Newsroom inclusion from a disability lens

By Denise-Marie Ordway, The Journalist’s Resource

Until recently, I rarely told anyone I have a disability. I didn’t share that information with editors or even fellow journalists at the news outlets where I’ve worked during my 20-plus-year career.

For one thing, I was ashamed. I’m keenly aware of the stigma and stereotypes associated with having a mental health disorder, let alone one the federal government considers a disability. More importantly, I did not want newsroom managers to make assumptions about what I could and couldn’t do as a journalist with a cocktail of mental health conditions: obsessive-compulsive disorder, attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder and post-traumatic stress disorder. 

Each of those can make it tough for me to do all that I need to do on any given day, from editing articles and planning presentations to paying bills and getting my son to school on time. Since childhood, I have developed a long list of strategies that, when paired with medication, help me keep my most frustrating OCD, ADHD and PTSD symptoms in check. But there are things my newsrooms could have done, had I asked, to make it easier for me to do great journalism.  

I suspect many newsrooms have journalists with disabilities and don’t know it. Physical and mental disabilities — those that affect the way we move, see, hear, think, learn, remember, communicate and socialize — are relatively common in the U.S. In fact, more than 1 in 4 adults reported having a disability in 2022, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

I didn’t know how big the disability community was until I organized a panel discussion about it for the 2024 AccessFest conference. As I listened to the panelists speak, I realized that sharing my own experiences could help raise awareness about the prevalence of disabilities in our newsrooms and in the communities we cover.

As Pauline Arrillaga, executive director of the National Center on Disability and Journalism, wisely stated during that Oct. 18 panel discussion: “There’s power in numbers, and if you feel like something isn’t happening in your newsroom that should be happening, find others and speak out. I would say speak out as much as you can.” 

As I write this, I’m nervous and a little scared about disclosing such personal information in a very public way. But it is so important that newsroom leaders recognize the value of journalists with disabilities, who bring talents and expertise to their news organizations that the average journalist cannot. Newsroom culture needs to change so all journalists feel comfortable asking for what they need and managers do what they can, as best as they can, to support them.

I hope this essay makes journalists with disabilities feel seen and encouraged. I hope other journalists who read it — editors in particular — consider the insights and advice I’m about to share and act on them. 

How many journalists have disabilities?

A wide variety of conditions qualify as disabilities under the Americans with Disabilities Act, signed into law in 1990 to protect people with disabilities from discrimination. The law covers physical impairments such as blindness, paralysis, epilepsy and cancer, and mental impairments such as autism, schizophrenia and major depressive disorder. It also covers OCD, ADHD and PTSD. 

It’s unknown how many U.S. journalists have disabilities. When news organizations track employee diversity, they generally do not include disability status. Even if they did, their data would be incomplete if some journalists opted not to share that information. 

“Some of us are closeted,” notes Sara Luterman in a piece she wrote for Nieman Reports in 2021. Luterman, who has autism, describes herself as one of a few “openly disabled” journalists.

In the United Kingdom, where journalists’ disability status is tracked, 22% of journalists self-identified as having a work-limiting health issue or disability in 2022. As a comparison, 18% of all people who worked in the U.K. self-identified the same way, according to the country’s National Council for the Training of Journalists, which releases annual reports examining several facets of newsroom diversity there.

Almost 29% of adults who live in the U.S., regardless of their work status, report having a disability, CDC data show. Cognitive disabilities — the kind I have — are the most common. About 14% of U.S. adults have cognitive disabilities, which can affect their ability to concentrate, reason and make decisions as well as process, store and recall information. 

Some people are born with disabilities while others become impaired at some point later in life. Researchers have learned that journalists who work certain types of jobs are particularly likely to experience symptoms consistent with PTSD — for example, war correspondents and those who witness death and human suffering in other contexts.

Research also suggests many journalists avoid discussing their mental health conditions with their bosses because they fear being stigmatized, losing out on job opportunities or losing the confidence of their employer and colleagues. 

