By Amos Aar
A non-governmental organisation, Disabilities Rights Advocacy Centre (DRAC), on Thursday stressed the need for media practitioners to help change the attitude of people in the society towards people living with disabilities.
Speaking at a media engagement organised in Makurdi, the Benue State capital, DRAC Programme Officer, Michael Brian, asserted that positive portrayal of Persons living With Disabilities (PWDs) in the media results in favourable change towards them.
“The media plays vital role in advancing the integrity of PWDs, especially WWDs [Women With Disabilities]. Media reports and programmes should reflect good image of PWDs,” Brian urged.
He also advised institutions like churches, schools and hotels to make provisions for persons with disabilities while building their structures in order to make the places accessible to them.
Brian solicited the media to educate the society on the use of appropriate terminologies to refer to persons with disabilities.
“Thus, inappropriate terminologies like ‘crippled’, ‘retarded’, ‘physically challenged’, and ‘handicapped’ should be replaced with ‘person with disability’.
“A person who uses wheelchair or wheelchair user should be used instead of confined to a wheelchair or wheelchair bound. A person with learning disability should be used, not imbecile, mentally defective, slow or below average. A person with a psychosocial disability not mentally deranged, mad, insane, crazy and mental patient.”
He added that it’s a person who is deaf or hard of hearing not deaf and dumb or deaf-mute. It is also inappropriate to refer to a person by his impairment and so “person-first-language” should be used.
The DRAC Programme Officer, who noted that disability is an evolving terminology, said “it’s okay to make mistakes” but efforts should be made to always use appropriate terminologies in order not to make persons with disabilities feel helpless, useless and discriminated against.
