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...I feel down recently... ...despite the UK's channel 4 news rather feeble attempt at a discussion around the politics of disability after Christopher Reeve's death (which is noramlly excellent), if you watched BBC news at 10 last night reflecting on the death of Christopher Reeve, nobody would even know that there are other alternative ideas out there concerning disability apart from the ethical medical debates concerning stem cell research. Are we not failing in getting the social message across to the media? Also, the other week we had coverage of the disability discrimination act, and what did we see on the news and on the BBC TV programme Watchdog - you've guessed it, lots of people in wheelchairs trying to get into buildings. Coupled with the recent paraolympics, the narrowed view of who is disabled and who is not in society and how to "beat it" seems to remain unchallenged and narrowly focused. Are we not also having great difficulty in showing the public the breadth of disability and the real politics of disability? I would say very, very much. Now, we even have the rather negatively named film "Inside I'm dancing" which surprise, surprise focuses on two young people in wheelchairs, while the drame about love on BBC 1, has a disabled character spouting some of the cliches of joe publics perception of disability and how to get on in life and to cap it all, he also has cerebral palsy. Not much has changed in the film world, challenging the views of Joe Public. Anyone got any thoughts on a little better PR for all those who feel that disability is not exclusive to certain types of impairment, and how the media - after many many years of disability scholarship - can incorporate a social perspective into some of the more complicated debates that the scope of the disability discrimination act simply cannot represent...?? Cheer me up please... Glenn Dr Glenn Smith, Research Fellow, London. ________________End of message______________________ Archives and tools for the Disability-Research Discussion List are now located at: www.jiscmail.ac.uk/lists/disability-research.html You can JOIN or LEAVE the list from this web page.