Creatives called to shift the dial on attitudes towards disabled people

New research for the charity Scope, conducted by the Behavioural Insights Team (BIT) explains what types of messaging and positioning work to shift the dial on attitudes towards disabled people.

Hosted by Scope, the launch event brings together a hundred industry giants like ParalympicsGB, British Film Institute (BFI) and Ofcom along with disability campaigners to call on the creative industry to take messaging and representation seriously, with five top tips on best practice.

Meticulously tested with over 5000 members of the public, BIT and Scope lift the lid on what messages and approaches work best to improve our attitudes and perceptions of disability and disabled people.

This is important because 3 in 4 disabled people have experienced negative attitudes and behaviour from others in the last five years.

At the launch (5 July) Scope will call on the creative industry to produce campaigns that reflect the findings of the research.

Event host, disability campaigner and disability equality charity Scope Ambassador Shani Dhanda, said: “We live in a society where people don’t know how to talk about disability, and that often leads to disabled people facing negative attitudes from those around them. 

“There is so much stigma against disabled people, in everything from education to employment, and fashion to leisure. When I was 16 I applied for hundreds of jobs, and only got a response when I removed my disability from my resume.

“Having better representation in the media means that disabled people can see themselves reflected in everyday stories, and it also shows non-disabled people that we deserve to be treated equally.”

Leonie Nicks, Senior Advisor at the Behavioural Insights Team added: “It is so exciting to create some of the first evidence for what works to change attitudes towards disabled people. Research understanding how to improve outcomes for disabled people is far too rare. Applying insights from this work in future campaigns could have a really positive impact.”

What Works: 

The world-leading Behavioural Insights Team stress-tested seven different approaches for campaign messaging to change attitudes towards disability and disabled people to see what works with the public.

The insight from testing approaches with over 5,000 nationally representative people found we should: 

 

• Affirm the status of disabled people. This approach challenges the negative stereotype of perceived incompetence. The focus is not about inspirational ‘overcoming’ of disability.  It’s about fostering respect and preserving the dignity of disabled people. 
• Share stories and personal experiences. Stories are persuasive and create an emotional connection. They can challenge people’s preconceptions and defy stereotypes. 
• Encourage people to think about how they would feel if they faced inequality. This isn’t asking people to imagine being disabled, but to imagine how they would feel if placed in an unfair situation. 
   
• Be careful with how facts and figures are used to highlight injustice. Using statistics alone may make it difficult for the audience to relate to the experiences of disabled people. This can have unintended consequences for attitudes

Shani will be interviewing high-profile creator, comedian and educator Fats Timbo,  with over 2.9m followers on her social channels, who recently appeared in the May issue of British Vogue, entitled Reframing Fashion: Dynamic, Daring & Disabled.

Also featured is Ekow Otoo – who has Multiple Sclerosis – an actor and model who featured in the recent National Lottery advert. 

Following the research, Scope are suggesting five actions creative organisations can take to challenge negative attitudes: 

Well-rounded representation of disabled people

Disabled people are often subjected to harmful stereotypes and assumptions. Good representation can challenge these assumptions by presenting disabled people as fully realised individuals with complex lives, dreams, and accomplishments. By defying stereotypes, good representation can help promote a more inclusive society.

Co-produce campaigns with disabled people

You might know the term “Nothing about us, without us”, and this is where it comes into play. By bringing in disabled people to discuss a campaign, you can hear first     hand how your audiences want to be represented. This is key if you want your content to be accurately representative. 

Involve disabled talent on and off-screen or behind the scenes. 

There is a wealth of disabled talent in the creative and media industries. Representation opens the door for more voices, stories, and insights into your storytelling. Just like co-production, having representative talent involved in the process will allow you to have a range of input and feedback on your campaign, which is especially important if you’re portraying disability as part of it. 

Create accessible content

If you want to reach a wider audience with your content, you need to make sure it’s accessible. This might include adding captions to videos, alt text to images or considering colour contrast. Knowing where to start can be difficult, but Scope for business runs bespoke training on content accessibility, with a free beginners guide here: https://business.scope.org.uk/article/a-beginners-guide-to-digital-accessibility

Create an accessible environment 

It’s important that whatever actions you take to make your content accessible, also need to apply to your everyday business. Back up your representative content by making sure your organisation trained in disability awareness and accessibility. This might start with something as small as adding a line on meeting invitations to ask if you can make any adjustments to make this meeting more accessible, such as live captioning, transcription, or even as simple as allowing people to have cameras off.