People with disabilities are news-worthy

THE EDITOR: Recently, I was a panellist in a symposium on the National Disability Policy held by the UWI Network and Outreach for Disability Education and Sensitization (UWI-NODES). I was fortunate to be on the same platform with my colleagues, Independent Senator Paul Richards, Ria Mohammed-Davidson,lawyer and former UWI lecturer, and Glen Niles, founder of the Down Syndrome Family Network (DSFN). I worked with my colleagues tirelessly to comment on and shape the National Disability Policy.

And, yet when I opened the newspaper to check on the news coverage, my name was not even mentioned. The only difference between my colleagues and myself was that I was the only disabled person on the panel.

The irony of me being erased in the news coverage is not lost on me because my presentation was about the ways in which policy and legislation marginalises disabled people, using myself as a person living with mental illness as the example. What makes it even worse is that the same newspaper had an article about me at a mental health event where I was the keynote speaker during Mental Health Week in October.

This is not the first time I have seen disabled people being omitted or not being given equal billing as their non-disabled peers in media coverage. In recent times, I saw a news clip of another disability conference where the keynote speaker was a person with a disability. The clip had extended soundbites of the relevant ministers and dignitaries. However, there was only a one-second shot of the disabled keynote speaker of a conference to highlight that persons with disabilities have the ability.

In another case, a person with a mental illness wrote a serious commentary on how the Catholic Church treats with mental health issues. Despite the fact that the person is a writer, I saw that article did not even give the person a proper byline. The lead to the article failed to mention that the person is a writer that writes about mental health issues. Ironically, the said person wrote for the said newspaper in the past on an ongoing basis for a number of years.

Marginalisation against disabled people is not only about active prejudice and discrimination. It is also about failing to place disabled people on an equal footing with their non-disabled peers.

To all media personnel, persons with disabilities are not only your human interest story or your inspirational piece. Persons with disabilities can also be the people who you go to for commentary when there is a disability issue in the news. We can be your editorial columnists and we are worthy of hard news coverage. If your angle is that the person is not known and therefore, no one will read it – give them a platform and make them known as thought leaders.

Persons with disabilities have things of substance to say. Let us have our say too.

NICOLE COWIE

Mental health/disability activist

Morvant

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"People with disabilities are news-worthy"

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