TV Access Project - overview
ITV is a member of the TV Access Project (TAP) which is made up of ten of the UK’s main broadcasters and streamers working towards full inclusion for Disabled people by 2030.
TAP has been formed in response to the campaign by Underlying Health Condition (UHC), which was set up by disabled creatives Genevieve Barr, Katie Player and Holly Lubran along with screenwriter Jack Thorne, following his impassioned MacTaggart Lecture at Edinburgh TV Festival in 2021.
TAP is working with support from industry body CDN (the Creative Diversity Network), PACT and ScreenSkills, and is supported by Disabled-led organisations TripleC DANC (Disabled Artists Networking Community), DDPTV (Deaf & Disabled People in TV), Access All Areas and Neurodiverse Media Community. Together all these organisations want to ensure an inclusive television production sector for disabled talent and to create full inclusion by 2030.
TAP aims to improve access provision substantively and permanently across the UK TV industry, looking at solutions that are pan-genre, considering both scripted and unscripted.
The project started in April 2022, when Charlotte Moore, Chief Content Officer at the BBC, convened a pan-industry roundtable between disabled creatives and content creators.
Since then the broadcasters, streamers, industry bodies and disabled creatives have met regularly, focusing on two main areas: access on productions and access in studios and facilities.
Six workstreams have been created and those involved have been developing guidelines and pilot programmes working towards TAP's goal of achieving full inclusion by 2030. These workstreams include:
Producer's Guidelines - The 5A's Guidelines for Productions and PACT's Producer's Toolkit
Access to Work pilot for Freelancers
Funding Access for Productions - see ITV's guidelines on this
Development of the Access Coordinator role
Disabled Talent Career Progression and Retention
Contact ITV's Creative Diversity Partners Sam Tatlow sam.tatlow@itv.com and Nahrein Kemp nahrein.kemp@itv.com for more information on what ITV expects from their Producers and how to get involved.