The white paper describes what is happening currently in online programming, what the new law means for current and future content and the business case for making online programming more accessible.

For more information and to download the white paper go to: http://abledbody.com/online-video-captions/.

The tip sheet can be found at: http://ncdj.org/tip-sheets-for-reporters/

In reaction to a new poll released today, a disability advocate calls for more representation of people with disabilities in the media to close the gap between those with disabilities and those without. “One out of five people in America has a disability of some sort so we should see one out of five people portrayed with his disability,” said Carol Glazer, president of the National Organization on Disability.

In honor of the 20th anniversary of the Americans with Disabilities Act, The Kessler Foundation and National Organization on Disability released the results of the 2010 Survey of Americans with Disabilities. The poll was conducted by Harris Interactive and measured the gaps between those with and without disabilities. These differences were in the areas of employment, income, education, health care, transportation, Internet access and socializing.

Although there were significant gaps in employment, health care access and transportation; the survey found the gap narrowed or eliminated in education and political participation respectively. “Where political participation goes, so does legislation change follow,” Glazer said.

Detailed results of the survey and presentations are available at www.2010disabilitysurvey.org.

The first tip sheet gives a good overview of the ADA and other federal disability laws. It includes a survey she created for her investigative story on disability access in the St. Louis area while at the Post-Dispatch.

The second tip sheet is a good primer on U.S. Census Bureau disability statistics. It includes information on the 2000 Census, work disabilities and other Census Bureau data. The tip sheet also has other statistical resources from the federal government and private organizations.

The tip sheets can be found at: http://ncdj.org/tip-sheets-for-reporters/

The Rehabilitation Research and Training Center on Disability Statistics and Demographics compiled the data, which include statistics from federal sources and surveys on disability prevalence and population size, including breakdowns by state and disability type. The site also includes employment and earnings, education, health and health care coverage, rehabilitation and participation in benefit programs.

This resource is posted in the disability resource page.

A few weeks back I came across a story that really stood out. The story is a profile that was featured on ESPN’s newsmagazine “E:60” about a high school football player who is blind.

I was impressed with both the production values and the storytelling. The majority of the 10-minute story is told by the subject of the profile, Charlie Wilks, who also conducts most of the interviews for the piece. By the end of the story, I felt that I knew and understood who Charlie really was. On the field, his nickname is the beast because he shows no mercy and expects the same from his opponents.

The producers of the story do more “showing” than “telling” about the challenges Wilks faces and how he adapts. For example, they show Wilks using assistive technology, a BrailleNote, for the interviews he conducts. Wilks briefly explains how the technology works, but the storytelling isn’t bogged down with all the particulars. Instead, viewers can see him using it during interviews.

Significantly, it is Wilks – not his mother or grandfather or even a doctor — who explains how a brain tumor led to his blindness. This shows us more about Wilks as a person than about Wilks as a medical condition.

I was inspired by this story, not because I was told to be inspired, but because I was shown.

Decide for yourself. The story is at http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/e60/columns/story?id=4637537.

The best example of how the perception of people with disabilities changed over her lifetime can be found in two stories about Shriver published by the Christian Science Monitor: a profile published in 1975 and her obituary published Aug. 11. The two articles reveal a stark difference in the language used to describe those with intellectual disabilities. The 1975 piece used words such as “retarded” and “handicapped,” which would no longer be acceptable, but which is typical of how people with intellectual disabilities were referred to in that era.

The obituary is a good example of the use of accurate language to refer to disabilities, employing the terms “intellectually disabled” instead of mentally retarded. Other news organizations didn’t do quite as well, using the term mentally disabled, which is the standard Associate Press style.

Here are some examples of the coverage of Shriver’s death:

• National Public Radio

• CNN

• The New York Times

• The Connecticut Post

• The Washington Post

I’d like to know how you view the coverage of Schriver’s death. Leave a comment and let me know.

I’ll start things off by sharing my own experiences as the subject of several news stories for newspapers and television.

The first time I was introduced to journalism was when I was 7 years old. It was 1986, and The Boston Globe profiled my family when the missing gene which is responsible for my Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy was discovered by a local researcher. I was portrayed as a victim with a grim future, and that depiction changed how I perceived myself.

Reading the article today, I can saythat it’s informative and talks about the challenges my family and I faced, but it painted a bleak picture just through the use of certain words and phrases, such as “diagnosed a victim of,” “darkens their son’s future” and “victim of muscular dystrophy.”

This is in contrast to another article in The Boston Globe in 1998 about my friend and I coming to ASU. Although it was an overcoming adversity story, which is one of the clichés of articles about people disabilities, the language expressed the actual situation and didn’t focus on pity and impending doom.

I think overall news coverage has evolved and so has the portrayal of people with disabilities. The Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 has contributed to this change. Just the naming of the act has helped change how disabilities are viewed; it’s not about the disabled, but Americans who happen to have disabilities.

Immediately following the publication of the article, the local NBC station, WHDH-TV, wanted to do the same story for the evening news. A few months later, Extra! was interested in doing a similar story, but on a national level. I was surprised, Extra! did a better job by not sensationalizing the story and giving a fair representation of myself.

The biggest difference, I think, was the fact that the field producer was able to spend several days with me and was able to see what my life was really like as a freshman in college. Unfortunately, this luxury of time and resources was not available to the reporter at the local station who put together the story within a few hours to air on the news that night.

Ultimately, what I learned is how important it is to educate reporters and producers so that they aren’t stuck in stereotypes, that they’re able to see not just what people with disabilities can’t do, but what they can do.
Which brings us back to the National Center on Disability & Journalism. I’d love to hear your reaction to this blog, and I’d love to hear your own stories about media coverage of disability – or the lack of it. Hopefully, we’ll learn from each other and open up a dialogue that will help us all become better journalists.

Let’s get started.