Disability has been receiving unprecedented attention in the Irish media. This is thanks in part to the success of the Irish Paralympic team, but also because of the controversy surrounding Mary Ellen Synon's recent comments on the Paralympics in the Sunday Independent. The reaction to Synon's article, as covered by the Irish media, appears to have raised a number of issues regarding the media portrayal of people with disabilities and, by extension, the status of people with disabilities who work in the media.
"In all the years I've worked as a journalist I never seen an issue grip the media in terms of disability as much as this one did," says Donal Toolin, co-ordinator of the Forum of People with Disabilities. "Disability is rarely looked at in the media outside of certain contexts." Stories about disability, he says, should be concerned with equality, justice and changing the structures within society.
Toolin is well qualified to speak on issues of disability and the media. A former presenter, for six years, of Not So Different on RTE Radio 1, he worked on young people's programmes and a series of TV programmes in the mid-1990s that won him the distinction of Broadcast Journalist of the Year. He is also a wheelchair user.
"What you saw being spilled out on to the papers was an awful lot of disinformation about disabilities and a huge degree of uncertainty about how people feel about disability, including journalists," he says. He argues that news stories about disability are often laced with a feel-good factor: "You've two syndromes here: you have the tragic cripple, or you have the superheroes, but you would rarely see ordinary disabled people doing ordinary things." He acknowledges, of course, that anyone doing ordinary things doesn't necessarily sell newspapers.
According to Toolin, many people don't regard disabled people's participation in sports on the same basis as other people's participation. "How Mary Ellen Synon got it wrong was to articulate that in such an offensive way."
But what about one of the apparent alternatives, the "bravehearts" label? "The implication from some of the commentary about Synon was that we ought not to feel admiration for the Paralympic athletes," says Brian Trench, a senior lecturer in journalism at DCU. "It does seem a normal human response to feel this way, so it raises some complex questions."
The question of finding the "right" way for journalists to deal with stories about disabled people is an extremely complex one - if indeed such a way exists. "The NUJ has supported development of awareness programmes about how things like the choice of language infers a level of discrimination on disabled people. However, when it is expressed as a set of rules, journalists tend to get very uncomfortable," Trench says.
Trench was one of the participants of a 1991 conference called "Challenging Images", which examined issues relating to disability and the media. The conference, organised by RTE and the National Rehabilitation Board (now the National Disability Authority), heard anger about the inaccurate and offensive portrayal of disabled people in the media - and about the ways charities tended to used negative images of disabled people in fundraising publicity (presumably to evoke pity)..
In 1996, there was the Report of the Commission on the Status of People with Disabilities, which included a section on the media. There 17 recommendations made in relation to the media, including more research into disability and the media, the establishment of a Disability Programmes Unit and more awareness training for journalists about disability. However, it seems few of the recommendations have been implemented.
For all the debate that has taken place about disability in the media, it is probably safe to say that to move the issue to the next phase requires more people with disabilities working in the media - as reporters, editors, sub-editors, presenters, producers, researchers and directors.
According to Mary Quirke, co-ordinator of Media Access, a media studies course designed specifically for people with disabilities, interest in media careers among disabled people is very high.
"Because of the flexible nature of the work, people can work part-time on a freelance basis and work for themselves," she says. "That is very attractive for people with disabilities."
The course, a partnership between the National Training and Development Institute and Ballyfermot College of Further Education, takes two years to complete. It has a number of innovative features, including a tutor-mentoring system, alternative forms of assessment and career guidance. Assistive technologies are provided to those students who need it. The tutors get disability-awareness training.
Jennifer Hollingsworth, a student on the course, has worked on various RTE radio programmes over the last few years. She says that there is a huge lack of information or programmes for people with disabilities, but she can see changes coming in the next couple of years. "Just because you have a disability doesn't mean you shouldn't get into areas where you can be seen or heard."
Toolin says having more people with disabilities in the media will help "mainstream" the coverage of people with disabilities. He cites the changes that occurred when women writers moved beyond the women's pages in newspapers to work in all the other areas of journalism.
"I think it concentrates the mind, big time, because if you are in the company of disabled people, you can have the debates, you can have the discussions. You can't have them if they're not there."
RTE Radio 1 broadcasts two evening programmes aimed at those with disabilities. Audioscope is aimed at blind and partially sighted people, while Not So Different features people with a wider range of disabilities. Both programmes are produced by Bill Meek; the seven people working on the two programmes all have disabilities of some kind.
Meek says that most of the programmes' contributors have qualifications in journalism, and don't all work-exclusively for the two programmes. "It is very hard for people with disabilities working in the media to get outside the disability scene. It is happening much more, but it is very hard to get into mainstream issues."
RTE television broadcasts Hands On (see left), which has two deaf associate producers. Their boss, series producer Bernadine Carraher, says she can see a time in the very near future when the programme will be headed by a producer who is deaf.
However, Carraher says, one of the biggest problems is getting a dedicated timeslot for Hands On. It usually goes out at 12.30 p.m. on Sunday on RTE 1, but this often changes, much to the frustration of the programme's core audience.
Programmes for and about disabled people do not negate the need to have disabled people involved in the production of mainstream media. Tyrone Production's Olan McGann, who works as publicity officer for the RTE midday show Open House, says there is incredibly little representation of people with disabilities. "I once presented an item for a Streetwise about wheelchair-accessible taxis, but I wasn't presenting the programme - period.
"I would prefer to see people with disabilities, for example, in front the camera, but not on programmes about disability. I'd like to see people with disabilities presenting mainstream programmes. It might be me, you never know."
The programmes on RTE Radio 1 are Not So Different (9.30 p.m. on Wednesdays) and Audioscope (7.35 p.m. on Thursdays).
