Unit 3

What was traditional news media advocacy for disability advocates? Part 2

[Image description: Story from NY1 web page headlined “Judge Rules City Fails To Meet Needs Of Disabled During Emergencies” and a video image of an African American woman using a walker at a NY City hurricane shelter.]

What kind of stories did you find that represented the models discussed in the previous unit?

Here are some examples of each model in a news story:

Traditional/Stigmatizing Models

Medical Model:

A disabled girl named Ashley became the subject of international debate in 2007 when her parents decided to subject her to surgery that would stop her growth and development into an adolescent. “It’s been a year since the parents of a severely disabled child made public their decision to submit their daughter to a hysterectomy, breast surgery and drugs to keep the girl forever small. Today (in 2008), the couple tell CNN, they believe they made the right decision — one that could have a profound impact on the care of disabled children worldwide.”

Many in the news media had few questions about the parents being allowed to do this to their children, although some of the coverage did include the voices of adults with disabilities similar to Ashley.

Supercrip Model:

“Boy with Down Syndrome scores touchdown of a lifetime” was the headline of a story on TV news in South Carolina. The lead of the story said: “A middle school student had the moment of a lifetime after two football teams made a plot to have him score a very special touchdown.”

There are numerous problems with this story. The student is 13 so should be referred to as a teen, not a boy. This wasn’t a touchdown because it was arranged and not part of an actual game. Obviously, this is a sweet gesture, but what is the underlying message? – That someone with Down syndrome could never accomplish this feat on his own. Most people without Down syndrome have never scored a touchdown either, so he is being treated in a “special” way that signals he is “less than” other people.

In another example, a headline writer puts a supercrip spin on a story about deaf-blind disability advocate Haben Girma who was speaking at the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill. The headline, “First Deaf-Blind Student at Harvard Law Pursues Dreams,” frames her in terms of her past accomplishments rather than her current work as a disability rights attorney. The lead of the story has a “gee whiz, isn’t that amazing” quality to it: “At the age of 15, Haben Girma had danced, skied, kayaked and traveled to Mali. And although that’s a lot for any young person to experience, Haben was doing so while deaf and blind.”

Nothing listed in the lead is anything that she couldn’t do and has little to do with her work as a disability rights attorney, which is why she is being interviewed in the first place.

Social Pathology model:

The New York Times gives much space to its Neediest Cases series every holiday season and many of the stories fit the social pathology model to a T. Consider the implications of the sentences in this story from 2008: “Ms. Krause, who had always worked and was confused by public-assistance options, had fallen behind. The reason is shared by millions of other aging disabled people: The careful plans of her parents had foundered in financial reality. A legacy that paid more than $60,000 a year for the home health aides that Ms. Krause requires hit bottom in the spring. She became anguished as bills mounted, along with fear of expulsion from her rent-stabilized cocoon.”

The point of the story is seemingly to draw pity toward Ms. Krause so readers will donate to help her. No mention is made of the failure of local, state and national government programs that should be allowing her to live independently.

Business model:

In the years after the 1990 Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) passed, numerous stories linked the Act to costs for businesses and local governments. In fact, many businesses and local goverments didn’t comply with the disability rights law until decades later and many journalists missed that story but continued to report on what is perceived as the ADA’s “costliness.”

A story about stadium renovations in Brownsville, Texas, in 2013 focused on the $16 million price tag, instead of the 23-year delay to comply with the ADA: “At a minimum, the City Commission wants to expand and renovate all the bathrooms, which aren’t adequate for the 13,500-seat stadium; comply with the federal Americans with Disabilities Act, which would make the stadium handicapped-accessible; and upgrade the decrepit press box,” The Brownsville Herald reported.

An Indiana town, Logansport, only began thinking about becoming fully ADA accessible in 2013. But the story about it focused on the $8 million to be spent on becoming ADA-compliant. The local newspaper reported that “in July, the city hired Indianapolis-based First Group Engineering Inc. to take inventory of public buildings, sidewalks and parks and draft a plan detailing how the city can make each more ADA compliant. Representatives of the firm recently presented the transition plan to Logansport City Council. ‘The good news is that you now have that inventory,’ said Dennis Cobb, president of First Group Engineering. ‘The bad news is it’s about $8 million to fix everything.’”

At least this story did mention that the ADA was passed in 1990 and what it covered – that the city of Logansport had ignored.

Progressive/Empowering Models

The U.S. news media is becoming more aware of disability issues and covers some through a lens of empowerment and diversity.

Minority/Civil Rights Model:

The NY Times covered the disability rights group ADAPT when it went to DC to rally support for President Obama’s Affordable Care Act. The quotes in the story allow the disability activists to state their concerns directly: “Our message was stop defunding our freedom, because of his attacks on the Affordable Care Act,” said Anita Cameron, 48, of Denver, one of the group’s organizers. “Defend our freedom. Don’t defund our freedom.” These kinds of quotes are optimal in a news story because disability activists can more clearly get their message across.

