Accesstech Innovation and Research Centre is championing accessibility in journalism, urging media professionals to make their digital content inclusive for blind, dyslexic, other print-disabled and deaf readers.
This call to action was made at a training workshop held on Thursday, May 16, to commemorate the Global Accessibility Awareness Day.
This is the first in a series of workshops as part of Accesstech’s move to change the narrative on disability through proper disability reporting by equipped journalists with practical steps to create accessible digital platforms as well as inclusive stories catering to diverse needs within the disability community.
According to the CEO of Accesstech Innovation and Research Center, Opeolu Akinola, apart from access to information being a matter of human rights, it is essential to journalists that the information they are passing across reaches as many people as possible including persons with disabilities.
“By incorporating accessibility best practices, journalists can engage a wider audience to interact with their content. This fosters a more inclusive media landscape and ensures that everyone has the opportunity to stay informed.
“Very importantly, we are empowering journalist to set the agenda for disability inclusion through their stories,” he said.
On her part, Accesstech Innovation Chief Operations Officer, Emmanuella Akinola, who took the journalists on “Digital Content Accessibility training”, said: “Disability issue is not charity but developmental issues; and must be handled with the utmost commitment by us all to ensure an all-inclusive world for all. The capacity-building workshop was targeted at creating accessible digital media content for people with disabilities.
“At our centre, we are committed to fostering the inclusion of persons with disabilities through public enlightenment on accessibility and empowering persons with disabilities through assistive products and services to enable them to access quality Education, decent jobs and economic growth, thereby reducing inequality in alignment with the Sustainable Development Goals.”
In the last nine months, Mrs. Akinola stated they have trained more than 200 visually impaired people across Africa in tech skills such as Python for Data Analytics, Advanced Microsoft Excel, and Basic Microsoft Productivity Tools.
