ARC'S REVUE: ▶ Media Reporting on Accessibility News and Culture 1

▶ Media Reporting on Accessibility News and Culture - YouTube

Attention Media Reporting on Accessibility News and Culture -

     I am writing this open letter to encourage all media to consider devoting one or two pieces a month of coverage to stories relating to accessibility and the culture that surrounds it. For those of you who don't know what I mean by "accessible" I am talking about disability, but that is a term we as a community are trying to get away from. Right now, most of the news reported by the major news sources seem to want to make accessibility a health-related issue, which is not always the case. Sometimes that can actually take away from the message of the story. That's another trend I want to encourage everybody to get away from.

    I would also like to encourage the media to bring a wider lens to all aspects to disability. For example, we have roles in all sorts of genres of art and media. We can also bring a fresh perspective to a lot of issues. It would be very helpful for the programs that specialize in arts and entertainment stories to give some time to accessible art projects and accessible artists on a monthly basis.

   When the CBC cancelled their disability-issues program "Moving On" they promised to integrate accessible stories into their news, arts and current affairs programming on CBC Radio and television and since that time, the amount of coverage we have gotten has greatly diminished. So I encourage the CBC to put more of an effort into covering accessibility issues even if that means instituting a monthly quota on all their platforms (i.e. Two stories a month/per platform) to start.

     I also encourage all the major broadcasters to have at least one reporter who specializes in accessibility issues. I really believe that this will help everybody have a greater understanding of accessibility issues.

Thanks

Adam Cohoon

Twitter - @arc23

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