Mentioning of People with Disability in Thailand’s Communication Regulations

Abstract

This research article aimed to study about Thailand’s current situation regarding the people with disabilities through the acts, laws, and regulations about the communication. This research employed qualitative method, analyzing the document from the Gazette, Announcement, Regulations, and other relevant documents, announced after 1997 onward.

The study showed that in Thailand the situation regarding the rights of people with disabilities and their communication were officially stated first time in the 1997 Constitution – with the overall image of equity and humanity of the people with disabilities. Later on, in 1998, there was the Thailand’s Handicap Declaration which announced more on the rights of people with disabilities and their communication as receivers who have rights to receive news and information equal to other ordinary people. In this declaration, the details about tools, and technology employments were stated, but still there were no process of implementations. After that, according to this issue, several communication laws and regulations were enacted, which could be categorized into 2 major streams; telecommunication, and mass communication. In 2016, there was the announcement to determine rights of the people with disabilities to receive information from mainstream media via Audio Description (AD), Sign Language (SL), and the Closed Captioning (CC) services. This announcement stated clearly about the punishments and supportive policies for all TV stations. However, there was no sign for fully providing all the services, until there were 2 more announcements to postpone all the services on television programs.

The mentioning of people with disabilities in Thailand’s communication regulations could be categorized into 2 major streams: (1) in telecommunications which mentioned about access, particularly tools and services; and (2) in mass communication, people with disabilities were mentioned in 2 dimensions: receivers and participants.  As receivers, the TV stations needed to provide the services for people with disabilities. As participant, people with disabilities should be able to participate in the production process of communication organizations. The development of the way people with disabilities were mentioned was becoming more concrete, correlating with the mind set regarding the identity-building of the people with disabilities. Moreover, cooperation between government and private sectors is needed in the future in order to provide opportunities and create public relations campaign about accessibility of disabled people in the society in order to reduce inequity in the further.