What’s New: Disability Inclusion in Television and Movies

It has taken decades for the television sector and movie industry to realize the importance of the full and equal inclusion of people with disabilities both behind and in front of the camera. The pace of change has been painfully slow. 

The full and equal inclusion of people with disabilities both behind and in front of the camera is long overdue. The reality is that with over one billion people with disabilities on our planet there is no justification for casting directors to use nondisabled actors to play the role of a person with a disability.

The acclaimed screenwriter and BAFTA winner Jack Thorne slammed the television industry for its treatment of people with a disability both on and off screen, saying, “TV has failed disabled people. Utterly and totally.” As the MacTaggart Lecture speaker at the Edinburgh TV Festival, Thorne shared that although he was committed to the inclusion of people with disabilities in his own writing, he felt he had failed “because the TV world is stacked against the telling of disabled stories with disabled talent. And that has to change”.

There are some glimmers of hope that have emerged in recent years. In September 2020, the Academy of Motion Arts and Picture Sciences announced new representation and inclusion standards for Oscars® eligibility in the Best Picture category.  The standards are designed to encourage equitable representation on and off screen to better reflect the diversity of the movie-going audience. 

Recently, the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) has developed a set of disability standards and guidance for putting these sets of standards into practice. Th standards focus on the “5 As” that include anticipate, ask, assess, adjust, and advocate guidelines.

To read the disability standards developed by the BBC, click here.