This research investigated what people with disabilities think about media representations of their community and how mass media impact their disability identity. The study found that respondents (N ¼ 359) think American media portray people with disabilities both negatively and positively. Perceived positive media representation of people with disabilities led to affirmation of their disability identity even when the media messages were perceived as unrealistic, whereas negative media representation led to denial of their disability identity. Implications and limitations are discussed.

This study examines disability terminology to explore how the news media frame cultural representations of the disability community. More specifically, the paper examines the impact of the Americans with Disabilities Act on journalist's language choices about disability topics. A content analysis of news stories using disability terms in The Washington Post and The New York Times during the past decade was conducted. The paper illustrates that disability community identity continues to be formed, transformed and maintained through news media presentations of disability terminology. The paper argues that the US Disability Rights Movement had some success during the 1990s in putting forth language that advances its aims, though the study also suggests that some journalists continue to use terms that perpetuate limiting, narrow stereotypes about people with disabilities.

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The disabled consumer is coming of age. Companies in the United States and Great Britain are seeing the profitability of including disabled people in their advertising. But what are the implications of the images produced in these advertisements? Are they moving away from the pity narratives of charity? Are they creating acceptance and integration of disabled people?The two countries have slightly different histories of inclusion of disabled people in advertisements, but what we are considering in this article are the cultural implications of the current trend of the more prevalent use of disabled models in print and broadcast ads. We argue that although many businesses are learning to use disabled models in advertising due to capitalistic motivation for profits, this crass commercialism is actually producing some good disability images in advertising. As one British marketing official explained, good disability images and well-done advertisements are designed to promote brand loyalty and make a product more popular (VisABLE video, 2000). In addition, we are arguing that companies are understanding that diversity in advertising images enhance audience reception to their products.Advocates for disabled people in US have long known the importance of the "disabled consumer market." Carmen Jones of EKA Marketing (1997) says: "Few companies have enjoyed the profitability that results in targeting the consumer who happens to have a disability. . . . I believe if the business community were educated about the size and potential of the market, then advertising programs with the disabled consumer in mind" would be created (p. 4). In the new millennium, advertisers are realizing that disabled people buy soap, milk, socks, jewelry, makeup, home improvement goods, use travel services, live in houses, and enjoy nice home furnishings. There is some evidence that the disabled consumer is very much more brand loyal than other consumers. (Quinn, 1995). For example, the hotel chain Embassy Suites found out that becoming sensitive to the needs of disabled people lead to more business. And a study by the National Captioning Institute found that 73 percent of deaf people switched to a brand that had TV ad captioning (Quinn, 1995).British companies are still more hesitant in including disabled people in their advertisements due to both different advertising methods and societal attitudes. Although print ads are just as frequent in British publications, ads on British television are much less prevalent and more restricted than in the US where about 12 minutes of each half hour of commercial TV are advertisements. In the UK "the total amount of spot advertising in any one day must not exceed an average of nine minutes per hour of broadcasting" (ITC, 1998, p.1).However, some companies in both countries were slow to learn what accurate and non-stigmatizing advertising images were. For example, in 1990 a Fuji TV ad for film on British television that featured a man with learning disabilities being "improved" by a