The National Center on Disability and Journalism (NCDJ) is now accepting entries for the 2023 Katherine Schneider Journalism Award for Excellence in Reporting on Disability, the only national professional journalism contest devoted exclusively to disability coverage. And for a second year, the Gary Corcoran Student Prize for Excellence in Reporting on Disability, which recognizes the best work by college journalists on topics related to disabilities.
Journalists working in digital, print, audio and broadcast media are eligible to enter both contests. Entries are accepted from outside the U.S., although the work submitted must be in English.
Entries for both contests must have been published or aired between July 1, 2022, and June 30, 2023. The deadline to enter is August 1, 2023. There is no entry fee, and reporters may self-nominate.
Lauren Gilger of KJZZ Phoenix reports on a little-known virus that pregnant women can pass on to their children and which can cause serious birth defects. Read more
Denise-Marie Ordway writes for The Journalist’s Resource about the rise in depression rates and suicide attempts among young people after the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. Read more
Jem Bartholomew writes for Columbia Journalism Review about disabled people in Britain who end up dying when they aren’t able to access government services. Read more
Pauline Arrillaga has been named executive director of the National Center on Disability and Journalism at the Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication at Arizona State University.
Arriillaga, executive editor of the Carnegie-Knight News21 program at the Cronkite School, will take over for Kristin Gilger, who has led the NCDJ since 2008 and is retiring this summer. Arrillaga joined the Cronkite School in 2019 as a professor of practice to launch and direct the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Southwest Health Reporting Initiative. She moved to News21 in December to lead the award-winning program, which brings top journalism students from across the country to report and produce in-depth, multimedia projects for major media outlets. Previously, Arrillaga spent 27 years at The Associated Press – most recently as U.S. enterprise editor.
In addition, Cronkite Professor Nicole Macias will oversee the NCDJ’s international journalism awards programs, which recognize excellence in disability reporting.
Cleveland residents who have vision and mobility disabilities may have to wait a long time before things get better, according to reporter Mandy Kraynak of The Land. Read her story here.
