Soffer Michal, Rimmerman Arie
Charlotte B. and Jack J. Spitzer, Department of Social Work, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, PO Box 653, Beer-Sheva 84105, Israel.
Int J Rehabil Res. 2012 Jun;35(2):184-6. doi: 10.1097/MRR.0b013e328353054e.
This feasibility study examines the coverage of employment-related issues related to people with disabilities in the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990. The study is a first in a series of future studies focusing on disability issues in the international economic media. A survey of 39 newspaper articles published in the Wall Street Journal, a leading and most circulated business newspaper in the USA. Specifically, it comprised articles taken from three periods: 1990, the year the Americans with Disabilities Act was enacted; 2000, a decade later; and 2008, the year the amendments were revised with respect to definitions and employment. Data were analyzed by quantitative and qualitative content analysis. The results suggest a mixed representation: a decline in negative representations of disability throughout the years alongside the emergence of a legal-fiscal discourse of a disability that depicts persons with disabilities as a fiscal burden on employers. It seems that the new image of disability presents conflicting interests between the mission of the law, promoting employers' hiring of people with disabilities, and the economic realities of accommodating them at the workplace. Additional research is needed to examine whether this image is unique to the economic media or may reflect a concern in the business community.
这项可行性研究考察了1990年《美国残疾人法案》中与残疾人就业相关问题的涵盖范围。该研究是未来一系列聚焦国际经济媒体中残疾问题研究的首个项目。对美国发行量最大的主流商业报纸《华尔街日报》上发表的39篇报纸文章进行了调查。具体而言，这些文章取自三个时期：1990年，即《美国残疾人法案》颁布之年；2000年，十年之后；以及2008年，即该法案在定义和就业方面进行修订的年份。通过定量和定性内容分析对数据进行了分析。结果显示出一种复杂的呈现：多年来对残疾的负面描述有所减少，与此同时出现了一种将残疾人描述为雇主财政负担的残疾法律-财政话语。似乎残疾的新形象在法律使命（促进雇主雇佣残疾人）与在工作场所接纳他们的经济现实之间呈现出相互冲突的利益。需要进一步研究来考察这种形象是经济媒体所特有的，还是可能反映了商业界的一种担忧。
