News

Disabled by poor reporting

’It is not a person’s disability which is the problem, but the way society treats disabled people.’

This is the main thrust of the Spastic Society’s recent report on press representation of the disabled. The report, What the papers say and don’t say about disability, breaks down newspaper coverage of issues affecting people with disabilities into 18 main subject headings and shows how the range of topics covered is extremely limited, with health, fund-raising and personal interest stories making up the bulk of reports.

Very little attention is paid to campaigning, employment and community care issues where people with a disability play a more active, positive role.

The report depicts how disability is generally treated in both the quality and tabloid press as ‘abnormal’ and how the disabled are either depicted as ‘tragic victims’ or in sentimental superhuman ‘hero’ guise. This simplifies the issues to such an extent that disabled people become stereotyped and marginalised.

According to the report, the phrases used to descibe people with disabilities are often patronising, creating a language of dependency. As one disability organisation says: ‘People should be seen succeeding because of their ability, not in spite of their disability’.

The report suggests two possible solutions: more recruitment of disabled journalists and the setting aside of newspaper space for disability issues in the same way that space is given to women, health and youth.

Journalists are urged to respect the press code of conduct - that is, not to distort news and to avoid ‘prejudice and pejorative reference to a person’s race, colour, religion, sex or sexual orientation or to any mental or physical illness or handicap’.