Discussing Disabilities

Cheating in competitive sports, especially prestigious sporting events such as the Olympics and Paralympics, is a very serious topic. Doping and boosting are performance-enhancing methods that are also very dangerous for the athlete. Adaptive technology is something that is controversial in the sporting community. In my opinion, the use of adaptive technology should be made as fair as possible. Accessibility to the technology, financial issues, and equal opportunity should all be taken into consideration when deciding if adaptive technology should be used in specific sporting events.  Doping/Boosting and Technology Doping in sports is the use of illegal drugs to enhance performance. Doping is banned in many sporting events, including the Olympics and the Paralympics. WADA , the World Anti-Doping Agency, develops and enforces anti-doping policies in sports. Because doping is banned in many sporting events, it is very important that those rules are monitored and h

(Channel 4 Tokyo 2020 Paralympics campaign)      Media portrayal of disabilities has traditionally been very negative and has created harmful stereotypes about people with disabilities. From TV shows and movies to newscasts and articles, the same few tropes and narratives have been used, which have enforced negative stigmas towards disabilities. Because of this portrayal and the fact that people with disabilities have always been looked down upon, media coverage of the Paralympics is not what it should be for how common disabilities are in the world today. There have   been many different ideas on how to increase and change media coverage of disabled sports and portrayal of disabilities, but there is still a lot that needs to change.    Portrayal of Disabilities in the Media      While media portrayal of disabilities is beginning to become normalized, showing them more accurately, it began with them being shown in a very negative light and is still seen today in many TV shows and movie