A Review of Research about Media and Disability: Does it Make a Difference?
By Barbara Kolucki (bakoluck@aol.com)

Following are some excerpts from letters from Creative Directors, heads of Advertising Agencies, international newspapers, some of the most popular airlines, and one of the most global fast food chains. These letters are from the 1970s. Some were sent to me, some to a friend who is a disabled actor and some to a good friend and colleague who worked with me at Sesame Street in the 1970s and early 1980s. They said:

"We feel a responsibility toward those persons. But, if we put them (handicapped persons) in our advertising, we are criticized for taking advantage of them commercially."

"Use of handicapped people (in our advertising) would almost inevitably represent an intrusion that could not be explained. Wouldn't your efforts be more productive if they were turned to the whole wide world of programming where there is so much more time to provide context... instead of forcing them into a 27-second glimpse where no one, including the viewer, is apt to be comfortable."

"Even though a retarded kid may not be cast as a principal, we worry that the director would find it a limiting constraint which would complicate an already complicated problem. We don't think it is feasible to do what you ask - to cast mentally retarded children in our client's commercials."

"To put a child who is retarded (in front of a TV camera) would not only be impractical, but we would consider it extremely inhumane."

• A regular Muppet character, Katie, on Sesame Park that uses a wheelchair.
• Regular cast members who had Down Syndrome, are deaf, or have a physical disability on a weekly television drama.
• People from the BBC and others in positions of "power" working in the media have attended, spoken and made commitments at international conferences and seminars on the topic of media and disability.
• Numerous countries, from Hong Kong to India, have had public education campaigns that addressed attitude change on a variety of topics related to disability.
• Puppet troupes like Kids on the Block are active for over 20 years and continuously expanding in the USA and internationally - reaching thousands of children about their peers who are disabled.
• There are more anti-bias curricula than ever before - in classrooms and on media - from Israel/Palestine, Northern Ireland, Sri Lanka, and the USA.
• There are live puppet shows, TV programs and films that have nothing to do with disability - and they include a cast member who happens to have a disability.
• There are disability slots in many countries television and radio stations, and there are regular programs that address disability issues, often on a weekly basis.
• And - something that would amaze all the authors of the letters we received decades ago - producers, advertisers and many others have received international awards for their sensitive and accurate portrayals of children and adults who are disabled in the media!

• G is for Growing documents thirty years of research on children and the international television series Sesame Street. Throughout the book there is documentation that tells us that "overall, research on television and its potential to positively effect prosocial behavior does indicate that prosocial modeling does have an impact and lead to more prosocial behavior -- especially if they are in a situation that is modeled on TV. (Comstock & Paik, 1991 in G is for Growing, Shalom M. Fisch & Rosemarie T. Truglio, editors, 2001).
• In other countries, research has confirmed this to be the case. Soul Buddyz is a South African television series for children 8-12 years old. The evaluators of the series found that children who viewed the programs has an easier time discussing some of the sensitive issues that were addressed - race, gender, disability - than children who did not watch the series. Children who watched Soul Buddyz were more interested in cultivating friendships with others as well as respecting them as equals. "Specifically, exposure to the program was associated with positive attitudes about the capabilities of people with disabilities - 27.1% of the 8 - 10 year olds with no exposure to TV thought that children with disabilities can do most things, whereas 36.2% with no exposure to Soul Buddyz, 38.5% with lower exposure and 45.2% with higher exposure thought the same." It was also reported that the series was particularly effective in communicating that you could not catch a disability from spending time with a person who is disabled. And finally, children who viewed the series were more likely to say that they would be friends with someone who is disabled, or of a different race, or with HIV/AIDS than children who did not watch the program. (www.soulcity.org).
• In his "Guidelines for the development of a series of television programmes directed at anti-sectarian work with children in their early years", Paul Connolly tells us that at least with regard to race "there is now a colossal body of research that has attempted to understand at what age children first become prejudiced and how that prejudice changes with age." Children as young as four years old can and did have negative stereotypic attitudes about the other. Educators are finding that waiting until school age or older to address bias and prejudice is too little too late.
• If and when children were exposed to situations or programs that portrayed attitudes that countered the general attitudes of themselves and others - children's attitudes could change. Connolly says that "the more that children can be encouraged to accept a range of beliefs that tend to run counter to and/or contradict their dominant biases towards the out-group, the more that their general levels of prejudice are likely to decrease." In evaluating the impact and potential of television for young children, he firmly believes that it can help them develop a moral code of reasoning and behavior as well as encourage empathy with a range of individuals and groups.
• One important factor that Connolly documents that increases children's understanding and empathy is when mothers discussed and explained to their children the feelings of others (Dunn et al. 1991; Grusec, 1991; Eisenberg et al. 1992a). This finding is consistent with others researchers (Peterson, 1983) and teachers and parents around the world who help children understand the emotional state and needs of others as well as model how to respond to those needs. In fact, the media can help even further by providing "emotional scripts which offer ready-made understanding of not just what a particular emotional state means and why it is occurring, but also how one should respond to it." (Costin and Jones 1992).
• This example of "emotional scripts" is something that many working in the field of developmental media and communications have also found to be true. It is not enough to tell others what they should do. It is equally important to provide a simple rationale - why - but most important to model how something can be done within the existing daily routine of an individual, whether it is a child or adult. The why and how are the empowering factors.
• In research report "The Educational Impact of Rechov Sumsum/Shara'a Simsim: A Sesame Street Television Series to Promote Respect and Understanding Among Children Living in Israel, the West Bank and Gaza" (Cole, Arafat, Tidhar, Zidan, Fox, Killen, Ardila-Rey, Leavitt, Lesser, 2003), the authors state that "exposure to the program was linked to an increase in children's use of both pro-social justifications to resolve conflicts and positive attributes to describe members of the other group. ... these results indicate the effectiveness of media-based interventions such as Rechov Sumsum/Shara'a Simsim on countering negative stereotypes by building a peer-oriented context that introduces children to the everyday lives of people from different cultures."

