Our Mission

Radically improve reporting on Disabled subjects and disability itself

• Publish contextual style guide devised by the Disabled Community to honor the dignity and self-determination of Disabled people and communities
• Set standards for coverage that are culturally competent and account for the context, history, and lived experiences in the Disability community
• Expand newsroom training program to educate and ready reporters to be held to higher standards
• Co-create specialized trainings with other journalistic affinity groups

Advocate industry-wide for hiring Disabled editors, reporters, and professionals more substantively

• (i.e. staff positions, particularly editor roles that guide more objective coverage and support stronger checks and balances: not only freelance, one-off hires)
• Co-create fellowship partnerships with newsroms that lead to full-time employment opportunities

Improve newsroom conditions under which Disabled journalists work, so journalists can thrive without having to hide or mask their disabilities

• Publish Accessibility Bill of Rights for newsrooms
• Put forth accountability measures to accommodate Disabled journalists and meet their needs
• Publish Conference Accessibility Bill of Rights for Journalism
• (Conferences are where journalists make vital connections. Without access to these spaces, Disabled Journalists are at a perpetual disadvantage.)
• Create our own innovative, accessible spaces that we control and can adapt quickly to meet everyone’s needs

Protect Disabled journalists with media community and supports where they may not exist within their newsrooms

• Create mentoring opportunities for Disabled journalists to share experience and advice, as well as resources that pool collective knowledge
• Foster working relationships with newsrooms, acting as a resource

Honor excellence and outstanding achievement in Disability journalism

• Recognize innovative journalism by Disabled journalists
• Award newsrooms for meaningful, lasting support of Disabled journalists and pioneering reporting on disability

Educate the public

• Fund our own journalistic projects that explore disability topics that traditionally go uncovered by mainstream newsrooms: poverty, eugenics, housing inequity, and so on
• Give Disabled journalists opportunities to explore these subjects with the time and energy they deserve, and with editors from our community
• Create work opportunities for emerging Disabled journalists that place them on projects led by more experienced Disabled journalists