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It has been eight years since the #OscarsSoWhite campaign began to call attention to the systemic barriers to diversity and inclusion in Hollywood. Even in 2023, at the 95th annual Academy Awards, , even as the Asian American feature Everything Everywhere All at Once took almost all the top awards. There were no women in the Best Director category, and social media was afire about the snub of Viola Davis鈥� directorial debut Woman King.

Director Cashmere Jasmine (Oreo, Project CC for Disney鈥檚 Launchpad Collection) was disappointed, especially to see Davis walk away without any awards. 鈥淭here was both relief and a deep, deep sadness when I heard Viola Davis speaking on The Breakfast Club [podcast] about just getting people to do hair and makeup, and that it was always going to be a fight, and that you鈥檒l always have to push, no matter who you are or how high you go.鈥� 

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Jasmine was one of many panelists in a recent . The event was organized by RespectAbility, a group focused on fighting stigmas and providing guidance for creators with disabilities in the entertainment industry, policymaking, leadership positions, and faith communities. Jasmine is a Black woman who is disabled, and she says the barriers to entry in the entertainment industry are real, and they become apparent early in the process鈥攅ven at the point of pitching a film. 

Those barriers are formidable: More than a quarter of the U.S. population lives with disabilities, including . Furthermore, the disabled and Black communities . However, an overwhelming 95% of characters on-screen are not disabled. That majority is still overwhelmingly white and male. Only 4.1% of the programs on-screen feature disability themes. 

Jasmine says the studios and executives don鈥檛 trust someone who looks like her when she walks in the door. 鈥淭hey have a formula that they know has quote-unquote 鈥榳orked for them,鈥� and it鈥檚 often somewhat exclusionary, or often may be overly conservative.鈥� She explains that the struggle is to compromise enough to make the studio executives see the vision without losing that 鈥渓ightning in the bottle鈥� uniqueness that makes the story hers. Just to get her project green-lit, she has to prove 鈥渢his was not only beautiful and profitable, but unique, and really reached not just the audience you鈥檙e used to reaching, but an audience that鈥檚 even broader than that.鈥�

Hers is a real story about the barriers a disabled Black woman has to break in order to get her film project considered by a company like Disney. Being disabled actually adds further complication to the barriers Blackness brings to filmmakers trying to break into the industry. 

Barrier Busting

RespectAbility, the organization that hosted the webinar, is in the business of telling the industry how to step up for creatives with disabilities. In fact, each of the panelists on its most recent webinar was an alumnus of RespectAbility鈥檚 Entertainment Lab.

Lauren Appelbaum, RespectAbility鈥檚 senior vice president of communications, says the original target of the organization鈥檚 mission was politics, but the entertainment industry has become a large focus. Appelbaum has worked to build a community where both the creatives and the people seeking to employ them can connect and educate themselves on the needs of the disabled.

Writer Diane J. Wright, who moderated the Black Excellence webinar, asked the panelists about their inspiration to join the industry. Immediately, the conversation turned to representation鈥攖he connection between seeing themselves represented in the industry and having actual access.

Writer and director Juliet Romeo offers a different perspective on the representation conversation. 鈥淲hat the industry can do is鈥攃ould have done [is]鈥攖o help us create representation,鈥� she said. 鈥淏ecause I feel like if I saw myself or I saw that there were writers and directors growing up that looked like me, then I would have believed it. I would have been, 鈥榊es, this is what I want to do.鈥欌�� Instead, Romeo describes a very circuitous route to her current filmmaking career. And she wasn鈥檛 alone.

Actor, writer, and producer Erika Ellis also didn鈥檛 see Black women filmmakers like herself and thought the only way into Hollywood was to buy her way in by financing her own film. 鈥淚 had it in my head that [if] I get into finance, then I can finance films, and then I can put myself in a film. But I didn鈥檛 know a direct route. 鈥� I found my way, the long way, I should say.鈥�

Ellis went on to describe how the lack of representation translated into barriers to access to the industry for her. 鈥淏ut growing up, I still didn鈥檛 know how to get there. And I think when I finally did, I got in through another, you know, organization, a diversity hire, basically, in a program.鈥� 

Romeo adds that the barriers to access for aspiring creatives are only compounded when you are a first-generation immigrant, Black, and disabled.

Romeo says her family was supportive of her desire to become a filmmaker, but they never saw what she did as work. She comes from a Caribbean family who believes success was only found in manual labor or the professions, and definitely not in creative fields. 鈥淭he safe jobs are, you know, in the medical field. So become a nurse. Become a doctor, right?鈥� Romeo became a nurse, and only later began making her first documentary about a friend鈥檚 health journey.

