A journalism student has hit out against accent discrimination and called for more action to combat it in the media.

Shetland Islands native Chloe Irvine has spoken out about the prejudice she has faced on the UK mainland while speaking the local dialect of her home island of Whalsay.

When talking in public, the 22-year-old Edinburgh Napier University student said she has received “odd looks” and is subjected to questions such as “what kind of an accent is that?” and “can you please speak English?”

Her experiences have prompted Chloe, pictured, decided to write a poem for World Poetry Day this year to shed a light on the discrimination she faces, even when travelling in her own country.

Speaking to The Scotsman, she said: “We rarely talk about accents when we talk about discrimination, but it’s something that can deeply affect people.

“When you feel like you have to force yourself to tone down or change your accent, it can change how you come across and what you say.

“And I am talking about just the accent. I don’t use the different words used in the Whalsay dialect because I am aware that would make it difficult for people to understand me on the mainland, but it would be nice to not be laughed at or given looks just based on my accent being different.

“I make the effort to understand other people with different accents, so I don’t see why it’s so hard for them to make the effort with me.”

Chloe has now called for more to be done in the media and on TV to combat accent discrimination for islanders.

She added: “We see change happening to diversify race and gender, so why can’t we see change happening with regional accents?

“It needs to start happening, to help put an end to the discrimination.”