Persons with Disabilities

Persons with disabilities might best be described, in the media at least, as an invisible minority: though a large segment of the population has a physical or mental disability they have been almost entirely absent from the mass media until recent years. Moreover, when persons with disabilities appear they almost always do so in stereotyped roles.

Part of stereotyping is the attitude that all members of a particular group are the same, or else fall into a very small number of types. This is particularly true in the few cases where persons with a disability appear in media

Media Coverage of Disability Issues: Persons with disabilities receive similar treatment in the news.

Media producers have recognized that they must make efforts to better represent persons with disabilities.