Representation also provides a model for disabled creatives to follow after they begin working in the industry. Entertainment Lab alumnus Angel Williams, currently producer and writer for Truce Media, says the Lab workshops taught her how to speak up for herself and her needs as a creative with non-apparent disabilities.

During her own workshop in September 2022, alumni of previous Entertainment Labs talked about advocating for themselves in the industry.

Williams says she loved to hear the former students 鈥渢elling their stories of how they learn to advocate for themselves and to request the accommodations they need.鈥� She explains 鈥渓istening to how they talk about pushing forward, advocacy for the self and others around them.鈥� Williams says that now she is working on advocating for her own work breaks (which she needs for her disability, fibromyalgia, a condition that causes chronic fatigue and chronic pain) and accommodations. She is also open at Truce Media about being disabled. 

Industry Rising to Meet 鈥淯s鈥�

Wright鈥檚 second request to the panel started another important conversation within the inclusion debate. She asked the panel of Black women creatives about 鈥渟ome of the specific ways the industry could have risen to meet us.鈥�

鈥淲e鈥檙e always asked about our identities and barriers and how we overcome them, right? As if who we are is the hurdle.鈥�

This is the question we asked the other part of the RespectAbility community鈥攖he executive partners who employ the Entertainment Lab alumni and consultants. They were eager to share the ways in which RespectAbility has pushed industry executives and their companies to do better.

Stacie de Armas, the vice president of diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) at Nielsen, the media ratings and research company, says the RespectAbility relationship with her company began with a desire to 鈥渄o better.鈥�

De Armas explains that a few years before, she wanted to make a contribution using a budgetary surplus. 鈥淚 said we want to make a contribution to your work. And then we鈥檇 love to also chat about your work and see how we can work together,鈥� she says. Today, Nielsen hires alumni of the Entertainment Labs, and it regularly engages RespectAbility consultants to help inform projects where the company is measuring demographics for its new metrics systems, like GraceNote. 

But de Armas and Nielsen also learned about 鈥渢he work鈥� aspect early on when she brought RespectAbility in to measure inclusion in the industry. They were looking for a metric to look at disability inclusion on-screen and off-screen. But, according to de Armas, 鈥渢hat鈥檚 not how RespectAbility works.鈥� The RespectAbility team explained to her that there were several aspects of disability to be considered, and commenced giving a master class in disabilities to the Nielsen team.

De Armas and her team at Nielsen were impressed. 鈥淲e knew at that point, too, we鈥檝e got the right partner here because they鈥檙e challenging us. They want more than we even think we鈥檙e capable of, and they鈥檙e explaining to us why. And so with their support, we actually did do all of that.鈥� Nielsen released data in a

Grace Moss, vice president of DEI at Warner Discovery, also says that over the past few years, she has worked with RespectAbility to discover the barriers her company still maintains to disability inclusion, through consulting on scripts and helping ensure the sets of new shows are inclusive to not only the actors, but also the crew, creators, and anyone who visits a set. Companies learn that making sets wheelchair-accessible is more than adding ramps. Inclusive sets include quiet spaces for the neurodivergent, for example.

Moss even shared how a RespectAbility Lab alum helped her team realize that video submissions are much easier for people with disabilities connected to writing difficulty. This includes neurodivergent creators who express themselves better with visual tools. Moss says, 鈥淣ow, the application to our Directors Lab is open, and they have a video submission option.鈥� That component is available on the application to the .

Shifting the Burden

Applebaum and her team are moving the heavy lifting of inclusion and access onto the broad shoulders of companies like Nielsen and Warner Bros Discovery. As they do so, one of the biggest barriers to inclusion鈥攔epresentation鈥攊s being lifted. 

As a result, RespectAbility is seeding the industry with disabled people, especially Black creators with disabilities who are creating content for the screen and beyond. This includes policymakers, measurers (working with companies like Nielsen), and even journalists. Williams reiterates the importance of seeing other disabled people who work in the industry advocate for themselves and remain in their jobs. 鈥淚t鈥檚 just how hard they go for making sure that we鈥檙e all included,鈥� Williams says. 鈥淚鈥檝e never had an issue where it鈥檚 like, 鈥楬ey, I need help with something!鈥� And they鈥檙e like, 鈥極h, we just can鈥檛 help you. We don鈥檛 even know where to tell you to go.鈥� Even if it鈥檚 something that they don鈥檛 do, they know what organization they partner with to ask.鈥� Williams says RespectAbility empowers her to advocate and educate at Truce Media.

So, while the Oscars are still struggling to show the representation of people with disabilities, especially disabled Black women like those on the Black Excellence panel, RespectAbility and its alumni are seeding the industry with information, access, and representation needed to ensure that diversity and inclusion continues to grow. Ensuring that the next Wright, Romeo, and Ellis see themselves in front of and behind a camera. And that they have access to the direct route to those careers.