A Civil Society Organisation, CSO, Deaf Women Aloud Initiative, DWAI, called on the Federal Government, FG, to introduce policies that is geared towards protecting People With Disabilities, PWDs, against the increasing rate of Sexual and Gender-Based Violence against Persons with Disabilities.
The Executive Director of DWAI, Mrs. Helen Beyioku-Alase, made this known on Tuesday in Abuja, at the opening of a two-day media training, in collaboration with, Urgent Action Fund, UAF.
Beyioku-Alase lamented that deaf women and girls live a life of deprivation and misery in silence, adding that their hearing disability prevents them from accessing justice and are most times victimised.
She revealed that in Nigeria, most deaf-related researches are outdated, with little data to demonstrate the needs of PWDs.
She said: “Yet they are a huge group of people in the society. Without research and evidence, they will remain a forgotten and marginalised group. This is one objective this training for journalists is trying to address; to change the narrative.
“The media being the voice of the voiceless and critical stakeholders as regards the issues of the community, cannot be absent in winning this fight and the need for collaboration cannot be overemphasised.
“No woman should have to experience violence, including SGBV. And if a woman is targeted for abuse, she should be able to get help.
“Unfortunately for deaf women, service agencies are not accessible. They don’t know where to hire a sign language interpreter,” she said.
Beyioku-Alase noted that women with disabilities are highly vulnerable and susceptible to abuse, and that certain cultural beliefs and practices even portray them as less human.
She, therefore, called for change in the narrative, stressing that they must be recognised as humans.
On his part, the executive Director, Qualitative Magazine, Mr. Chris Agbo, who is a resource person at the training, called on the media to focus more on issues affecting people living with disabilities in their reportage.
He said the media must pay particular attention to the challenges faced by women with hearing impairment and begin to change the attitude of the society towards them through their stories.
Agbo advised media practitioners to always work with sign language interpreters, so that those with hearing impairment can get a clearer picture of issues and be carried along.
He also urged private and public institutions like hospitals, schools and churches to make available in their daily activities, services of sign language interpreters to make things clearer and easy for the deaf.