Legal Model:

The legal model of news coverage is especially prevalent in the United States because many aspects of disability rights are fought for through the court system. After hurricanes hit New York and New Jersey in 2011 and 2012 and evacuation shelters and emergency plans were found to inaccessible to people with disabilities, disability organizations sued New York City and won. The headline on a story from NY1 TV network stated it directly: “Judge rules NY City fails to meet needs of disabled people during emergencies.”

In the story, it explains how the city violated the law by not considering disabled people in their emergency preparedness plans: “On the recent anniversary of Hurricane Sandy, city officials said they were better prepared to respond to future disasters. A federal judge disagreed, ruling on Thursday that the city violated the law by failing to meet the needs of the disabled during emergencies.”

Consumer Model:

This model is more difficult to find because the news media are so used to writing about disabled people as “burdens,” rather than as purchasers of goods and services. But as new technology and adaptive equipment become more prevalent in daily life, more stories appear. A news story from Vermont discusses a ski lodge there that put accessibility front and center so people of all abilities can enjoy winter recreation. The story explained, “officials with the Vt. Dept. of Tourism & Marketing say travelers with disabilities are a large and growing segment of the tourism market. Those consumers are more numerous than most people would assume, said Steve Cook, Vermont’s deputy tourism commissioner. ‘It’s really important that we can attract a wide spectrum of people who want to enjoy outdoor activities,’ Cook told New England Cable News.

Cultural pluralism model:

A 2007 story in the Los Angeles Times about artist Chuck Close barely mentions that he is a wheelchair user. Toward the end of the story there are two sentences that just mentions how he continued his art: “In 1988 a spinal artery collapse for a time left Close a quadriplegic, which stalled his work but did not stop it — he learned to paint with a brush in his mouth. Since then he’s regained enough use of his arms that he can handily propel his wheelchair and paint with brushes strapped to his arms.”

So the frames that create the more empowering news narratives are best identified as writing about people with disabilities just like they would write about non-disabled people in a story. This doesn’t mean that disability won’t be mentioned, just that it won’t be the focus of the story unless it is relevant to the story.

Self-teaching assignments:

Watch these Disability Awareness Webinars for Media Professionals in Mississippi (Four 9-min. videos): http://www.usm.edu/disability-studies/disability-awareness-webinar-overview

Could your disability organization create similar trainings for your local news media?

Further reading/Sources:

Burkholder, Amy. (2008, March 12). Disabled girl’s parents defend growth-stunting treatment, CNN. http://www.cnn.com/2008/HEALTH/conditions/03/12/pillow.angel/index.html

Cheng, Scarlet. (2007, Jan. 21). Proof is in the printing. Los Angeles Times. http://articles.latimes.com/2007/jan/21/entertainment/ca-close21

Collins, G. (2008, Nov. 29). Cerebral Palsy Can’t Restrain a Fiercely Independent Spirit. The NY Times. http://www.nytimes.com/2008/11/30/nyregion/30neediest.html?_r=0

Cuza, B. (2013, Nov. 7). Judge Rules City Fails To Meet Needs Of Disabled During Emergencies. NY1. http://www.ny1.com/content/news/197541/judge-rules-city-fails-to-meet-needs-of-disabled-during-emergencies

Dyches, Chris. (2013). Boy with Down Syndrome scores touchdown of a lifetime. WBTV news. http://www.14news.com/story/23917835/middle-schools-hatch-plan-for-very-special-touchdown-run.

Hendricks, Dave. (2013, Dec. 7). Stadium overhaul would actually cost $16.2 million, school district says. The Brownsville Herald. http://www.brownsvilleherald.com/news/valley/article_7bfe239e-5eee-11e3-a599-001a4bcf6878.html

Kirk, Mitchell. (2013, Dec. 8). Report: ADA compliance means $8 million in updates. The Pharos-Tribune (Indiana). http://www.pharostribune.com/local/x1636706435/Report-ADA-compliance-means-8-million-in-updates.

Parker, A. (2013, Sept. 30). Disability rights group rallies in support of health law. The NY Times. http://www.nytimes.com/news/fiscal-crisis/2013/09/30/disability-rights-group-rallies-in-support-of-health-law/

Stasio, Frank & Campbell, Nicole. (2013, Nov. 1). First Deaf-Blind Student At Harvard Law Pursues Dreams. WUNC radio. http://wunc.org/post/first-deaf-blind-student-harvard-law-pursues-dreams

Thurston, Jack. (2013, Nov. 8). Vermont non-profit aims to serve more athletes with disabilities. NECN Business. http://www.necn.com/11/08/13/Vt-non-profit-aims-to-serve-more-athlete/landing_business.html?blockID=857221&feedID=11106