Tunde Adeleke, Osogbo
Media professionals in Osun State have been urged to adopt more inclusive reporting practices and use their platforms to create greater awareness about the rights of persons with disabilities under the state’s disability law.
The Executive Director of Community Advancement Initiative for Self-Reliance (CAI4SR), Mrs. Eni Ayeni, made the call during a training programme organised for journalists and media professionals in Osogbo.
She said the training was designed to equip journalists with the knowledge and appropriate terminology required to report disability issues in a manner that promotes inclusion rather than sympathy or stigma.
She added that the initiative was particularly important because Osun State enacted its disability law in 2024, adding that the media had a major role to play in ensuring that residents understood the provisions of the law.
She noted that the which training was held under the organisation’s flagship programme, Advancing Disability Inclusive Development was funded by Christoffel Blinden Mission (CBM).
Ayeni stressed that the organisation had been engaging the government as part of efforts to ensure that the provisions of the Osun disability law translated into practical benefits for persons with disabilities.
She said, “So today we did a training for media professionals and journalists on the disability law under our flagship program, Advancing Disability Inclusive Development, that is funded by the CBM International.
“We have engaged so many sectors and so today the training was basically for the journalists how they would take their reporting more inclusive to consider sending out messages that will educate the populace on disability issues, and specifically for Osun State, since the disability law was passed since 2024, so on this project, the main goal of the project is for us to create awareness about the law so that people will be aware that the era of stigmatization against persons with disability is over.
“So in that law there are sanctions that anybody that violate the rights and the privileges of persons with disability will be accountable. So but we don’t want people to say I didn’t know and that is why and where the media comes in to also help to promote and spread that message about inclusion. So that’s basically what we did here today.”
Earlier, the facilitator of the event, Alabi Olayemi, stressed on the need for Government at all level to ensure the effectiveness in the implementation of every policy of every right.
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