Thursday, January 8, 2009

An Initiative to Create a Database of Disabled Experts

It has already been mentioned several times that disabled people tend to be disgracefully underrepresented in the contemporary media. The Disability Now, an online magazine targeting people with disability, is calling for a change in the article “Breaking into News” (2009). A reader is questioned when s/he last saw a disabled person on a news bulletin, and also whether it is common to see a disabled person on the news talking about something apart her/his impairment.

Very rarely, if ever, people can see on TV an interview with a disabled professional giving his opinion on a current issue. However, there is an effort to bring some fresh changes into the stiff old-fashioned media environment. Clare Morrow, a network manager of the Broadcasting and Creative Industries Disability Network (BCIDN), which is a part of the Employer’s Forum on Disability, introduces an initiative which aims to introduce a change. “I thought we could assist journalists by pulling together details of people who happen to have a disability but are experts in something else,” explains Morrow (BiN, 2009). “One of the things I’ve been talking to BBC and Sky about is how they do newspaper reviews. Often they use journalist from other papers but it’s an area where you could see vocal disabled people who have a contribution to make,” concludes Morrow on how such database of disabled experts could work (BiN, 2009).


Breaking into News. (2009). Disability Now. 01.08.2009. From

http://www.disabilitynow.org.uk/latest-news2/media-watch-section-test/breaking-into-news/


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