The entertainment industry may be missing out on a significant market opportunity, with the latest research from Easterseals showing that representation of disabilities in media has stagnated despite a U.S. audience commanding $490 billion in spending power.
“There’s trillions of dollars of buying power within the disability community. We’re one in four of the population. So that is a huge market that has been underserved,” actor, comedian and producer Nic Novicki told CEO Sharon Waxman at TheWrap’s Reimagining Hollywood: A New Lens on Disability Inclusion panel presented by Easterseals Disability Services at Sundance on Friday.
The nationwide survey of 800 adults with disabilities found that 51% reported seeing fewer characters with disabilities recently, while 83% emphasized the importance of representation on screen. The research comes as Easterseals announced “thriller and suspense” as the genre for its 12th Annual Disability Film Challenge.
“I think one of the other things, the key findings, too, is that when we talk about jobs, it’s both this is one of the key points, is that it’s not just jobs in front of the camera. It’s also behind the camera,” Nancy Weintraub, Chief Advancement Officer for Easterseals Southern California, said.
The Disability Film Challenge, which has produced 750 films over the past 11 years, requires participants to create 1-5 minute films featuring talent with disabilities in front of or behind the camera. According to Novicki, winners receive $2,000 cash grants and $5,000 production grants from Adobe, Dell computers, IMDb Pro mentor meetings with executives from NBC Universal, Netflix, and Paramount Global.
“We get emails all the time, I mean, on a weekly and monthly basis, from studios, from networks that are actively trying to authentically cast people with disabilities and bring people in for roles that aren’t written for disabled actors,” Novicki said.
The competition has led to opportunities, including film challenge participant Nik Sanchez landing a role alongside Ben Affleck in “The Accountant 2.”
Filmmakers can register through March 31 at disabilityfilmchallenge.com.
Watch the full interview with Weintraub and Novicki in the embed above.