Stamped allegories of disability: representations of the disabled body on postage stamps

This study examines the representations of the disabled body by unpicking the messages transferred through the artistic illustrations of disability found in 250 postage stamps. The theoretical framework employed derives from cultural, critical and feminist disability studies, while the tripartite model of disability served as a critical framework to the analysis of the representations of the disabled body. The first-level coding led in the classification of postage stamps into eight categories according to the impairment. The second-level coding involved visual semiotic analysis for an in-depth cross-categorical analysis with emphasis on the representation of the disabled body on a number of selected stamps and is presented in two main sections: (i) the disabled body as the impaired body and (ii) the disabled body among other bodies. Such research is useful for disability studies and its interdisciplinary directions that seek to challenge dominant oppressive representations and rhetoric around the disabled body. Points of interest This article looks into at the representations of the disabled body in postage stamps. Postage stamps were grouped into eight categories according to the impairment and then visual semiotic analysis was employed with emphasis on the representation of the disabled body. The impaired body seems to coincide with the disabled body which is represented as a body that matters, as the opposite of the non-impaired body, and as disembodied body parts or as figure silhouette images. When the disabled body is among other bodies, it is represented as dependent on the non-disabled body, as an element calling for inclusion and as part of a group of other disabled bodies. The findings suggest that interpreting the images in the stamps requires the consideration of more than one aspects related to disability. Such research is useful as it explains and challenges the dominant oppressive representations and rhetoric around the disabled body on postage stamps.