As I turned on the television after the long waiting, I remembered I haven’t watched the News in a long time. My best time to watch the news 2000hrs had arrived hence on turning on the television, I saw a short, smartly dressed broadcaster whose name was Joyce Mabika first cough was ” Good evening, Zimbabwe, it’s time for the news. The country has been on red alert as the cases of Covid 19 keep surging towards the milky-way….” On the bottom right of the screen was a man in suit moving his hands with a flawless choreography that was only understood by those familiar to sign language named Nobel Maungwa. He kept choreographically making signs that I could not comprehend and I desired to understand the meaning of such. As young we people grew up to understand that disability is not a want as our mothers kept inculcating the Hunhuism ideology in us whose thrust pivoted around our ‘Tsumo.’
One of the Shona proverbs which sought to reprimand characters from cruelty against disability and promote understanding among peers was ‘seka urema wafa,’. The proverb kept and enshrined our crust of Africanism and Ubuntuism that the heart must bear love and compassion towards others. Now close your eyes, cover your ears and imagine a quiet room. Ask yourself this, “how would anyone be able to convey the news to you. How would the famous KVG play your favourite track on radio when we can only accommodate the ones who can tell the difference between silence and music.
The primary term in the notion,” people with disabilities” is a word that equates every human being under the people umbrella, were every form of privilege has to be compulsory. And as matters stand, the scale is tipped and those with disabilities are slowly sliding into an abyss of more difficulty. Who is presenting news to people the deaf and dump? Is it a solution you want? I will go first then; I will share my idea and you bring yours to the table and we make a change.
Change is individual and here’s my idea of change for people with disabilities in radio and television, __ came up with the braille language, why don’t we print news manuscripts in that form?Sanchez (2010) puts it rightly that the media – television, radio, newspapers, magazines, the Internet, social media and other forms – play an important role in influencing public opinion and attitudes. Just like how politicians overly exaggerate and fabricate their campaign promises using radio and television. In that same way let’s create a more audible and result oriented campaign on all media platforms for people with disabilities so that their message, like every other message in the nation is heard with the same decibels of sound. Let’s authentic our approach on humanity through the most used means of communication, social media.
Source: Isheunesu Madembo
