Reframing Disability

Just before many of us headed off on summer breaks, BBC journalists and content-makers met with 35 disabled experts who answered our call for new voices to help enrich our content so we can better represent our world.

The event was a moment for us to showcase how far our programme Reframing Disability in News has come in just a few months. The initiative, run as a partnership between Media Trust and the BBC’s 50:50 Project, seeks to increase the visibility and representation of disabled people in broadcast news – and I am proud to say that it’s already having some positive impact.

The reason for my passion for the Reframing Disability programme, as I explained at the showcase, is because I am autistic.

As a teenager I remember reading The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time. It was the only book I ever found that had someone in it who behaved in a way that made me recognise a little bit of myself. It was the only reference I had to get a sense of people who behaved like me.

I truly believe that when we see something of ourselves in others, particularly in those role models we see on TV, in radio, in newspapers, then we get a sense of what we can achieve as well.

We are definitely now living in a more diverse world, but there’s still so much further to go. I believe initiatives like Reframing Disability can really help drive the increase in representation we’re all aiming for on media content and in communications.

Where did the idea for Reframing Disability in News come from? Media Trust’s chief executive Su-Mei Thompson explained that too often disability has ended up as “the Cinderella of the diversity agenda”.

She added “Despite the fact that 20% of the UK population has a disability, and there are disabled people who are experts in every area of life, you hardly ever see a disabled person being interviewed on the news, and even then it’s only if the programme or segment is about disability.”

Nina Goswami, BBC Creative Diversity Lead for the 50:50 Project, also explained that the shaping of the Reframing Disability programme was also helped from what we have learned from increasing women’s representation through 50:50.

“We need to change our mindset when we’re looking at storytelling,” Nina explained: “How do we help enrich our storytelling with rich, diverse voices? And how do we find those good-quality voices that we’re all striving for? Through Reframing Disability, we created the disability awareness training for journalists specifically, to help inform them in their storytelling.”

I have been working with BBC Panorama Reporter Sean Dilley and 50:50 Project Lead Lara Joannides to create a pilot training for BBC staff. I am pleased to say this training is soon to be rolled out and is being adapted for other BBC divisions outside of News too.

As I previously alluded to, we created training for disabled contributors too – devised by Media Trust and Hayes Collins Media. Our experts have a wide range of expertise – from stand-up comedy to finance. After their training they were invited to sign-up to the 50:50 contributors database, which is a pan-BBC resource.

The programme has also been fortunate to have the backing of both Ofcom and the Disability Unit at the Cabinet Office who are members of the Reframing Disability Advisory Group.

Ofcom’s Content Media Policy Director Vikki Cook spoke at the showcase about the wider picture across the media industry. "Covid must not hold us back,” she said. “Diversity should remain business critical and not be in that awful place of 'nice to have' as the media grapples with coronavirus challenges."

Deputy Head of the Cabinet Office Disability Unit, Deborah Lonnon's message to for us was around the importance of stigma and perceptions of disabled people. “We want to help people get a better understanding of disability and the wide range and value of people with disabilities in society. We want to place lived experience at the front of our policy development work.”

The showcase event, which was held on 30 July 2020, also gave BBC journalists and producers a chance to virtually network with the disabled experts who completed the training, to share ideas and make contacts.

Sean Dilley, who spearheaded the work within the BBC, closed the event with a call to action that was so strong, I’ll leave you now with his words: “Let’s remember that the media wants to change and the narrative is changing, so please go out there and sell the message: the media needs to reflect the audience we belong to.”