  About 3-10\% of Type I active galactic nuclei (AGN) have double-peaked broad
Balmer lines in their optical spectra originating from the motion of gas in
their accretion disk. Double-peaked profiles arise not only in AGN, but
occasionally appear during optical flares from tidal disruption events and
changing-state AGN. In this paper we identify 250 double-peaked emitters (DPEs)
amongst a parent sample of optically variable broad-line AGN in the Zwicky
Transient Facility (ZTF) survey, corresponding to a DPE fraction of 19\%. We
model spectra of the broad H$\alpha$ emission line regions and provide a
catalog of the fitted accretion disk properties for the 250 DPEs. Analysis of
power spectra derived from the 5 year ZTF light curves finds that DPE light
curves have similar amplitudes and power law indices to other broad-line AGN.
Follow-up spectroscopy of 12 DPEs reveals that $\sim$50\% display significant
changes in the relative strengths of their red and blue peaks over long $10-20$
year timescales, indicating that broad-line profile changes arising from spiral
arm or hotspot rotation are common amongst optically variable DPEs. Analysis of
the accretion disk parameters derived from spectroscopic modeling provides
evidence that DPEs are not in a special accretion state, but are simply normal
broad-line AGN viewed under the right conditions for the accretion disk to be
easily visible. We include inspiraling SMBH binary candidate SDSSJ1430+2303 in
our analysis, and discuss how its photometric and spectroscopic variability is
consistent with the disk-emitting AGN population in ZTF.
