From stigmatization to patronization: The media's distorted portrayal of physical disability.

Cultural stereotypes of disabled and non‐disabled men and women: Consensus for global category representations and diagnostic domains

“…Elaborating on these common representations of disabled people as superheroes, evil avengers, or tragic victims, are numerous studies deconstructing stereotypical representations on television, in films (Wolfson & Norden, 2000) and in the news media (Haller, 2000). Balter (1999) found that distorted portrayals remained largely unchanged in the USA eight years after passage of the landmark civil rights legislation (the Americans with Disabilities Act), designed to protect disabled people from discrimination. Some have argued that such biased portrayals are perpetuated by a reluctance to view disabled people as a minority group bound together by their common experiences with discrimination, restricted roles, and marginalized status (Linton, 1998).…”

Impact of a film portrayal of a police officer with spinal cord injury on attitudes towards disability: a media effects experiment

“…It has also been argued that the media, in general, has a fairly static model for portraying disability [25], leading to polarised public interpretations, and also devaluing disabled people, causing low expectations and poor attitudes of the general public regarding the performance of disabled individuals [13]. Furthermore, these unrealistic images can lead to greater social distance between disabled and non-disabled groups [20] and marginalise disabled people in the community [12,26].…”

“…Media portrayal frequently serves only to reinforce existing public misconceptions [10], using, for instance, inappropriate and insensitive language and terminology [11][12][13][14][15]. Moreover, media coverage can often focus on the medical features of the disability rather than the individual [16,17], drawing particular attention to aspects such as the special requirements and adaptations needed, in addition to a focus on treatment and prevention [16,18].…”

Discapacidad motriz: autoconcepto, autoestima y síntomas psicopatológicos

“…La explicación quizás podríamos encontrarla en un modelo social de la discapacidad, desde el cual se propone que las dificultades a las que se tienen que enfrentar las personas con una discapacidad motriz están más influenciadas por su realidad social que por las características físicas de su propia discapacidad (Longmore, 1995;Oliver, 1996). Así, a pesar de que tanto las personas con discapacidad motriz como sus familias continúan teniéndose que enfrentar a muchos prejuicios e ideas equivocadas sobre la discapacidad motriz (Balter, 1999;Harper, 1999;Hebl y Kleck, 2000;Oliver, 1996), quizás resulta progresivamente más fácil en la sociedad occidental reajustar los valores y aceptar la discapacidad de forma tal que se integre adecuadamente en el propio autoconcepto. En este sentido, Naugle (1988) señala que si la discapacidad es percibida de una forma más realista tanto por el individuo como por su familia, las expectativas pasarán de estar centradas en las habilidades afectadas a centrarse en el propio individuo, en el desarrollo de estrategias compensatorias y en la estructuración o reestructuración del autoconcepto.…”