Communication and Disability

James M. Wall

Movies are the dream life of our culture. What they do to us and what we ask them to do for us, indicate who we are as a people at any given moment in our history. As the following article shows, some films primarily serve as a mirror that reflects our human condition back to us. Still other films operate as a window through which we glimpse both the intimacy of our human relationships and the ultimacy of God’s transcendence.

Gustavo Villamizar

When it comes to dislike of the media, there are two extremes that almost touch: those who consider them alienating and those who consider them as corrupters of the common good. In the face of these radical approaches, it is difficult to see what media bring or could bring to education. In the context of Latin America, this requires a fresh look at the spheres of communication and education, identifying how they differ as well as how they complement each other.

Pat Simmons

How does one work with (rather than for) disabled people for positive change? The following article profiles the work of Action on Disability and Development whose activities focus on Asia and Africa.

Karen Ross

In 1996 the BBC undertook a study of disability issues in mainstream broadcasting. It consulted disabled people about images, concerns and problems. The following article discusses some of the key themes which emerged from the research, focusing specifically on mainstream media representations of disability.

Alexander Phiri

The Oxford Advanced Learner Dictionary defines mass media as: 'means (especially newspaper, radio, TV) of imparting information to and influencing the ideas of enormous numbers of people'. In other words, the mass media can be either good or bad depending on the attitude of the journalist or the mass media personnel towards a given issue. They are capable of influencing either positively or negatively people's attitudes especially towards people with disabilities.

Alfredo Olivera

LT 22 La Colifata – la radio de Buenos Aires, Argentina, que realizan los internos del Hospital Neuropsiquiátrico José T. Borda - es considerada la primer radio en el mundo en transmitir directamente desde un hospital neuropsiquiátrico. Nació el 3 de agosto de 1991 y, en la actualidad, emite directamente al aire desde el hospital los sábados por la tarde y, a través de otras emisoras, desde diferentes lugares del país, en diferentes frecuencias y horarios. Utilizando seis modalidades diferentes que se articulan entre sí, LT 22 La Colifata entrelaza el ámbito comunitario, el comunicacional y el terapéutico para generar un espacio de salud pluridimensional.

Steven E. Miller

Organizational processes and structures are being re-engineered in order to take advantage of the full power of Information and Communication Technologies (ICT). Manufacturing, commerce, finance, the arts, entertainment, government, science, and even education are rapidly changing to incorporate the use of these transformative tools. As the author of this article argues, it is even more urgent, therefore, that everyone can take advantage of them.

Rachel Hurst

More than fifteen years ago, at a meeting at a special school for disabled children to discuss the inclusion of disabled children into mainstream education, one of the educational professionals said that you could not include children who could not communicate. I immediately said: 'Why cannot they communicate? Are they dead?' This response was not received very well - but it highlights what I believe is the real truth - everybody can communicate, the problems arise when people can not understand what is being communicated because the lines of communication are inaccessible or cluttered with prejudice and ignorance.

James D. Halloran

The following article examines the appropriateness of social science research today, especially in the context of countries of the South. The author calls for 'systematic, disciplined, fruitful studies can be carried out within an eclectic framework'.

George Gerbner

Most of what we know does not come from personal experience. The world we know best is the world of stories we tell. Today most of these stories are mass-produced. We attend to events selected for us by a few distant corporations that have something to sell. Far away places and faces animate our imagination and guide our actions. Images of mental illness in the mass media cultivate some of our most distorted and damaging assumptions. In order to understand what these images are and what they do, the following article places them in the context of our electronic age and the cultural climate in which they perform their functions.