Public Relations is all about creating and changing perceptions of people for good and raising awareness for the betterment of the community, a particular group or breaking a stereotype. It is all about creating and transmitting that emotional appeal to the audience. And the same way public relations can effectively address the issue of lack of diversity and inclusion at all ethe places. We can see the progression taking place for the marginalised communities, but somehow specially-abled people are always and left out from the discussion of the diversity and inclusion. Public Relations has the supreme power to advocate for the specially-abled community. The Public Relations Society of America (PRSA) celebrates diversity & inclusion in the month of October every year. Public Relations can contribute to a great extent and help disabled community in getting the recognition in so many ways and can communicate the same to a mass audience because it has the power of storytelling, which can be immensely leveraged to empower this community. People with disabilities often feel sad, lonely, left out when they are not able to showcase their full participation. While representation is crucial for every industry to evolve, and PR has a power to cultivate and create a specially-abled friendly culture in the society, where self-identification will be encouraged. It can build meaningful relationships with various stakeholders, organisations, advocates and influencers working for the betterment of disabled community. It can help them understand the loopholes in their communication process and otherwise and help them with the same. And, this is not something which is talked about for a short period of time and then long gone. A progress and inclusion of specially-abled people can only be possible through continued implementation of accessible campaigns, which advocates for creating inclusive environment for every individual. Public Relations community can ensure inclusion of disabled community by including certain things in their communications plan for every client and encouraging their clients to take the actions for the same. If the messaging is free from the words which might have negative connotations. Are the social media campaigns designed by keeping accessibility in mind, for instance using aids like audio description, using visual contrast, alternative texts, etc. If the website has accessibility menu and offer accommodations at the events.
Public Relations can also help in educating people about various ways of communicating with specially-abled people, as many of us including the healthcare professionals being unaware of certain things like disability certification can educate people about the same. Through robust campaigns across rural and urban Indian, it can spread awareness among people specially those who live in poverty and in remote areas as to what all schemes, initiatives and acts are there for protecting their rights, as many of them are not aware of what all initiatives government has been taking for them and as a reason they health, education and overall lifestyle takes a backseat. It can spread awareness about why screening is important and should be done at the early age. It could educate people about different kinds of disabilities and can create sensitizations around them. Most importantly it is important for the places to be disabled friendly. It can educate various stakeholders and government about various safety measures like road safety, safety in residential areas, in public transport systems and it should be legal to have friendly places for the specially-abled community.
Advocating for specially-abled people is important, but at the same time it is also very important for Public Relations Industry itself to have diverse and inclusive environment and work-place culture. They should also have policies around the same. So, there are many ways in which public relations can help specially-abled community in getting the recognition and place that they deserve in this society and empower them. It can successfully leverage the power of storytelling and with correct messaging lots of things can be significantly changed, which will eventually make their lives much easier to live and they will have equal disposal of opportunities on their way. By engaging with various internal as well as external stakeholders, a space equal for all irrespective of their problems can be created
e– Chhavi Mittal
Chhavi is a student of School Of COmmunications and REputations (SCoRe) – Class of 2022 – Spring Batch. She is from Jaipur. She has done her bachelors from Manipal University Jaipur. She can be reached on Twitter as @chhavimittal15 and on LinkedIn as Chhavi Mittal. This article was originally published on her blog page here
