According to the statistics released by National Database and Registration Authority, people with disabilities make 0.17 percent of the population of Pakistan. You are more likely to find them around you in the real world rather than on the media that rarely covers them. Whenever it happens, it is mostly to show their plight or to present them as superheroes for the necessary motivational dose. But what about media content for them?
Lahore-based author and entrepreneur Tanzila Khan has been asking this question for years. She has been wheelchair-bound since her birth. She rarely saw any content on Pakistani media that was created for people like her. It would cover disability but in limitation.
“The Pakistani media covers disability in limited ways. For example, they would show it as a punishment for bad characters in dramas and movies. The news packages will cover it as a struggle. To me, it is not about struggling with anything or punishment, it is a lifestyle that nature has given me,” she said. “It is a different state of the human body. People like myself have fully-abled lives as others have. Why our media does not show that side of our lives?”
The inattention of media and accessibility issues can often make people with disabilities unseen and unheard. Seeing inattention to media, Khan decided to produce content for persons with disabilities herself.
She took the start with a short comedy film, Fruit Chaat, in which she played the lead role of Shabana, a wheelchair-bound girl, who becomes a fruit seller after failing to get a job because of her disability. She is also the writer and producer of the film.
Khan told that she sent the script to a couple of publication houses but none of those showed interest in it. Therefore, she decided to produce it herself.
Fruit Chaat was first released on YouTube and later on the Indian video streaming platform, Zee5. It secured the third position in the 2021 Global Content Festival of Zee5. Khan is now working on a YouTube channel for persons with disabilities where she aims to produce content for them that they can relate to and enjoy.
“Fruit chaat was a comedy film on disabilities. When I was working on it, I realized that there was a lot that could be done for people like myself through media. I thought why not I create more content for them.”
In August, Khan completed training in entrepreneurial journalism under the Pakistan Entrepreneurial Journalism Program of Karachi-based Not-for-profit Global Neighbourhood for Media Innovations. The program provided technical and advanced training in entrepreneurial journalism to twenty journalists and content creators from around the country and helped them launch small-scale digital news startups.
She worked on her YouTube channel under this program. Her channel features short comedy films and documentaries on disability as well as daily news from the perspective of disability. The program taught her content creation for digital platforms, startup building, and monetization techniques.
Her biggest challenge is to find coworkers who understand disability as she does.
“It is very necessary for my colleagues to have an understanding of disability. Moiz Abbas who directed Fruit Chaat had worked with me before. He has a clear understanding of disability. It made the whole process easier for me.”
Khan says people have lots of questions and misconceptions about disability that her channel would answer through its content.
She has found a small team. She conducted workshops on disability for them so they could have a better understanding of it. Besides the YouTube channel, she is also working on what she calls Pakistan’s first inclusive podcast.
Khan says through her channel she hopes to create a community of people with disabilities and abled allies to celebrate disabilities and diverse identities.
