Leslie Herring
Lab # 10

The National Center on Disability & Journalism raises awareness of people with disabilities in Journalism. The purpose of NCDJ is to provide support and guide journalists as they cover people with disabilities. This organization advocates diversity in journalism by embracing lack of ability. Members of NCDJ are concerned with principles of accuracy in Journalism, which is why they do not support a specific point of view.

Their website, http://ncdj.org/, address issues that people with disabilities face in the media. NCDJ provides opportunities on their website to educate journalist by providing tips on reporting on people with disabilities. They offer advice on how to reference people with disabilities and how to hold successful interviews. Journalists with disabilities post blogs, sharing experiences and ideas. There is also a library available, providing disability resource as well as disability related organization, experts, and willing sources for journalists. This allows people with disabilities to relate to each other on a journalistic and personal level.

NCDJ recognizes that people with disabilities are under-covered and inaccurately referred. They advocate fairness and diversity in news coverage, which is why they promote using disability in journalism as a professional and news value. They desire to build unity by educating the public on people with disabilities in the news.
NCDJ encourages journalists to recognize people disabilities as useful resources. Because of NCDJ, I am aware of the obstacles people with disabilities face in the media, and as a producer of media, can create more diversity in my news coverage.