Disability is Not so Beautiful: A Semiotic Analysis of Advertisements for Rehabilitation Goods

Abstract

This study posits a semiotic investigation of the representation of the "disabled body" in advertisements for rehabilitation goods utilizing two major Canadian disability-oriented magazines. The historical context is the late 20th century Canadian/North American advertising and society. The semiology of cultural production studies provide the tools for methodological analysis. It is a media investigation that explored how advertisements as a cultural text reproduced and reinforced cultural notions of the "disabled body." It allowed this researcher to critically consider how mass culture subordinates perceived deviant groups to non-deviant groups (Rubin, Rubin and Piele, 1996).