We conducted a 14 question survey, with the purpose of gaining insight into the public’s perception of disability representation in film and in the media. Our survey was sent to people in the U.S and France. A full consent process was followed and we were able to obtain a total of 54 responses. Our survey provided insight into people’s exposure to people with disabilities in their own lives and in film and media.
Our survey asked participants how many movies they have seen that contains at least one character with disabilities. Out of 54 respondents total, 13 respondents stated they have seen 0-2 movies containing a character with disabilities. 19 respondents stated they have seen 3-5 films containing a character with disabilities. 15 respondents stated they have seen 5-10 movies containing a character with disabilities. 7 respondents stated they have seen 10 or more movies containing a character with disabilities. The graph below demonstrates these results.
Our findings reveal that nearly 90% of respondents know someone with a disability. The image below displays our data related to the number of movies our respondents say that contain characters with disabilities. The most common answer was 3 to 5 with 19 responses. These findings indicate that many people have been exposed to disability in some way, however, these findings do not reveal the type of role that the characters played and whether there are multiple characters.
Our survey also asked respondents how likely they would be to watch a movie that contains characters with disabilities. 31 out of the 54 respondents total answered that they would be “very likely” to watch a movie that contained a character with disabilities. The image below illustrates that people are not as close minded about the representation of those with disabilities as most people would have though.
