Study: Actors with disability underrepresented

Actors with disabilities are underrepresented in movies and TV shows and are reluctant to ask producers for even minor accommodations, says a study commissioned by the Screen Actors Guild. While 20 percent of all Americans have a physical or mental disability, less than 2 percent of TV show characters display a disability and only one-half percent have speaking roles, the report says.

The findings were announced by Robert David Hall, a regular on “CSI: Crime Scene Investigation.”

“We have far to go to achieve true equality of opportunity,” Hall said. “The images we see and the stories we tell say a lot about our society. We are part of the story.”

The study showed that a majority of the accommodations sought by actors were fairly minor, including needing a sign language interpreter, the opportunity to sit down and proximity to a bathroom.

The guild and the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers said they will ask the Labor Department to expand a yearly casting data report to include disabilities. The report currently tallies opportunities in film and television by race, ethnicity, gender and age.