Training programme helps people with disabilities
People with disabilities in rural areas are being trained to work in the media through a unique training program run by FAS and Rehab.
The first nine students of the Mediability distance learning course are due to graduate in July.
Participants come from all around the country and have various physical and sensory disabilities like arthritis, cerebral palsy, obsessive compulsive disorder, multiple sclerosis and bipolar disorder.
Programme co-ordinator Dan Dwyer said 10% of Irish people have disabilities but are not properly represented in the media industry.
“If the public is used to hearing or seeing people with disabilities on the airwaves on in newspapers, it will greatly increase awareness of the disability sector,” he said.
Mr Dwyer said plans were afoot to secure more funding for Mediability to develop it into an independent production firm aiming to secure commissions from media organisations.
“The journalism services of the students may be outsourced to provide content for newspapers, magazines, newsletters and all types of corporate and community publications,” he added.
The social economy employment programme trains its participants in all aspects of print and broadcast journalism which culminates in a FETAC level 2 Certificate in Media Production, the equivalent of first year at university.
The group, which publishes the monthly magazine Grapevine, study from home and take part in regular two-day training workshops in Dublin.
They have studied radio and TV production in the RTE studios in Donnybrook and Near FM on Dublin’s northside.
Participants come from Galway, Sligo, Wicklow, Mayo and Donegal.
Arthritis sufferer Mary Healy from Co Mayo said the Mediability course gave her extra skills and experience to get real job satisfaction.
She gets articles published in local newspapers and aims to record packages on human interest themes for radio and television programmes.
“Mediability really has given me the confidence and independence to take my life back,” said the mother-of-two from Swinford.
Mediability was the brainchild of former Rehab chief executive Stephen Farrelly who finally secured funding from FAS for the project in 2003.
