Opening Letter: Disability news and community
By Francisco Vara-Orta, IRE & NICAR
Visibility in the news comes and goes for historically marginalized communities. This is especially true for people living with a disability.
Major events and milestones — such as the passage of the Americans with Disabilities Act, Disability Pride Month, the Paralympics or the COVID-19 pandemic — have centered these voices, which are so often missing from our newsrooms and our coverage.
If we are truly committed to the ever-expanding umbrella of DBEI (diversity, belonging, equity and inclusion), we have to think year-round about disability through a lens of intersectionality, a term coined almost 40 years ago by professor Kimberlé Crenshaw to describe how race, class, gender and other individual characteristics “intersect.”
“To so many people, [disability] remains a mystery, this scary and overwhelming topic,” said disability rights activist Emily Ladau, author of “Demystifying Disability: What to Know, What to Say, and How to be an Ally,” Speaking to NPR in 2022, she added, “But that’s not what we should do when it comes to disability, because it’s just something that’s part of what makes people who they are.”
At IRE, we aim to do that internally and externally and always are learning along the way. IRE incorporates guides from journalism organizations on how to cover and hire and retain those who are disabled, immunocompromised and/or neurodivergent in our training. At all three major annual conferences, we include sessions on how to cover people with disabilities and be a better ally to our colleagues who identify as part of the disability community. While we conducted virtual training before the global COVID-19 pandemic, we have significantly increased programming focused on accessibility with online conferences — including AccessFest every fall — and a monthly webinar series for members.
We also consult with members to ensure our technology and resources are more accessible, while staff and board members take accessibility training to advance this mission further. As for our in-person events, we have required conference attendees to be vaccinated and encourage masking for the sake of our immunocompromised colleagues who are also in attendance. Face masks are available upon request.
IRE has members with disabilities that may be visible, while some disabilities are not so obvious. We welcome all to our common goal of advancing investigative journalism.
Once a year, The IRE Journal also aims to do a deep dive into a topic highly critical to our greater mission of inclusion. We hope you enjoy and share the magazine with colleagues.
We are grateful to the many journalists with disabilities — and those who cover policy and outcomes affecting those who are disabled — for contributing to this issue. Thank you!