When I went to school for journalism, two things became clear to me. I loved journalism, but it was an industry that wasn’t built with people like me in mind. I had a lot of people who encouraged me to hide or not disclose my disabilities to avoid discrimination. I didn’t have mentors who openly identified as disabled. And frankly, some of the “best practices” we learn in journalism school don’t work for some of the people with disabilities we’re interviewing, like interviews in person, not providing questions ahead of time, or not doing interviews via email.
Three years ago, I found myself deciding I no longer wanted to hide who I was or go along with the status quo in journalism. I grew up with a disabled parent and at the time was coming into my own disabled identity, and knew my community wasn’t getting the coverage it deserved. And while I was looking for an opportunity to do this work, the right place for it also found me.
My former editor at WBFO, part of Buffalo Toronto Public Media, where I had interned at in college, asked me to apply for a news reporter position. I didn’t know until the interview they were looking for a disability reporter and they didn’t realize it was my dream job.
I was very clear to them what I felt disability reporting should look like, and they matched my vision and provided me the resources I would need to succeed. For the first time I was in a newsroom that followed the National Center on Disability and Journalism Style Guide. I was given a paid mentor who was a retired disabled journalist and editor. And I was able to be open about my own experiences at work.
Since then, WBFO has allowed me the opportunity to develop and lead our Disabilities Beat, which covers disability rights, equity, and culture. We focus on what barriers exist to people with disabilities in having equity in education, employment, transportation, housing, and their broader communities. We’ve taken on new approaches to interviewing, focused on using language that better represents the diversity of the disability community, and done deep-dive investigations into discrimination and local government. We’ve held elected officials accountable for their failure to use American Sign Language interpretation during vital communications, exposed potential violations of the Americans with Disabilities Act, and highlighted a workforce crisis that is threatening independent living options for many in New York.
However, I would say the most valuable thing our initiative has done is show that this coverage matters. It’s highlighted that journalism can adapt to better cover marginalized communities and more accurately represent the lived experiences of people with disabilities. And lastly, it’s shown that it matters that people like me, who are disabled, are in journalism and leading this work. Our community deserves to see and hear people who understand us on the news, and it makes a difference when the person you’re sharing your story with can relate on a personal level. We’ve shown that disability equity isn’t something we should only be discussing in the stories we tell, but in our newsrooms as well.
Over the next two years, WBFO is going to continue expanding this work. We’re committed to improving the accessibility of our content, adding new accommodations for guests we interview and have just introduced a new eight-minute weekly segment during our most popular weekday hours. That’s just the start of many plans we have, and I hope you’ll check out the work we’re doing by visiting WBFO.org.