The Image of Disability: Essays on Media Representations by JL Schatz

As a mainstay of modern life, the media industry disseminates information about disability on a global scale. However, media outlets do not always contribute accurate and positive depictions of disability in print and on the screen. Since previous representations of disability have been incomplete, misguided, and unimaginative, our text encourages scholars and allies to refashion media so that it disrupts the status-quo and lends itself toward a more liberatory politics. Images from the media such as film, television, and social media are assessed using critical disabilities studies, media studies, cultural studies, and other interdisciplinary fields.Many of our authors suggest that media itself is a powerful force that can counter the stigma and misrepresentation that oppresses people with disabilities and perpetuates discrimination. Contributors explore new perspectives on disability including analyses of people with disabilities as producers, consumers, and product of media. Moreover, disability is expanded on through disability identity, culture, and intersections with other disciplines such as critical race theory, gender studies, and the other such viewpoints.