Study Shows Disability Representation Onscreen Is Increasing, but Still Falls Short

The movie “CODA” about hearing-impaired children of hearing-impaired parents won this year’s Academy Award for Best Actor, and one of its stars, Troy Kotsur, became the first hearing-impaired to win the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor. became. Supporting actor. Lauren Ridloff became the first deaf superhero of the Marvel Cinematic Universe in “Eternals”. Hulu’s mystery comedy series “Only Murders in the Building” was acclaimed for its almost completely silent episodes that emphasized the perspective of the hearing-impaired character (played by James Cavalry).

Approximately, even with these prominent examples of on-screen disability representations 26 percent of adults In America People with physical or psychological disabilities, expression continued to be delayed, A new study published by Nielsen on Tuesday was found.. This report analyzed the representation of disabled characters in movies and television shows released between 1918 and 2022, released to coincide with the 32nd anniversary of the Americans with Disabilities Act.

The title comes from Nielsen’s database of approximately 164,000 movies and television shows that premiered over the past century. Of them, about 4.2%, or 6,895 titles, were tagged as having a serious disability theme or content.

According to a survey, disability inclusion was highest in 2019, with 518 disability-themed works released.

Throughout this year’s report, the movie was once again better than television. Of the 6,895 titles featuring critical disability themes or content, about 59% (4,066) were feature films and 18% (1,209) were regular series. (The rest of the depictions were in other categories such as short films, limited series, television films, specials, etc.)

These numbers represent a slight shift to television since last year, when Nielsen’s report showed that 64% of depictions of disabled characters were in feature films and 16% were in regular television series. increase.

A survey of more than 2,000 smartphone users on media disability representations conducted in the first quarter of 2022 We also found that people with disabilities are much more likely to have problems portraying characters with disabilities. Viewers with disabilities are 34% more likely to say that their identity group is poorly represented in the media, and TV in their identity group is more likely than viewers who did not identify them as having a disability. It was 52% more likely to characterize the depiction as inaccurate. ..

Lauren Appelbaum, Vice President of Respect Ability, a non-profit organization that participated Last year’s Nielsen survey told the Times that although the number of characters with disabilities continues to grow, about 95% of their roles are portrayed by non-disabled actors.

However, there were also positive expressions, such as the HBO series “Sex Life for Female College Students.” Introducing characters who use wheelchairs (Lauren Spencer, also known as Lolo), a confident student attending the show’s iconic nude party. Alaqua Cox also received high acclaim in the Disney + series “Hawkeye” for her performance as Mayalopes / Echo, a hearing-impaired Cheyenne woman with the ability to imitate the movements of others.