Disability, prejudice and reality TV: Challenging disablism through media representations

Despite its well-established critique of the under- and misrepresentation of disability in the media, disability studies literature is not clear on how disability should best be ‘re’presented. Critics either advocate a representational strategy with disability entirely incidental to the narrative of a media text or a ‘non-incidentalist’ strategy highlighting the exigencies of living with disability. We argue that combining the two strategies is more in line with current media critiques and theorising. This hypothesis is tested with two experimental studies using footage from a Dutch Reality Television programme featuring participants with physical impairments. Results indicate that such positive representations of disability may initially increase affective prejudice, with more positive effects emerging only after repeated viewing. Further study into the reception of positive portrayals of disability in (entertainment) media is needed to improve our understanding of the possibilities of challenging disablism through and within the media.