The Executive Director of the Community Advancement Initiative for Self-Reliance, Mrs Eni Ayeni, has urged journalists to intensify public awareness of the rights of persons with disabilities and the provisions of the Osun State disability law.
Ayeni made the call during a training organised for media professionals on disability-inclusive reporting in Osogbo, Osun State.
The training was held under the organisation’s flagship programme, Advancing Disability Inclusive Development, with support from CBM International.
She said the training was aimed at equipping journalists with the knowledge and skills to report disability issues more inclusively and educate the public on the rights of persons with disabilities.
Ayeni noted that the training was particularly important in Osun State, where the disability law was passed in 2024.
She said, “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 stigmatisation against persons with disability is over.”
According to her, the law provides sanctions for violations of the rights and privileges of persons with disabilities, making public awareness of its provisions important.
She said journalists had a major role to play in ensuring that members of the public understood the law and the rights it guaranteed.
“We don’t want people to say, ‘Ah, 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,” she said.
She said previous engagements with journalists had resulted in changes in the way disability issues were reported, with more journalists moving away from sympathetic reporting to context-specific and inclusive coverage.
She added that the engagements had also helped journalists become more familiar with appropriate terminologies for reporting disability issues.
On the implementation of the law, Ayeni urged the government to go beyond domesticating laws and ensure that the provisions were effectively implemented.
She said, “We are very good at domesticating laws, signing to treaties, and all that. So on this project we are interfacing too with the government, and for them not just to do the domestication, but to take it a step further, to make sure that what has been domesticated is implemented.”
Ayeni disclosed that the organisation had also engaged government officials on the need to designate disability desk officers across Ministries, Departments and Agencies to make it easier for persons with disabilities to access government services.
She said the three-year project was currently in its second year, expressing optimism that more changes would be recorded before the end of the project cycle.
Ayeni added that awareness of the disability law had continued to grow through the efforts of different organisations working to promote disability inclusion.
Also speaking, a communication strategist and founder of Story Teller Africa, Alabi Olayemi, said the media had a significant role to play in promoting and protecting the rights of persons with disabilities.
Olayemi said there was no better time to discuss disability rights than now, stressing that every person with a disability had rights that must be preserved and protected.
He described the media as a watchdog between the government and the general public, urging journalists to use their platforms to promote disability inclusion and demand accountability on the implementation of relevant policies and laws.
“Every person with disability has a right, and that right must be preserved and protected no matter what,” he said.
Olayemi acknowledged government efforts towards incorporating persons with disabilities into the system but said more needed to be done, particularly in implementing policies and laws designed to protect their rights.
He said, “Government must ensure effectiveness in the implementation of every policy, of every right, and they must collaborate with the right partners, such as the media.”