Media and the israeli disability rights legislation: Progress or mixed and contradictory images?

This article reviews and analyzes disability rights conceptualization and policy as reflected in the Israeli media after the enactment of the Equal Rights for Persons with Disabilities Law of 1998. Media coverage is examined through review of studies conducted on the subject in Israel. A comprehensive review of the research literature reveals a discrepancy between the purposes of anti-discrimination legislation and policy and media reflections of disability, in which portrayal is primarily via a deviance lens. The discussion is based on the analysis of universal genesis of negative perceptions of disability, as well as on particularized culture bound meaning of disability within the Israeli symbolic framework.