Richards hits TV6 interview with speech-impaired man

The need to change the law regarding persons with disabilities was graphically demonstrated when a prominent media house interviewed a person with a speech disorder without the aid of a translator.That’s the view of Independent Senator Paul Richards who, speaking at the launch of a book about Autism in TT by Dr Radhica Mahase at Naparima Girls High School, San Fernando yesterday, said the incident, which has since gone viral, had left him “saddened.”“One of the recent national events that really show how far we have to come as a society and how insensitive we can be is the issue of the recent helicopter crash.”He said a reporter, who he described as “inexperienced and ill-advised”, had tracked down an eyewitness to the helicopter crash.

“And TV6, I guess they thought they were doing a great thing, inexperienced, ill-advised reporter, taking a witness statement. And there is nothing wrong with the principle of it but from someone who has challenges, who is using an informal approach to sign language. And the kind of derision and insults, and insensitivity I saw online about that, it really saddened me.”

He said ridicule which was aimed at the eyewitness was due to the insensitive way the situation was handled by the media house.

“You expose the gentleman to public ridicule because of how poorly you handled it. Not that it was inappropriate to have him tell the story because he was an eyewitness and like any eyewitness, he could tell a story but in his way, so if you had somebody speaking Spanish, wouldn’t you have a translator, wouldn’t it make sense to have a translator. Or if the eyewitness spoke French as his native language, wouldn’t the media house have had a translator.

“But the person had an informal sign language mode and they just put the person on the screen, doing his hand with no translation. Who is at fault…is it the person or the media house? This is just an example of how insensitive we can be and we have to do better than that, we have to.”

TV6, for its part, did a followup to the story, which can be found on its Facebook page, titled Voice for the Voiceless in which it stated that the eyewitness had found an innovative way to communicate despite not knowing traditional sign language. Richards also spoke about how parents of children with special needs have to visit the Ministry of Education on a yearly basis to prove that their children had special needs.“It is only until the laws are changed in TT that children with special needs and their families would have the equal protection of the law for the facilities and the interventions that they need.”

Meanwhile, Mahase said the book is a collection of articles which were based on real situations involving real families.