Dr. James Casey:

I thank the committee for the invitation to contribute today. It is somewhat serendipitous as is it almost nearly one year to the day since the Independent Living Movement of Ireland, ILMI, a national cross-impairment disabled persons organisation, held an online event to launch our policy position on how disabled people’s lives are represented, utilised and portrayed in the media. The event was a consultation process with disabled people throughout the island. As with all of our core methodologies at ILMI, we work from the position of a grassroots collective and our work is driven by disabled people and their voice. From our consultation with disabled people, the overwhelming theme is that the dominant narrative of disability portrayed in Irish media is either one of how our impairments are tragic or stories of disabled people overcoming their impairments.

Disability is seen through the prism of medicine and charity, something to be cared for, looked after by charities and services providers. However, rarely are we portrayed as whole, active, multifaceted citizens in our communities. Disabled people are often only sought out to give our personal stories and not to speak about how society disables us and prevents our full and dynamic participation. A significant issue is that our authentic voices are not heard. We are not part of the discussions around our lives, and our value in society is dismissed as solely passive citizens. Discourse around disabled people is by parents or carers and charities. Frequently, no regard is given to how we as disabled people feel about having our lives displayed in public and terms referring to our being a burden and in constant crises are common and predominant. This is a prominent theme when service providers and charities are utilising disabled people in a call for more funding. This is a very different type of disability representation in the media. This is not looking for investment in disabled people. This is not about rights and equality, although sometimes in the media this language is used by those who are not members of disabled people's organisations, DPOs. This type of portrayal is about seeking further investment in the disability industry. This is where Irish media need to be more discerning and robust. They need to ask who is giving these messages and what they want. In much of the Irish media the predominate trope is that disability is a charity issue and the narrative is often one of sympathy, but sympathy sells.

There is a small number of disabled people who have a platform. However, this is not always positive as they are repeatedly framed as inspirational superhumans who have overcome their impairment. As disabled people, we rarely see ourselves portrayed accurately in media. This will only change when we, as disabled people, are directly involved in the production of media as presenters, writers, technicians, actors, audience members, etc. Media companies, the trade union movement, Government Departments and the Broadcasting Authority of Ireland, BAI, need to explore how to reflect diversity in the production, delivery and presentation of media in contemporary Ireland. This discourse needs to plan, resource and implement real inclusion in the media for disabled people in the 21st century. This can be done by directly consulting and engaging with us as disabled people, and engaging with true disabled people's organisations who try to capture the authenticity of disabled people’s lived experience.

Disability needs to be framed in discussions around inclusion, human rights and equality. Where there are discussions on issues that impact on society, such as education, employment, housing, transport, social inclusion, gender etc., we, as disabled people, must be involved. There is an intersection between disability and other issues that consistently remains unexplored in Irish media. This is due to the regular framing of disability as a medical or charity issue. If media explored disability through the social model lens, it could witness the fullness of disabled people’s lives and how disability intersects with gender, ethnicity, socioeconomic status, race, sexuality and so on. The discussion on shaping how disabled people's lives are represented in the Irish media needs to be led by disabled people and DPOs. In the disability rights movement we have two mottos. They are both very germane today. One is "rights not charity," and the other is "nothing about us without us."