Representation of
DISABILITY

Disability in the Media
Reframing Disability

Image: Outdoor shot of black and white cinema marquis. Credit: Anne Zbitnew

Overview

Reframing Disability is a documentary made as part of Accessibility as Aesthetic: Three Films and a Podcast. Following the principle that accessibility could be creatively integrated into a film’s aesthetic design rather than treated as a compliance-based addition, film lead Angelo Muredda’s goals were to foreground accessibility in creative ways, and to make access appealing to media makers.

Deepening your Understanding

Angelo Muredda is a Toronto-based film critic, programmer, and professor in the Department of English at Humber College. His writing has appeared in Cinema Scope, The National Post, and The Walrus. He is the host of the lecture and screening series Disability on Film at the Miles Nadal Jewish Community Centre. In 2019, he completed a PhD in English at the University of Toronto on representations of disability in Canadian fiction and film.

Angelo worked with Emillio Moreira, a graduate from both the Media Foundation program and the Broadcast Television and Videography (BRTV) program at Humber College. Emillio specializes in video & audio editing, cinematography, and directing.

BRTV honours graduate Yhasmina Garcia Martinez was the second editor and created graphics for Reframing Disability.

In Reframing Disability, Angelo interviews Alice Wong, a disabled activist, media maker, and founder and director of Disability Visibility Project opens in new window, an online community that is dedicated to creating, sharing, and amplifying disability media and culture. Wong has created and guested on a number of podcasts opens in new window about representation of disability in media, television, comic books, live performance, access to higher education, fiction, and more (Disability Visibility Project, n.d.).