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Author
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Ana Guadalupe Gallego , Camino Ferreira , Ana Rosa Arias-Gago
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Year
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2025
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Publisher
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preprint
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Abstract
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Film and television play a key role in shaping cultural perceptions of disability, yet they often rely on recurring stereotypes that may reinforce stigma and exclusion. While scholarly interest in this issue has grown, academic literature remains fragmented and lacks a comprehensive synthesis. This scoping review, conducted following the PRISMA-ScR methodology, examines how disability is represented through stereotypical portrayals in narrative audiovisual media, specifically scripted films and television series. It identifies peer-reviewed studies that explicitly analyze these representations and their narrative or sociocultural functions. The review maps dominant tropes, theoretical frameworks, and disciplinary approaches, and includes a qualitative analysis of the selected corpus. While persistent stereotypes remain common, the review also identifies a growing presence of more inclusive and complex portrayals that challenge traditional norms. By providing a structured overview of existing research, this study contributes to a better academic understanding of how disability is portrayed on screen and supports efforts to foster more inclusive and accurate representations in popular media.