Models With Disabilities Find a Place in Retail Ads : Advertising: Such images are becoming more common since the first phase of a law to aid the disabled went into effect.

The young man wearing the leather baseball jacket has all the usual attributes of male models: manicured hands, broad shoulders and a perfect crescent smile. But the dimpled model staring out from the glossy pages of the department store catalogue also displays an unusual accessory--a wheelchair.

The youth in the $99 jacket is one of three models with disabilities pictured in a recent Nordstrom catalogue, and one of dozens who have appeared in mostly print advertisements across the country.

Ads featuring models with disabilities began appearing about two years ago, industry experts said, but such ads have become increasingly common since January when the first phase of the Americans With Disabilities Act became effective.

“They clearly began to show up in a meaningful way about the time of the enactment of the ADA,” said Jim Gleich, executive director of the Disability Rights Education and Defense Fund. “I think the passage of the act stimulated people to think about people with disabilities.”

Gleich and others applauded many advertisers for emphasizing disabled people’s integration into everyday life, rather than their exceptional or courageous qualities.

“They seem to be shown as a part of mainstream life, rather than being treated as ‘special,’ ” Gleich said. “And we think that’s great. That’s what the whole program is about.”

Nordstrom’s creative art director, Cheryl Zahniser, said the company’s interest in depicting disabled models had been sparked by publicity surrounding the ADA.

But Zahniser also said the Seattle-based retailer’s inclusion of those models had another, practical motive: appealing to some of the 34.2 million potential buyers who have a disability.

“We’ve always tried to show the diversity of our customer base in our catalogues,” Zahniser said, noting the range of ages and races pictured in the mailing. “It was time to expand and show the disabled as a part of our customer base.”

Nordstrom is hardly the only retailer to include people in wheelchairs in its ads.

Eddie Bauer’s outdoor clothing and gear catalogue has also featured people in wheelchairs, blind people and a disabled skier, who is well known in the Redmond, Wash., area where the company is headquartered.

Target, the Minneapolis-based retailer, has also featured disabled children in its newspaper circulars for more than two years.

Those and other companies’ interest has meant more phone calls for Jill Roberts, the administrative manager for the Media Access Office. The Van Nuys-based office is a referral service for the entertainment and media industry that maintains a database of 200 to 300 people with disabilities seeking employment as actors and models.

Roberts said calls to her office from media scouts and companies looking for disabled models were up this summer, despite the fact that June, July and August were customarily “a pretty dry period.”

“Part of the reason,” Roberts explained, “is that advertisers have finally realized that the segment of the population with disabilities does have buying power.”

While people with disabilities now average lower income levels than people without disabilities, Roberts and others hope that the gradual implementation of Americans With Disabilities Act will erase many of the common barriers in employment, transportation and accommodation that have led to the gap.

That, in turn, should increase their buying power, making them even more important to retailers in the years to come.

Eventually, Roberts said, she hopes portrayals of people with disabilities will expand to include a variety of disabilities. Advertisers now disproportionately depict young men in wheelchairs, she said.

“For a lot of people, the idea of a disability equates a wheelchair, because that’s the symbol people see,” Roberts said. “It’s also a very visual symbol, and other disabilities are harder to convey through images.”

But Roberts and others said advertisements that portrayed any disabled person in an integrated environment still provided a morale boost for many others.

“It provides a lot of role models,” said Shannon Bloedel, a member of the U.S. disabled ski team who has modeled for both Nordstrom’s and Eddie Bauer’s catalogues. “Right now, it’s a great advertising tool, and in a sense you’re a commodity. But it’s also really good for other people in chairs. It’s also really affirming.”

Briefly...

Coors Brewing Co. has filed a $30-million lawsuit against Anheuser-Busch Cos., charging its competitor with unfairly “attacking” Coors’ light beer.

Beside $30 million in damages, Coors is asking that Anheuser-Busch be banned from showing ads in which Coors light beer is said to be made from “concentrate” and “diluted” with water.

A federal judge issued a temporary restraining order, which prevents the video from being shown, Reuters news service reported Monday.

The Dave Johnson and Dan O’Brien decathlon duel officially ended Saturday, as Reebok International closed a $25-million advertising campaign focused on the two athletes.

The Stoughton, Mass-based sportswear manufacturer said Monday it terminated the highly touted campaign, ending speculation the company would continue the ads beyond the close of the 1992 summer Olympics. Reebok said it would continue to honor its longer-term contracts with the two athletes.

A series of ads that began running in January portrayed the two athletes as battling contenders for the gold medal. When O’Brien failed to qualify, the campaign was shifted to show O’Brien cheering his team-mate on. That support, however, wasn’t enough to bring Johnson the gold. He won a bronze in the decathlon last Thursday.