Sony Pictures Entertainment celebrates Global Accessibility Awareness Day, an initiative to get everyone talking, thinking, and learning about digital access (web, software, mobile, etc.) and inclusion, and the more than 1.3 billion people with disabilities/impairments.

Accessibility and disability inclusion is important to Sony Pictures Entertainment and the studio has been a key sponsor and host of the Easterseals Disability Film Challenge (EDFC) for the past six years. In February 2024, the EDFC announced it had created the first-ever disability loop group*1 which was launched with an EDFC workshop held on the Sony Pictures studio lot. The workshop included coaching, feedback, and advice from Sony Pictures Animation executives.

• *1A loop group is a group of voiceover actors who record audio - such as dialogue for extras and general background noise - in post-production to enrich the soundscape in films, television shows, video games and commercials. Loop groups bring video-based projects to life by creating an atmosphere and lending a sense of authenticity.

Loop group members participating in the EDFC workshop.

The initiative follows the casting of EDFC founder and director Nic Novicki as Lego Spider-Man and longtime Film Challenge participant Danielle Perez as Sun-Spider in Columbia Pictures/Sony Pictures Animation's Oscar®-nominated and critically acclaimed film, Spider-Man™: Across the Spider-Verse. Both Perez and Novicki are actors with disabilities who were recommended for their roles in the film by Academy Award®-winning writers/producers Phil Lord and Chris Miller, longtime supporters of the Film Challenge. Perez voices Charlotte Webber, also known as Sun-Spider, a member of Spider Society in Spider-Man™: Across the Spider-Verse. The character originated as a fan-created "Spidersona" by designer Dayn Broder before making her debut in the Marvel comics and ultimately, the film as the first wheelchair-using Spider-Person.

Sun-Spider in Columbia Pictures and Sony Pictures Animations' Spider-Man™: Across the Spider-Verse.

In addition to Novicki and Perez, the loop group consists of other talented actors who have a disability and are all experienced as voice over artists in addition to acting careers. Members to date include Domonique Brown, Sommer Carbuccia, Francine Daniels, Tobias Forrest, Eileen Grubba, Diana Elizabeth Jordan, Gwyn LaRee, Mark Povinelli, Natalie Trevonne and Kurt Yaeger.

To view a full recap video of the EDFC Loop Group workshop hosted by Sony Pictures, click here.