Reframing Disability: How training helps spread awareness

The BBC’s Director General Tim Davie has set out an ambitious plan to increase representation across all levels of the BBC to ensure the corporation is fully representative of its audiences. One of the mechanisms is seeking a 50/20/12 balance in its workforce. This breaks down as a 50/50% split between male and female colleagues, 20% of staff from Black, Asian & Minority Ethnic communities and 12% of staff with disabilities 

Reframing Disability is a training project run by the BBC involving development of staff across different media platforms within the UK, aiming to promote awareness of what constitutes disabilities, including visible or non-visible, short or long-term disabilities. 

The idea behind Reframing Disability is foremost to champion the concept that people are differently abled, and then to ensure the provision of reasonable accommodations in the workplace to enable colleagues with disabilities to succeed.  To achieve mainstreaming in newsrooms, for example, it is important to ensure that journalists with disabilities are not limited to reporting on disability issues only.