AccessFest 2026 Expected Sessions
Expected sessions & topics
- Access, autism, and investigative standards
- Accessing records and data to report on immigration enforcement actions (NICAR26 reprise)
- AI concepts you should know (NICAR26 reprise)
- Art of the business investigation (IRE26 reprise)
- Best Practices for Covering Threats to Equity in Education
- Breaking news
- Building the data that doesn't exist: dos and don'ts for keeping it alive
- Collaborating better together: how to have hard conversations in the newsroom
- Connect with skeptical and disengaged audiences (IRE26 reprise)
- Covering Contaminated Sites Under Trump
- Covering Elections from the Ground Up: Tips and Tricks from the Sunlight Research Desk
- Cultivating sources on the inside (IRE26 reprise)
- Cultural Differences: International Journalists' Reflections on Working in U.S. Partners
- Emotional management for reporters, freelancers and media leaders
- Filing better FOIAs (IRE26 reprise)
- FOIA international jurisdictions
- How to deliver nuanced, high-impact stories on homelessness
- How to do alt text for news photos
- How to Fact-Check Your Investigation On Any Deadline
- How to get data out of complex documents using AI (NICAR26 reprise)
- How to turn local data into useful tools for your newsroom — and your audiences (NICAR26 reprise)
- Investigating college financial health
- Investigating the AI data center boom (NICAR26 reprise)
- LGBTQ+ Data Reporting and Visualization
- Mapping and geographic datasets in local reporting
- Mastering the Solo Hustle
- Non-public records and keep sources safe (IRE26 reprise)
- Techniques for investigating agriculture companies (dairies, feedlots, hog farms, etc.)
- The new gatekeepers: how AI decides which sources reach your readers, and how to hold it accountable
- The psychology of investigative reporting (NICAR26 reprise)
- Three innovative and free tools for journalists
- Trauma-Informed Reporting (IRE26 reprise)
- Uncovering ableism in our reporting
- Using AI and OSINT to Expose Digital Manipulation in Conflict Zones
- Using data, court records, and public records to expose the criminal legal system
- Using pop culture to write better investigative stories
- Using solutions journalism to strengthen an investigation
- Utilizing police employment and misconduct databases around the U.S.
- What do YOU do when diversity, equity & inclusion becomes taboo?(IRE26 reprise)