The National Commission for Persons with a Disability (KNPD) yesterday launched a series of guidelines, aimed for the media, on how to portray, include and write about people with a disability.

During a seminar, KNPD chairman Joe Camilleri explained that the manual, titled Rights, Not Charity, was a project co-sponsored by EU funds and drawn up on the occasion of the 2007 European Year of Equal Opportunities For All.

Nationalist MP Clyde Puli explained that through these guidelines, the media would help create positive attitudes which could become concrete measures.

The manual calls on the media to create a more positive image of how people with a disability are portrayed.

It is divided into two sections: the first part explains and promotes the social model of disability, as opposed to the medical model.

The social model calls for a change in society, which in turn will eliminate discrimination against disabled people.

The second section has a list of guidelines for the media to implement the social model into practice. It gives clear examples of how meetings, articles, programmes, publications and websites are made accessible for everyone – including disabled people.

The manual also includes guidelines on how disabled people want to be portrayed in the media, and how one should talk or write about them.