Despite making up 16% of the global population, disabled people remain significantly underrepresented across media, communications, and consumer touchpoints. When businesses prioritise authentic representation, they unlock both market opportunity and social impact.
Representation is about more than visibility – it’s about ensuring that people with disabilities participate at every stage of business processes, from design to marketing to delivery, both on camera and behind the scenes.
The System Barrier
Our research identifies three key pillars of inclusive representation that face significant barriers:
- Accessible Experiences: Over 50% of disabled consumers face barriers accessing content and products. Companies must ensure all touchpoints are universally accessible – without accessibility, representation is meaningless.
- Accurate Representation: Just 2% of disabled consumers feel accurately portrayed in media and marketing. Companies must reflect the true prevalence, diversity, and intersectionality of disability.
- Authentic Narratives: Media often perpetuates outdated tropes and harmful stereotypes. Brands must disrupt outdated narratives by ensuring disabled people tell their own stories.
These three pillars are underpinned by a common, fundamental barrier: insufficient representation of disabled people in the workforce itself. When disabled talent is absent from creative, production, and decision-making roles, authentic representation becomes virtually impossible to achieve.
Authentic Representation Research
Based on insights from over 1,000 disabled individuals, our whitepaper and key principles outline an approach to confident, consistent, and authentic disability representation across organisations and industries.
Explore our representation research.
Synchronised Collective Action
When businesses prioritise authentic disability representation, it transforms both consumer experiences and brand perception. Creating inclusive content and products drives innovation, builds brand loyalty, and opens untapped market opportunities.
Our Valuable 500 partners and companies are taking Synchronised Collective Action by adopting our Authentic Representation Tool (ART). Developed collaboratively with disability experts and leading agencies, ART provides a comprehensive self-assessment across our three pillars, delivering tailored recommendations and practical resources to transform how disability is portrayed across all consumer touchpoints. ART helps all organsations build inclusive brands from the inside out—while our Nothing Without Us Awards celebrate those who get it right.
