Lack of Disabled Journalists

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I am one of a handful of openly disabled journalists. I have had to actively find every other disabled journalist I know. Some of us are closeted.

It’s impossible to know, at least right now, exactly how many disabled journalists there even are in newsrooms. We’re not included in the glossy diversity reports some major outlets have put out in recent years.

On the most basic level, there is a problem with how most (non-disabled) people see disability. People who are well versed in equity and inclusion sometimes seem to forget disabled people exist, at least in the context of diversity.

Disability, in too many people’s minds, is something bad that happens to a person.

I am proud of who I am. I have experiences that are different from my non-disabled peers, and those experiences inform my work. And I am not alone, even if it feels that way sometimes.

It is hard to find role models in the industry. There are very few disabled journalists, especially in senior positions. The most famous disabled journalist is probably Serge F. Kovaleski, who President Trump famously mocked on the campaign trail. But when ordinary people invoke the “disabled reporter,” they often do not even know his name, let alone anything he’s written. Support from journalists who are parents or siblings of disabled people is invaluable and has helped many of us get our foot in the door. But it’s not the same as having other disabled journalists to look up to.

Then, there is the problem of infrastructure. There are no formal talent pipelines for disabled journalism students. There are no scholarships. There are no formal resources. We do not have an association, like the Asian American Journalists Association or the National Lesbian and Gay Journalists Association.

There is a National Center on Disability and Journalism, but its work is centered “providing support and guidance for journalists as they cover people with disabilities.” They have a disability style guide. It’s a good style guide that I frequently recommend.

There are bigger, more systemic barriers. Disabled people are more likely to experience poverty than the general population. We’re less likely to have attended elite institutions, or any university at all. We have a higher unemployment rate.

Few of the disabled journalists I know have staff positions. None of the disabled journalists I know make hiring decisions.

Wendy Lu, a disabled staff journalist at the Huffington Post, has written about the emotional storytelling that seems to dominate stories about disability, at least as it currently exists. “Of the eight news values (proximity, timeliness, prominence, magnitude, conflict, oddity, impact, and emotion), emotion too often rises to the top when telling stories about disability communities,” Lu notes. There are so many disability stories that aren’t being told, because they don’t tug on anyone’s heartstrings.

The absence of disabled journalists in newsrooms also means newsrooms miss big stories about disability.

There need to be more disabled journalists in newsrooms, telling complex, difficult stories about disability. Hire disabled journalists. Hire journalists who might not not have perfectly smooth resumes, but who have experienced the disability service system first-hand. Ask your disabled employees, if you have any, what they need to build their careers, and to build pathways and pipelines for younger disabled journalists. Diversity initiatives in newsrooms are vitally important, not only when considering race or gender, but also when considering disability status.