People with disabilities need media

"Accessible communications" is the name of the project that has been implemented in Novi Sad for two years. Although it sounds strange at first glance, because every communication should be accessible by definition, there is nothing strange in this formulation. We are surrounded by content that is inaccessible to people with hearing or vision impairments, in various fields - from everyday communication to media and cultural content. We talk about the lack of communication with people with disabilities, the ways in which the media can adapt their content, the need for pluralism of information for this target group, with Natasha Heror, director of the media agency Heror Media Pont, which specializes in increasing the visibility of various minority groups.

"WEATHER": What accessible communications should be, and at what level they are currently in Serbia?

NATASHA HEROR: The most comprehensive definition of accessibility is given in the publication "Accessible Communications": "Something or someone is accessible if all people, regardless of their age, gender, ethnicity, religion, level of education, dexterity and skill, physical characteristics, psychological characteristics can they get to that something, they use it unhindered and use it equally with everyone else." (from the author's text by Marija Vrebalov, accessibility consultant).

Serbia has very well regulated legislation when it comes to accessibility. The level of enforcement is questionable.

It is necessary to develop awareness in society at all levels.

How aware are the media that it is important to be accessible to people with disabilities?

My impression is that the media are largely unaware of the need to communicate in an accessible manner. And if they have it, we get to the point where additional financial resources and people are needed, and that's where the whole thing, for the most part, falls apart.

What costs nothing is for the media, to begin with, to report indiscriminately.

Statistics say that 10 percent of the world's population has some kind of disability. In areas that were affected by war, that percentage can be even higher. It is a huge audience that needs to be respected and to which the media must know how to address.

Do you think that most of the media, when talking about accessibility to this group, refers to articles about people with disabilities, as if that is the only media content that should interest them?

Unfortunately, yes. People with disabilities are not only interested in news or health information. They are interested in everything that interests people who do not have a disability. In addition, the media should enable the general public to be sensitized to the needs of persons with disabilities.

Disability can be congenital, but it can also be acquired during life. It can happen to anyone. We tend to take health for granted.

To what extent are people with visual or hearing impairments deprived of making well-informed choices independently if media content is inaccessible to them?

Just think how many people with visual or hearing impairments depend on the filter that is reflected through the people they are surrounded by. Do people from the immediate environment (family, friends, assistants) work at all to give them access to information and to what extent does that offer correspond to the real needs of the person who wants to be informed? The point is in the independent choice of content. As a society, we have committed ourselves to a policy of equal opportunities, right?

On the other hand, most media are in financial trouble. What are the costs of adapting content for people with disabilities??

The development of consciousness that I have already mentioned also applies to the media themselves. Solution orientation is much better than problem orientation. As far as I know, it doesn't cost anything for portals to have a font enlargement option or a negative option (black background and white letters) for text. Even the negative option is preferable for healthy but tired eyes at the end of the day. Text-to-speech can also be relatively easy to access.

It would be good if the Media Association, as a representative association of publishers, initiates work in this area and provides training for the media, both for management and for journalists, as well as access to the funds necessary to come up with software solutions that will improve the accessibility of information to people with some degree of visual and hearing impairment.

As far as I know, the donors are preparing to return, because they probably realized that by withdrawing they caused a decline in the quality of information in Serbia as a whole. No twists: Serbia's budget is not able to support everything that is needed to keep the quality of the media at a satisfactory level, even when we abstract politics from the whole story, and we can hardly talk about development at the moment.

What will we do with public services when it comes to this topic? We have a sign language interpreter here and there on television, but that's all. What about print and online media?

It is great that, for example, the telecasts of the sessions of the city assembly in Novi Sad were completely translated into sign language, that the news on RTV Vojvodina was translated into sign language. I will repeat: people with some degree of hearing impairment are interested in education and culture and economy and entertainment.

Not to mention content intended for children and young people. The field is wide and demanding and no one disputes that. There are no quick fixes. If we approach them with the desire to solve them, we will succeed.

Two years ago, a conference was held in Novi Sad "Accessible communications". What were her main conclusions?

That's right. We have formulated them in three theses: that the system recognizes sign language as a mother tongue and that sign language be introduced into the education system; that the role of national, local and minority media as the main actors in spreading the idea of ​​accessible communications is crucial, because it is the media that can enable the progress of society as a whole through communication; that the City of Novi Sad should take advantage of the title of European Capital of Culture in 2021 by directing its development towards ensuring architectural and communication accessibility for all people without discrimination through the application of universal design and by increasing the communication capacities of cultural institutions, educational and service activities of the widest spectrum.

It is with great pleasure that I can say that with the financial support of the Novi Sad EPK 2021 Foundation, in the meantime, in the year behind us, the Archive of Vojvodina with the Association of the Deaf and Hard of Hearing of Vojvodina and Heror Media Pont implemented a project that enabled training in sign language for employees in five cultural institutions in Novi Sad in two three-month modules, as well as guided tours through the Archives of Vojvodina and exhibitions, in sign language. We expect sign language training to continue, because no language can be learned in three or six months, not even sign language.

On Thursday, 26. another conference will be held in September. What should we expect from her??

The "Culture and Communication" project aims to map the current state of the City of Novi Sad's capacity through dialogue between representatives of cultural institutions, the media, institutions and professionals dealing with this field when it comes to the accessibility of cultural content to people with some degree of hearing impairment, and to the dialogue reached a solution for maximizing capacity for the year 2021, which would lead to permanent system solutions after the year of the title for Novi Sad as EPK in 2021. I want to believe that we are on the right track. With the full awareness that this process is slow and requires perseverance and dedication, precisely with the activities we carry out, about which we inform the general public and talk to relevant interlocutors, we give the opportunity to change things for the better.

The article was published as part of the project "State and Solidarity - A Look at European Law" funded by the European Union (through the EU Delegation in Serbia) through the media program. The publication of this article was made possible with the financial assistance of the European Union. The content of the article is solely the responsibility of the weekly "Vreme" and in no way reflects the views and opinions of the European Union.