According to the World Health Organization (WHO), 10 percent of the world's population is made up of people living with a disability significant enough to make a difference to their daily lives. Eighty percent of these live in the developing world, with a larger proportion in rural rather than urban areas.

Looking at the current HIV interventions in your country, are the needs of this group being taken into account?

Can a disabled person go to a testing centre and get tested for HIV today? After that what would their next step be? Are there support systems in place for them if they test positive?

Disabilities differ in their nature and severity, ranging from sensory (deafness, blindness), physical, intellectual to mental. Social factors also influence the severity of a disability. For instance, in the developed world, those who are visually impaired can get spectacles to rectify their problem, whereas in the developing world, these simple solutions might not be accessible for all.

While able-bodied people can read as many HIV and AIDS messages as they wish, low levels of formal education among the disabled mean that they may experience illiteracy as a major impediment to reading and comprehending these messages. In 1998, the global literacy rate for adults with disability was as low as 3%, and 1% for women with disability. Disabled women are harder to reach, as they are more likely to be illiterate than their able-bodied counterparts.

Interventions such as ramps for those with physical impairments, sign language interpreters for those who are deaf and simplified HIV and AIDS messages for those with intellectual impairments are still lacking. Where AIDS treatment is scarce and where services and support for individuals with HIV or AIDS are limited, individuals with pre-existing disabilities report being placed last on the list of those entitled to care.

As journalists what can we do to lobby policy makers to ensure that for every HIV message or intervention takes into account the disabled constituency?

Where an able-bodied person can go into a shop and pick up a condom, what happens if the disabled person cannot walk and does not have a wheelchair? Shall we assume then that they will not have sexual relations because of this or will they end up engaging in an unprotected encounter?

Where a woman who can see can decide to read instructions on the female condom and use it, what happens with her visually impaired counterpart?

-As journalists we have to begin to look around in our countries and ask these questions with a view to coming up with solutions.

-As journalists we need to find out from those living with disabilities what challenges they are facing regarding HIV prevention, care and treatment and highlight these issues more so that policy leaders can take notice.

As mentioned above, HIV materials in braille and information disseminated through sign language audio-visuals are very few. D ifferent adaptations of materials are necessary to accommodate different types of disability.