• Since the children's television program, Sesame Street aired in 1969, a major focus was to present diversity and racial harmony. As the show responded to both changes in the country, the world and to requests by viewers and their parents - diversity has continued to grow and change. In the early 1970s, parents of children with disabilities said "My child watches your program but never sees anyone like her/himself. He is deaf. Or she has Down Syndrome... " And the producers began to include children and adults with disability in both explicit and implicit ways. Sometimes, Linda Bove, an actress who is deaf, would teach simple signs or present how she can babysit and knows when the baby cries. Other times, a child using a wheelchair or with another disability would simply be included along with a group of children singing a song. Both became regular aspects of the program - and continue to this day.
• There have been a few studies over the years that looked at non-disabled children's attention, comprehension and attitudes about the topic of disability on Sesame Street. The most recent research, Vignettes from Sesame Street: Preschooler's Ideas about Children with Down Syndrome and Physical Disability ( Diamond & Kensinger, 2002), is discussed in the October 2002 issue of Early Education and Development (Volume 13, Number 4). Here, preschool children viewed segments including a child using a wheelchair and other with a child who had Down Syndrome. Preschool children were more aware of differences of the child with physical disability than they were of the child with Down Syndrome. There are at least two reasons for this difference. First of all, we do know from previous research that preschool children do have some recognition and understanding of physical and sensory disabilities that have overt characteristics or require adaptive equipment as opposed to mental or developmental disabilities. Secondly, the segments with the young girl using a wheelchair often discussed her disability as what she could/could not do. The content as well as the visual cues were there to assist viewer comprehension. With mental retardation and other impairments that effect thinking and developmental tasks, the cues are not as obvious. Hence the preschool viewers would not have been given facts and cues by which their understanding would increase.
• I suggest that both the explicit and implicit approaches to media about disability are absolutely necessary. The natural inclusion where no one says anything about a disability is necessary for our children (and adults) to see diversity and disability as natural, acceptable and part of the landscape of everyday media. At what age children see or understand diversity and disability is not as important as having them get used to it - and having the viewers with disability see themselves included in a positive manner. Media that includes diversity and disability may indirectly affect children's attitudes - even before they can put words together to explain the difference. Positive seeds have been planted. In addition to this, media needs to address the what, why and how of disability. In addition, simple facts, strengths and adaptive techniques, what to do when one is playing/meeting/learning/working with someone with a disability - this should be presented as early as possible in a developmentally-appropriate manner to all children.
• Numerous studies suggest that the manner in which difference is explained can make a tremendous difference. Graves (1999) suggests that television portrayals of difference can be relevant to the creation of children's attitudes. Singer and Singer (1998) "proposed that teaching about individual differences in children's television requires not only exposure to people who are different but to the ways in which adults (or characters) explain the differences that are highlighted in the episode." Innes and Diamond (1999) used a story-telling task to examine how mothers communicate about Down Syndrome and physical disabilities with their preschool children. They found that mothers made more comments and asked more questions when they talked with their child about children with physical disabilities than children with Down Syndrome". Bar-Tal (1996) takes this even further presenting evidence that parents' attitudes affect those of their children.
• Having these facts, media producers have numerous ways that they can enhance the potential impact of their productions. After research indicated that many children perceive that their parents would not be happy if they made friends of another race, Lovelace, Scheineer, Dollberg, Segui & Black (1994) state that "We now recommend that future segments more strongly model mothers, fathers and other family members being positive and supportive of friendship between different race children." We should do the same regarding disability. When the same study indicated that Caucasian preschoolers were significantly more likely to segregate African American and Caucasian children in the homes, school, playgrounds, churches and stores, segments were produced which show white children visiting an African American friend's home." We should do the same regarding disability. This, in fact, has already happened. One example is from a children's television series called Walk in your Shoes where a child visits the house of another child for a few days and lives as they live. The series has included segments on visiting a child who uses a wheelchair, a child who is deaf and another who is blind. These were very well done. Producers should copy and adapt these approaches to their cultures.
• In a study not related to media for children, Rina Gill of UNICEF looked at the difference between the types of media portrayals in public service announcements (PSAs) about polio prevention. While working in Nepal, she led producers and researchers in their work in comparing the more negative, stereotypical, fear-based PSAs to newer, positive ones where children and adults with polio spoke on their own behalf. In these, they all acknowledged that they had polio - but they hoped that their siblings, children or grandchildren would not - and therefore they were taking on the responsibility to take them for their immunizations. The research indicated that viewers comprehended both sets of messages, but they preferred the characters who were disabled. The study could help change the way development work produces media about the prevention of disease and disability. In an attempt to prevent disability - often the images and messages reinforced stereotypes about the shame and fear associated with disability. One can be just as effective - or more - when people with disabilities are presented as role-models and contributing members of society who too, have messages of import for all.
• As early as 1980 and before, researchers looked at the most effective ways to help change attitudes towards people with disabilities. Positive effects on attitudes have indeed been produced by media exposure (Donaldson and Martinson, 1977). This happened best when people with disabilities spoke for themselves, they did not act in a previously stereotypic helpless or hopeless manner, they presented interesting and factual information about their disability. One of the most significant aspects of success was the degree to which the person who was disabled was perceived to be of equal status to the non-disabled person. Donaldson further states that "The instructor who is concerned about attitudes and belief structures as well as cognitive content is advised by research findings to include opportunities for exposure to valued peers - directly or through the media." Her analysis is that indeed, video and other media have and can have a significant effect on attitudes towards people who are disabled and these powerful tools should be used more - together with changing the existing negative imagery in the media. Donaldson, Joy. Changing Attitudes Towards Handicapped Persons: A Review of Research. Exceptional Children, Volume 46, Number 7, 1980.

