Advertising and Disability Activism

This workshop will focus on the ways in which advertising can promote disability activism and advocacy. It will explore how different forms of advertising (such as social media campaigns and poster advertisements) and strategies (for example, ‘shockvertising’ and framing messages for maximum impact) help to engage the general public with disability activism. A central focus of this workshop will be considering the important roles that cultural representations of disability (such as those found in advertisements) play in influencing societal attitudes towards disabled people.

Drawing on my work as a Senior Lecturer in Disability Studies and core member of the Centre for Culture and Disability Studies (based at Liverpool Hope University, U.K.), this workshop will also encourage participants to consider effective approaches to working with Disabled People’s Organisations and international research centres.

Dr Ella Houston, Liverpool Hope University & the Centre for Culture & Disability Studies

I am a Senior Lecturer in Disability Studies, core member of the Centre for Culture & Disability Studies and a Senior Fellow of the Higher Education Academy. As well as leading our Level I Special Educational Needs & Disability Studies single honors and Level H ‘Researching the Representation of Disability in Popular Culture’ courses and managing work placements for students, I chair the Learning, Teaching and Assessment Enhancement sub-committee in the School of Social Sciences. Since 2018 I have co-led the university’s Academic Literacies Community of Practice. My research, which is based in Cultural Disability Studies, explores representations of disability in advertising.