Construal of the visibility and non-visibility of impairment and disability in press images

Images of disability are often marked with signs which are recognizable to the viewers as images of and about disability. This chapter delineates the typical visual strategies of visible and non-visible impairments and disabilities with exemplifications from a subset of images depicting blindness and dementia. Prevalent techniques through which impairment and disability are marked in visuals will be presented, including somatization (representation of impaired body parts) and instrumentalization (representation of a medical aid, tool or assistive device). Both visible and non-visible disability can also be portrayed through the abstraction of the experience of a disability, as well as through comparativization (representing disability by contrasting it with a presumed norm of ability). With developments in digital imaging, the depictions of the processes and experiences of disability have become more creative and aesthetically attractive, particularly through metaphorical graphics. Subsequent discussions will focus on the implications of marking impairment and disability in visuals, as their visibility and salience attract viewers’ attention to different degrees. Findings show that disability is predominantly constructed as a loss of attributes and capacity, which leads to negative social categorizations. Disability is argued to be a semiotic system that marks the body and mind, which categorizes people as inclusive, exclusive or differential. A disabled body signifies both difference and strangeness in a society that idealizes human strengths and conceptualizes images of physical and intellectual perfection. This chapter calls for a change of psyche in society and a reinterpretation of signs of disability from one that stigmatizes to one that upholds the rights and dignity of disabled persons.