A group of scholars from the Institute of Psychiatry at King’s College in London analyzed 19 studies on mental health disorders among journalists in different parts of the world. One of their main takeaways: It will be difficult to get accurate data on the prevalence of mental health disorders, considering a lot of journalists don’t want to share that information. 

“Journalists have positive personal attitudes towards mental illness, but there are perceived workplace disincentives to disclose mental health problems,” the scholars write in their paper, published in 2012 in the International Journal of Social Psychiatry.

What should newsrooms do differently? 

Three panelists spoke at the AccessFest24 session I moderated, “Supporting Journalists with Disabilities and Improving Disability Coverage.” They offered excellent suggestions for ways newsroom leaders and other journalists can foster a supportive newsroom culture. 

I’ll add my own suggestions to the list below, but most come from the panelists: Samantha Hernandez, the Des Moines Register’s state education reporter; Wendy Lu, a senior staff editor at The New York Times; and Pauline Arrillaga, a former Associated Press editor who’s now executive director of the National Center on Disability and Journalism at Arizona State University.

Make accessibility a mindset. 

Lu urged newsroom managers to keep journalists with disabilities in mind when organizing meetings, communicating information, planning news coverage and responding to breaking news.

“I often think about how accessibility is a mindset and not just something that requires legal compliance,” she said during the panel discussion. 

Managers should also keep in mind that disabilities are dynamic, meaning that what a journalist needs to do their job can change, depending on their disability. 

“I might have a really good day and then a tough day and that’s part of being human,” explained Lu, who has worn a tracheostomy tube since birth to help her breathe. “Providing accommodations and being accessible — it helps people be more productive when they have what they need.”

Make sure journalists know they can ask for adjustments to their jobs if they have a disability or become disabled.

Make it easy for journalists to find the information they need to request modifications such as a change to their work schedule, workspace or work location to allow them to do their job. 

Newsroom managers should have at least a basic understanding of the Americans with Disabilities Act, which applies to employers with 15 or more employees.

It makes sense for larger newsrooms, considering the large number of people in the U.S. who have disabilities, to hold informational sessions to explain which types of disabilities are covered by the ADA as well as the process for requesting accommodations and working with managers to implement them.

Don’t put the onus on journalists to make the changes they need by themselves.

Hernandez, who suffered a traumatic brain injury in a car crash several years ago, said her news outlet had no protocol for accommodating a journalist with her type of disability.

“I was treated just like any other reporter who was struggling,” she said. “And so, not only was I juggling really intense treatment, but I also was having to work extremely hard to keep my job.”

She said she had to research options for accommodations on her own and do her own research on what she could request under federal law. She also had to push for help getting what she needed, including assistive technology such as a subscription to Otter.ai, a transcription and note-taking app.

Arrillaga said part of the problem is newsroom managers might not receive training on working with people with disabilities. However, if a manager knows one of their employees has a disability, they should take it upon themselves to “sit down with the person, have a cup of coffee and just really talk about how to work together.”

“It shouldn’t be on the person with the disability to say ‘Hey, I have a traumatic brain injury. This is what that means for me in my daily life. These are the ways in which you can help me and we can work together in a more efficient, more appropriate way,’” Arrillaga said.

Ask for help from organizations that support journalists with disabilities.

The National Center on Disability and Journalism, part of the Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication at Arizona State University, offers workshops on disability-related topics. 

A key mission of both the Society of Disabled Journalists and the Disabled Journalists Association is to support journalists with disabilities.

ADA.gov provides a variety of resources, including information about Title I, the section of the federal law that covers requirements for employers.  

A final thought

It’s disappointing that we don’t know how many journalists working in U.S. newsrooms have disabilities. How do we convince news leaders to invest time and money in making significant changes when we’re not able to demonstrate the urgency of the situation?

If your news outlet surveys its employees, please lobby whoever is in charge to add a question about disability status. If you’re a member of a journalism association or you work at a research center that studies the news media, please do what you can to get a question about disability status added to any surveys of journalists they conduct. 

I would answer that question.