Journalists, are people with disabilities and disability issues central to your reporting? With more than 61 million Americans and more than 1 billion people worldwide with disabilities, we all know and love people with disabilities. Yet this large and influential community is underrepresented in media coverage. Stories about disability too often perpetuate negative stereotypes, reduce people to inspirational tropes, or oversimplify the diverse experiences and intersecting identities of people with disabilities.
Arc has been advancing disability rights for nearly 75 years. We want to help elevate authentic and diverse perspectives on disability in all sectors. Building on topics overlooked last year, we bring you five new, timely topics that need more attention. We hope this serves as a starting point for exploring the systemic barriers, discrimination, and lack of access and representation that people with disabilities face every day.
Here are five key perspectives to report on in summer and fall 2024.
1. Disability Pride Month
July is Disability Pride Month, marking the anniversary of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). Yet this annual celebration of disability rights and human diversity rarely appears in news programs or articles. Like American Heart Month and Autism Acceptance Month, Disability Pride Month has rich storytelling potential. What began as a grassroots parade asserting the right of people with disabilities to live freely has evolved into a global movement to embrace the uniqueness of each person with a disability and reject ableism and societal pressures against non-standard bodies. It is also an opportunity to rally around policy priorities such as access to healthcare and barriers to employment and education.
Capture intersectional perspectives that promote disability pride across race, LGBTQ+ identity, disability type, and other marginalized groups. Spotlight on pioneering activists and organizations that continue to fight for inclusion. Analyze how companies and governments are pursuing accessibility initiatives.
Don’t let inspiration porn define your coverage. Disability Pride represents resilience, the beauty of human diversity, and the idea that disabled lives are equally valued. Honest, authentic voices can shift attitudes and drive change in our communities.
2. Childcare crisis
Like all parents, parents of children with disabilities want their children to thrive, and child care is essential to that goal. Let’s consider a perspective that’s all too often overlooked in reporting on the child care access and affordability crisis across the United States: the serious obstacles faced by families of children with intellectual and developmental disabilities (IDD).
These families face the greatest barriers to finding reliable, safe, and developmentally appropriate child care. Many facilities, despite legal requirements, find the accommodations too onerous and either refuse services to children with IDD altogether or remove them prematurely. Studies show that one in six children with autism is removed from child care.
Affordable, comprehensive child care programs are few and far between, and the results are dire. Without reliable care, parents are forced to sacrifice their careers, losing income and opportunities and only increasing extreme stress. Children with intellectual disabilities miss out on important social and developmental experiences alongside their peers. Congress recently took notice of this crisis and asked the Government Accountability Office to conduct the first-ever study of the challenges parents of children with disabilities face in finding child care. Many of The Arc’s constituents shared their experiences for this study.
Investigate the admissions and discharge policies of nearby facilities. Hold facilities accountable for discriminatory practices. Encourage parents of children without disabilities to promote acceptance and inclusion of their children with disabilities. Highlight the financial and emotional burden this crisis is putting on parents of children with disabilities. Center these marginalized families in your storytelling.
The experiences of families of children with disabilities must also be part of this national crisis.
3. 2024 Elections
This election cycle has huge implications for Americans with disabilities, the largest minority voting group in the United States. Yet their perspectives and the policies that shape their daily lives are routinely ignored in candidate debates, interviews, and media coverage. Disabilities touch every community and every issue, from education and employment to health care access and criminal justice reform. Candidates’ stances on these issues have a huge impact on the quality of life for voters with disabilities. And new federal guidelines from the Department of Justice strengthen the ADA’s prohibition of discrimination in voting and protection of the rights of people with disabilities.
We spotlight the diverse perspectives and policy priorities of disability advocates. We explore how proposals on safety nets like Medicaid and Social Security would specifically impact the independence and economic mobility of people with disabilities. We ask tough questions about how candidates would address the systemic barriers and discrimination that keep people with disabilities from voting.
Most importantly, make sure the content itself is accessible and inclusive. Centre the voices of people with disabilities as sources and authors, not just subjects. Consciously counter disability biases and tropes in the language and graphics you use.
We hope that your election coverage puts the needs of the disability community as a forefront issue. Here is a guide to help you get started.
