2016 Paralympics: Media depictions of disabled athletes are improving, says 91�Թ� researcher

lavende4 — Tue, 30 Aug 2016 13:36:43 +0000

lavende4 Tue, 08/30/2016 - 09:36

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Brazilian and Canadian rugby players during a test event for the Rio 2016 Paralympics (Photo by Buda Mendes/Getty Images)

Alyson Musial

Author legacy

Alyson Musial

Topic

Global Lens

Paralympic Games

Faculty of Medicine

Physiotherapy

With the 2016 Paralympic Games starting next week in Rio de Janeiro, writer Alyson Musial sat down to chat with Nancy Quinn (below), a sport physiotherapist and 91�Թ� Masters graduate who researches the intersection of sport, disability and media. Nancy is a veteran of six Paralympic Games and has received a Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee Medal for her contribution to the Paralympic movement in Canada. Alyson also spoke to Nancy’s advisor, Department of Physical Therapy Professor Karen Yoshida, about how Paralympic athletes are represented in the media.

Nancy, tell us why you are so passionate about the Paralympic Games.

Quinn: Where to start? I graduated in 1987 with a BScPT fully entrenched in the medical model of disability; patients with a disability had a problem that required fixing. I had spent 4 years learning the biology and pathology of impairment, and had been taught strategies and techniques to repair, modify and at the very least, limit the progress of impairment. Upon reflection, I received little if any exposure to people outside of the acute care setting who lived with physical difference. In four years of university I met no one who worked outside the home, had a family, played sport, dated, and lived with a disability.

And so began my illustrious career of fixing people who I really knew nothing about.

A series of fortunate circumstances placed me on the medical team of Team Canada at the 1996 Paralympic Games in Atlanta, Georgia. Here I met a community of people with diverse physical impairments, who were highly athletic, and were passionate about elite sport and competition. These same people travelled, danced, dined out, had children, married and divorced (not necessarily in that order), worked, and lived with a disability. These people also faced a variety of societal challenges.

Post Atlanta, I was hooked. I had discovered a sporting community where physical difference did not preclude athletic excellence. I returned home to central Ontario brimming with stories and enthusiasm to discover that there had been no media coverage of these Games whatsoever.

Zero.

Nothing in The Globe and Mail, our national newspaper, and no television coverage. My friends and family congratulated my volunteerism with these Games, using language of charity and benevolence. How good it was of me to help those people out! I found this very frustrating. Six Paralympic Games later and I am a proud and passionate advocate for the Canadian Paralympic movement and a disability scholar in the making.

How are disabled athletes represented in the Canadian media?

Yoshida: Sport journalism has traditionally featured athletes with disability far less often than able-bodied athletes. When athletes with a disability do receive coverage, their disability is framed as a tragedy, and that sport offers the athlete the opportunity to recover from, or transcend, this tragedy to achieve a more “normal”, able-bodied life. This framework celebrates their athletic achievement, but only as a triumph over the personal tragedy of impairment. Also, female Paralympic athletes are represented less often than their male counterparts. Male athletes who use wheelchairs, who are white and identify as heterosexual receive more frequent, diverse coverage than other athletes with disability.

Our research also shows that Paralympic athletes are faced with a complex dilemma: when the sport media choose to represent a Paralympian as an elite athlete by minimizing their physical difference, the athlete becomes more relatable to a non-disabled viewing audience. Yet conversely, embracing physical difference establishes credibility for athletes within their disabled community. The tension between minimizing difference for non-disabled audiences, and highlighting difference for audiences with a disability, is a very interesting and challenging reality for the Paralympic community and makers of media.

How do conversations around disability, sport and the media affect rehabilitation?

Yoshida: It’s no mystery that media plays an influential role in our lives. Rehabilitation professionals need to work diligently to think critically about disability, which can be challenging given most clinicians are educated and socialized professionally in the biomedical model of disability, wherein disability equates to incapacity. Discussions of athleticism, and therefore ability, challenge assumptions of the biomedical model and encourage new ways of thinking about rehabilitation, which is great! As media continues to construct more alternative, positive cultural representations of athletes and ability, the language and practice around physical difference will evolve within the field of rehabilitation.

