Media and disabiltiy in India

The disability issues concerning more than 50 million people in our country are at least as ‘newsworthy’ as the pregnancy of Mrs Aishwarya Rai Bachchan and now her post delivery obesity.

But to our utter dismay we find the disability issues completely missing from the media in our country. 3rd December is the only day when all the newspapers and T.V channels gear up to show how disabled friendly our country is and how so many policies are being framed by our experts to provide relief. But exactly after two days all the issues, news recordings, newspaper cuttings get dumped up in the storerooms which again open up exactly after year. Sporadic instances are seen when people with disabilities are shown on television or interviewed on radio only if there are some award functions of some big NGOs or TV channels. And that too the programme keeps on revolving around a single individual portraying him to be a hero. The cause again gets completely neglected.

There are no talk shows, no debates, nothing. Probably such programmes do not have profit earning capacity. They don't gather much advertisements. But what about those channels in west which relay such programmes regularly. Are they not worrried about their TRP or profit margins? Let us see few examples here.

Disability Matters with Joyce Bender, on Voice of America, focuses on the employment and empowerment of people with disabilities. It is one of the first international talk radio shows with real-time captioning. One can hear prominent disability leaders such as Congressman Tony Coelho, Governor Dick Thornburgh, Andy Imparato and senior executives from the private sector.

Then there is “With TV” (People with Disabilities Broadcasting Corporation) which is a cable channel established in 2006 in an effort to improve the representation of people with disabilities in the media through “an inclusive media outlet that defines all people by their talents and the quality of their stories, rather than by disability. Their mission is to run a channel which is “of, by and for persons with disabilities….and everyone else.”

There is a show by BBC by the name of Ouch Disability which showcases people with disabilities and their issues.

CNN has been running a series of stories about parenting with disabilities.

Some more examples

Disability and T.V

• All About Me – BBC
• America’s Medicated Kids- BBC
• Are You Having A Laugh? TV and Disability- BBC
• Autism, Disco & Me- BBC Three
• Autistic Driving School- BBC Three
• Autistic Superstars- BBC Three
• Beyond Boundaries- BBC
• Beyond Boundaries: Where Are They Now?- BBC
• Born To Be Different- C4
• Britain’s Missing Top Model – BBC
• Cast Offs- C4
• Creature Discomforts TV Ads
• Dancing on Wheels- BBC Three
• Deaf Teens: Hearing World- BBC Three
• Hayley: The 96 Year Old Schoolgirl- Five
• Hayley- The World’s Oldest Teenager- Five
• How To Look Good Naked With A Difference- C4
• Inside Incredible Athletes- C4
• Jeff Brazier: My Brother And Me- BBC Three
• Letting Go- BBC
• Louis Theroux-Extreme Love: Autism- BBC Two
• Louis Theroux- Extreme Love: Dementia- BBC Two
• Love Me, Love My Face- BBC
• Life’s Too Short- BBC
• My Autism and Me – a Newsround Special -CBBC
• Nicole’s Legacy- BBC News
• Racing with the Hamiltons: Nic in the Driving Seat- BBC 1
• Rita Simons: My Daughter, Deafness And Me- BBC1
• Small Teen Big World- BBC Three
• Small Teen Bigger World- BBC Three
• So What If My Baby Is Born Like Me? BBC
• Something Special- CBeebies
• That Paralympics Show- C4
• The Autistic Me- BBC Three
• The Autistic Me: One Year On- BBC Three
• The Blind Me- BBC Three
• The Silence- BBC
• The Growing Pains Of A Teenage Genius- BBC Three
• The Undateables- C4
• Tormented Lives- BBC
• Tourettes: I Swear I Can Sing- BBC Three
• We Won’t Drop The Baby- BBC 1
• When A Mother’s Love Is Not Enough- BBC
• Why Do You Hate Me?- BBC Wales
• Young, Autistic And Stagestruck- C4
• Zig Zag Love- BBC Scotland

Disability on AIR

• Able Radio- A voice for all. Listen Live
• AbleWeb Radio
• Autism Radio UK.
• Insight Radio- The radio station of the RNIB.
• Radio Lewes