FERGUS – A Fergus teacher is helping to make media coverage more inclusive by developing a style guide for writing about people with disabilities.
Alanna King, a Centre Wellington District High School teacher, was recently awarded the Michener Awards Foundation Fellowship, which celebrates public service journalism and included a $45,000 grant to create the guide alongside her project partner Sarah Trick.
Trick, a journalist with multiple disabilities, got the idea for the guide when her own support services were impacted during the pandemic, and she began to take notice of how infrequently the voices of the disabled community are centred in news stories.
“Daily existence was ridiculously difficult. And yet, the coverage of the actual individual was really shallow, if it existed at all, to be honest. And I think that was one of the reasons that (Trick) got really excited about starting this project,” she said.
They wanted someone with an educational background to provide perspective as well, which is where King came in.
King said there isn’t a global precedent for how to cover disability topics and write about people with disabilities, so they’re hoping to create one “that comes from the point of view of someone who lives in a disability space, and who is also a journalist,” she said.
She said other academic institutions have tried to create a guide like this before, but not necessarily with working and student journalists in mind.
She also thinks it will provide media literacy for readers, to help them identify biases in media representation, and recognize their own. This will, she hopes, reduce stigma and misconceptions around people with disabilities.
They are taking an anti-bias and anti-racism framework approach, centring the individual first, “and making their narrative more important.”
“We're not identifying someone as only a person with a disability, but a human who has these particular challenges, and their narrative is unique to them, rather than representative of all people,” she said.
King said there are numerous biases that show up in the media when it comes to people with disabilities, especially in how stories are framed. For instance, being portrayed as heroic for merely getting up and living their lives on a daily basis.
“The idea that the audience reading the piece has abilities, and therefore their inspiration is gathered through the disability of other people … centres the ableist audience before it centres the narrative of the individual with a disability," she said. “So what we're trying to accomplish is to say we're all humans,” adding that disability is the norm for many people, and it’s often not presented as such.
Another issue is that often the caregivers or doctors have more of a voice in media than those they’re helping, she said.
“People with disabilities are not heard,” she said.
King said they realize covering disabilities better is challenging for journalists, so they’re excited to “lay out the culture and the history of disability as it is, and where those sensitive topics are that don’t reach consensus within the disability community.”
One being language, for example, and how to negotiate what someone wants to be identified as, she said.
The guide will likely launch on TVO’s digital platforms, where it can be regularly updated as things change and new information becomes available. The plan is to have things ready for publication in about 18 months or so.
They’ll also be bringing on disability experts and journalism faculty from Carleton to help develop it.
A ceremony was held for the fellowship recipients in June at Rideau Hall, with Governor General Mary Simon presenting the awards.
King said as an educator, applying for grants is par for the course, “but because of this partnership, (I’m at this) amazing ceremony, I’m shaking the hands of the Governor General. It was amazing. Nothing like that has ever happened (to me),” she said. “I’m really excited by the possibilities.”
