Is The Social Media Generation Transforming Disability Representation?

July was disability pride month - celebrated annually to coincide with the passing of  the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). But 30 years after the passage of the ADA, what has changed? 

It is an indisputable fact that we are experiencing a disability inequality crisis worldwide, and in many ways, the Covid-19 pandemic has exposed and heightened the problems faced by up to 20% of the global population. Yet, the voice of a new generation of disability activists is breaking through, using the tools of today to amplify a new narrative.

Self-acceptance isn’t easy for anyone, especially with the unrealistic expectations of perfection that society places on us all. And yet, the voices of this new generation of disabled influencers ring loud and clear; their ownership of who they are, their rejection of the old stereotypes of what it means to be disabled, and the way they are replacing them with something so humanly compelling, relatable, exciting, informed and real.

One such activist is Eddie Ndopu, a disability rights activist from South Africa. Once told he would only live until the age of 5, Eddie graduated from Oxford University with a master’s degree in public policy and was recently appointed by the U.N as one of 17 global ambassadors for its Sustainable Development Goals. 

Meanwhile, Youtuber and author, Molly Burke, has over 2 million subscribers to her YouTube channel on which she talks openly about being blind and acts as a role model for many young people with disabilities around the world. 

There is no doubt social media has played a powerful role in this visibility revolution, giving young people like Eddie and Molly the platform to make themselves seen and heard. But that is only part of the picture.

Named one of the "100 most influential Asian Americans of 2017," Tiffany Yu used her own lived experience and founded Diversability a social movement that fosters community to rebrand disability - connecting, showcasing and empowering people of all abilities to do amazing things.

Until we see ourselves represented in mainstream media and the business world we won’t feel like we truly belong. And when we don’t feel like we belong, we can’t feel pride. 

Therefore, having Alice Wong, creator of The Disability Visibility Project, on the cover of the September issue of British Vogue this year, and Sinead Burke on last year”s cover, is a powerful step forward. Similarly, having models like Aaron Philip, the Antiguan-American model signed to Elite Model Management, and Ellie Goldstein, the Down’s Syndrome model whose editorial shoot for Gucci Beauty, took the internet by storm this year, gaining mainstream success in the fashion world is hugely promising. 

Years ago, disability representation was like a tumbleweed across a desert. When and if a disability was featured, the portrayals were the unrelatable extremes of inspiration (people who conquer the world in spite of their disability) or sympathy (disabled people as charity cases with conditions in need of a “cure”)

But despite today’s progress, recent research findings undertaken by C Space on behalf of The Valuable 50o show that while 88% of corporations claim disability inclusion is important to their business strategy – only 8% regularly include people with disabilities in marketing and communications.

What we see and hear determines how we behave. Therefore, is it not essential that we radically improve disability representation across all mediums? Disability is not rare – up to 20% of the population is not rare–but representation figures remain abysmal. According to a Lloyds Banking Group Report in 2016 only 0.06 percent of people featured in UK adverts were disabled. In the US, only 1.6 percent of speaking characters in films have disabilities - so there is still a long way to go until representation is truly equal.

Global disability inclusion will never become a reality without us being able to recognize ourselves in the images and stories of our time. Creating the platform for people with disabilities to speak with authority and lead outside the disability experience is also vital. From travel, to economics, to astrology, whatever the topic may be, we need to recognize that the issue of disability is interwoven throughout all our lives.

From business and media, to art and government, disability is becoming increasingly visible and accepted as part of who we are as human beings. The rate of change is painstakingly slow, but we can accelerate this change through the collective power of the younger generation around the world.