BFI appoints disability champion

The BFI has appointed its first disability equality lead, whose remit will include introducing measures to tackle ableism in film and TV.

Clare Baines joins the BFI’s inclusion team from US tech firm Zebra Technologies, where she was an inclusion leader.

She will be tasked with delivering the BFI’s strategic aims and objectives for people who identify as deaf, disabled and/or neurodiverse, including sustainable interventions to prevent ableism.

She will also help to identify and champion authentic, diverse representation of disability on BFI-associated projects and through the funds it distributes.

Baines has been blind since she was 15.

“Rather ironically, that is where my passion for film started,” she said.

“I quickly began to realise the importance of storytelling and how vital representation is to belonging when I couldn’t find myself represented in UK film.”