Disability
Figure 1: Off-screen roles
Figure 2: On-screen roles
Figure 3: Genre off-screen roles
Figure 4: Genre on-screen
Figure 5: Senior and non-senior roles off-screen
Figure 6: Senior roles off-screen
Figure 7: Production roles off-screen
Figure 8: Off-screen roles by impairment type
Figure 9: Scripted and non-scripted roles on-screen
Figure 10: Scripted roles on-screen
Figure 11: Non-scripted roles on-screen
Figure 12: On-screen roles by impairment type
Figure 13: Broadcasters off-screen
Figure 14: Broadcasters on-screen
Headlines
Disabled people remain under-represented in the industry compared to their overall representation in the population (25%; Family Resource Survey 2023-24) and national workforce (16.9%; Labour Force Survey 2025). However, both on and off-screen, there has been steady progress in representation year-on-year. The gap between on and off-screen representation has also narrowed since 2022, and disabled people now make around 11% of all programme contributions.
Off-screen
Disabled people are slightly higher represented in non-senior than in senior roles (Figure 5). Across senior roles, disabled people are best represented as Head of Production (16%) but worst represented in Executive Producer (8%) and Commissioning Editor (9%) roles (Figure 6).
Disabled people are represented in line with national workforce estimates in Visual Effects roles (17%). Representation remains very low in many other production roles, especially Craft and Technical (5%) and Sound (6%) (Figure 7).
On-screen
Disabled representation is at the same level in scripted and non-scripted roles (11%) (Figure 9).
On scripted programmes, disabled people are better represented in Supporting Actor (11%) rather than Lead Actor (9%) roles (Figure 10). However, representation of disabled people in Lead Actor roles is now the highest it has ever been.
On non-scripted programmes, disabled people are currently better represented as Presenters (12%) than as Contributors (10%), but the proportion of contributions made by disabled Presenters has been declining (Figure 11).
Genres
In almost all genres, the proportion of off-screen contributions made by disabled people increased significantly between 2021 and 2025. Representation is highest on Children’s and Lifestyle programmes (both 12%) and Drama and Factual Entertainment programmes (both 11%).
However, in Current Affairs programmes, off-screen disabled representation has changed little over the past five years, with disabled people currently making the fewest contributions (8% in 2025) in this genre.
Across most genres, the proportion of on-screen contributions made by disabled people has also increased over the past five years. On Entertainment and Factual Entertainment programmes, contributions more than doubled between 2021 and 2025. Disabled representation is now highest in these two genres (both around 14% of contributions).
However, on Children’s programmes there has been little change, despite the proportion of on-screen contributions by disabled people previously being higher here than all other programme genres between 2021 and 2023.
When it comes to Drama programmes, on-screen representation fell to a low of just 4% in 2023 but has more than doubled in the past year to almost 10% of contributions in 2025.
Roles
Off-screen roles
Disabled people are represented at a slightly higher rate in non-senior roles (just over 11%) than in senior roles (10%).
Since 2019, the proportion of contributions made by disabled people has at least doubled across many senior roles monitored in Diamond, including Commissioning Editor, Executive Producer, Director, Writer, and Producer.
Series Producer is the only role that has seen little change, with contributions by disabled people increasing by just 0.7 percentage points in seven years.
Disabled representation continues to be highest in the senior roles of Head of Production (16%), followed by Director (13%), and Writer (12%). Representation is lowest in Executive Producer (8%) and Commissioning Editor (9%) roles.
In other production roles, contributions by disabled people are highest in Visual Effects (17%), followed by Set Design (13%) and Set Crafts (13%). Representation is lowest in Craft and Technical (5%) and Sound (6%) roles.
The increase in disabled representation off-screen is mainly driven by increases in the proportion of contributions now being made by people with learning and cognitive disabilities (5.2% of contributions in 2025), a long-term illness or condition (1.7%), a mental health condition (2.4%), or who indicated that they have an ‘other’ impairment/condition (2.3%).
Over the past five years, there has been no change in the proportion of off-screen contributions made by people who are deaf or hard of hearing (0.9%), or who have musculoskeletal conditions (0.9%). The proportion of contributions made by people who are blind or visually impaired remains the lowest (0.3%).
On-screen roles
In 2025 disabled people made around 11% of contributions on both scripted and non-scripted programmes, an increase since 2019 from 6% (scripted) and 8% (non-scripted).
In 2024 representation on scripted programmes had fallen to 7% from 9% in the previous year. However, the past year has seen a steep increase from 7% to a high of 11%.
Between 2021 and 2024, the proportion of contributions made by disabled people in Lead Actor roles declined from 8% to just 3%. But 2025 saw a jump in representation of disabled people in Lead Actor Roles to 9%.
Disabled people are more strongly represented in Supporting Actor roles. This has been a consistent trend since 2019. Disabled people made 11% of contributions in Supporting Actor roles in 2025.
Although disabled people have until now been more highly represented in Presenter roles than in Main Contributor or Contributor roles, the representation of disabled people in Presenter roles has been decreasing – from a high of 18% of contributions in 2020 to just under 12% in 2025.
Since 2021 the proportion of contributions made by disabled people in the roles of Main Contributor and Contributor have been gradually increasing.
Between 2021 and 2025 the proportion of on-screen contributions by disabled people increased for most recorded impairment types. The exceptions are musculoskeletal conditions (contributions remained the same at 2.6%) and those who identify as having an ‘other’ impairment or condition (contributions fell slightly from 2.6% to 2.3%).
Over one third of all on-screen contributions made by disabled people come from cast members with learning and cognitive disabilities. The proportion of contributions made by people with these impairments has almost doubled since 2021, from 2.1% to 3.9% of all programme contributions.
Broadcasters
There has been an upward trend in off-screen contributions by disabled people across all broadcasters. In 2025 representation was highest on BBC and UKTV programmes (both 12%) and lowest on Sky programmes (7%). There was a noticeable improvement on ITV programmes between 2024 and 2025 from 6% to 10%.
Since 2019, the proportion of on-screen contributions made by disabled people has increased across all broadcasters.
UKTV joined Diamond four years ago. In that time, disabled representation on UKTV programmes has increased considerably – from 5% to 20% – and is now around twice as strong as other broadcasters. UKTV is the only broadcaster whose output on-screen comes close to reflecting annual population estimates (25%).
Disabled representation on-screen is lowest on ITV (9%) and Sky programmes (9%). ITV programmes have also seen the greatest fluctuation year on year. Disabled representation on-screen has been lowest at this broadcaster for the past two years.