Representation of Disabilities

The public's perception of people with disabilities is heavily influenced by the media and how society treats disabled people is also influenced by this.

Due to this there has been a movement to represent people with disabilities in a better, more accurate light

The media generally depicts people with disabilities according to common stereotypes such as pity and heroism and although “being a hero” is a good thing to depicted as, the argument is that its not necessarily correct as people do the act of heroism due to character, mentality and morality and not just because they have a disability and by depicting people with disabilities as such is seen as discriminating them by treating them differently from any other

human being.

These stereotypes have featured in movies and shows throughout the years, and the stereotype still remains to this day. For example, not a negative example but an interesting one when it comes to the representation of people with disabilities is The Good Doctor. The Good Doctor is an American medical drama television series, The series stars Freddie Highmore as Shaun Murphy, a young autistic savant surgical resident at the fictional San Jose St. Bonaventure Hospital. in the show the main character: Shaun Murphy follows these stereotypes, less so pity but even then I believe we can see signs of this through his colleagues, who see him as different, but over time they see how capable he is and this pity begins to fade, but certainly heroism is a very strong feature in this character, this may be due to his job and role but the fact that he is a character with a disability and shows such strong signs of heroism through his acts in the show, it's undeniable in one way or another that this is playing into the stereotype even if it is a positive representation for people with disabilities.

Although he was praised for his performance in the role, the actor who plays Shaun doesn’t have any developmental disabilities himself, so by casting an actor who is not disabled to play a role in which he is, could be seen as pointless to the progression in the representation of disability and could be reinforcing the hegemonic ideologies.

A very positive representation can be seen through Maltesers- the Light Side of Disability Wedding) advert, as it represents a woman in the wheelchair and her disabilities as normality, it’s a visible representation of disability, but because it incorporates their disability into the advert it does not shy away from the fact that this is a part of their everyday life, one example of this is when the woman tells a story of running over the brides foot with her wheelchair when at a wedding (the talking point between the characters in this ad), it physically includes her disability. Although a similar thing can be seen in The Good Doctor by showing what is going on in Shauns head as seen in episode one of the show where a medical fact appears on the screen when he is trying to save a boys life, but i would put this down to being exposition and facts/information for the viewer rather than relating to how his disability benefits him.

The positive representations of the Maltesers advert are further backed up by the casting of a person with real disabilities (Sam Renke) and not just someone acting as though they have one.

Both representations are fairly positive, yet only one is Hegemonic by playing into the stereotypes society and the media has given to people with disabilities, and even if this can give exaggeration to traits its not seen as realistic nor accurate to a lot of people, particularly with disabilities.