ABSTRACT
Pictures are visual narratives. 1 They tell stories to viewers about what they depict. Pictures tell their stories not with words but through visual elements and conventions. The stories that public pictures tell shape the way we understand one another. The images that surround us both reflect received perceptions and mould new ways of thinking about one another. Until recently in the USA, a limited range of public visual narratives constricted the way we view people with disabilities. The most prevalent pictures of people with disabilities have come to us through the genres of freak show photography, charity campaigns or medical photography. These images portray disability narrowly as sensational, sentimental or pathological.
