Our society is currently buzzing with diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) movements. From the classroom to corporate board rooms, and all over social media, you can find people of all ages discussing things like how to be anti-racist or how to properly use gender pronouns. While these are all vastly important conversations to have, the largest marginalized group in the world is consistently left out of this conversation: the disabled population. All of these DEI efforts are vital as we strive to continue learning and growing to make our world a more loving place, but we will never succeed if we’re ignoring the world's largest marginalized community.
The media mirrors this societal oversight — disability representation lags far behind every other marginalized group. In the U.S. today, one in four people (26 percent) have a disability and yet only 3.1 percent of characters on-screen are disabled. In children’s television representation is even worse - less than one percent.
With over a quarter of our population identifying as disabled, recent market research found that Hollywood is leaving billions of dollars on the table. That is a striking number, but not what’s most concerning. Media tends to reflect our society’s values so more importantly, above everything -- the lack of visibility all around is killing disabled people. Let’s explore why.
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