Welfare Reform on the Web (November 2010): Services for the disabled - overseas

Media and Israeli disability rights legislation: progress and mixed and contradictory images

M. Soffer and others

Disability and Society, vol. 25, 2010, p. 687-699

This article reviews and analyses disability rights conceptualisation and policy as reflected in the Israeli media after the enactment of the Equal Rights for Persons with Disabilities Law of 1998. Media coverage is examined through a review of research conducted on the subject in Israel. Results reveal a discrepancy between the purposes of the anti-discrimination legislation and the portrayal of disabled people in the media as victims, heroes, or dangerous 'others'.