We read a lot from the mainstream pres about people with disabilities on
these mailing lists.  The article below from the publication Newswatch
analyzes the reporting on people with disabilities.  You can listen to
Suzanne who wrote the article discuss her observations on the program
counterspin at:

http://stream.realimpact.net/rihurl.ram?file=webactive/cspin/cspin2002112
9.rm&start=7:44.6
the audio feed is courtesy of Real Networks.

Kelly


Understanding and Reporting on Disability

By Suzanne C. Levine

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Opportunities for good, accurate reporting on disability are being
missed. The most frequent stories are, for example, features about a
child who gets to go to camp, coverage of a fund raising event or the
super athlete in a wheelchair who climbs the mountain. These stories are
typically "inspirational" or evoke feelings of pity. The missed stories
can be hard-hitting, difference-making journalism, the kinds of stories
that keep government accountable and people honest. These stories are
being missed because society's assumptions about disability aren't
considered when disability becomes a news item.

Missed Stories

Why are stories about disability issues being missed? The answer,
according to some mainstream news media reporters, is that there is no
easy answer. Bob Egelko, a San Francisco Chronicle reporter who covers
the courts and legal issues does not have specific disability experience.
Yet he reports on disability when it comes through the courts. Through
years of reporting Egelko says that with disability it is "impossible to
find a monolithic voice because they are complex issues."

According to Buffalo News assistant managing editor for features Sue
LoTempio, who uses a wheelchair, the news media is lazy when it comes to
the disability issues. "We like to do easy stories and Jerry Lewis' story
is a really easy story to cover or to write. And I think they have a kind
of mindset that 'OK, we've covered the telethon, that's all we have to
do.' . It's very difficult to get anybody to look at the breadth of the
stories that are important."

But even when reporters try to get a disability-related story in the
news, it can be frustrating. Jennifer LaFleur, a former computer-assisted
reporting editor at the Post Dispatch in St. Louis who is currently a
McCormick Tribune Journalism Fellow at the Reporters Committee for
Freedom of the Press, says she has met resistance when it comes to
reporting on hard-hitting disability issues. "I think most newsrooms see
disability reporting as having no underlying issues, that there's no
politics involved, no public policy issues that need to be looked at.
Nothing!"

Dateline NBC correspondent, John Hockenberry, who uses a wheelchair, gets
to the point by saying: "Disability is viewed as on the fringe of society
and on the fringe of journalism."

Cultural Context

Why is disability viewed on the fringe and how does this affect coverage?
The first step is to begin to understand how society views disability,
because like other diversity issues, society shapes our personal
assumptions.

In general, disability is viewed with fear, discomfort and loss. It is
stigmatized and the emphasis is on correcting and curing disability.

"On the deepest level, disability brings up visions of our mortality. So,
there's some baseline fear. There's a fear of disability that reminds
people of the corruption of the body. The disabled body is decomposing
before your eyes. There's a real underlining fear of death -- death and
corruption," says medical anthropologist Devva Kasnitz, who has a
disability and is a faculty member for Disability Studies at the
University of California, Berkeley.

Liz England-Kennedy, a medical anthropologist at who recently completed
her dissertation at the University of Arizona, specializes in chronic
illness and disability. Stereotypes about people with disabilities often
come from the fact that American culture emphasizes what and how much a
person can produce, England-Kennedy says. As a result, non-disabled
people have a variety of assumptions about people with disabilities.

"They see the disability first and don't really necessarily look beyond
it, to the person," says England-Kennedy who has a close family member
with a disability. "There's an emphasis on medicalization, an emphasis on
correcting situations, on curing, on what you can do to normalize.
There's also a tendency in this culture to assume that a person doesn't
know how to help themselves if they have a difficulty."

Fear coupled with the assumption that disability is only something to get
rid of, leads to stereotypes that England-Kennedy and others identify as,
the "cripple;" the charity case; the victim; the demon; the "supercrip;"
the person with a disability and the concomitant gift; and the survivor.

These assumptions about disability can work their way into reporting.
"Usually the problem is the reporter is imposing their own attitudes,"
says Joseph Shapiro, a National Public Radio correspondent in health,
disability, aging, family and other social issues. A source with a
disability may tell a reporter "'I'm trying to do what I want to do. .
I'm trying to live my life, I'm not trying to be an inspiration.' And
then the next line, the reporter comments 'nevertheless . so-and-so is an
inspiration,'" Shapiro says. "It's not listening well. (The problem is)
going in with too much of a preconceived notion."

As writers of the first draft of history, it is incumbent upon
journalists to recognize their own cultural assumptions, and then go get
the better story, the more accurate story using good old-fashioned
journalistic tools.

Finding Missed Stories

LoTempio of the Buffalo News says the problem needs to be addressed on
two fronts: staffing and a broadening of ideas about what makes the
story.

"We have to get more people with differing disabilities into the
newsroom. We create a climate that those of us with disabilities who do
work in the business don't feel that we can't push for it," she says.

Journalists can also look for disability issues in all stories that they
do. She points to stories about unemployment, which often cite that the
highest unemployment rate is among African Americans.

"The group that's higher -- are disabled people. So they need to know
that when they're reporting their regular stories, that there's a segment
of the population that has to be included," LoTempio says. "It's not
like, go out and do a story about the disabled and their employment
problems. It's when you do a story on unemployment don't forget that
segment of the population. . So it's kind of an integration of sources."

The Chronicle's Egelko says, "Beyond the obvious -- learn as much as you
can."

LaFleur, who does not have a disability, says getting to know advocates
from different disability groups helps keep reporters up to date on key
issues.

"I think when we do cover disability issues, we tend to focus on mobility
impaired. So get involved in the deaf community and the blind community.
(People who are) blind have totally different issues when it comes to
transportation problems," she says.

Shapiro, who does not have a disability, suggests making use of what
already exists. "Go to more resources. And stylebooks have changed, too.
Don't say 'wheelchair-bound,' don't use the terminology of pity."

Accurate, fair and diverse reporting on disability can take place. The
first step is to be aware of how society, and ultimately how you view
disability. Listen to what sources say and avoid self-censoring. Know
there is more than one point of view and find it.

The payoff can be satisfying and lead to groundbreaking stories.

After moving to the Post Dispatch, LaFleur broke her leg and experienced
the city's inaccessibility. This spurred her to begin talking with local
disability activists to find out what the most pressing disability issues
were in the area. "They said transportation was really a big issue here
and that's what we should look at. We did," she says.

Her story prompted a federal investigation into the local transit agency.
"The story ended with good results and things happening from the
journalism side."

Suzanne C. Levine is executive director of the National Center on
Disability and Journalism. She founded NCDJ in 1998 based on a gap
between what she experienced in photographing within the disability
communities and what she saw represented in the mainstream news media.
Levine is also a freelance photographer and has a disability. She earned
her master's degree in anthropology from San Francisco State University.


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