To serve the public, newsrooms must be accessible. Inclusion shapes how you hire staff, produce content, and connect with and inform your entire audience.
This article is based on an extract from the UNESCO’s Disability Equality in the Media report, which concludes that disability equality must be built into the foundation of all news production and management processes, rather than being added as an afterthought. The manual was released under the Creative Commons BY-SA licence. Media Helping Media has studied the report and extracted the following.
How to make a newsroom inclusive
To build a truly accessible organisation, news managers must address both the physical workplace and the digital environment.
Five actions for managers and editors:
- Revise your recruitment: Rewrite job adverts to focus on essential skills, not arbitrary physical requirements. Ensure your interview process is flexible and accessible from the very first contact.
- Normalise reasonable adjustments: Ensure that disabled staff can request support, such as specialised equipment or flexible working, without fear, delay, or stigma.
- Build accessibility into production: Accessibility is cheaper and more effective when planned from the start. Ensure your digital, print, and broadcast teams are trained in creating subtitles, transcripts, and screen-reader-friendly content.
- Diversify your decision-makers: Include disabled voices in leadership roles. Decisions regarding inclusive policy are far more effective when informed by the lived experience of your own staff.
- Train for awareness: Run workshops on disability equality and accessible communication for all staff. This removes fear and creates a culture where inclusivity is a professional standard, not a special project.
A note for producers
- Think about your workflow:
- Is your website readable by screen readers?
- Do your videos have accurate captions?
- Does your audio content include transcripts?
If your content is not accessible, you are effectively barring a large portion of the public from consuming your journalism.
