Media Portrayals of Persons with Disabilites: Solutions
Media producers have recognized that they must make efforts to better represent persons with disabilities.

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

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

On November 5, 2009, MNet Media Education Specialist Matthew Johnson participated in the Association of Canadian Studies' conference Knowing Ourselves: The Challenge of Teaching History of Canadian Official Minority Language Communities, speaking on the topic Media, Diversity and Our History. What follows is an expanded version of his remarks.

Media speaks volumes about what is important in a society. What we see in media can have an impact on how we see other groups and how we see ourselves.

It’s ironic that as computers and other communications technology have become more accessible to the general public over the last thirty years, they have actually become less accessible to a segment of the population, one to whom access is everything: people with disabilities. More ironic still is that the history of communications technology is intimately tied to the drive to integrate people with disabilities more fully into society.

Canada’s Broadcasting Act, last amended in 1991, outlines industry guidelines for portrayal of diversity.

Students begin by viewing a slideshow that explores common stereotypes of mental illness and mental illness treatment in media. They read a prepared analysis of the portrayal of mental illness in a TV show popular with teens, then in a small group analyze another text of their choice. Finally, students create an annotated version of a scene or excerpt from a text in which they analyze and evaluate its portrayal of mental illness.

There are four main strategies to help kids become resilient to online risks. We can:
Curate our kids’ media experiences;
Control who can access our kids and their data;
Co-view media with our kids;
and be our kids’ media Coaches.

Talk Back! How to Take Action on Media Issues gives you the tools to talk back to media companies.