TORONTO – "Seeing more people with disabilities portrayed in Canadian television shows and movies would go a long way towards changing attitudes about people with disabilities," said Ontario minister of community and social services, Madeleine Meilleur.
She was launching the Ontario government’s new deal to raise the profile of people with disabilities in the Canadian movie, television and radio industry.
The province’s announcement comes months after the Canadian Association of Broadcasters and the Radio Television News Directors Association of Canada launched their own such initiatives. The CRTC has also urged broadcasters to act and add more disabled folks to their broadcasts. CHUM, for example, also has its own initiative.
The new project, called the Media Access and Participation Initiative (MAP), "will make tools and resources available to Canadian broadcasters and producers to encourage and help them to make the media industry more inclusive and accessible for people with disabilities," says the press release.
Despite the growing number of people with disabilities in Canada, research by the Canadian Association of Broadcasters shows that this is a community that lags far behind in employment and portrayal within the Canadian media industry. The MAP initiative is designed to increase the presence of people with disabilities both in front of the camera, and behind it.
The project is the result of a partnership between the government and Innoversity, a non-profit organization that connects the mainstream Canadian media with minority communities in an effort to foster a more diverse media landscape. Innoversity was held this week in Toronto.
"My hope is that the MAP Initiative will raise the awareness of the significant contribution people with disabilities can make to the media workplace as well as in the programs they produce," said Cynthia Reyes, co-founder of Innoversity.
The MAP program will include conferences and events, a web site, a talent database of creative, qualified disabled people, education and training for current and future media professionals, and consulting Services
