Media professionals and others who interact with persons with disabilities (PWDs) are being called upon to ensure what they report or communicate about this group remains appropriate.

The appeal came yesterday, as Minister of People Empowerment and Elder Affairs, Kirk Humphrey, addressed the opening of a one-day Disability Sensitisation Workshop, at Radisson Aquatica Resort, Aquatic Gap, St. Michael. It targeted a wide cross section of stakeholders including media representatives.

Minister Humphrey explained the importance of the workshop against the backdrop on the policy of Improving The Lives of Persons With Disabilities, debated recently in Parliament. He stated: “I think that for the work that is occurring now for people with disabilities, we have some good things to report. And, I think what we are trying to achieve is that when we report on those good things, that inadvertently or unintentionally, we do not spoil it by the way we convey our understanding of what it is that we would have done or what would have been achieved during the course of the day.”

Stressing that the narrative and the way in which information is conveyed on PWDs was becoming challenging, he said the sensitisation workshop was designed to help everyone “to achieve the kind of communication that is respectable”.

Mr. Humphrey added: “And, I do not think it is a case where the persons with disabilities are trying to command respect, but I do think we are trying to temper the unintentional disrespect that has been conveyed from time to time in the way these issues are reported. And because this is such good work and because these are such dangerous times, I think no one wants to ruin what I think is intentionally set out to be a good thing…

“We are asking the media…we need you to be the benevolent kind and to be able to interpret and to project and to report on these things in a way that allows persons with disabilities to be respected in the way that they ought to be respected.”

The Elder Affairs Minister reminded those gathered that the policy had been debated recently in Parliament and he expressed the hope that the Bill would also be laid in Parliament and debated either later this year or early next year. 

Describing the Bill as an “omnibus piece of legislation”, he noted it would look at a variety of areas including transportation, housing and health, and all ministries of Government were being tasked within it to undertake “very specific things” related to their work.

Mr. Humphrey noted that he had emphasised in Parliament that the major challenge those with disabilities faced related to the fact “that the society has not prepared itself”. 

Elaborating on this, he stressed: “It has nothing to do with the disability; it’s that the streets are inaccessible, the schools are in some ways inaccessible or unnecessarily difficult. Those are the things that I think we are called upon to address. So, this is the continuation of that conversation.”                                   

As he thanked all entities for their work with the disabled community, he said: “During the course of the month we will be meeting with the private sector association, because we have laid out in the legislation what we think is fair in relation to quotas that we think are necessary to ensure that persons with disabilities can work. 

“The truth is that in Barbados, as is the case across the world, the average unemployment percentage is about 90 per cent, and that is just ridiculous. Therefore, we have to be able to correct that…if it does not happen voluntarily, then the legislation would allow us to do so through other means.” (PR/GIS)