Skip to content
1981
Disability and Popular Culture
  • ISSN: 2045-5852
  • E-ISSN: 2045-5860

Abstract

In this article, we present findings from the first national study of disability in the Australian screen industry, based on a survey of over 500 workers and interviews with eleven screen workers. While the research focused on workforce conditions, disabled participants consistently framed their creative practice as inseparable from serving their disability community. They positioned disabled viewers as both an under-recognized market and a diverse cultural community. We examine how disabled screen workers connect labour, authentic on-screen representation and audience reception in a collective process of narrating disability identity and community. Participants highlight pervasive inauthentic portrayals and the missed commercial and cultural opportunities of engaging the disability community. Meaningful inclusion in a just and representative screen industry requires recognizing the disability community as both creators and audiences.

Funding
This study was supported by the:
  • A2K Media, Melbourne Disability Institute
  • The University of Melbourne
Loading

Article metrics loading...

/content/journals/10.1386/ajpc_00113_1
2026-01-31
2026-04-15

Metrics

Loading full text...

Full text loading...

References

  1. Ansell, Kate (2021), Career Routes and Barriers for Disabled People in the UK TV Industry, Birmingham: The Sir Lenny Henry Centre for Media Diversity, https://bcuassets.blob.core.windows.net/docs/disability-in-tv-reportv3-132741800991883115.pdf. Accessed 9 August 2025.
    [Google Scholar]
  2. Barnartt, Sharon N. (1996), ‘Disability culture or disability consciousness?’, Journal of Disability Policy Studies, 7:2, pp. 119, https://doi.org/10.1177/104420739600700201.
    [Google Scholar]
  3. Chandler, Eliza (2009), ‘Pride and shame: Orienting towards a temporality of disability pride’, Radical Psychology, 8:1.
    [Google Scholar]
  4. Chandler, Eliza (2014), ‘Disability and the desire for community’, Ph.D. thesis, Toronto: University of Toronto, https://utoronto.scholaris.ca/items/2fab2447-16ea-4544-9d36-b8560dda02cd. Accessed 10 August 2025.
    [Google Scholar]
  5. Clarke, Victoria and Braun, Virginia (2016), ‘Thematic analysis’, in E. Lyons and A. Coyle (eds), Analysing Qualitative Data in Psychology, Los Angeles, CA: Sage, pp. 84103.
    [Google Scholar]
  6. Cork, Stephanie J., Douthirt-Cohen, Beth, Hoffman, Kelly M., Jaeger, Paul T. and Strausser, Amanda (2019), ‘Beyond random acts of diversity: Ableism, academia and institutional sites of resistance’, in M. Berghs, T. Chataika, Y. El-Lahib and K. Dube (eds), The Routledge Handbook of Disability Activism, London: Routledge, pp. 299314.
    [Google Scholar]
  7. Crow, Liz and Merchant, Wendy (2019), ‘Disabled mothers of disabled children: An activism of our children and ourselves’, in M. Berghs, T. Chataika, Y. El-Lahib and K. Dube (eds), The Routledge Handbook of Disability Activism, London: Routledge, pp. 15770.
    [Google Scholar]
  8. Ellis, Katie and Goggin, Gerard (2017), Disability and the Media, London: Bloomsbury Publishing.
    [Google Scholar]
  9. Frazee, Catherine (2014), ‘Unleashed and unruly: Staking our claim to place, space and culture’, Review of Disability Studies, 5:1, pp. 15.
    [Google Scholar]
  10. Garland-Thomson, Rosemarie (2016), ‘Becoming disabled’, New York Times, 19 August, https://www.nytimes.com/2016/08/21/opinion/sunday/becoming-disabled.html. Accessed 6 August 2025.
    [Google Scholar]
  11. Goering, Sara (2008), ‘“You say you’re happy, but…”: Contested quality of life judgments in bioethics and disability studies’, Bioethical Inquiry, 5, pp. 12535, https://doi.org/10.1007/s11673-007-9076-z.
    [Google Scholar]
  12. Goodley, Dan (2011), Disability Studies: An Interdisciplinary Introduction, Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE.
