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Inclusive Filmmaking & Accessibility

Film, like all media, should be treated like a public space that anyone can access, no matter what their disability, education level, or socioeconomic background.

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Hiring Practices

When creating films about disability, GADIM and the Props No More team recommend hiring people with disabilities at all levels of the production process. GADIM can recommend consultants with disabilities who can be paid to read scripts, film treatments, adaptations, etc. GADIM believes all consultants should be paid for their work. 

GADIM recommends authentic casting at all times, meaning disabled actors should be hired to portray disabled characters. In the event that a disabled actor cannot be hired, the production should have a consultant with a disability on set to assist in the accurate representation of a disabled character. GADIM can recommend consultants who can work with a production on-set or virtually.

Contact GADIM about consulting
For additional reading:

Content about Disability

To promote truly inclusive filmmaking, productions should avoid perpetuating myths and negative stereotypes about disability. By employing disabled people as script consultants (and doing what they recommend), productions can avoid many negative stereotypes.

Entertainment media content should present disabled characters as multi-dimensional, not as a medical diagnosis. Disabled characters should not be used to evoke tragedy or, even worse, to show a character’s wish for death because of a disability.

Be careful with storylines that involve “a cure.” For example, some storylines “cure” disabilities instead of showing how actual disabled people use empowering equipment or technology. In other instances, a program plot has a character acquire a disability only to become bitter and suicidal.

Finally, disability should not be associated with evil in a storyline. The majority of disabled people live regular, happy lives and do not become murderers or villains because of a disability!

View GADIM’s “Crap Rep: Video Series on Representation”

A Note about Diversity

The entertainment industry should seek to reflect the diversity across individual experiences of disability and tell the stories of people with physical, sensory, cognitive, and intellectual disabilities. The stories of people whose disabilities affect their appearance should be included, as well as those people whose disabilities are hidden or not apparent.

Disability intersects with other factors. People of all genders/sexuality, race/ethnicity, ages, and in all geographic locations experience disability. Too often, the entertainment industry features stories about cisgender white males with physical disabilities or cisgender white autistic males.

Making Accessible Films

Alternative formats and tools for people with disabilities include but are not limited to: 

  • captioned video
  • alternative text for images
  • sign language
  • plain English and simple language

Remember that accessibility benefits everyone, not just people with disabilities! This is often known as the “curb cut effect.” Initially, curb cuts were made to allow wheelchairs to roll off the sidewalk and into the street for crossing. However, parents pushing baby strollers, people using walking aids, children on scooters, and delivery workers using hand carts also benefit from these curb cuts.

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Captioning

Captioning is the most important type of access because almost 5% of the world’s population has what the World Health Organization (WHO) calls “disabling hearing loss.” That equals approximately 430 million people worldwide.

Caption all video content, so deaf people or people who need to read the video content can access it. Not all deaf people use sign language, and some hearing people also use captions for a variety of reasons. Plus, many people watch videos on silent when they are out in public, so that they do not disturb others. Captions help get your content seen by many more people in general. 

Finally, many of the auto-generated “craptions” on YouTube are incorrect, so it is good practice to have an accurate transcript of the video for full access.

For additional reading:

Audio Description (AD) provides narration of the visual elements – action, costumes, settings – of theater, television/film, museum exhibitions, and videos. The technique allows patrons who are blind or have low-vision the opportunity to experience media more completely.

If you produce broadcast television or streaming entertainment videos in the United States, you are required by law to audio describe some of your content. “In October 2010, then-President Barack Obama signed the 21st Century Communications and Video Accessibility Act (CVAA) into effect, requiring that modern communications technologies be made accessible to all people regardless of vision and hearing loss,” according to the accessibility company 3PlayMedia.

Additional Resources for Filmmakers

Our first recommendation for best practices in the filmmaking industry is to read Article 8 of the UN Convention on the Right of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD).

Then, check out GADIM’s “Toolkit on the Go: Representing Disabilities in Film and Television” (2025)