In its 8th edition, Keef Shifha bus: Towards an inclusive media

Towards an inclusive media is the slogan in which 40 young men and women who participated in Wasla program set off on Monday February 10 in a tour to a number of media agencies, in order to learn more about the role of the media in promoting the positive image of persons with disabilities and addressing their issues.

The tour included three listening sessions on three major stations, the beginning of which was the General Authority for Radio and Television (Palestine), during which young people became acquainted with the role of Palestine TV in disseminating and adopting issues of persons with disabilities in a holistic approach. As for the second station, it was Sawa News Agency, where the youth suggested the idea of ​​adapting the agency’s website so that people with disabilities can use it and the tour ended with a visit to representatives of Voice of the People Radio, through which they expressed the great role played by the radio in order to increase awareness of this issue through radio programs.

Aroob Al-Saqqa, a social network specialist at SDF said that this tour is a continuation of previous rounds implemented by the Forum to enhance the role of youth in social accountability, which would make a real change in raising awareness related to social issues; especially when talking about marginalized groups such as youth and persons with disabilities.

The youth touched on a group of topics during their visit to the Public Authority for Radio and Television, and they raised a set of questions represented in the coverage and generalization of disability in the media materials provided by the authority, the criterion for accepting persons with disabilities to work within the authority, the terms that television deals with persons with disabilities and Palestine TV’s role in reducing the negative perception towards persons with disabilities.

Adapting the location of the press house for persons with disabilities, implementing training courses and activities aimed at integrating persons with disabilities into the media, creating a common database that includes media outlets and institutions related to persons with disabilities, looking at joint cooperation ways to address disability issues from a holistic perspective and using appropriate terms that were the most prominent recommendations made by the participants in the second stop of the tour during their meeting with representatives of Sawa News Agency.

The last stop of the tour was the voice of People’s Radio, and it included topics that the youth highlighted, and among the most prominent was the need to raise awareness and eliminate stereotypes related to persons with disabilities, the importance of working to develop media content that promotes human rights discourse and the adapting of the radio station for people with disabilities.

Diya Abukhater, one of the participants in the tour, summed up his experience, saying: “My experience was enjoyable and useful. This experience helped develop my abilities, especially after I was the facilitator of the session at the last station and led the dialogue for an hour. In addition to that it helped me in the ability to express my point of view and increase my information. I learned about the role of the media in supporting disability issues.”