Developmental Disability Rhetoric: Studying Coverage of Developmental Disabilities in Major Canadian Newspapers, 2013-2022

<p dir="ltr">This research explores how two Canadian newspapers (the Globe and Mail and National Post) depicted people with developmental disabilities and their experiences over a 10-year period between 2013 and 2022 and questions whether the implementation of the Accessible Canada Act has impacted the rhetoric that news media uses. The Act is justified at the centre of this period to examine its influence. Using a quantitative approach, I examined the volume of coverage on developmental disabilities over the 10-year period, types of developmental disabilities reported, and frequency of specific denotative rhetoric. I then conducted critical discourse analysis to qualitatively examine selected articles for their connotative rhetoric. No clear correlation was found in the transformation of rhetoric and the introduction of the Accessible Canada Act. Findings are examined to provide future best practices for Canadian news media.</p>