ORF’s “Accessibility and Inclusion” department starts inclusive casting for more inclusion and visibility of people with disabilities in society and advertising
Vienna (OTS) – The ORF’s “Accessibility and Inclusion” department is launching the “Make yourself visible” initiative, a groundbreaking project to promote the public presence of people with disabilities in advertising and subsequently also on television. With this campaign, ORF is providing an important social impetus for active inclusion and would like to highlight the skills and talents of people with disabilities. The ORF is promoting the casting initiative with spots on all of its channels. The initiative will be presented as part of “Guten Morgen Österreich” on ORF 2.
The casting takes place in November at the ORF media campus in Vienna-Hietzing. The application period for this runs from July 9th to September 8th, 2024. Submissions are possible from July 9th via the website visible.ORF.at.
Mag. Roland Weißmann, ORF General Director: “As an audiovisual media company in Austria, the ORF has played a pioneering role in expanding accessibility in its broadcasts and online channels for decades. However, the ORF lives up to this role not only through a wide range of barrier-free offerings in all of its media, but also through its numerous initiatives in the area of inclusion. The ORF casting project ‘Make yourself visible’ is a further step towards making the ORF and the media landscape even more barrier-free and inclusive.”
Oliver Böhm, Managing Director of ORF Enterprise: “Inclusion is an important contribution to successful advertising for everyone. The ORF Enterprise is proud to support this socially significant initiative in the wide-reaching ORF media and to participate in a lighthouse project that gives people with disabilities more visibility and raises awareness among advertisers of barrier-free campaigns. ‘Make yourself visible’ promotes societal and social sustainability across the entire communications landscape and is a public service showcase project that inspires the industry.”
Prof. Pius Strobl, ORF Head of Corporate Social Responsibility: “With this inclusive casting, we look forward to taking a significant step together towards the inclusion and visibility of people with disabilities. The aim of this initiative is to show the skills and talents of people with disabilities and not to emphasize the disability itself as an argument. This project from the ‘Accessibility and Inclusion’ department is another initiative to support equal social participation for people with disabilities.”
Robert Ziegler, Head of Accessibility and Inclusion: “The ORF is concerned with making its program offerings as barrier-free as possible – from subtitling to sign language and audio description. We are constantly expanding all of these offerings. This also applies in particular to the new streaming platform ORF ON. But it’s also about making people with disabilities visible. The ‘Make yourself visible’ campaign is intended to make an important contribution to this.”
Dr. Franz-Joseph Huainigg, Accessibility Officer at ORF:
“People with disabilities are still invisible citizens in society and in the media. Make your talents visible – including advertising and films. Apply!”
Process of the ORF casting campaign “Make yourself visible”:
1. Call and registration: Three people with disabilities can be seen in ORF TV spots / heard in ORF radio spots from July 9th: the musicians Dominic Rapcic and Johann Lechner and the dancer Antonia Bögner. These spots call for registration and participation in the casting. The casting will also be advertised on the ORF social media channels. Registration takes place via the website visible.ORF.at, the registration deadline is September 8, 2024. 2. Jury and selection: In autumn 2024, a jury (consisting of representatives of the ORF, the advertising industry and inclusion experts) will Select participants for the casting. The casting itself takes place in November at the ORF media campus in Vienna-Hietzing. 3. Offers and appearances: The selected participants will be made a concrete offer for an appearance in a spot in 2025 in collaboration with the advertising industry. Depending on their suitability and casting results, participants may also be considered for a role in an ORF production.
About accessibility and inclusion on ORF
The ORF is committed to contributing to greater understanding of inclusion in society with its program offerings. The ORF’s “Accessibility and Inclusion” department is committed to the barrier-free participation of around two million people in Austria who live with disabilities or restrictions. As part of the core public service mission – but above all as a social obligation – the team works to break down hurdles in the areas of hearing, seeing and understanding. More than 70 hours of subtitles are offered every day and programs with audio descriptions, in Austrian sign language and news in simple language are made available for people with learning disabilities. ORF’s goal is a program without barriers that is accessible to everyone in Austria. In addition, the ORF strives for equal social participation of people with disabilities by strengthening and promoting their voice in the ORF and its programs.