Doctoral thesis: disabled people are still seen as ‘the other’ in contemporary Russian culture

Like the rest of the world, modern Russian society is now paying more attention to issues affecting people with disabilities. A lot of state programmes are focused on improving infrastructure accessibility and rehabilitation. However, they remain one of the least visible groups in society, which is why it seems that Russian culture still portrays disabled people as ‘different’ or ‘the other’
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In her PhD thesis, Alina Poklad examined how Russian culture portrays people with disabilities more broadly and whether it supports their integration into society and enables them to lead a fulfilling life. She analysed contemporary films, television and literature as the main conveyors of Russian culture. Her findings suggest that contemporary Russian culture aims to convince viewers and readers that a disabled person cannot be happy because of the physical disability itself, rather than because there are numerous societal barriers or a lack of opportunities for leading a fulfilling life. 

The dominant narrative in Russian culture often centres around the suffering of a disabled person following an accident, which is portrayed as a life with nothing positive and devoid of meaning, both for the character themselves and for their loved ones. Eventually, through medical treatment and rehabilitation, these characters are healed and their life regains meaning. However, this type of scenario, which seems harmless at first glance, causes real-life problems for people with disabilities. Their participation in society is already difficult due to poor accessibility, resulting in few interactions between people with disabilities and the rest of society.  As a result, on-screen depictions are often taken as true reflections of reality, reinforcing stereotypes and prejudices.

When analysing the comments of viewers, Poklad found that people are reinforcing the belief that having a disability is a fate worse than death. Consequently, the lives of people with disabilities are devalued. It also creates a belief among viewers that anyone with a disability can overcome it if they just try hard enough. This belief creates misconceptions of those who have not been able to fully heal or who do not devote their entire lives to getting better, but instead prefer to study, work and live a family life. They are seen as lazy or as though they have given up. 

According to Poklad, this creates a situation where society does not want to accept people with disabilities as equals. They are isolated, and especially based on TV shows and literature, it is believed that people with disabilities should only interact with ‘people like themselves’. To make matters worse is that, through TV shows, both able-bodied people and people with disabilities perceive that the only way to be useful and happy is to be able-bodied. 

The results from the doctoral thesis show that although disable people are being talked about more in contemporary Russian culture, their image is stigmatised. Public opinion of them has not changed, but their own self-perception is gradually shifting, regardless of culture. 

 Alina Poklad, a PhD candidate at Tallinn University's School of Humanities, defended her PhD thesis The Image of the Disabled Person as the ‘Other’ on Russian Television on 3 February. The research was supervised by Irina Belobrovtseva, Professor Emeritus from Tallinn University, and the opponents are Professor José Alaniz from University of Washington and Alfiya Battalova, Associate Professor from Royal Roads University.