Disability Representation In Movies Largely Stagnant

There are some small signs of progress, but a new analysis finds that people with disabilities are no more likely to be featured in top films today as compared to a decade ago.

Just 2.4% of all speaking characters in the most popular movies released last year had disabilities, according to recent findings from the University of Southern California’s Annenberg Inclusion Initiative. That’s the same level as in 2015.

Each year, researchers with the initiative analyze representations of gender, race and ethnicity, the LGBTQ+ community and people with disabilities in the 100 top-grossing films of the year.

The latest report finds that 20% of lead or co-lead characters had a disability in 2024 — a new high — but otherwise this demographic is languishing.

While statistics show that about 27% of Americans have disabilities, 44 films showed no characters in this population, researchers found. No film depicted disability representation at levels anywhere near what’s found in real life.

Among characters with disabilities in top films last year, the report found that 64.8% had a physical disability, 32% had a communicative disability and 24% had a cognitive disability.

“The major areas of progress this year, for women and for characters with disabilities, occurred only for leading characters,” said Stacy L. Smith, founder of the Annenberg Inclusion Initiative. “This suggests that the change is not driven by an authentic desire for inclusion and matched with strategies based in expertise. Instead, ad hoc decision-making is the reason for these increases. Until evidence — and theory-based strategies are implemented, progress will continue to be sporadic and uneven.”