Federation to crack down on movie makers
The Ghana Federation of the Disabled has begun a thorough search to compile titles of movies and names of producers who feature characters that mimic people with disability in a comical and derogatory way.
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This crackdown is the result of several complaints the federation had received from its members about the alarming rate at which movie makers used characters to mimic disability without due regard to their sensibilities.
The President of the Ghana Federation of the Disabled, Mr Yaw Ofori Debrah, in an interview with The Mirror noted that the federation’s real challenge was the lack of documented evidence to file a formal complaint, as most often, members failed to give titles and names of producers of such movies.
The portrayal of disability for comical effects, he bemoaned, affected the self-esteem of people with disability and reinforced the negative perceptions society had about such people.
“Sometimes when you are watching a movie with your family, you feel so humiliated when a character mimics a disabled person in a derogatory manner. Sometimes it affects the mood of even your wife and children,” he disclosed.
A case in point are movies screened in travelling buses, which he said the federation’s members complained were a source of humiliation while they were on board such buses.
The use of certain proverbs and harsh language that attacked the sensibilities of people with disability, he maintained, had become the punchline of some local movies with no regard to the feelings and psyche of people in such conditions.
Mr Debrah, therefore, appealed to movie makers in Ghana to exercise decorum on how they portrayed people with disabilities in movies.
He said there were instances where parents hid children with disability and denied them education which was the result of the negative perceptions society still held about disabled people.
He, however, disclosed that 19 people with disabilities were elected in the recently held district assembly elections.
This number, he said, underscored how people with disability contributed to society.
He disclosed that his office tabled a proposal to the government for the appointment of at least one disabled person into district assemblies, which had received a positive feedback from government.
Mr Debrah noted that the practice where DCEs and MCEs appointed only people in their political party into assemblies, was likely to hamper the initiative.
He therefore called on them to desist from such practice.
