Mission - GADIM

GADIM’s mission is twofold:

to leverage media, culture, and entertainment to promote the rights and inclusion of people with disabilities and
to improve the portrayal of disability in mass media to reflect the full and diverse experience of disability.

We fulfill that mission by actively creating media content across multiple platforms and participating in activities that are reshaping mainstream perspectives of disability and stimulating a culture of acceptance, non-discrimination, and inclusion. These efforts include:

Hiring disabled filmmakers to create films like Props No More and the In The Midst Of … series, and contracting with disabled journalists to report news for our Global Disability News Network.
Partnering with disability organizations around the world, like the Reframing Disability (India), Die Neue Norm (Germany), Inclusive News (Brazil), and Crip Life (UK), to share news by and for the disability community.
Participating in global research projects, like Changing Attitudes through Media Representations of Disability (CAMRED) in the UK and Kenya.
Producing educational materials about how to create accessible and authentic media content.

How We’re Pushing Back Against a Culture of Ableism in the Media

Photo of a woman seated on a folding chair, looking up at another woman, who is standing nearby holding a movie clapper board. There is a microphone visible above the seated woman's head, and bookshelves in the background.

Creating Authentic Media
Representation

Two women stand next to each other. One wears a shirt that says "No More Spoons, Only Knives Left." The other wears a shirt that says "Not all disabilities are visible."

Teaching Global Media Creators

A woman is shown in a video camera screen wearing headphones.

Making Media Accessible

Our Vision

GADIM envisions a world where the media and entertainment we consume represents the full diversity of humanity, including disabilities and other marginalized identities.

We believe that news and entertainment media can and must play pivotal roles in supporting human rights for persons with disabilities and eliminating barriers that diminish those rights.

We see a future where fully accessible media – including films, television, radio, podcasts, advertising, and online content (websites, videos) – becomes the norm rather than the exception.

We put people with disabilities in the driver’s seat of media creation so that they are the ones telling their stories .

"Disability is not a monolith, and disabled people must be the ones telling their own stories."

-U.S. media and disability scholar Beth Haller, Co-Director of GADIM