How COVID-19 exposes a disability reporting gap

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When reporting on disability, a May 2020 update to the Associated Press Stylebook suggests asking subjects whether they prefer identity-first language or person-first language. But many articles still make presumptions about how disabled people identify and how their disability impacts their lives. Writers and editors say the industry sorely lacks disability representation, even as COVID-19 pushes disability-rights topics like accessibility and mail-in voting to the forefront.

The common message from disabled journalists in the industry is for nondisabled reporters to acknowledge that disability, like other identities, is interwoven into their subjects’ lives and that this is especially true during a time of such medical uncertainty, with anxiety over unknown long-term health effects looming.

Searching for disability as a subject or aspect of regular reporting and finding nothing — or worse, finding something actively harmful — is a regular part of every disabled journalist’s routine.

But COVID-19 has opened up opportunities to report on disabled aspects of the ongoing health crisis in a way that the community has been speaking about for decades

Alice Wong, founder and director of the Disability Visibility Project, said that one way nondisabled reporters go awry is in their choice of words that devalue the subjects of stories.

Another common pitfall is nondisabled reporters actively choosing to not interview disabled people. Wendy Lu is a journalist for the Huffington Post and said that stories, particularly on the health beat, tend to use caregivers and friends as sources rather than members of the disability community.

While diversity statistics about disability in American media are hard to come by, and marginalized journalists often being asked to work for free

While the update from the AP Stylebook did expand on its disabilities section, its framework is still limited. In general, resources on reporting on the disability community are sparse.

Disability reporting should instead be weaved into regular reporting, as the disability community have and will be affected by issues which already garner national media attention, like climate change and police brutality.

“It’s good to see that we’re getting more coverage,” Ladau said, “but I think that we need to move to the point where it’s no longer a novelty.”