The views expressed in The Future Of podcast may not reflect those of the university.

Music: OKAY by 13ounce Creative Commons — Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported — CC BY-SA 3.0 Music promoted by Audio Library

You can read the full transcript for the episode here.