,
We get our ideas about disability in many different ways.
Small children can be influenced by the attitudes and behaviour of their parents and other adults. If every time they approached a disabled person, they were dragged away or if people always looked but tried to look as if they weren't looking, the child would have learned to associate disabled people with unpleasant experiences and might view them as people to be feared or ignored.
On the other hand, if their parents had disabled friends and work colleagues, their views might be very different.
Apart from personal experience and the behaviour of friends and family, the main sources of influence about disabled people are films, television, books and journalism. Much of this has, unfortunately, been negative. There is a strong strand of sensationalist writing and programming that dwells on very rare but devastating conditions, usually affecting children.
In films and books, disabled characters have often been portrayed as either wicked or saintly.
Another criticism that disabled people sometimes make is that in film and television portrayals where disabled characters take a central role, they are usually played by non-disabled people.
Government communicators can make a difference to these historic problems by the choices that they make. It isn't easy. Because there has been such an absence of disabled people in public communications and because, where they have been present, disabled subjects have conveyed a particular message - of a patient, a client, a problem - it can be difficult for those portraying positive disability messages. The meaning conveyed because of that history can be at odds with the message that communicators wish to get across.
However, there is an increasing body of work that shows that it can be done. The more times communications outputs are able to use representations of disabled people in positive ways, the more likely it is that the unspoken take-out messages will disappear.
For practical tips, visit the top tips section of this guidance.
For other information resources, go to the resources section of this guidance.
Page last reviewed: 11 August 2008