ABSTRACT
The London 2012 Paralympic Games - the biggest, most accessible and best-attended games in the Paralympics' 64-year history - came with an explicit aim to "transform the perception of disabled people in society," and use sport to contribute to "a better world for all people with a disability." This social agenda offered the potential to re-frame disability; to symbolically challenge "ableist" ideology and to offer a reinvention of the (dis)abled body and a redefinition of the possible. This edited collection investigates what has and is happening in relation to these ambitions. The book is structured around three key questions: 1. What were the predominant mediated narratives surrounding the Paralympics, and what are the associated meanings attached to them? 2. How were the Paralympics experienced by media audiences (both disabled and non-disabled)? 3. To what extent did the 2012 Paralympics inspire social change? Each section of this book is interspersed with authentic "voices" from outside academia: broadcasters, athletes and disabled schoolchildren.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
part Section I|112 pages
Photo Montage
chapter 1|15 pages
Between Exclusion and Inclusion
chapter 2|11 pages
Out of the Shadows, into the Light?
chapter 3|29 pages
Dis/Enablement?
chapter 4|13 pages
#IsItOk to Be a Celebrity (Disabled) Comedian?
chapter 5|15 pages
Framing the Difference(s)
chapter 6|11 pages
Provoking a Public Service
chapter 7|16 pages
‘Superhumanity' and the Embodiment of Enlightenment
part Section II|66 pages
My Experiences of the Paralympics
chapter 10|18 pages
Contentious Disability Politics on the World Stage
chapter 11|15 pages
Voices from the Armchair
part Section III|59 pages
The Paralympics Poem