VISUAL MEDIA REEDUCATION: ALTERING HANDICAPPED STEREOTYPES

The passage and implementation of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) of 1990-1992 has led to increasing opportunities for individuals with disabilities to more fully participate in their communities (Block & Malloy, 1998). Rothstein (1991) reports the numbers of handicapped or disabled (HD) students attending institutions of higher education as tripling between 1980-1990, estimating they now account for 10.5 percent of the entire college student population. With the enactment of the ADA, institutions of higher learning can very well anticipate a further increase in the number of students with disabilities (Benham, 1997).

The body of knowledge identified with the issue of post-secondary education of the HD student is unequally divided between disciplines engaging in multiple discussion the role of mass media in public impression formation has been addressed; yet scant empirical research exists on the able bodied (A-B) student perception of campus HD students. The focus of this paper [and 1999 study to follow] synthesizes visual media's influence on underclass attitudes towards HD students in the higher education environment. The purpose of the exploratory study is to determine the extent of preconceived attitudes of A-B students, possibly towards fellow HD college classmates and whether these can be altered through educational video.

THE ADA: WHAT, WHY AND WHO

Begining in the 1970s progressive legislation increasingly supported education for the disabled. In 1973 it prohibited discrimination of disabled persons by programs receiving federal funds. For colleges and universities, this translated into architectural barriers being removed and provisions such as note takers, interpreters, and readers becoming available for those in need of such services (Nazzaro, 1977). Reflecting students eligible for enrollment in the public schools of our country back in the mid-1970s, Salomone (1986) estimated that there were then approximately eight million handicapped children not receiving an appropriate education and another one million who received no education at all. Many of these individuals are now of college age, and are or will be impacting institutions of higher learning. The passage of the 1990 Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) finally affords HD persons opportunities to advance themselves with a college education.

The ADA of 1990 is a wide-ranging legislation intended to make American society more accessible to the HD and is divided into five sections - by titles: (Title I) Employment ; Public Services (Title II); Public Accommodations (Title III); Telecommunications (Title IV) and Miscellaneous (Title V). The Act provides a blanket civil rights guarantee for persons with disabilities in the United States, providing protection from discrimination for individuals on the basis of disability. The ADA upholds and extends those standards for compliance set forth in Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 to employment practices that impact on the treatment of students with disabilities. Employment issues for all institutions are covered under Title I.  For all activities, public institutions are covered under Title II; private institutions are covered under Title III. Because of the public attention given to the passage and implementation of the ADA, renewed attention is being focused on disability access to institutions of higher education (ADA, 1994).

An estimated 50 million HD/LD persons - or one out of eight Americans - is defined as having some condition that qualifies them as "disabled" or "physically handicapped" (Douglas, 1996, p. 17)(2). A potentially formidable group, the HD/LD stand as a silent minority of American citizens protected by the U.S. government. We instantly recognize their more famous personages: Bob Dole, Muhammad Ali, Christopher Reeve and Jim Brady. Even Bill Clinton was temporarily disabled - needing crutches for an injured knee while attending the Helsinki Summit in March, 1997.

It is not uncommon for migration of word meanings to occur over time. An example is the word "carnival," which comes from the Latin words meaning "to remove meat," and was originally a celebration on the day before Ash Wednesday - the beginning of meatless Lent. First appearing in print in 1549, it now describes any festival or riotous amusement. People are unaware it was a prelude to the somber Christian Lenten season (Gartner, 1998).

Deaf children were classed with "destitute orphans, abandoned children, vagrant and vicious children and youth; the blind....paupers and the like" (Board of State Charities of Massachusetts, 1886, p. 29). Both examples illustrate the power of language and how media reporting can affect formation of attitudes.


MEDIA'S ROLE IN IMPRESSION FORMATION

Media exerts its technical prowess by collecting and disseminating information to American audiences. Every medium from newspapers to radio to film and television faced a unique set of social, economic, and political circumstances that shaped its particular pattern in the society. The film, in its traditional form, spread more rapidly, over a forty-year period, reaching many millions of people at its peak during the 1930s and 1940s. Radio showed a different pattern, rising at first rapidly and then steadily over half a century to reach a peak of set ownership in the 1980s. Television, on the other hand, swept through an entire society in a remarkably short time; set ownership jumping from 10 to 90 percent of households in a single decade. No one predicted that in a few decades 98 percent of all American households would own a television set, exceeding the level of telephone ownership by five percentage points (Gilder, 1990).

"It's amazing the preconceptions people have about the disabled," says fitness instructor Maria Serrao who is herself paralyzed from the waist down, adding "there are millions of people in this country who are permanently disabled or recovering from a disability" (Reed, 1995, p. 75). Says Norden (1994), "The movie industry has perpetuated...stereotypes...so durable and pervasive that they have become mainstream society's perception of disabled people." Far from being an invisible minority, a multitude of images of individuals with emotional, sensory, cognitive, and physical challenges are seen by the viewing public. Hyler et al. voiced concern over the cumulative effect of stereotypes on the viewing public. They asked whether the viewers would, for instance, support a group home in their community after seeing frequent images of homicidal maniacs? Or, if many persons with psychiatric disabilities were portrayed as enlightened members of society, would a movement to close all hospitals become necessary? The question remains, whether these icons of madness (sic) actually influence public attitudes. It can be surmised that students with disabilities are entering an academic arena where able-bodied persons, at least through visual media, are very aware of their stereotypes (Safran, S., 1998a).

Visual images cross into the public consciousness through the retention of stereotypes (Hyler et al., 1991), and these can influence the lives of literally millions of persons with disabilities. Zola (1985) thought the country in a period in which the passionate, ideological views expressed by the disability rights advocates should begin to be evaluated through a more objective perspective. Hyler et al., (1991) believe that understanding the depiction of disabilities in film can serve education professionals in several ways: First, the visual image can furnish a barometer of social awareness and understanding and likely reflect what the public has seen and believes about disabilities. While the Hollywood movie, Rain Man (1988) provided viewers with a generally accurate profile of autism, it also focused on the uniqueness of a savant, which may create the belief that all individuals with autism have a "hidden genius." Second, carefully selected film clips can be used to educate students about individual adjustment to social barriers. The movie Forrest Gump is one such example.

As we enter the new millennium, children and adults with disabilities are increasingly integrating into schools and the community. It is problematic that students born in the 1980s and now attending colleges realize that federal laws addressing discrimination against the HD/LD have existed less than a generation. Raised and educated in their communities, they are unaware of the 1970s education normalization movement in America, which afforded the HD measures of equality. Attribution theorists posit that HD/LD individuals increasingly seek additional knowledge to establish patterns in order to predict and exert control in their lives (Scarpati et al., 1996). There has been a strong movement towards the inclusion of the disabled into schools and classrooms (Block & Malloy, 1998; Reed, 1995; Sidey, 1996). The result of this initiative is that more HD/LD persons are being educated alongside their A-B peers. Today's college underclassmen interact in with HD/LD classmates without discrimination, prejudice and bias. Or do they? The extent of a media-induced HD/LD stereotype cultural lag (Ogburn, 1922; Kroeber, 1944) is a possibility.


METHODOLOGY

The role of mass media in public impression and stereotyping of DHLD students has been addressed, and data collection pertaining to the A-B student's perception of a DH student followed in which our team collectively analyzed A-B student's media-influenced stereotypical imagery and attitude towards the DHLD student.