Rewriting disability narratives to reflect real inclusion

As Australia marks International Day of Persons with Disability, advocates are calling for a shift away from “aspirational” tropes towards authentic disability narratives that reflect real inclusion, writes Melissa Marsden.

INTERNATIONAL Disability Day comes to the public agenda today, December 2.

theme in 2025 Promoting Disability-Inclusive Communities to Advance Social Progress.

But how can we practically promote disability-inclusive societies when the goal is to advance social progress?

In Australia, we claim it is a “priority” that we strive to have more disabled people in leadership roles. Australia’s Disability Strategy 2021-2031.

But what happens when a disabled person succeeds and what happens along the journey is often represented by the media in very different ways.

Increasingly, inspiration porn It is used to tackle narratives in which what is valued by non-disabled society is used as a performance spectacle by disabled people.

Inspirational porn is the display of a person performing a physical activity, with visible signs of disability, preferably displaying signs of physical strength, accompanied by a caption that directs the viewer to seek inspiration from the image in question.

One reason for using aspirational porn is for the goal of empowerment. But while society as a whole needs to be strengthened, the discourse towards disabled people is often full of assumptions.

Although discourses of empowerment are frequently used in Paralympic narratives, they have traditionally been associated with the generalized assumption that athletes participating in the Paralympics and the groups they are assumed to represent (“disabled people”) are powerless.

Australian tennis player and Paralympian in 2022 Dylan Alcott He was named Australian of the Year.

In his awakening speech, He said his aim was “Change perceptions so that people with disabilities live the lives they deserve to live.”.

However, he also discussed why he wanted to change these perceptions.

Alcott thinks:

I hated being disabled. I hated it so much, I hated being different and I didn’t want to be here anymore.

Whenever I turned on the television, radio or newspaper, I could not see anyone like me.

And every time I did that, it was a road safety commercial where someone was driving drunk, got into a car accident and what was the next scene. Someone like me burst into tears because his life was over.

I thought to myself ‘this is not my life’ but I believed this would be my life.

And so, with the support of the Paralympic athletes who came before him, he motivated himself to challenge this stereotype.

The superdisabled is an intersectional media frame that features news stories depicting people with disabilities “overcoming” their disabilities to live normal (or “normal”) lives.

When people with disabilities are represented as people who have “overcome” their disabilities, the illusion is created that society is becoming more inclusive.

Overcoming narratives are not limited to physical disabilities alone, but are also limited to narratives in which disabled individuals overcome society’s inhibiting attitudes.

It is argued that when these narratives are believed and embedded in public discourse, society becomes more inclusive.

If Paralympic athletes can move from outcasts to the mainstream, that means society must be willing to engage with disabled people, right?

Because if disabled people can overcome their disabilities to live productive and successful lives, then they can be accepted into the so-called mainstream society.

This creates a tension in which disabled people must gain the approval of the able-bodied society in order for their goals, achievements, and needs to be valued.

And the cycle begins again.

Melissa Marsden is a freelance journalist and PhD candidate at Curtin University. You can follow Melissa on Twitter @MelMarsden96in bluesky @melissamarsdenphd or via Melissa’s website, Framing the Narrative.

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