TO help give the right perspectives to reporting issues on people living with disabilities and consistently spotlight them within the society, a three-day workshop on disability reporting was organized by The Lagos Civil Society Disability Policy Partnership with support from the Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ), Lagos State Council.The workshop with the theme, influencing policy through effective disability reporting, was a mix of practical, interacting and lecture sessions.At the brief opening ceremony, Dr. Bukola Adebayo, said that the workshop was meant to further cement the relationship between the media and disability civil societies in order for media organizations to mainstream disability in there reporting.The Chairman of the Lagos Council, Mr. Deji Elumoye, observed that the timing of the workshop is right because so many reporters do not know much about disabilities let alone reporting them.Speaking on mainstreaming disability in news reportage, Mrs. Emmanuella Akinola, said that it is about highlighting the activities of the society and how it affects persons with disabilities. She further argued that it is about considering issues of disabilities among other societal issues. She suggested that reporters should do less stories of super heroes and victims of people with disabilities but rather look at issues around the events.In justifying why the society including the media should carry along people with disabilities, Dr. Bukola Adebayo, in his presentation, said that it will not pay any government to continue to abandon people with disabilities because fund that should be used to cater for people with disabilities socially would be higher.According to him, it is important for the society to pay attention to people living with disabilities and integrate them into the society because poverty and disabilities are close. To him, poverty causes disabilities while disabilities cause poverty.'It is the poor that does not understand the need to immunize or feed well. They are the people who pay less attention to their health.'Adebayo, who is a member of the disability society, pleaded with the media to stop reporting issues on people with disabilities from beggarly angle or as a problem but as a prospect.He further said that the support people with disabilities needs should not be narrowed to medical attentions because they need education, jobs among others.Adebayo urged the media to help re-orientate the populace as some of the terms being used in describing people with disabilities or issues that on them are products of cultural influences which negatively shapes people's actions and interaction with people living with disabilities. He said that while some were born with disabilities, others acquired theirs. He asked two participants to narrate whether they were born or acquired their disabilities.A woman who acquired the disability of deafness weeks after receiving injection for typhoid fever narrated how her journey into deafness started. According to her, she started experiencing partial deafness after receiving an injection at a clinic where the nurse did not ask her if she had eaten before administering the injection. She said it grew over time and weeks after she became completely deaf.Mr. Opeoluwa Akinola was born blind. He said that he never became conscious of the blindness until his twin sister started schooling and he could not. This, he said, made his twin sister to start making new friends that he did not see or know. He said that as a blind student, he started school late and was older than every member of his class in secondary while the curriculum was foreign.Adebayo enjoined media owners to create disability desk in order to help enlighten people about issues with disability thereby helping to integrate people with disability into the society.For Barrister Daniel Onwe, who spoke on Disability laws and other frameworks, for effective implementation of the disability laws and for the law to make the necessary impact, the Office of the Disability Affairs (ODA) created by the Lagos State Government must be very proactive.
Click here to read full news..
