“DISABILITY MEDIA STUDIES” – A CHAPTER RESPONSE

As indicated by the book’s title, Disability in Media Studies, authors Elizabeth Ellcessor, Mack Hagood, and Bill Kirkpatrick sought to initiate a dialogue between critical media studies and disability studies scholars. The former would theorise disabilities as a variance in human communication, whilst the latter expands the tools to analyse media. Despite their shared interests in validating lived experiences and social transformation, both fields have yet to interconnect meaningfully. Moreover, according to Micky Lee, “… there have been few studies on disability and the media” and “similarly, there are only few book-length works on disabilities” (Lee, 5587). This response will grapple with the arguments in the chapter “Toward A Disability Media Studies.” The chapter begins with an analysis of Glee’s representation of disabilities; Glee depicts a crowd dancing to synth-pop, led by a man in nerdy attire. Towards the end of the dance number, he is hoisted up in the air by two men before being abruptly dumped back into his wheelchair, thus dampening his dreams of able-bodiedness (Ellcessor, Hagood, Kirkpatrick, p.1).

Fig.1 Glee, “Safety Dance lead by Artie”

The scene drew the ire of individuals within the disabled community, who critiqued the unrealistic portrayal of a paraplegic, the perpetuation of the false narrative that states disabled people want to be “fixed”, and for casting Kevin McHale, an able-bodied actor. Nonetheless, it was lauded by critics, who praised the inclusivity, such as the Times’s James Poniewozik, who called it “moving” (Ellcessor, Hagood, Kirkpatrick, p.2). However, “convenient casting” (hiring able-bodied actors) is not a new phenomenon. Sia’s movie Music and TV shows like The Good Doctor, and The Upside all feature disabled people played by neurotypical and able-bodied actors who mimic the impairments of the disabled (Pepper; Rosenberg; Hyndman).

How is one to engage with media and tackle disability representation? The chapter argues that there are two academic disciplines that grant us the tools to analyse disability representation. Foremost, Disability Studies gives us an understanding of disability as a trope, cultural identity, lived experience, socio-economic status, and political category. Whereas, Media Studies is humanities-centred, exploring the media’s function as “… cultural, political, and economic institutions, as sites of meaning-making, and ideological contestation, and as a resource for social and individual identity formation and expression.” The authors, however, argue that none have grappled with the complexities of disabilities and media together sufficiently. Thus, facilitating the need for the emerging field of Disability Media Studies (DMS). DMS serves as a means for cross-pollination between the two separate fields of study; it enables the adaption of the most useful theories and methodological tools to analyse how disabilities shape text, technology, and industries, and in turn how the media defines the meaning of being disabled or able-bodied (Ellcessor, Hagood, Kirkpatrick, pp. 3-4).

This may leave one to ask, why has the conversation not taken place sooner? Lee argues that there are two factors hindering this overdue dialogue: One being media studies’ upholding of the medical model, which views disability as an issue to fix. Two, the focus on immaterial aspects, text, and meaning, rather than the material aspects, like the body and technology. Disability studies scholars could encourage media studies to move past a pathological framework to adopt a socialist constructionist or embodiment view. The adoption of disability studies also enables the analysis of social environments that disadvantage minorities, lived experiences, and self-identities. Whereas media studies scholarship grants disability studies scholars more methods to analyse media (Lee, p.5587).

Fig.2 Glee, “Big Brother Wheelchairs”

Circling back to Glee, the authors encourage scholars to move beyond the preferred meaning of media, which in this case is supporting the inclusion of Artie and the show’s validation of his significance and humanity. However, that would be consenting to cultural ableism, and being under the assumption that someone with a mobility impairment would want and aspire to be able-bodied. Whereas one can read the text, with the consideration that, at an industrial level, an able-bodied actor was hired, and that Artie is “broken” by his disability. Instead of accepting Glee’s preferred meaning, scholars should account for audience agency and popular culture, and use a more integrated approach; scholars should not methodologically limit themselves to textual analysis and miss contextual information garnered through the analysis of text, audience, industry, social context, and technology together (Ellcessor, Hagood, Kirkpatrick, pp. 13-14). This, however, is the first overarching hope in the interdisciplinary conversation for Disability Media Studies, which is threefold:

(i) Scholars will move past textual analysis, considering the media’s role within economic and ideological circles. (ii) To foreground disabilities in the analysis of media. The emphasis of embodiment in Disability Studies may help Media Studies scholars bring significance to disability within the categories of analysis. However, the authors recognise that disability is not merely another category and is as much a social construct as it is an embodied/lived experience. To elaborate, the medical model assumes disabilities as a fact about someone, whereas the social model/disability studies see disability as a status imposed on someone by society. An impairment like needing a wheelchair only becomes a disability when there are no ramps or elevators. So, someone may identify as abled, but their body experiences environments differently than those who are not disabled. (iii) Lastly, the chapter calls for “all scholars to recognise themselves in the critically oriented, humanities-centred concerns with social, cultural, and economic justice that unites both disability studies and media studies.” This will further DMS theoretically and methodologically (Lee, p.5587; Barden, p.1672).

However, importantly, the book does not delimit DMS in terms of scope, theoretical, or methodological persuasion. Rather, the aim is to stage an interdisciplinary conversation which will leave possibilities for the ongoing conversation and germination of ideas to forward and nurture the emerging field of DMS (Barden, p.1672). One can infer the authors’ success on those fronts, but arguably the main success is its advocacy for DMS, and the merging of both academic fields. As outlined in this response, there are benefits to this fruitful discussion and merger of disciplines, as it gives more methodological tools, theories, and enables the analysis of the material and immaterial elements that make up our understanding of disability representation in media.

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Figures

Fig.1: Glee. “Big Brother Wheelchairs.” The Hollywood Reporter, April 10^th, 2012.

‘Glee’s’ Dianna Agron on Quinn’s Accident and What’s Next: Romance? – The Hollywood Reporter

Fig.2: Glee. “Safety Dance.” Glee Wiki, May 18^th, 2010

Safety Dance | Glee Wiki | Fandom

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Works Cited

1. Barden, Owen. "Disability media studies." Department of Disability and Education (2018): 1672. Web.

2. Elizabeth Ellcessor, Mack Hagood, and Bill Kirkpatrick. "Toward a Disability Media Studies." Elizabeth Ellcessor, Mack Hagood, and Bill Kirkpatrick. Disability Media Studies. New York: NYU Press, 2017. 1-4. Book.

3. —. "Toward a Disability Media Studies." Elizabeth Ellcessor, Mack Hagood, and Bill Kirkpatrick. Disability Media Studies. New York: NYU Press, 2017. 13-14. Book.

4. Hevey, David. "From Self-love to the Picket Line: strategies for change in disability representation." Disability, Handicap & Society (1993): 423. Website.

5. Hyndman, Drew Miller. Sia says sorry to autism community for controversial film Music. 4 2 2021. Website. 15 10 2023.

6. Lee, Micky. "Disability Media Studies." International Journal of Communication (2019): 5587. Website.

7. Olga Kolotouchkina, Carmen Llorente-Barroso, María Luisa García-Guardia, and Juan Pavón. "Disability, Sport, and Television: Media Visibility and Representation of Paralympic Games in News Programs." Sustainability (2020): 2. Website.

8. Pepper, Penny. Is it ever OK for non-disabled actors to play disabled roles? 9 1 2019. Website. 15 10 2023.

9. Rosenberg, Red. Cosplaying Oppression: Hollywood’s History of Excluding Autistic People From Their Own Stories. 28 7 2021. Website. 15 10 2023.