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Arizona State University (where the NCDJ is based) students have created a new club called “Autistics on Campus”, as a “safe space” for students with autism to share experiences and raise awareness. Read more
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National Journal reporter Eric Garcia shares his experience working as a reporter in D.C. with autism. He writes, “For some of us, autism isn’t a disease but rather something more analogous to being gay or deaf—a condition that, yes, imposes hardships but also helps to make us who we are.” Read more
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In a LinkedIn post, one woman writes why “overcoming disability” shouldn’t be the main theme in disability journalism, instead, she calls for more stories that celebrate disability as an experience. Read more
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Katherine Schneider presented the Katherine Schneider Journalism Award for Excellence in Reporting on Disability to ProPublica reporter Heather Vogell this week. In her blog about the trip, Schneider reflects on her visit to Arizona State University’s Walter Cronkite School of Journalism, where she discussed the intersection of disability and journalism with students. Read more
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Thursday night’s presentation of “The Wiz” on NBC will be accessible to those with visual impairments, the first time ever in the history of live, network-TV broadcasts, according to the American Federation for the Blind. Read more
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The National Center on Disability and Journalism at Arizona State University has released a one-of-a-kind style guide for journalists and professionals who report or write about people living with disabilities.
The guide offers information and advice on nearly 70 commonly used words or terms, from “able-bodied” to “confined to a wheelchair.” It is being released to coincide with the United Nations’ International Day of Persons with Disabilities on Dec. 3. The day of observance aims to promote an understanding of disability issues and mobilize support for the dignity, rights and well-being of persons with disabilities.
Headquartered at ASU’s Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication, the NCDJ is a national organization that provides support and guidance to journalists and communicators as they cover people with disabilities.
The new style guide greatly expands on one developed by the NCDJ in 2010, said Kristin Gilger, the center’s director and associate dean of the Cronkite School.
“The language of disability keeps changing and there are so many different opinions about what words and phrases should be used that there’s a real need for an authoritative, neutral source of guidance and information,” she said.
Gilger said disability can be a difficult topic to cover for journalists, many of whom are unfamiliar with current debates over language choices and what might be considered offensive. For example, many in the disability community object to the use of disabled as an adjective. They prefer “a person with a disability” as opposed to “a disabled person.”
“That distinction may seem subtle until you understand that people naturally want to be people first,” Gilger said. “Being disabled is only part of their identity.”
The style guide strives to balance the need for sensitivity and accuracy against the journalistic mandate for language that is clear and easily understood by a general audience, Gilger said.
In addition to offering recommendations on language choices, the guide provides a brief background on each word or term and touches on instances in which disability organizations disagree on usage. It also notes whether or not the word or term is addressed in The Associated Press Stylebook, widely used by journalists around the world as a guide to writing. Two-thirds of the entries in the NCDJ guide are not covered in the AP Stylebook.
Along with the guide, the NCDJ also has created a companion piece, “Terms to Avoid When Writing About Disability.” The article offers advice to communicators on why they should avoid using terms such as “epileptic fit” or “senile” and directs them to more neutral language.
Tim McGuire, Cronkite’s Frank Russell Chair for the Business of Journalism who is the author of a memoir on living with a physical disability and raising a child with Down syndrome, said he thinks the guide is incredibly valuable for journalists and writers.
“Nobody else can provide this same kind of comprehensiveness on disability language,” said McGuire, who is the former longtime editor of the Minneapolis Star Tribune and serves as an NCDJ advisory board member.
The NCDJ was founded in 1998 in San Francisco as the Disability Media Project to raise awareness of how the news media cover people with disabilities. The organization was renamed in 2000 and moved to the Cronkite School in 2009.
NCDJ’s disability style guide is available on the organization’s website or as a printable PDF at https://ncdj.org/style-guide/.
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ProPublica reporter Heather Vogell shared how she exposed the shocking ways children with intellectual disabilities are physically disciplined in schools as she accepted top honors at Arizona State University Monday in the nation’s only journalism contest dedicated to disability coverage.
Vogell received first place in the Katherine Schneider Journalism Award for Excellence in Reporting on Disability contest administered by the National Center on Disability and Journalism at ASU’s Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication.
She accepted the award and a $5,000 cash prize on behalf of ProPublica at the Cronkite School, where she discussed her winning story “Violent and Legal: The Shocking Ways School Kids are Being Pinned Down, Isolated Against Their Will.”
Vogell’s story profiled Carson Luke, a young boy with autism, who sustained broken bones after educators grabbed him and tried to force him into a “scream room.” Her in-depth reporting and data analysis uncovered that children across the country faced similar harm at least 267,000 times in 2012.
“Every story from every family is just heartbreaking,” said Vogell, who discussed her story with Tim McGuire, the Frank Russell Chair for the Business of Journalism at the Cronkite School. “I’m a parent with two kids, and some of these parents didn’t even know these things were happening.”
“Violent and Legal” underscored the common practice of educators secluding and physically restraining uncooperative school children, sometimes with straps, handcuffs, bungee cords and even duct tape, documenting hundreds of thousands of cases a year. The piece was one of more than a dozen stories produced by Vogell and Annie Waldman that examined seclusion and restraint practices in schools.
The Schneider Award contest also had second place and honorable mention winners. Josh Kovner, a reporter at the Hartford Courant in Connecticut, took second for “Saving Evan: A Mother and Son Navigate the Challenges of Treating Autism.” Radio producer Eric Mennel received an honorable mention for a North Carolina Public Radio story, “Why Some NC Sterilization Victims Won’t Get Share of $10 Million Fund.”
The annual journalism contest was created under a grant from Schneider, a retired clinical psychologist who has been blind since birth and who also supports the national Schneider Family Book Awards.
“This is the (award contest’s) third year and all of the stories have been exceptional,” said Schneider, who presented Vogell with her first-place award.
Past winners have included Dan Barry of The New York Times and Ryan Gabrielson of California Watch, part of the Center for Investigative Reporting. In the past three years, the contest has received more than 200 entries from leading journalism organizations across the country, said Kristin Gilger, Cronkite associate dean and director of the NCDJ.
“Too often disability coverage can be superficial,” Gilger said. “Too often it can be inaccurate or offensive. The Schneider Award seeks to change all of that by recognizing the reporters who get it right and call attention to their work.”
The NCDJ has been located at the Cronkite School on ASU’s Downtown Phoenix campus since 2009. It is led by an advisory board consisting of award-winning media professionals and disability experts. The organization works to provide support and guidance to journalists as they cover people with disabilities.
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On November 30, the National Center on Disability and Journalism held its first ever Twitter chat with Heather Vogell, the winner of this year’s Katherine Schneider Journalism Award for Excellence in Reporting on Disability.
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Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump is under fire for mocking Serge Kovaleski, a New York Times reporter with arthrogryposis, a physical disability which affects flexibility in the arms. Trump denies the action, which many are calling “despicable.” Read more
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Professionals in the fantasy convention world are signing a pledge to refrain from attending the events until accessibility is taken more seriously by organizers. In an article from io9, some panelists at these conventions recount experiences where stages did not have ramps for those using wheelchairs. Read more
