Women Wheelchair Athletes: Competing against Media Stereotypes

Abstract

This study explored the attitudes and perceptions of 10 women wheelchair athletes about sports media by soliciting their opinions and concerns using both mainstream and disability print and web-based sport media. Using the "auto drive" technique for qualitative data collections, the analysis revealed three themes: (a) the participants were consumers of both mainstream and disability print media; (b) they were tired of the media stereotypes; (c) they believed that the media is partially responsible for the lack of coverage of women and individuals with disabilities in sports media as a whole. Within each of these three themes, several sub-themes emerged. Although this study was limited to female wheelchair athletes analyzing web-based and print media, the themes can provide a basis for the analysis and future study in the rising area of sports media research as it relates to females and individuals with disabilities.