Desperate Change for the Disabled

From reading Mairs's essay we can see that people who may have a disability are often absent from the media. This lack of projection for the disabled needs to change. Most ads/ TV shows only portray them for one characteristic, their disability, whether it is to inspire others or to persuade them into donating towards a charity. We need to start to represent people with disabilities for their individual characteristics, not because of a physical label.

People who are disabled can partake in many activities that able-bodied people can do. Mairs reveals this in many ways in which she is just like everybody else. She states how she can "drive a car", "eat pizza", "buy mouthwash", etc. These actions are very simple yet some cannot even imagine seeing someone who is disabled being able to engage in these activities. Even the video that we saw in class showed the odd reactions that the pedestrians gave towards the deformed models in the store.  

To create change, we must replicate the impact that disabled people have in our society into mainstream media. We cannot ignore this minority's existence any longer. This kind of isolation has been lingering for far too long in our society. Though it may be hard we must try to be more accepting towards disabled people. It is not completely our fault, growing up with ideals from TV, our parents, and other friends and family have taught us to look at people with disabilities as abnormal. We have to see this as a true problem and try to integrate disabled people and able-bodied people together into our daily lives.