News your way
As EAPM builds toward launching our first news product, we’re conceptualizing how we’ll present each news story. What you see below is one vision of a news story. We’d like to hear what you think about our idea of what an accessible news article might look like.
Media nonprofit EAPM launches accessible national news prototype
Simply Put.
• Equal Access Public Media is a nonprofit organization that is creating journalism jobs and new outlets that are more accessible to all types of people.
• Equal Access Public Media is also shortened to EAPM.
• EAPM is building a daily news outlet that has news in many formats. That news outlet has not yet been named.
• This page is an example of what a news story might look like in that new daily news outlet.
• The publisher and editor of EAPM are designing this example together.
• EAPM wants to build trust with the audience by being transparent about who works on every story.
• EAPM is funded by donations and grants, and is asking for donors to help fund the jobs and news that are more accessible for all people.
Equal Access Public Media promises to pack more accessibility into the way it delivers news, including offering sign language and meeting other specific needs while being "generally accessible for all news consumers"
Photo by Zeo Zoon. Staff photographer.
Edited by Geo Gaan. Staff editor.
This is a photo cutline. It gives time, date, place. Maybe a quote or an interesting fact. Ensure that this photo also has Alt text and a photo description. There is a place for BOTH in wordpress. Pls and thank you.
Listen to the news article
Reported by Kas Roth
Freelance writer
Edited by Stacy Kess
Managing editor
Equal Access Public Media unveiled a “proof of concept” for its accessible news model Thursday.
EAPM began building the proof of concept for people to test in fall of 2024 ahead of the release of its first news product, a daily national news outlet. The name of this product has not been made public yet.
The proof of concept was a joint project between founding editor Stacy Kess and publisher E. Simone Jenerson.
A new way of doing news
“To document your vision is no small feat,” Jenerson said. “To document your vision and communicate it in a way to amass a legion of workers to help you implement that: Herculean.”
Jenerson and Kess agreed that to help people understand the idea of accessible news, there needed to be a tangible example. That’s why prior to the release of its daily news outlet, they decided to release the the protype example seen on this page – so people could test drive the feel of an accessible news story.
“It’s built for all-around accessibility,” said Kess. “We thought about visual accessibility, along with readability. We also want people who need audio or visual assistance to be included. And finally, we thought about those whose primary language is ASL.”
Unlike other news outlets, this proof of concept for a new daily news product will offer each news article in text, audio, and video, as well as American Sign Language.
A news ‘article’ for everyone
EAPM uses a simple design that begins with a section called “Simply Put.”
These bullet points are the most important information pulled out from the news story re-written in Easy Read. This style is best for those who skim the news, those who may find their attention or sensory limitations triggered while on the internet or working on a screen, and those with intellectual or developmental disabilities.
To the right of Simply Put, EAPM’s designers included a multi-video player by Able Player. This video player allows EAPM to include the main video and audio track along with a secondary audio track called an audio description, an ASL video, and closed captioning. Able Player also puts the control of how and when to turn these tracks on or off in the user’s hands.
EAPM includes static visual images with ALT text and an image description alongside a regular caption.
Properly crediting contributors is just as important to EAPM as making sure the news reaches everyone who needs it.
When the audience sees the byline, it informs the reader who reported the story along with who edited it. This improves trust between news sources and their audience, according to Trusting News, a nonprofit news organization focused on how to improve audience retention and trust of facts.
Every article will be written in “plain language”. Plain language is as free from jargon and archaic words as possible. If those words cannot be excluded, they are defined and clearly explained. Each article is also checked to ensure it’s written in as close to “plain English” as possible.
Something missing
One thing is missing from their news articles: hyperlinks.
“We found that in many news articles, hyperlinks were made using random words in the middle of sentences,” Kess said. “There was little regard for how screen readers read hyperlinks, nor how those hyperlinks look and how jarring they can be to people with sensory issues as they read.”
EAPM worked with several accessibility designers and thinkers to come up with a solution.
The solution was to move all the hyperlinks to information out of the article text and into a separate section. This way, it forced the organization to think about the words used in their hyperlinks and left the main text looking clean.
Jenerson said she has big hopes for the future of EAPM.
“I’d love for EAPM to invite those left out on the margins of typical news to come back, be informed, and hopefully be motivated to make changes in their everyday lives.”
If you’re interested in helping bring the news to in-need communities, consider donating to EAPM, volunteering for EAPM, and followng EAPM on social media.
Photo by Zeo Zoon. Staff photographer.
Edited by Geo Gaan. Staff editor.
This is a photo cutline. It gives time, date, place. Maybe a quote or an interesting fact. Ensure that this photo also has Alt text and a photo description. There is a place for BOTH in wordpress. Pls and thank you.
for more information
Here’s a little more info. We sourced this from general reporting. But we also referenced research and other media. Here are those references:
ASAN: One Idea Per Line – The Autism Self-Advocacy Network gives a guide to Easy Read.
Trusting News – A nonprofit organization dedicated to help newsrooms build a better relationship with their audiences.
Able Player – A demo of a fully accessible video player with sign language.
Alternative Newsweekly Foundation – A nonprofit that helps start news intitiatives, including EAPM.
Solutions journalism – A Medium article by the Solutions Journalism Network called “Solutions Journalism: What is it and why should I care?”