Why We Desperately Need Positive Representation of Disability.
Written by: Elizabeth Wright
“What happened to you?”…“What’s wrong with you?”…”I pity you.”
These are some of the most common questions and statements I receive from both adults and children. And with an inner desperation to prove myself beyond these tropes and stereotypes, I recognise that it shouldn’t be my job to challenge the idea that my body is an open book. A book upon which non-disabled people want to validate or confirm the very real fears about disability.
We have to look at the wider representation of disability in society and how we can tackle the systemic structures that feed these beliefs.
To flip a negative disability narrative to a positive one we have to address the “unknown-ness” of disability. Did you know that 15% of the global population have a disability of some kind? In the UK there are approximately 13.9 million disabled people. The odds are that, as a non-disabled person, you do know someone with a disability.
Disability is a deeper and broader experience than the standard ideas and tropes that pervade our world. Disability can be physical, invisible, neurological, or present as a chronic illness.
The way that disability is presented in society is no way indicative of lived experience. Movies such as “Rain Man,” and “Me Before You,” problematically portray disability. In “Rain Man,” the protagonist, Raymond, represents a very narrow understanding of what autism is. In “Me Before You,” the protagonist Will has acquired his disability, choosing to end his life with assisted suicide, maintaining that he doesn’t want to live a “half life.”
These tropes of tragedy and pity have been challenged with the popularity of the Paralympic Games. Not all disabled people strive to compete at the Paralympics, leaving many disabled people feeling that their lived experience is misrepresented. Representation of disability has to reflect the nuance and complexities, the individual expression of disabled people. Many would ask how can this be done; I believe that change is slowly happening and you can be a part of this change as well.
In recent years more and more television shows, movies and documentaries are challenging the non-disabled status quo. Children’s shows like “Llama Llama” and “The BabySitters Club” include both visible and invisible disability in realistic and non-sensationalist ways. The must see documentary “Crip Camp” explores the history of the disability civil rights movement. And writers and content creators, such as Keah Brown, Dr Frances Ryan, and Lauren “Lolo” Spencer, are smashing traditional and social media.
To challenge the difficult and problematic disability narratives that continue to discriminate and oppress, we need to raise the voices of all disabled people. We need to ensure that we watch shows with positive disability representation, read books of disabled writers and promote the content of creators as they challenge the very notion of what disability is and how disabled people are seen.
To be used alongside this blog post we have created a resource ‘Positive Representation of People Living With Disabilities’