Los Angeles, CA, May 27 – For the fourth year in a row, Think Tank for Inclusion & Equity has released a report about the barriers to entry and advancement faced by underrepresented writers. And as with last year’s report, the disability community lags behind every other marginalized community. The new report, titled Behind The Scenes: The State of Inclusion and Equity in TV Writing, is based on a survey of 876 respondents and results from two focus groups. Thirteen percent of the survey respondents identified as disabled.
“Disabled writers and actors are part of the largest, and one of the most intersectional, groups on the planet — yet it wasn’t until a few years ago that we began to be included in diversity and inclusion initiatives, in industry reports, and in media equity analyses,” said David Radcliff, one of two disabled steering committee members within TTIE (alongside Katherine Beattie). “Hollywood has a lot of catching up to do, where disability is concerned, and there’s no better time than now, as Zoom rooms become more normalized and the industry itself is being retooled, to finally welcome us.”