Disability in the media
Findings from this survey of adults in Great Britain, conducted by Ipsos on behalf of Mencap, reveal that the majority of the public is unable to name a high profile person with a disability. David Blunkett and Stephen Hawking are the most well known and Susan Boyle is the only public figure named who has a learning disability.
Over half the public (52 per cent) is unable to name a high profile person they have seen in the media with a disability, increasing to 99 per cent who are unable to correctly name someone with a learning disability. Labour MP, David Blunkett, who is blind, and theoretical physicist, Stephen Hawking, who has motor neurone disease, were the most frequently mentioned people with a disability in the poll (13 per cent each), followed by actor, Stephen Fry, who has bipolar disorder (8 per cent). Less than one per cent of respondents were able to correctly name a high profile person with a learning disability, namely the former Britain’s Got Talent star, Susan Boyle.
The poll also revealed that a large segment of the public (41 per cent) believes that the number of people with a disability who they have seen, heard or read about in the media does not reflect that of society as a whole, versus those who do think it is reflective (21 per cent).
Almost half the public (44 per cent) are keen to see, hear or read more about people with disabilities in the media than there are at the moment with only a small minority (12 per cent) who disagreed.
Technical note
Ipsos interviewed a representative sample of 1,029 adults aged 15+ across Great Britain. Interviews were conducted face-to-face over the period 11-17 March, 2011. Data are weighted to match the profile of the population.
