Editor's Introduction

What is it about?

Editor's introduction to the book Disability Representation in Film, TV, and Print Media (2022, Routledge). Using sources from a wide variety of print and digital media, this book discusses the need for ample and healthy portrayals of disability and neurodiversity in the media, as the primary way that most people learn about conditions. It contains 13 newly written chapters drawing on representations of disability in popular culture from film, television, and print media in both the Global North and the Global South, including the United States, Canada, India, and Kenya. Although disability is often framed using a limited range of stereotypical tropes such as victims, supercrips, or suffering patients, this book shows how disability and neurodiversity are making their way into more mainstream media productions and publications with movies, television shows, and books featuring prominent and even lead characters with disabilities or neurodiversity. Disability Representation in Film, TV, and Print Media will be of interest to all scholars and students of disability studies, cultural studies, film studies, gender studies, and sociology more broadly.

Featured Image

Photo by Nathan Anderson on Unsplash

Photo by Nathan Anderson on Unsplash

Why is it important?

Disability is a key identity marker and disabled people collectively comprise the largest minority group in the US. Representation matters and having adequate and appropriate representation in media where people with disabilities are empowered to portray themselves and contribute to the narratives about them is vital, not only to educate the general public toward understanding and ethical behavior but also to provide role models and points of identification for people with disability as they consume media.

Perspectives