UK Broadcasters Combine For Disability Access “Passports”

deadline.com:

UK broadcasters have combined to create access and inclusion “passports” that will better support disabled people in the industry.The “passports” have been used by the BBC for three years and by ITV for three months and will now be taken on by Channel 4, UKTV, Channel 5-owner Paramount UK and Scottish broadcaster STV.Having multiple broadcasters involved means that the “passports” can be passed between networks from job to job, helping disabled people in the TV industry communicate their needs easily.They will be transferrable to enable colleagues to move smoothly across departments and between broadcasters, reducing the need for disabled talent and staff to repeatedly disclose their adjustment needs to each new employer or manager.The British TV industry is placing renewed focus on improving disability at present following Help creator Jack Thorne’s blistering August Edinburgh MacTaggart address, in which he blasted the sector for “totally and utterly” failing disabled people.

He has launched a lobbying group, Underlying Health Condition, to seek improvements in the space.“Disabled talent and others have lobbied for solutions to the challenges they face which stop them thriving in the workplace, and we are now at a very good place in finding something that will really address people’s needs in our sector,” said Ally Castle, Channel 4’s Creative Diversity Lead for DisabilityNew and returning series on broadcast, cable and streamingSeries that made it or didn’t make it in 2020-21Broadcast networks’ fall lineups and schedules