"Kindergarten teacher Mary Stewart has three voices. When she is telling a story or giving instructions or just making conversation, her usual exuberant speaking voice draws the children in. She saved her 'big' voice for serious matters - like calling the class away from scattered tasks to help solve a problem. And for certain times, such as a moment of special gratitude or when the usual commotion has spun out of control, she speaks with her hands, silently.

Mary has taught her children - all hearing children - a basic American Sign Language vocabulary. She finds that communicating in sign calms them and focuses their attention. A roomful of boisterous kids, she says, will settle down to 'listen' with their eyes as soon as her fingers start moving.

Each year, she begins by teaching her new class the signs for simple words like 'hello', 'thank you' and 'goodbye'. For children who tend to wait until the last possible minute, the sign for 'bathroom' provides a way to leave quietly to meet their urgent needs."

This all started when one year, one parent of a child was deaf. As children learn they take charts with signs home to their family well. One parent told Mary that her child 'signs herself to sleep'. This teacher claims that her curriculum is all about 'curiosity' and helping to stimulate children to "reach out to other people even through the barriers of disability and language difference and unfamiliar background. Diversity on paper, she explains, can be studied and appreciated, but it doesn't demand the personal commitment of actually talking and listening to someone who is different".

"If I could wish something for every child in the world, it would be to feel good enough about themselves and their environment to have the confidence just to talk to the person in from of them."

At the end of the article, Mary tells another story about Rebecca, a psychologist, mother and wheelchair-user - who comes to speak with the children. At the end of Rebecca's visit - she hands out "Parking Violation" stickers to the children and encourages them to speak out about injustice. A few days later, one of the most challenging youngsters in the class noticed older students making fun of 2 disabled men. This six-year-old shouted out to them "Why are you making fun of them? Do you know them? They're just like you. They're talking to each other." (Starting Small: Teaching Tolerance in Preschool and the Early Grades, 1997, Southern Poverty Law Center)