Journalist – Historian – Speaker
Two stories this week on the Ruderman Family Foundation report on the media coverage of filicide of disabled people. The report, for which I was the lead author, found: Approximately once a week, a person with a disability is murdered by a family member or caregiver. We have found that when these murders are covered, …
Donald Trump is an erratic man with poor impulse control, a temperament that belong nowhere near the White House, and self-centered to a degree unusual even among politicians. He lies routinely. But does he lie pathologically? Are his lies related to a mental health condition which makes it difficult for him to tell the truth? …
Yesterday, the official AP Stylebook Twitter Account responded to a query about describing wheelchair users. Here’s the exchange: @APStylebook Phrase “wheelchair user” is in 2015 handbook, but I still see “confined to”/”disabled” used. How does this change? #RaganChat — Alison Carville (@AlisonCarville) June 21, 2016 We suggest not describing an individual as disabled or handicapped …
I’m very excited to announced that I will be joining with Lawrence Carter-Long to offer a free webinar on disability and journalism on May 11, via The Poynter Institute. There are 56 million Americans who identify as disabled. Tens of millions more are connected to disability as direct caregivers or family members. Yet journalism about …
The Mighty is a well-funded website that publishes personal essays about disability. Narratives tend to be parent-driven or illness-driven, but they throw a huge amount of content out at the internet without much editorial oversight. The editors search through the vibrant disability-related blogosphere and ask to republish essays for free as well as publishing essays …
The National Center for Disability Journalism at Arizona State University has released a new style guide for writing about disability. Here’s the press release. There’s also a “words not to use” document. As a disability-rights journalist, I like the NCDJ a lot. They do great work and this is an important guide. These tools are …
Rose Eveleth has become one of my favorite writers on technology. Lately, she’s been focusing specifically on prosthetics. It’s an area that technology is rapidly transforming. It’s great to have deeply thoughtful journalists reporting on both the science and the social implications. In this blog post, she reflects on what she’s learned on her beat …