Disability Reporting Webinar with Tim McGuire, Frank Russell Chair for the Business of Journalism at the Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication at Arizona State University and author of “Some People Even Take Them Home”
Hosted by the National Center on Disability and Journalism
The National Center on Disability and Journalism will host a webinar featuring the author of a new book “Some People Even Take Them Home,” which tells the story of living with disabilities through the experience of a father and his son. The author, Tim McGuire, is the Frank Russell Chair for the Business of Journalism at the Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication at Arizona State University and a board member of the NCDJ, which is housed at the Cronkite School. His book, “Some People Even Take Them Home: A Disabled Dad, a Down Syndrome Son, and Our Journey to Acceptance,” recounts his personal experience with physical disabilities and raising his son, Jason, who has Down syndrome.
McGuire is the former editor and senior vice president of the Minneapolis Star Tribune. He served as president of the American Society of Newspaper Editors and wrote a nationally syndicated column, “More Than Work,” focusing on ethics, spirituality and values in the workplace, before joining the Cronkite School in 2006 to teach ethics and diversity and the business of journalism.
In addition to talking about his book, McGuire will discuss current media coverage and the perceptions people have of those who live with a disability.
These bloggers regularly write about disability, often from a personal perspective:
• Tim McGuire blogs about the invisible disabilities that people often overlook or misunderstand. McGuire, the Frank Russell Chair for the Business of Journalism at the Cronkite School and the author of “Some People Even Take Them Home” A Disabled Dad, A Down syndrome Son and Our Journey to Acceptance, blogs at McGuire on Life, Disability and Grief. http://mcguireonlife.com/2015/01/16/invisibile-disabilities-demand-our-understanding/.
• Amy Silverman, managing editor of the Phoenix New Times alternative newspaper, can be heard regularly on public radio talking about her experiences raising a daughter with Down syndrome. In a piece titled “The Trouble with Boys,” Silverman recounts her daughter’s first year of junior high school. http://kjzz.org/content/79408/amy-silverman-trouble-boys.
• Beth Haller’s Media dis&dat blog has become the go-to place for the latest news and information about people with disabilities and disability issues. Recent postings include an article about “outcasting” on TV shows and a research study that shows blindness simulations can negatively affect perceptions of the visually impaired. Haller is professor of journalism and new media at Towson University in Maryland and the author of “Representing Disability in an Ableist World.” http://media-dis-n-dat.blogspot.com/.
Alexandra Pecci shares in The Washington Post her experiences of traveling with her 5-year-old daughter, who uses a walker. She recounts traveling from Rio de Janeiro’s Escadaria Selaron to the “Rocky Steps” at the Philadelphia Museum of Art, encouraging families with disabled children to show them the world. Read more.
Every correctional facility is subject to the ADA, but officials are still figuring out how to comply with it. Journalists can keep tabs on the resulting lawsuits – cases Krisberg says will be a “slam dunk” – as they make their way through the courts. They can also monitor if and how the ADA improves conditions in prisons.
Parents have long struggled to find compassionate health care for adult children with profound disabilities. Those in Kentucky now have a place to go. Read more.
ESPN’s Impact 25 tells the stories of men and women who made a difference for women in sports over the past year. In this entry, Amy Purdy talks about her battle with bacterial meningitis that destroyed her hands and feet. Read more.
The House has passed legislation to create tax-free savings accounts for people with disabilities. Passed by a vote of 404-17, the bill known as the ABLE Act is intended to help Americans with disabilities pay for the associated expenses, including medical costs and finding employment. Read more
Leon Jones, 64, has an intellectual disability and a swollen right hand that aches from 40 years of hanging live turkeys on shackles that swing them to their slaughter. He also may be the last working member of the so-called Henry’s Boys — men recruited from Texas institutions decades ago to eviscerate turkeys, only to wind up living in virtual servitude, without many basic rights. Read more
The U.S. Supreme Court agreed last week to hear San Francisco’s appeal of a ruling allowing a knife-wielding woman with schizophrenia to sue police for shooting her, a case that could set standards for police treatment of people with disabilities. Read more
The summer’s ALS “ice bucket challenge” social media campaign brought in $115 million to fight amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, or Lou Gehrig’s disease. Now, researchers are spending that money in a race to find treatments and a cure. Read more
