How might it feel to rarely see yourself represented in the images you see in the media, marketing and advertising? Would you want to work for an organisation, buy products or access services from a business where you feel invisible, overlooked or misunderstood?
1 in 4 people in the UK have a disability, but in research we conducted with Ipsos as part of our ‘Changing the image of disability’ campaign (launched 5 March) a third of UK adults surveyed said they had not seen any disability represented in content they had seen in the last 6 months and less than a quarter of those with a disability, agreed that images of disabled people used in content reflected their own experience of disability.
Among some good practice, access to diverse, authentic images in photo libraries can be patchy, for example, overrepresentation of wheelchair users, despite less than 1 in 10 of disabled people in the UK using a wheelchair in real life. Less-visible disabilities, which account for around 80 per cent of all disabilities and long term conditions tend to be hugely underrepresented. They can be a challenge to portray, but by including barriers and aids, for example sound cancelling headphones for someone with sound sensitivity, a magnifier for visual impairment or a heat pack for arthritis more authentic imagery can be achieved.
Disabled people are as diverse as anyone else in the population so it’s important to make sure both diversity of disability and diversity of people are part of the mix when choosing or commissioning images. And of course, images featuring disabled people don’t only belong with content or stories that mention disability.
In our research, only 11 per cent of disabled people said they thought representation of disabled people in imagery was getting better; that’s far too low. Though slow, things are improving in some areas. In the media, Channel 4’s Disability Code of Portrayal aims to strengthen the portrayal of disability in its programming. It was fantastic to see Vogue’s Reframing fashion edition last year which celebrated disability and diversity and featured a range of models with disabilities, but we also want to see ‘disability is normal’ incorporated within images.
As part of the campaign, which is supported by some high profile celebrities with lived experience of disability, we’ve created a brand new Disability Smart Image Bank with 480 images featuring over 40 disabled models in everyday situations including at work, shopping, socialising and in education. We’re offering a selection of these free to the media to use. Alongside the image bank we’ve also launched new free guidance on how to select, commission and use images in a disability-smart way and 10 principles of disability-smart imagery for anyone to use.
Our view of the world is heavily influenced by the images we see. Disabled people are often underrepresented or misrepresented in many areas of day to day and public life. Business, the media and anyone using images in any context have a role to play in changing that.
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