How do Iranian news agencies mis/represent disability: A case of people with visual impairment?

Disability is a broad term indicating incapacitating conditions socially, pathologically, and politically. Disability, visual impairment in our case, could be the product of a non-protective situation in which disabled people are disempowered in society. This aligns with the social model of disability, which posits that incapability arises from societal barriers rather than individual limitations. Based on these positions, the present study aims to explore how people with visual impairments are visually illustrated in Iranian news images. To accomplish this goal, a corpus of 630 images from Iranian news agencies covering visual impairment was considered. For the framework, the visual actor network, established by Van Leeuwen, was adopted. According to this framework, there are different ways to exclude or include a social actor in a community, including presence, absence, backgrounding, foregrounding, and grouping, to name a few. Our findings reveal a predominant pattern of exclusion in the portrayal of people with visual impairment , indicating that they often experience social distancing and disempowerment, echoing disablism rather than ableism. This marginalization fosters systemic inequities by categorizing disabled individuals as ‘other’ in society. The study highlights the urgent need for media outlets to adopt more inclusive practices that empower marginalized communities. It advocates for a transformative shift in the portrayal of disability, emphasizing that equitable representation can enhance societal understanding of visual impairment and promote improved social integration and acceptance. It also serves as a call to action for journalists and media to reconsider their visual storytelling approaches, ensuring they reflect the complexity and agency of individuals with disabilities.