Are media representations of para-sport evolving?

Quinn: The good news is, things are improving. Working with Karen while doing my Masters, I looked at CBC’s coverage of the 2004 Paralympic Games. CBC did a great job of representing our Canadian Paralympic athletes as athlete first. This was a truly positive step. Since the early 2000s, there is evidence to support that media representations of female and male Paralympic athletes have been growing, in quantity and quality. Slowly, the media is embracing more multi-dimensional representations of Paralympic.

It’s 2016 and my inbox is full of great media regarding para-sport in Canada and the pending Rio Paralympic Games, informed by person first/athlete first language. I find videos on YouTube of people with physical difference dancing, giving advice on dating or how to prepare for a job interview, and playing sport.

But it’s 2016 and I still see people with mobility difference unable to move through the snow on a city sidewalk that has not been cleared. I hear able bodied people in my clinic waiting room speaking overly loud to others who have obvious physical difference. I see big budget films at the theater with story lines that reinforce the tragedy of disability.

It’s 2016 and media representation of para-sport, Paralympians and disability has evolved and continues to evolve. We’ve come a long way, but we have a long way to go.

2016 Paralympics: 91�Թ� physical therapist looking forward to supporting role at #Rio2016

lavende4 — Fri, 26 Aug 2016 14:28:59 +0000

2016 Paralympics: 91�Թ� physical therapist looking forward to supporting role at #Rio2016

lavende4 Fri, 08/26/2016 - 10:28

Alyson Musial

Author legacy

Alyson Musial

Topic

Women's College Hospital

The 2016 Paralympic Games will be taking place September 7 to 18, and Mireille Landry, a physical therapy lecturer and exercise coordinator for the Women’s Cardiovascular Health Initiative at Women’s College Hospital, will be in Rio de Janeiro with the Canadian athletes. The Faculty of Medicine’s Alyson Musial talked to Landry about her role.

Tell us about your role on the Health Sciences Team for Team Canada. How will you be helping our Canadian Paralympic athletes?

I will be assigned specific teams or athletes that are part of the Canadian Paralympic Team, and accompany these athletes/teams to their training sessions and events. I’ll be on hand for any sporting event preparation, as well as emergency first aid. My “office” is the change room, the playing field, and the Team Canada clinic in our residence at the athlete’s village.

My role will involve providing treatment and rehabilitation of injuries, as well as support for performance through injury prevention, maintenance and recovery interventions. I mainly use manual and exercise therapy, soft tissue and taping techniques. Athletes are very in touch with their needs and often require less aggressive treatments than what you might provide in a clinic. They are fine-tuned, high-performance individuals, and gentle approaches are generally more successful. A high-stakes competition isn’t where you “show off” your skills in a new treatment or interfere with the athlete’s preparation!

What is the greatest challenge you face as a member of this team?

A typical day working a multisport event can be long and not very glamorous. I can expect to work from early in the morning to late at night depending on training and event schedules. In an environment where you are consulting and treating athletes in change rooms, on sidelines or the field, you never really know what to expect!

Parasport can be played by athletes with a visual impairment, a spinal cord injury, amputations, cerebral palsy, an intellectual difference, spinal bifida, multiple sclerosis and other different abilities. Treating musculoskeletal injuries in this context can be more complex than in other athletes. I have to take into consideration how their physical difference aids their function and performance, and interacts with equipment they may need. As an example, an athlete may use increased muscle tension to their advantage, so trying to “relax” the muscles would interfere with their performance. I also miss my kids being away for two weeks!

What is the most rewarding aspect of being on the Health Sciences Team?

I love being a “small cog on the big wheel” and helping the Paralympic Games, as well as our Canadian athletes, to thrive. It feels great contributing my knowledge, experience and skills; I call the Games my “happy place”. I also get to connect with other therapists, sports medicine physicians, athletes and the whole team, which is a fantastic learning experience. I’m very much looking forward to the comradery, and expect we’ll have a few adventures along the way.