Disabled People Transforming Media Culture for a More Inclusive World

Beth A. Haller, Ph.D., has been researching mass media content about the disability community since the early 1990s. She developed some of the first university courses in the U.S. and Canada focused on disability in the media, for undergraduate and graduate Disability Studies programs at Towson University in Maryland, the City University of New York (CUNY), York University in Toronto, Canada, and the University of Texas-Arlington. Haller is co-editor of the 2020 Routledge Companion to Disability and Media (with Gerard Goggin of the University of Sydney and Katie Ellis of Curtin University, Australia). She is currently co-founder/co-director of the international nonprofit organization, the Global Alliance for Disability in Media and Entertainment. She is a retired Professor Emerita in the Mass Communication department at Towson University. She identifies as a neurodiverse person with multiple disabilities/chronic illnesses.

• IntroductionChapter 1: Collaborating on set to disrupt narrative prosthesisChapter 2: Talking the Talk of Real Disabled People’s LivesChapter 3: Disability content through podcasting and vlogging as public pedagogyChapter 4: Performers illustrate the Affirmative Model by taking control on scripted series for Web and streamingChapter 5: Disability as superpower: Comics, graphic novels, and musicChapter 6: “Giving everything they have:” Documentaries illuminate disability experiencesChapter 7: Becoming visible: People with nonvisible disabilities crafting media content

A vital love letter to disability media that doesn’t just consider the limits of disability representation but gazes fondly at future possibilities. Engaging directly with disabled media creators, and backed up with important historical context, Haller offers a deep exploration into why new media platforms can offer exciting opportunities for mass audiences to hear different disability stories.Jeff Preston, PhD, Assistant Professor, Disability Studies, King’s University College, Western University"This book is truly a tour de force, combining theoretical and empirical research to map a broad and diverse spectrum of disability and media. Haller’s skill to synthesise historical, social, cultural, political and economic layers of disability media creation and representation is unprecedented. The reading experience is enriched by each chapter focusing on a different media genre and deploying a different theoretical approach. Its interdisciplinary poise thus benefits a variety of disciplines, such as disability studies, media studies, anthropology and media practice-led research. Most importantly, the writing is engaging and accessible, embodying the same kind of inclusivity its content advocates for." Catalin Brylla, Principal Lecturer in Film TV, Bournemouth University, UK With her decades of experience writing about disability issues as a journalist, in addition to her academic career in communication studies, Beth Haller is the preeminent scholar and chronicler of disabled people’s uses of mass, print, and digital media—as creators, consumers, and critics—for their social, cultural, and political advancement. This book adeptly combines up-to-date examples with fresh takes on communication theory to offer readers unexpected insights into the past, present, and future of disability representation on-screen and online. Meryl Alper, Ph.D, Associate Professor of Communication Studies, Northeastern University, Boston, Mass.