“For those of you asking about the #InclusionRider, it's designed to ensure equitable hiring in supportive roles for women, POC [people of color], the LGBT community, & people w/disabilities,” the Annenberg Inclusion Initiative tweeted. Stacy Smith, its Founder and Director, previously talked about this concept during a 2016 TED Talk.
An inclusion rider “has always been available to all – everybody who does a negotiation on a film – which means you can ask for or demand at least 50 percent diversity in not only the casting but the crew.” McDormand, who won the Oscar for Best Actress in a Leading Role, told The Hollywood Reporter backstage after the Oscars. “The fact that I just learned that after 35 years in the film business – we aren’t going back.”
Authentic Representation of Disability Wins Best Live Action Short
A big winner in the field of disability inclusion is The Silent Child, which won the Oscar for Best Live Action Short. The film is about Libby (Maisie Sly), a four-year-old girl who is deaf. Sly is deaf herself, which is important to note as the majority of films winning for portrayal of disability often feature actors without the disability.“It is most likely no coincidence that the performance in sign language that won is the one that involved an authentic ‘signer,’” said Delbert Whetter, a filmmaker who is deaf. “To learn to express oneself in sign language requires the use of facial expressions and gestures that take years, if not a lifetime, to learn to do. Rendering sign language performances by non-native signing actors that focuses solely on mimicking hand movements is at best a two dimensional representation of a four-dimensional linguistic experience.”
In accepting the award, Rachel Shenton, who wrote the script, signed her speech in British Sign Language in addition to speaking.
Best Picture Winner Goes to Film with Actor Playing a Disability She Doesn’t Have
The Oscar for Best Picture went to The Shape of Water, which stars Sally Hawkins as a janitor without speech who falls in love with an amphibian held captive at the laboratory where she works. Hawkins herself does not have a speech disability, which is common when it comes to casting actors portraying people with disabilities. In fact, nondisabled actors on television play more than 95 percent of characters with disabilities. When an actor mimics someone from any minority group, whether it be racial or disability, he takes a job from an actor who genuinely has that characteristic and perpetuates that group’s under-representation in the industry. Yet it is important to note that Hawkins does have a chronic illness, an invisible disability.A common misconception is that including actors with disabilities will be too costly. According to a study conducted by the Job Accommodation Network, a service of the U.S. Department of Labor’s Office of Disability Employment Policy, a majority (59 percent) of accommodations do not cost a single cent, while the rest typically cost only $500.
People with Disabilities Make Exceptional Behind-the-Scenes Talent
Three of the films nominated for Best Visual Effects – Star Wars: The Last Jedi, War for the Planet of the Apes and Guardians of the Galaxy – included team members with Autism working for Exceptional Minds’ studio that employs young adults on the autism spectrum in digital animation and visual effects.“We are looking to change hearts and minds,” Co-Founder and Vice Chairperson Yudi Bennett said of the importance of people with disabilities working both in front of and behind the camera. “We need people in the film industry who are not all the same; diversity is a blessing.”
Diversity and Inclusion Segment Omits People with Disabilities
It was a night of firsts for women, people of color (Jordan Peele, first black screenwriter to win best original screenplay) and the LGBTQ community (A Fantastic Woman features a transgender storyline with an openly trans actor in the lead role), among others. Ashley Judd, Anabella Sciorra and Salma Hayek Pinault specifically drew attention to the #TimesUp and #MeToo movements during a special segment."We work together to make sure the next 90 years empower these limitless possibilities of equality, diversity, inclusion, intersectionality,” Judd said. “That's what this year has promised us."
Following their speech, a video outlined how the Academy is working to increase its diversity and inclusion efforts – from gender and race to those who are transgender. However, people with disabilities, the largest minority group in the U.S. that also cuts across every demographic, were left out of this segment.
“Hollywood has to catch up with its audience,” RespectAbility President Jennifer Laszlo Mizrahi said. “Diversity must really mean diversity – and that includes the one-in-five Americans who has a disability. Disability needs to be a part of every conversation on diversity. When films and television shows lack the inclusion of disability in their diversity efforts, Hollywood is disenfranchising the 56 million Americans who have a disability.”
