Showing Life - the Way It Is

The public image of people with a handicap is slowly changing – that is reflected by a more frequent appearance of the topic disability in the media as well as how those with a disability are presented.

01/06/2009

The media show more often people
with handicap; © SXC

She has just been leaving the editorial meeting and hurries on to the next appointment. „I am really busy. Need to think of new topics and experts on a daily basis“, Zuhal Soyhan says. As well as: „I have the best job one can dream of.“ The 43 year ols woman is a journalist working for a public radio station and suffers from OI. The disability ties her to the wheelchair which does not stop her from doing her job. This includes the presentation in front of the camera: For eleven years she has been hosting the TV travel show „Grenzenlos“ ("without limits") for travellers with or without a handicap.

At first, Soyhan had been the first German presenter with a disability. Today, she is not the only one anymore appearing on the screen. Starting in 2007, Bettina Eistel has been hosting the program „Menschen – das Magazin“ ("People - a magazine"). The 48 year old woman was born without arms due to Thalidomide and now holds her notes during the show with her feet. „This is a rather new development“, Ingo Bosse says. He is a research assistent at the Institute for Support policies at the university Leipzig, Germany and concentrates on how often and in what context people with a disability appear on TV.

Bosse has been observing the development of programs regarding disabilities in TV magazines for five years. The results: „People with a handicap appear relatively often. The radio stations have been reporting about them four out of five days of brooadcasting.“ Generally, the coverage of disability topics has increased since 1984. „That is due also due to the fact that the number of program has also increased since then“, Bosse adds. However, according to the expert this reflected a development in terms of the society changing its perception of people with a handicap in a positive way.

A very common day, a very common familiy and a very common boy with Down's Syndrome sitting at the table and playing a game. This is Martin Ziegler who has been acting the role of little Jan since 1999 in the TV series calles „Lindenstraße“. His disability is neither more nor less subject to attention than in everyday life in reality. „That is the kind of presentation that people with a handicap would like to see much more often: a presentation as realistic and normal as possible“, Geesken Wörmann says. "As a matter of fact, this already happens. But not as often as desirable. The 70 year old woman is chairman of a self help group in Noth Rhine-Westphalia and member of the broadcasting council of the German public radio station WDR.

„Topics regarding disabilities are more in the center of attention and also more subject to discussion than before. This can be observed in public life and therefore also in the media“, Wörmann says. Even though the advancements proceed at quite a slow pace. „Still, I do consider this development being a very positive one.“

However, integrating disabled people in everyday life on TV is not always a simple process. In the UK, the presenter Cerrie Burnell working for the children program at BBC has just one hand and one lower arm. Complaints started coming in stating that this would frighten the children watching. This is an example for many people still ignoring the fact of existing disabilty in everyday life and of a distorted perception of people with a handicap. Maybe this is still an aftermath from past times. „In the past, people with a disability were portrayed with a lot of distance as being somehow frightening and strange persons“, Wörmann says. Today, this does not really occur anymore. "However, these days disabled people are often protrayed in a slightly sentimental mode or in a way concentrating on splendid achievemnts in spite of the disability as can be seen during the Paralympics, for example. „Compassion and sensationalism are not the right instruments for portraying people with a handicap as being equal members of society."

The presenter Zuhal Soyhan gets to the point: "The coverage about and from people with a disability certainly increased but is still connected to a certain level of drama and burden. „I myself do not think that I am a strain to everybody around me and I also do not think that people treat me differently due to my handicap.“ Therefore: the media's task is to show life the way it is - not more but also not less.

Natascha Mörs
REHACARE.de