Pressing for Disability Rights

Together, the National Center on Disability and Journalism (NCDJ) and Harvard Law School Project on Disability (HPOD) are organizing an event on the intersection of journalism and disability rights. Although journalists have long played vital roles in exposing disability rights violations, and still do to this day, they have also at times amplified harmful stereotypes or reflected biases about persons with disabilities. Part of the challenge in correcting disability bias in journalism stems from the chronic underrepresentation of persons with disabilities in the profession, which promising new initiatives such as the NCDJ and The New York Times’ Disability Journalism Fellowship seek to address. At the same time, many journalists are using progressive strategies to promote the inclusion of persons with disabilities in telling their own stories, such as ProPublica’s community engagement reporting on services for persons with developmental disabilities in Arizona. This panel, featuring journalists with and without disabilities, will discuss how advocates can work with journalists to promote disability rights and also the opportunities and challenges that journalists face when covering disability rights issues.  

Panelists:

• Joe Shapiro, NPR News Investigations correspondent;
• Rosemarie Garland-Thomson, Professor Emerita of English and bioethics, Emory University;
• Eric Garcia, senior Washington correspondent, The Independent; and
• Amanda Morris, disability reporting fellow, The New York Times.

Moderator:

• Kristin Gilger, Director, National Center on Disability and Journalism.