Disabled community looks for creative ways to spread awareness about coronavirus

From podcasts to videos, many organisations working in the field of disability rights are looking at engaging ways to spread awareness about coronavirus. Much needed given the slow response on the part of government authorities.

Washing your hands thoroughly has never been more important in these times. Get to know the right way to do it by watching the short videos created by The Banyan, the Chennai-based mental health NGO. Getting the message across crisply and clearly are residents of the shelter. The language used is Tamil with subtitles in English.

“We are not in a position to guess from where and when this virus can get us”, explains Dr K V Kishore Kumar, Director, The Banyan. “Written information in our country has limited reach and audience. Few people in our culture access written content since hearsay is more important in our culture”.

The videos are kept short so they can be easily shared. The speakers are residents of The Banyan.

Six videos have been created so far and they are all informally shot except for one that we have created with Apollo Hospital. That will be shared on YouTube. The rest we are sharing with our groups through WhatsApp. These are small kits that will engage people. – Dr K V Kishore Kumar, Director, The Banyan

Disability rights activist Dr Aishwarya Rao is using podcasts to get the word about coronavirus in partnership with Firstpost.

“I have been thinking about doing podcasts on medical issues for a while on public health issues and the vulnerable population”, says Dr Aishwarya, who runs a shelter for disabled women in Chennai called Better World Shelter. “I am doing one podcast everyday this week. The idea is to connect this pandemic to how health should matter to everyone. This is what coronavirus or COVID-19 is teaching us.” You can listen to Dr Aishwarya’s podcast here.

Similar efforts are being made by other disability rights groups as well. In Maharashtra for instance, the State Level Association of Deaf (SLAD) is posting sign language videos of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s speeches regarding the coronavirus.

All welcome efforts to protect a population which is among the most vulnerable to the coornavirus.