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Broadcasting and Creative Industries Disability Network
Research
Over the years there have been a number of attempts to research the numbers of people employed in the broadcasting and creative industries and how far disabled people are integrated into programmes, films and advertising.
Employment research
This research is not simple matter. Apart from efforts on the part of individual Network members to survey their own workforce, Skillset regularly surveys both employers and the work force on diversity. These surveys reveal a growing discrepancy between employers' assessment of the numbers of disabled people employed and results obtained from the anonymous surveys of people working in the industry.
It is likely that organisational surveys underestimate the number of disabled employees for a variety of reasons including fear of exposure, lack of understanding of what constitutes disability under the DDA, and the ways and timing of Surveys. Workforce censuses which define disability, indicate that an employer is anxious to improve its record on disabled employment, allow for anonymous sampling, and provide a list of categories of disability seem more likely to yield greater disclosure than surveys which are not anonymous and are conducted at the point of recruitment.
Statistics on employment are collected by Ofcom, the broadcasting industry regulator but are not disclosed by them. Results of the latest Skillset surveys and census can be found on the Skillset website. There is a separate census for those working in the film industry.
Portrayal Research
There have been relatively few attempts to monitor and research the extent to which disabled people are seen on screen or heard on air. This area of research is much more complicated than for ethnic minorities or gender, given the significant number of people with invisible impairments. Although a broadcaster may include disabled actors and contributors on screen, unless an impairment can either be seen or is referred to explicitly in the script then such portrayals would not be counted.
In addition, some contributors neither have the opportunity not may wish to declare a disability, especially when taking part in a programme which has nothing whatever to do with disability. This means that while a broadcaster or film maker may be keen to increase the number of disabled people on screen or on air, and may have made efforts to do so, unless the researcher (or audience) is aware of the impairment such portrayals simply won't 'count'. This is a problematic area given that the industry is working to 'normalise' the inclusion of disabled people on screen i.e. to include disabled people whatever their impairment in output which has nothing whatever to do with disability as a subject.