Breaking bad news: Making news accessible
Where we begin
According to the Centers for Disease Control, about 28.7% U.S. adults identify as disabled and about 50% live with chronic illness.
That’s a lot.
- About 53 million U.S. adults care for a disabled spouse, elderly parent, relative, or child.
- Disabled people, people with chronic illness, and caregivers represents all races, ethnicities, genders, religions, and regions of the country.
What does this mean for media?
Media issues
- Most news outlets are built for readers, listeners, or viewers — not all three. They rarely consider alternative modes of communication.
- Learning differences, sensory issues, or other accessibility needs are regularly overlooked.
Technology issues
- 96% of online home pages failed to meet Web Content Accessibility Guidelines.
- The average web page has 56 accessibility errors.
- 78% of news sources are behind a paywall, turning 67% of Americans who are extremely interested in news to free news on the web.
Employment issues
- Disabled people make up more than a quarter of the U.S. population, but occupy only 7.8 percent of media jobs.
- The journalism industry is inaccessible and not diverse. It’s low-salaried and often inflexible, built around traditional office hours, requires in-office work, and overtime.
- The industry is overwhelmingly male and doesn’t even survey for people with disabilities.
- Technology policies aren’t ready to handle people who use adaptive communication devices or technology that uses AI.
What’s the solution?
Accessibility-first news
- Use universal design in web layout and the best digital accessibility practices.
- Use specific accessible modes (ASL, closed captioning, audio description, Easy English pullout, etc).
- Keep news standards in line with ethics of the Society of Professional Journalists and practices taught by Trusting News and the Solutions Journalism Network.
And accessibility-first employment
- EAPM jobs for journalists, editors, accessibility staff, and operations staff will be open to all qualified people to apply regardless of disability, chronic illness, or demands of being a caregiver.
- Jobs will be flexible, fully benefited, work-from-almost-anywhere and allow for a diverse team of workers from the newsroom to the operations side of the organization.
- Accessibility also makes financial sense for both employees and consumers. A study from Harvard Business Review noted that diverse workplaces had higher revenue linked to innovation and higher gross earnings.
- A National Business and Disability survey from The Viscardi Center and Cygnal found 73% of consumers will choose services from a company or organization if they know it employs individuals with disabilities.
How is this different?
Accessibility-first news checks the boxes
- Serves disabled and nondisabled people alike.
- Helps people stay informed on current events without assistance, leading to empowerment, a sense of equality and inclusion in the community, and greater civic engagement.
- Offering multiple formats of the same news story in one setting is similar to the way Gen Z news consumers expressed that they want news – personalized or customized, easy to read, and without barriers to access.
- Donation and grant funded so news is never behind a paywall.
- Nonprofit public media model creates partnership opportunities with other news outlets.
