The final day of a two-day capacity-building workshop for journalists on inclusive electoral reporting, which began yesterday, was designed to equip media professionals with practical tools and strategies to promote the political participation of persons with disabilities (PWDs) through ethical and inclusive journalism.

Organized by TAF Africa under the Able to Vote campaign and supported by the European Union Support to Democratic Governance in Nigeria (EU-SDGN), the workshop brought together journalists from across the state to explore the role of the media in fostering inclusive elections ahead of the November 2025 governorship poll.

TAF Africa’s Program Manager, Lynn Agwuncha, charged journalists to embrace inclusive storytelling and also urged members of the disability community to reconsider local expressions that reinforce pity while calling for a change to the commonly used indigenous term “Ike di obi”, stating that such names should be replaced with terms that affirm dignity, strength, and identity.

Delivering multiple sessions during the workshop, Mr. Edeatan Ojo, Executive Director of Media Rights Agenda, spoke on “Understanding Disability and Intersectionality in Elections,” “Ethical Reporting and the Power of Inclusive Language in Electoral Coverage,” and “Developing Story Angles for Disability-Inclusive Electoral Coverage, explained how overlapping identities can affect electoral access, how language shapes public perception, and how journalists can find compelling, rights-based story angles that focus on participation and empowerment rather than stereotypes.

According to Mr. Ojo, media stereotypes reduce persons with disabilities to objects of pity, which distorts their identity and undermines their civic value while encouraging reporters to adopt a more human-rights-based approach to storytelling and become advocates for inclusion through their platforms.