Press Release: Report on Media Representation of People with Disabilities

FORD FOUNDATION SENIOR FELLOW, PIONEERING DISABILITY RIGHTS ACTIVIST JUDITH HEUMANN RELEASES REPORT ON MEDIA REPRESENTATION OF DISABLED PEOPLE

 

Heumann calls for an end to discrimination against disabled people in media & a new era of media inclusion, accessibility

 

NEW YORK—March 27, 2019— Today, disability rights activist and Ford Foundation Senior Fellow Judith Heumann, with Katherine Salinas and Michellie Hess, released Road Map for Inclusion: Changing the Face of Disability in Media. The report takes on the issue of historical under-representation and misrepresentation of disability in the media and entertainment, and offers critical recommendations to help achieve equitable media inclusion of disabled people.

 

The product of more than a year of research and collaborative meetings, the Road Map for Inclusion puts forward a radically simple argument: People with disabilities should be represented proportionally both in front of and behind the camera. The report is aligned with the Ford Foundation’s ongoing work to advance disability inclusion in the arts and culture, journalism, and film sectors.

 

Heumann, who was appointed by President Obama as the first Special Advisory for International Disability Rights, has long been a voice for the disabled community. Over more than four decades of disability activism, Heumann has advocated for change, advancing key legislation, influencing culture, and helping to build broad public support.

 

Road Map for Inclusion explores how parallel communities, like Asian Americans and the LGBTQI community, which were historically under-represented in the media, have made tremendous inroads in improving inclusion of their members. As Heumann states in the report:

 

“It is no longer acceptable to not have women at the table. It is no longer acceptable to not have people of color at the table. But no one thinks to see if the table is accessible.”

 

The report looks deeply at recent shifts in media representation, with initiatives like #OscarsSoWhite leading to significant gains in including people of color in media and entertainment. The report also spotlights the progress achieved by LGBTQI figures, such as Ellen DeGeneres, in providing positive representations of their communities to a wide range of media audiences.

“While media is the primary vehicle for representing our culture and the values that guide us, media consumers are given stock-in-trade stereotypes (often played by non-disabled actors), instead of authentic representations of disabled people,” says Heumann, one of the founders of the Independent Living Movement that has been working to advance the empowerment of disabled people through advocacy.

 

“We’ve made so much progress in the inclusion of other groups, but on the topic of disability we’re still squarely in the past. The Roadmap for Inclusion calls on all of us to help change this situation,” continues Heumann.

 

“When you consider that more than 65 million Americans have a disability, it is unconscionable that the deeply varied perspectives and life experiences of these communities are underrepresented in popular media,” says Ford Foundation President Darren Walker. “If we want to ensure the future health and vibrancy of the media and arts in America, we need to break down the barriers that have kept people with disabilities out of these sectors for so long. The Roadmap for Inclusion offers a first critical step forward.”

 

The report’s key findings and takeaways include:

 

• A detailed breakdown of four primary stereotypes used to portray disabled people (the “Super Crip,” the “Villain,” the “Victim,” and the “Innocent Fool.”)

 

• Lessons from dovetailing underrepresented communities, including work done by Center for Asian American Media (CAAM) in advancing media portrayal of Asian Americans, as well as the work of GLAAD in raising the issue of LGBTQI inclusion.

 

• Success achieved by bodies in the UK, where the national regulator, Ofcom, has used policy initiatives to drive change, with examples from two major broadcasters, BBC (where 10% of the network’s stars have a disability) and Channel 4 (which competed aggressively to carry the 2012 Paralympics and, in 2016, announced a campaign to award £1 million in airtime to an advertiser that included disabled people in its ads).

 

• A picture of an “ideal world” of media inclusion for disabled people, characterized by increased onscreen representation, an improved “talent pipeline” that includes disabled people in development and production, and expanded accessibility to media production facilities and formats.

 

The independent report also makes a number of critical Recommendations, which include a number of discrete and achievable steps whose implementation will markedly improve disability inclusion in media. They include:

 

(a) Development of institutional bodies to focus on disability inclusion;

(b) Expansion of definitions of diversity to include disability and;

(c) Empowerment of allies and advocates from dovetailing communities to help drive change.

 

Road Map for Inclusion: Changing the Face of Disability in Media is available at fordfoundation.org/roadmapforinclusion.

 

Next up for Huemann includes the forthcoming Being Heumann (Beacon Press, 2020), which she authored with feminist writer and activist Kristen Joiner. The book is the story of Heumann’s struggle for civil rights and her lasting impact within the halls of Washington, D.C.

 

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