Media astray on disabled issue
Media astray on disabled issue
SURAKARTA, Central Java (JP): Experts and activists involved
in a campaign to empower disabled people have lamented the lack
of media exposure on the issue.
Dr. Handoyo Tjandrakusuma, the director of the Prof. Dr.
Soeharso Community-Based Rehabilitation Development and Training
Center, said that some of the efforts made by the media to run
stories on people with disabilities have ended in
misunderstanding.
He said that a journalist once wrote a story on the Center
which ended up as a sad story on how urban doctors go to rural
areas to help local disabled people.
He said that medical experts and activists have been
campaigning to revise people's views on the disabled from the
"handicapped" into "people needing empowerment".
He said on Wednesday that "good news is often not news" for
some journalists.
Another activist from the Center, Heny Soelistyowati, said
that there should be more news on disabled people. "The stories
would help the campaign to make the community accept people with
disabilities," she said during a break in the three-day meeting
of the Forum of Resource Group for the Asian and Pacific
Community-Based Rehabilitation and Human Resource Development.
Eighteen people representing 16 organizations from 14
countries in Asia and the Pacific attended the meeting.
Heny said that people tend to place those with disabilities in
difficult situations. "A person whose feet are crooked remains
handicapped in the eyes of the people around him, even if he
later has an operation to have his feet straightened," she said.
Dr. Handojo said that one of the most important things that
should be covered in media reports on disabilities is information
on preventive measures. "The real issue on disabilities is how to
prevent them from happening, for instance by immunization," he
said.
Heny regretted that the organizations involved in empowering
people with disabilities were yet to form a unified stance on
disseminating information on the issue. (30/swe)