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Disability Issues In Media: A Comparison

How People with Disabilities are Viewed in Society:
A Media Study


How are people with disabilities viewed through the media? Are they viewed positively or negatively? Are they shown having real, meaningful, reciprocal relationships? For this assignment, I have chosen three very different examples to examine using these questions.
The first is a classic film set in a psychiatric institution in the late 1950s – One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (1975). This film provides a realistic portrayal of institutional living during a time when the medical model of disability theory was the norm. The second film, Born on the Fourth of July, tells the story of a young man, Ron Kovic, and his struggle to make sense of his life after being paralyzed from the chest down while serving in the Vietnam War. This was a tumultuous time in American Society and one that led to a major shift in the lives of people with disabilities. My third example is a children's novel, Mine For Keeps, about a young girl with cerebral palsy returning to live with her family after spending a number of years at a boarding facility for children with disabilities. Although this story was written in 1962, it provides a great example of a current model of care – empowerment and self-determination.
These three examples are different in many ways but I believe they all demonstrate a positive view of people with disabilities. The reader/viewer is not left with any negative stereotypes. Instead they are shown a realistic, human portrayal of people who live with a disability. All of the characters in these examples are strong, independent people who are empowered to make their own choices about their lives.

One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (Film, 1975)
The Academy Award winning film starring Jack Nicolson, One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, is based upon a novel of the same name. The novel was written in 1962 by Ken Kesey. Kesey based many of the novel's secondary characters on real-life...