66% of Audiences Are ‘Unsatisfied’ With Disability and Mental Health Representation in Entertainment, Survey Finds

Picture of 11-year-old Black actor Keivonn Woodard in HBO's The Last of Us.
HBO.

By Diego Ramos Bechara

Inevitable Foundation‘s latest survey has found that audiences have expressed “dissatisfaction” with disability representation in the entertainment industry.

The “Audiences Are Waiting for Hollywood to Greenlight Disability” report, which surveyed over 1,000 people about the current state of disability and mental health representation on screen, found that 66% of audiences are “unsatisfied with current representations of disability and mental health in film and TV.”

It also noted that 40% of audiences, with and without disabilities, are “very likely” to recommend a film or TV show to friends and family if it showcases authentic representations of disability or mental health conditions.

Regarding entertainment consumption, the report found that 35% of people with disabilities watch 20+ hours of television per week, compared to 25% of people without disabilities, and that 20% of all audiences would subscribe to a new streaming service and go to more movies in theaters if they “included authentic representations of people with disabilities and mental health conditions.”

“The findings from the Audiences Are Waiting for Hollywood to Greenlight Disability report are clear that all audiences—disabled and non-disabled people—are very unsatisfied with the film and television options available to them when it comes to disability representation,” Saga Darnell, Inevitable Foundation head of research and public affairs, said in a statement.

“By investing in authentic disabled storytelling and ensuring multi-dimensional portrayals of characters with disabilities and mental health conditions, entertainment industry leaders have an opportunity to increase audience satisfaction, foster trust and tap into an underutilized market segment,” the foundation said in a statement.

Inevitable Foundation is a non-profit that invests in writers and filmmakers with disabilities to destigmatize disability and mental health globally. Their research aims to fill in the data gap around disability and entertainment, including “the experiences of the disabled population in the entertainment workforce, disabled narratives on-screen and how media portrayals shape cultural stigma.”

The full Audiences Are Waiting for Hollywood to Greenlight Disability report can be found at inevitable.foundation/greenlightdisability.