NBCUniversal to audition actors with disabilities for new studio productions going forward

On Friday, January 29, 2021, officials from NBCUniversal announced that the entertainment group will also audition actors with disabilities for upcoming projects from now on. This is being done after a request was made by Ruderman Family Foundation to increase the disability representation and make it better on screen. Read along to know more about the agreement and its aims.

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NBCUniversal to audition actors with disabilities for new studio productions going forward

In 2019, Ruderman Family Foundation which is a disability advocacy organization made an agreement with CBS Entertainment wherein they made the commitment to audition actors with disabilities for any and all upcoming projects. Similarly, NBCUniversal has now signed an agreement with the disability organisation who had requested the same for a while. The agreement aims at giving better opportunities to disabled people and also improve disability representation on screen.

The studio’s pledge includes all the studio productions that will take place from now on. All projects of the Universal Filmed Entertainment Group, the Universal Studio Group, NBC, and Peacock will come under the agreement. Jay Ruderman, President of Ruderman, says that the foundation is overwhelmed to see NBCUniversal commit to the pledge and agree to the guidelines as well as dedicating themselves to cast people with disabilities in the group’s further projects.

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According to Entertainment, Jay Ruderman also mentions that after NBCUniversal which is such an influential entity in the entertainment business, the foundations hopes that they will be able to rope in others for the pledge and hence create greater opportunities for the disabled artists in the industry. Executive Vice President of inclusion for film, TV, and streaming at NBCUniversal says that the entertainment group has always been determined to create content that resembles the real world that we live in and that includes bettering opportunities for the disabled. Clark mentions that NBCUniversal is elated to join in on the pledge with Ruderman Family Foundation and initiatives like these are rather important for the entertainment industry.  

As per recent studies by Ruderman, only 22 per cent of the characters that have disabilities are portrayed by real-life disabled actors on screen. The remaining, that account for almost 80 per cent of TV characters are portrayed by non-disabled actors.

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