Disability issues have for many years been marginalised within the mainstream media, and the majority of nondisabled people control a narrative which is often wildly inaccurate. The media strongly influences public perception, reinforcing unhelpful stereotypes, negatively impacting the lives of disabled New Zealanders, including their access to employment opportunities. Representations about disabled people within both the mainstream and social media tend to be unimaginative, for example presenting all blind people as possessing superhuman hearing, objectifying disabled people as inspirational heroes for living ordinary lives, or completely excluding the lived realities of disability.

Journalists wield tremendous power and influence. Representatives from all forms of media are in a privileged position in the symbolic struggle to ensure information is seen, heard, and believed. The exclusion of disabled people from articles and stories about unemployment, together with the portrayal of us as interesting only when our stories inspire others, amounts to symbolic violence, which is difficult to detect and even invisible to its victims.

On Monday 6 May 2024, RNZ National’s Nine to Noon programme featured an item entitled “Youth Baring the brunt of rising unemployment”. The item discussed recently released stats on youth not in employment, education or training (NEET), which stands at 12.4%. It seems quite extraordinary that disabled people were once again completely left out of the discussion.

The silencing of the life experiences, hopes, and dreams of disabled people in the broadcast media was a catalyst for my recently completed PhD thesis entitled, Disability Work Matters: Employment Opportunities for Disabled People in the New Zealand Disability Sector. On Sunday 4 March 2018, RNZ National had aired an Insight documentary subtitled ‘No Job, No Training, No Hope?’ The website introduction to the documentary noted:

The economy is going gangbusters and we’re in the middle of a construction boom, yet 80,000 young New Zealanders are not in work or training while immigrants are brought in to work as builders and bricklayers. How does a young person end up unemployed and uneducated, and are there processes in place to help those people get back on the ladder?

While the programme advised that the unemployment rate in New Zealand stood at 4.5% at that time, those not in employment, education or training (NEET) made up 11.5%, as at February 2017. Māori and Pacific peoples, aggregated, represented 40% of NEETs, and 15% or 12,000 people were described as young women caregivers. It was reported that each NEET was costing the country just over $21,000 annually in benefits and lost productivity. This equated to $1.5 billion each year.

Since the previous census had reported that almost 70% of working-age disabled people were not in employment or undertaking education or training, it might have been expected that disabled youth would have featured strongly in this programme. However, this was not the case. The absence of information about disabled youth was particularly noticeable in light of benefit payments and lost tax revenue that accounted for $1.1 billion in 2016, as reported in a cost benefit analysis published by Workbridge that same year. However, the only mention of disabled people at all was in the passive role of those being cared for by young women “looking after an elderly or disabled relative”.

The media holds the power to highlight and support the interests of various community groups in New Zealand. When the disability-related programme One in Five was dropped by RNZ National some years ago, we were assured that disability issues would be included as part of mainstream news and current affairs coverage. This has not happened. Our lives and aspirations are either completely ignored by RNZ and other media outlets, or else they use the power associated with their status to misrepresent people who may hold little or no power themselves. It is way past time that more positive attention is given by the media to the one in four New Zealand citizens who experience disability, particularly with respect to our need for employment. Rather than constantly perpetuating stigmatisation through stereotypical portrayals, the media could instead use its privileged position and influence to educate, represent, advocate, and promote responsiveness towards disabled people’s access to all aspects of life, including employment.

DRNZ will shortly launch Disability Disrupters, a podcast featuring interviews with disabled people who disrupt society’s perception of us through living full and productive lives, and undertaking unexpected activities and careers. We will also feature e-mails from disabled people on the show. So if you think you’d like to contribute your experiences, write to disrupters@drnz.co.nz and don’t forget to visit http://www.drnz.co.nz to find out what we offer.

Disability Responsiveness New Zealand Ltd,nothing in our name, without our direction!

Pam MacNeill, Managing Director