Netflix has pledged to work harder on including people with disabilities in its streaming content after a report showed that they were failing this demographic.
The research was conducted, at the request of Netflix, by Stacy Smith from College of Southern California’s Annenberg College for Communication and Journalism.
Smith and her research team reviewed 126 movies in 2018 and 2019 to measure illustration by gender, race/ethnicity, LGBTQ+ and disability.
The results showed that Netflix faired well on gender equality and racial and ethnic populations. But it discovered that the LGBTQ+ community and people with disabilities “hardly ever” see themselves in content material on the streaming service.
Characters with disabilities accounted for only 5.3% of leads on Netflix. Of speaking characters, only 2.1% had disabilities. Characters that did have disabilities were more likely to be white males. Less than half of the characters with disabilities had physical disabilities.
The report also revealed that when minority groups are behind the camera, that representation is often seen on screen as well. .
In response to the findings, Netflix has committed $100 million over 5 years to organizations that will assist with ensuring inclusion of underrepresented communities in its content.
“This research units a excessive bar for the broader business and demonstrates how an inside audit is a important first step towards inclusive change,” Smith mentioned.
Ted Sarandos, co-CEO and Chief Content Material Officer at Netflix, said their corporation has mandated itself to releasing a new model of the inclusion report every two years.
“By higher understanding how we’re doing, we hope to stimulate change, not simply at Netflix, however, throughout our business extra broadly,” Sarandos stated.
