What do we call them…you know, “the disabled”?

After years of being assaulted with scores of inappropriate references  in print, television, film and the internet to “the disabled”, I need to register my formal complaint to “the media.” Wake up and apply some accepted, common sense principles to the treatment of people with disabilities in your work!

How many Psychiatrists does it take to change a lightbulb…or Journalist, or Reporter?

The answer is just one - but the lightbulb, journalist, or reporter  must really want to change! I wish that I had catalogued every time in recent memory that I noted the inappropriate or awkward use of language  in a television, newspaper or internet story while referring to or interacting with a person who had a disability. Sadly I’ve become anesthetized to its presence. It’s like the soft rumbling of a building’s heating or air conditioning unit, or the regular and rhythmic grumble of the L through a closed window in Chicago’s Loop. Not true! It’s more like nails on a blackboard, the maddeningly high volume of commercials during television shows, the incessant pounding of jackhammer on concrete or the constant ringing of tinnitus in your eardrum.

While I am seeing signs of improvement, members of the media continue to portray people with disabilities far too frequently as either superheroes or…well, modern day facsimiles of Oliver and his woebegone pals in Oliver Twist.

It seems we’re still required to possess super human strength – or strength of character – or we are left to depend on the capricious goodwill of others in our search for survival and meaning. Seriously, this has got to stop! Every time I read an article or view a story that includes or profiles one of “us,” I try to see it through fresh eyes, hoping that the writer or reporter has done her homework and learned how to treat this subject – with common sense, dignity and respect. People with disabilities are just that – people – with flaws, abilities, weaknesses and strengths. I know that this may not always make for good coverage, but if we don’t collectively begin to represent the reality of disability in the media, the promise of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) - complete  and meaningful integration of all into society – will fail to be realized. While this may seem like hyperbole, media coverage is a very powerful influencer of perception. And often this either/or representation is the norm in covering the presence of disability.

The reality is that our lives are as rich and mundane, exciting and boring, challenging and modest, exemplary and tragic as any others. At times reference to a disability is relevant, supportive, or natural in a story. Other times it seems cheap, patronizing and artificial. Reporters and writers of substance should grasp the difference.

Did I Really Say That?

Here’s a brief review of typical language that I’ve noted  from staff writers at venerated daily newspapers to nightly anchors. Confined to his wheelchair, suffers from Cerebral Palsy, the mentally retarded youth, the disabled, the blind woman, the Deaf man, the deaf-mute child, the handicapped man, dwarf, lame, or my favorite – midget.

I’ve used a wheelchair for my mobility for nearly thirty years. I am not, I can assure the media, confined to the chair. I don’t find it constraining. It has come to represent independence, enjoyment, health and vitality. I expect that the majority of persons whose primary mobility aid is a wheelchair value their chair for these reasons and many more. Stop harnessing us with your need for us to feel confined. We don’t suffer from our challenges; we address them. We don’t lead our conversations with “I’m deaf or, I’m blind or, I’m retarded or, I’m a dwarf.” To my knowledge, in AA support meetings you introduce yourself by name before your admission to the disease. We are people, not conditions.

There exists a well-defined and accepted style guide published by the National Center on Disability and Journalism. Why am I able to quickly find it, but so many writers and reporters can’t?  What I find most disconcerting is that when I read an article in a magazine, newspaper or on line that uses respectful and appropriate references to the presence of a disability, I feel as though I need to go out of my way to compliment that writer. That’s crazy! Here we are twenty years after the passage of the Americans with Disabilities Act and I want to give out ‘attaboys to professional journalists for NOT offending the nearly 54 million Americans in our nation with a recognized disability.

Disability is Real, not Make-Believe

Kathie Snow of Disability is Natural notes, “Words do matter! They can raise or lower expectations,  hurt or help, crush hopes or create dreams.” Again, perception can impact or influence reality. I don’t necessarily believe that these inaccurate portrayals influence how we see ourselves – I respect people with disabilities far too much to accept that – but I do believe that they can taint how the wider population views disability.

But let me give some quality reporters and journalists their due. A few come to mind immediately. Karen Meyer of ABC 7 News Chicago  has been a standout reporter for years on human interest stories that frequently involve the presence of a disability; however, she always treats the people she features with dignity, respect and, above all, realism. Karen manages profound hearing loss in her own life, and is clearly sensitive to her coverage of disability.  Joe Shapiro of NPR is the consummate reporter and has been lauded by many disability groups, including the National Spinal Cord Injury Association for whom I serve as President of the Board of Directors. We honored Joe with our SCI Hall of Fame Media Award at the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in 2006. Finally, John Hockenberry, another SCI Hall of Fame member, is  a Peabody, Murrow and Emmy award-winning journalist, former 20/20  and MSNBC reporter among other credits.  He sustained a spinal cord injury while attending the University of Chicago as an undergraduate student studying math. He’s disarming, highly intelligent and witty beyond measure, and his autobiography, Moving Violations, addresses the sometimes comic, other times heartfelt, challenges that living with spinal cord injury imposes on him as he strives to manage his career and life. Above all, however, he is an accomplished journalist who doesn’t make his disability the focus of his existence.

A one-page article in the Chicago Tribune’s Parade magazine recently, Dancing to Defy Expectations, caught my attention. The writer is Stacey Becker and this exceptional profile of a young Chicago native – Challes Reese - recently transplanted with her family to Dubuque, Iowa, combines warmth with honesty in framing Challes’ efforts to try out for her high school’s freshman dance team. Challes lives with cerebral palsy and uses a power chair for her mobility.  She makes the team, which is great, but her reaction to being represented as the first wheelchair user in Iowa State Dance and Drill Team Association competition is even better from my perspective. She noted, “It felt a little weird.” I love it. That’s reality! There I go again, complimenting a writer for addressing the presence of a disability with honesty and respect.

Well, I can feel my pulse slowing, so I think this rant is coming to an end. Don’t get me wrong. We need the media and the media needs us. I only hope that all members of the Fourth Estate will come to understand and embrace the reality that disability influences lives, but  doesn’t define them.