(Re)presentations of Disability: Images of Persons with Down Syndrome

Abstract

Disabled people have been misrepresented by mass media for decades. The result of disability misrepresentation is the perpetuation of negative disability stereotypes and models of disability. Disability representation has rarely been informed by authentic first-hand knowledge about what disability is and who disabled people are. As such, representations of disability have been formed from an outsider perspective most commonly based on ableism. This study seeks to explore the ways in which disabled people choose to represent themselves and if this representation is consistent with or resistant to dominant disability narratives. Borrowing from Critical Disability Studies and the concept of disability life writing, this study utilized qualitative content analysis to analyze the visual images, comments, and hashtags of randomly selected data posted to four publicly accessible Instagram accounts. Findings show disabled people choose to represent themselves in ways that resist dominant disability narratives, allowing for expanded ideas of what disability is and who disabled people are.