Representation Of Disability In Media

I have been looking at issues around the way in which social groups are represented in TV Dramas. Representation of social groups in our thriller opening is something that we will need to take into account when making decisions about our film.

Some facts that I gathered from lessons about people with disabilities is that there are 770,00 disabled children under the age of 16 in the UK. That equates to 1 child in 20. Also, nearly one in five people of working age (7 million, or 18.6%) in Great Britain have a disability.

For my homework I had to do some research about disability in media, I've read three different articles that talk about disability and how it's represented.

Firstly, I read the 'Unlimited: Disability on Screen' article by BFI. This article shows different views that the writer of the article has on the presentation of disabled people in TV dramas. For example, during the Great War, newsreels recorded the rehabilitation of visually impaired and physically disabled servicemen; double-amputee fighter ace Douglas Bader was later immortalised on the big screen. However it also said that the film had nevertheless provided a catalyst for positive developments in language and social attitudes towards disability (including learning disabilities and mental illness) which endured a troubling history of misrepresentation on screen. It suggests that the 21st century have made space for strong disabled characters varying from characters suffering from motor neuron disease, obsessive compulsive disorder and multiple personality conditions.

Secondly, I read the 'women, old and disabled are under-represented' article by the guardian newspaper. The article suggests that women, old people and people with disabilities are hugely under-represented in modern television. For example, it stated that some of the most popular programmes on the BBC, Channel 4, ITV and Sky1 said that only 15% of women featured were aged 56 or over and that men outnumbered women by a ratio of almost 3:2, with women more likely to be aged between 20 and 39 than their male counterparts. Furthermore, a TV diversity study by CDN found that the percentage of people on-screen who are women is 42%, over 55 is 16.1%, of ethnic minority is 13.4%, who are disabled is 2.5% and who are lesbian, gay or bisexual is a mere 1%.

Finally, I read the 'Ricky Gervais and disabled actors' article by the guardian newspaper. Within this article Ricky said, "Long before disability was a campaigning issue for me I'd found actors playing disabled characters embarrassing. Mimicking disabled people had been pounced on and swiftly dealt with when I was growing up. Yet at drama school this was embraced. To me playing disabled, when not disabled, was as incongruous as being asked to black up. I can't imagine people calling a performance under those circumstances brave or moving or ground-breaking, but there we were acting disabled yet simultaneously being told to find the truth in performance. I hope that my daughter Lizzy, an actor with Asperger's syndrome, will have the same opportunities as any other performer but full representation of disabled people is uncommon in any profession, let alone television or broadcasting. In advertising, drama series, sitcoms, soap operas or comedy panel shows, disabled performers are notably absent. There are a few disabled characters but fully inclusive casting is not routine. And this is despite there being more than 250 disabled members of Equity, the actors union in the UK.