Channel 4 seeks disabled talent

18 August 2010 | By Colin Cottell

Alison Walsh, disability director at Channel 4, told Recruiter that the aim was for perhaps two or three of the six anchor presenters to be disabled people, and for a similar number of roving reporters to be disabled. However, she insisted that selection would be strictly on merit. “We expect disabled presenters to be every bit as good as non-disabled presenters. We are not going to put people into these jobs just to fill a quota.

“We see this as an opportunity to recruit and develop some good presenting talent,” she added. “We expect them to have a career and not for this simply to be a one-off.”

The initiative is intended to address the under representation of disabled people as presenters, something that is entirely legal.

The initiative could be the springboard for other such programmes, she said: “All that needs to happen to change attitudes is for people to see that those presenters are as talented as anybody else, and you achieve that by hiring some really good people.”

The precise details of the recruitment process had not been finalised by time of press, but further information will appear on Channel 4’s dedicated Paralympics site, www.channel4.com/paralympics.