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Attitudes and guidelines

Recently, the BBC, the Broadcasting Standards Agency and the Independent Television Commission (ITC) produced some research, Disabling Prejudice (PDF, June 2003), which showed that 79% of television viewers said they wouldn't mind if a disabled person read the main evening news. Broadcasters were significantly more cautious, concerned with perceived audience prejudices, ratings and other constraints. The majority of viewers (61%) say there should be more portrayals of disabled people on television in a wide variety of roles, including presenters.

The Stonewall Profile of Prejudice, 2003, has clearly established that television is the most important influence on people's prejudiced attitudes, followed by parental attitudes and newspapers. This recent report adds greater urgency to the need for broadcasters to take these issues very seriously.

Some viewers (39%) were still resistant to wider portrayal. However, the research identified several factors that would increase acceptance among these viewers:

• Matching - demonstrating that 'you are like me', disabled people being like everyone else in most respects.
• Likeability - creating emotional connections with viewers through shared qualities, such as engaging personality or sense of humour.
• Celebrity - using a famous actor to play a disabled role. This is very unpopular with many disabled people, who compare it to white actors 'blacking up' to play black people.
• Incidental inclusion - involving disabled people at all levels of programming and production, and featuring disabled actors where their impairment is not the reason for their inclusion or central to the storyline.

The Broadcasting and Creative Industries Disability Network has produced two guides to take the industry forward:

• Adjusting the Picture: A Producer's Guide to Disability (2001)
• Make a Difference! Ideas for including disabled people in broadcasting and film (2003).

Both can be accessed or downloaded from employers-forum.co.uk or itc.org.uk. Both have many useful ideas about including more disabled people in all aspects of broadcasting and film.

As more disabled people begin to work in television, it is to be hoped this situation will improve, but it only will if those responsible for programming change their attitudes to including the full diversity of the population in their output.

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