Disability Media Studies

Catalog description

In this class, we will explore the relationship between disability and media. Our analyses will span film, television, advertisement, new media, social media, media technologies, and other cultural mediums across history and into the present. The beginning of the course will introduce students to the field of disability studies and its relevance to media studies. Through an interdisciplinary lens, students will consider how people with disabilities were and are represented in the media with particular attention to how disability intersects with gender, race, sexuality, and class identity. Beyond themes of representation, our course deeply interrogates disability media access. We will consider how people with disabilities have responded to inaccurate and inaccessible media and innovatively used media outlets to represent themselves and produce culture on their own terms.