Media yet to adhere to guidelines for disabled

While most nations follow the guidelines issued by the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (UNCRPD), which emphasize on facilitating entertainment to all sections of society, India largely fails to adhere to them. The country is a signatory to UNCRPD-2008, which specifies that access to information be mandatory provided to the disabled.

Speaking on a condition of anonymity, an official handling the media literacy campaign said, "We can notice some traces of improvement in the Indian media that signals it is trying to be friendly for the disabled.

While TV soap opera like Shaktimaan and Bollwood films like 'Veer' and 'My Name is Khan' tried to connect with the disabled by displaying subtitles along with the visual, it was not the case with the country's highest budget Bollywood movie Robot, which was broadcast at the World television premiere on April 3." Stating that it is not as if only a section of society was disabled as the list may include a wider section, he added, " If we go by the actual meaning of the word 'disabled' as being " not able to perform a specific task", even the Indian media is disabled. For, it cannot reach each and every section of our society." " In fact, the media is largely losing out on the viewership of the entire population of the " disabled"," the official said. There are many courses in India, which can help the media to connect with the disabled, but it needs to have a desire to reach out to these people.

Stating that a word- to- word translation into sign language did not make the disabled understand, the official said, “ The person who translates should be a master in Indian Sign Language (ISL), because it's not only the words but also expressions which are needed to be translated.”