[The following post by Edmore Masendeke originally appeared on the author’s blog The Diary of a Disability Advocate (http://disabilityzimbabwe.blogspot.com/2014/07/its-all-about-abilities-or-is-it-media.html).]
This post was inspired by a recent class on the media framing of political issues. It got me thinking about the media framing of disability issues. How are disability issues framed in the media? What responses have these frames generated among the public and people with disabilities more specifically? These are some of the issues that I grapple with in this post. But, let me start by looking at the definition of framing first.
What is framing? Framing tells us what an issue is all about, what it means, whose responsibility it is, and what should be done. Framing is the act of emphasizing a particular idea through communication.
For a long time now, disability has largely been framed as a personal tragedy. In this instance, the frame focuses on how difficult life is for a person with a disability or/and his/her family due to the person’s impairment. This frame is usually used to seek assistance for the person with a disability or/and his/her family.
The general population has taken this frame to be a reflection of the situation of all people with disabilities and their families— these are the people dealing with this personal tragedy called disability and facing many difficulties. Although this frame reflects the situation of many people with disabilities and their families, it is not a reflection of the situation of all people with disabilities and their families. Because of this, disability activists, including people with disabilities, have challenged this frame in recent years.
This challenge led to the framing of disability issues in a new way, at least to some degree. Instead of framing disability as a personal tragedy, disability is in some instances framed as an everyday reality encouraging people to look at the person’s strengths and abilities instead of their limitations. The underlying message of this frame is it’s all about ABILITIES!
Framing disability issues in this way has not been received well with some disability activities and people with disabilities for a number of reasons. First, there tends to an exaggeration of the strengths and abilities of people with disabilities whenever this type of framing is used. Consequently, some people regard people with disabilities as heroes to be celebrated for everything that they do, even those things that other people do in their day-to-day lives. Not every person with disabilities have been happy with this, as they feel that they have been reduced to objects of inspiration, and this inspiration often stems from the fact that the general public undermines people with disabilities.
Another reason why some disability activities and people with disabilities are not happy with this framing is that it is not representative of the situation of people with disabilities. The frame has also sent the message that people with disabilities are to be accepted in society because they are capable of doing things that everybody else can do. While some people with disabilities have mild or moderate impairments and are able to do many things for themselves and lead normal lives with little or no support, there are also people with disabilities with severe disabilities who cannot do many things for themselves and require a high level of support. Thus, the latter group is excluded in the frame that says that it’s all about ABILITIES!
Be it as objects of pity or as heroes to be celebrated, the media has done a really bad job at creating the image of people with disabilities. Both frames are applicable to only a few people with disabilities. People with disabilities are a diverse group of people, and it takes more than a single story to define them.