Everyone loves a good story, and the story starts with you.

You can change the way the world defines and views disability just by including more people with disability on screen.  A recent USC study noted that of the top 900 films between 2007 and 2016, just 2.7% of characters were portrayed as having a disability. And yet, 20% of Americans have a disability, representing a market potential of more than $200 billion annually.

Easterseals and Variety encourage all writers to:

  1. Include at least one writer with a disability in your writers’ room. If you are having trouble finding qualified writers, we can help.
  1. Make it commonplace to have people with disabilities as characters in your scripts. Write in at least one character with a disability and tell us about it. Disability is simply a characteristic, no different than the color of their hair, or gender, or any other aspect of being human.

And showrunners – instruct your casting directors to include people with disabilities in crowd scenes!

Thank you for helping us to #InspireChange. Learn more at WritersChallenge.orgFilm challenge founder Nic Novicki speaking at Variety Writers' Room event about the Easterseals/Variety Writers Challenge