The Global Alliance for Disability in Media and Entertainment (GADIM™) empowers the authentic representation of people with disabilities in mass media.
No decision should be made by any media organization without the full and direct participation of members of the disability community.
WHY?
Humanity is far more diverse than its current stories.
Globally, according to the World Health Organization (2022), about 1.3 billion people – 16% of the global population – experience a significant disability today.
HOWEVER:
- The Annenberg Inclusion Initiative, which examined top-grossing films from 2007 to 2024, found that only 2.4% of speaking or named characters had a disability.
- The Ruderman Family Foundation and the Geena Davis Institute analyzed disability representation in 350 scripted TV series from 2016 to 2023. The study reveals that nearly 80% of characters with disabilities are inauthentically cast, with overall representation at just 3.9%.
Such patterns have real consequences. For many people, media is their only exposure to disability, shaping beliefs, biases, and behaviors that influence hiring decisions, inclusion, social attitudes, and legislation.
AND, such narrow portrayals reinforce stigma, limit opportunities for talented disabled professionals, and erode the self-worth of disabled individuals who rarely see themselves represented authentically.
GADIM works to transform how media is created around the world, to ensure that people with disabilities make the decisions about what stories get told, how, and by whom.