4. Social Security Customer Service Crisis
When people apply for vital Social Security benefits, the process should be fair, fast and easy to access — but for too many people, that’s not the reality.
The Social Security Administration (SSA) is the gateway to disability benefits that millions of people with disabilities rely on to survive. Unfortunately, more than a decade of underinvestment, skyrocketing workloads, and record employee turnover have left the SSA facing a customer service crisis. SSA’s administrative budget has been cut by 20% over nine years and now accounts for less than 1% of benefits – a stark contrast to what private insurers spend on overhead.
The consequences have been devastating: More than 1.1 million disability benefit applications are currently pending, nearly double the number before the pandemic, and thousands of people die every year while desperately waiting for the income and insurance they need to survive.
Disability advocacy groups are sounding the alarm and calling on Congress to act. The Arc recently joined 22 other groups in urging lawmakers to adequately fund the SSA through the President’s budget request. Lawmakers must provide the agency with the resources and staffing it needs to adjudicate claims promptly and fairly while protecting the life-sustaining benefits and basic human dignity of people with disabilities.
As you cover this nationally recognized crisis, don’t overlook the experiences of people with disabilities. Cover the claims delays that are impacting your community. Hold your leaders and lawmakers accountable for solutions. Amplify the stories of people with disabilities who are struggling to get by without these critical benefits. Their stories are what will inspire long-overdue reforms.
5. AI in the classroom
As artificial intelligence (AI) rapidly evolves, we cannot ignore its complex implications on education, especially for students with disabilities. Opportunities exist, but equity and ethical concerns must also be addressed.
What are the potential benefits? AI benefits students who need customized instruction because it can tailor materials to their individual needs and learning styles. Additionally, AI can improve accessibility for students with disabilities by converting content into visuals, simplified language, text-to-speech, or speech-to-text. Algorithms that analyze student data can also identify trends and patterns that can inform customized instructional strategies and interventions.
But bias in AI is a big risk. If trained on data that underrepresents or stereotypes certain groups, the system’s recommendations could perpetuate discrimination against students with disabilities. There are also ethical and privacy issues around consent, autonomy, and appropriate use of student data. Clear guidelines and safeguards are essential to protect student rights and well-being.
We scrutinize school districts’ AI policies and spending to localize this nationally significant topic. We gather perspectives from educators, parents, and the students themselves. How are they mitigating bias and protecting students with disabilities? Is the efficiency of AI unintentionally diminishing the role of human interaction?
As always, keep the rights and needs of the disability community at the center. Hold AI companies accountable for inclusivity and ethical design from the start. Highlight their efforts to make AI truly accessible and empowering for students with disabilities. By exploring the complex impacts of AI in the classroom, your coverage can encourage thoughtful dialogue and ensure no student is left behind.
Bonus Topic: Discrimination and Criminalization of Parents with Disabilities
As journalists ramp up content for Mother’s Day and Father’s Day, the experiences of parents with disabilities are often overlooked. This glaring oversight perpetuates the harmful biases that parents with disabilities face, leading to widespread discrimination and even family separation.
Despite sharing the same dreams as everyone else of raising a child, parents with intellectual disabilities are shockingly over-represented in the child welfare system: up to 80% lose custody permanently, not because of evidence of neglect or abuse, but because of biased doubts about their ability to care.
Despite their resilience, parents with intellectual disabilities face discrimination every day throughout their parental journey, from educators to cashiers, and there is an urgent need for stories that humanize their loving bonds and advocacy struggles.
This Mother’s Day, Father’s Day, and Parents’ Day, celebrate their journeys through authentic, nuanced profiles. Highlight the support systems that support parents with disabilities. Elevate the experiences of parents with disabilities themselves to counter negative stereotypes that they are “unfit.” Spotlight their pride, resilience, and dedication to their children. Most importantly, include videos, images, and stories of parents with disabilities in your daily coverage of parenting topics.
This angle offers a fresh perspective that enhances holiday storytelling and year-round diversity coverage.
If you need resources, background information, or other issues, please contact me at [email protected]. Also, visit our Press Center for guidance on reporting on disability. We look forward to seeing you make an impact!