    [Google Scholar]
  13. Hallström, Lasse (1993), What’s Eating Gilbert Grape, USA: Paramount Pictures.
    [Google Scholar]
  14. Heartbreak High (2022–present, Australia: Fremantle & NewBe).
    [Google Scholar]
  15. Kafer, Alison (2013), Feminist, Queer, Crip, Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press.
    [Google Scholar]
  16. Levinson, Barry (1988), Rain Man, USA: United Artists.
    [Google Scholar]
  17. Longmore, Paul (2003), Why I Burned My Book and Other Essays on Disability, Philadelphia, PA: Temple University Press.
    [Google Scholar]
  18. Love on the Spectrum (2022–present, USA: Northern Pictures).
    [Google Scholar]
  19. Nelson, Jack A. (2000), ‘The media role in building the disability community’, Journal of Mass Media Ethics, 15:3, pp. 18093, https://doi.org/10.1207/s15327728jmme1503-4.
    [Google Scholar]
  20. Newnham, Nicola and LeBrecht, James (2020), Crip Camp: A Disability Revolution, USA: Higher Ground.
    [Google Scholar]
  21. O’Brien, Sarah (2020), ‘The harm of “cripping up”’, Sarah O’Brien, 22 November, https://www.sarahmobrien.com/blogs/the-harm-of-cripping-up. Accessed 10 September 2025.
  22. O’Meara, Radha, Dunstan, Laura, Debinski, Anna and Ryan, Catherine (2023), Disability and Screen Work in Australia: Report for Industry, Melbourne: Melbourne Disability Institute, https://disability.unimelb.edu.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0011/4489229/DisabilityandScreenWorkinAustralia-OMeara-FullPDF-2023.pdf. Accessed 8 August 2025.
    [Google Scholar]
  23. O’Regan, Tom and Cunningham, Stuart (2020), ‘Marginalised audiences’, in G. Turner and S. Cunningham (eds), The Australian TV Book, London: Routledge, pp. 20112.
    [Google Scholar]
  24. Piepzna-Samarasinha, Leah L. (2018), Care Work: Dreaming Disability Justice, Vancouver: Arsenal Pulp Press.
    [Google Scholar]
  25. Robb, David (2021), ‘Time’s Up & 1 in 4 coalition seeks new standards for Hollywood’s inclusion of people with disabilities’, Deadline, 27 April, https://deadline.com/2021/04/times-up-1-in-4-coalition-seeks-new-standards-for-hollywoods-inclusion-of-people-with-disabilities-1234745097/. Accessed 9 August 2025.
  26. Ruderman Family Foundation and Geena Davis Institute (2025), The State of Disability Representation on Television: An Analysis of Scripted TV Series from 2016 to 2023, Boston, MA: Ruderman Family Foundation, https://issuu.com/rudermanfoundation/docs/the_state_of_disability_representat_f336ac0e6ad166. Accessed 8 August 2025.
    [Google Scholar]
  27. Schalk, Sami (2022), Black Disability Politics, Durham, NC: Duke University Press.
    [Google Scholar]
  28. Screen Australia (2023), Seeing Ourselves 2: Diversity, Equity and Inclusion in Australian TV Drama, Sydney: Screen Australia, https://www.screenaustralia.gov.au/getmedia/233e459c-e340-49bc-8de2-9f04a846632b/Seeing-Ourselves-2-Full-Report-Accessible-PDF.pdf. Accessed 8 August 2025.
    [Google Scholar]
  29. Shakespeare, Tom (1996), ‘Disability, identity and difference’, in C. Barnes and G. Mercer (eds), Exploring the Divide, Leeds: The Disability Press, pp. 94113.
    [Google Scholar]
  30. Shakespeare, Tom (2006), Disability Rights and Wrongs, London and New York: Routledge.
    [Google Scholar]
  31. Sins Invalid (2021), ‘ASL 10 principles of disability justice’, YouTube, 25 March, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OTE42livhQg&t=1s. Accessed 8 August 2025.
  32. Speechless (2016–19, USA: Silver and Gold Productions).
    [Google Scholar]
/content/journals/10.1386/ajpc_00113_1
Loading
This is a required field
Please enter a valid email address
Approval was a success
Invalid data
An error occurred
Approval was partially successful, following selected items could not be processed due to error
Please enter a valid_number test