The media should avoid coverage that reduces the description of a person to one characteristic – his or her disability – and prevents from seeing the person as a person. We have collected practical tips on what stereotypes should be broken, what correct language to use, what shots to use when shooting and how to communicate with people with disabilities.
People with disabilities are often portrayed as an untouchable caste: they are either pitied or overly heroized. Half a century ago, people with disabilities were most often perceived as “sick” and eternal “patients” of hospitals, helpless and dependent on others (the medical model of disability).
But since organizations of people with disabilities began to appear en masse around the world and loudly declare their rights and the fact that people with disabilities are part of society, and not just an object of charity or a “victim” of the disease, the understanding of disability has changed. Today, the social model of disability is based not on the physiology of the person (health disorders) that make them “disabled”, but on the barrier nature of society.
In other words, barriers make people “disabled” – stereotypes and judgments about people with disabilities (mental barrier), institutional barriers related to laws and policies, economic barriers, as well as environmental barriers such as physical inaccessibility, restrictions in information and communication. Barriers generate discrimination, exclude persons with disabilities from public life and place them in a position of humiliation.
If we consider disability according to the social model, it means that barriers can be eliminated. For example, employers can be motivated to remove physical barriers in the workplace so that persons with disabilities do not feel inconvenienced, can do their job and are not discriminated against. But it is important to take into account the opinion of people with disabilities themselves. You should not, even with the most sincere call, do something without asking whether a person with disabilities needs it?
The principle “nothing for us without us” is also applied in the depiction of people with disabilities in journalistic materials.
What is the best way to cover the topic of disability? There is no single answer. Perhaps the most important indicator is respect for the person.