Amanda Morris On Her Plans For The Society of Disabled Journalists

WASHINGTON, DC – AUGUST 24:
Amanda Morris, Washington Post Staffer Amanda Morris in Washington, DC.
(Photo by Bill O’Leary/The Washington Post)

Amanda Morris, a disability reporter at The Washington Post, started her career in journalism so that she could share stories from people who often aren’t given a chance to speak. With Study Hall’s “Own Your Work” microgrant, Morris will expand the Society of Disabled Journalists (SDJ), a professional association for disabled journalists that she co-founded during the pandemic, which aims to improve disability journalism and provide disabled media workers with tools and resources.

“Disabled people are underrepresented in American newsrooms. With this organization, we aim to create a place where disabled journalists can come together to share experiences and improve the way the industry treats disabled professionals,” she wrote in her initial proposal. 

With the funds, the organization will launch a website that will provide resources for journalists, host industry events, and create channels for disabled journalists to network. Morris started SDJ with a group of disabled journalists including Emyle Watkins, the lead disability desk reporter for Buffalo, New York’s NPR station WBFO, Shruti Rajkumar, a breaking news reporter at HuffPost, Kate Guarino, an associate audience editor at The Atlantic, Eric Garcia, a columnist at MSNBC and the  senior Washington correspondent for The Independent,  Hannah Wise, the Central Region audience development editor for McClatchy who created Disability Matters (a disability community toolkit for newsrooms), and Sara Luterman, the caregiving reporter at The 19th. 

“This has really been a group effort and I’m really looking forward to having this [be a] community-led organization,” Morris told Study Hall.

Last year, Morris became the first full-time disability reporter at a national outlet when she was hired at The Washington Post. Prior to that, she was the inaugural disability reporting fellow at The New York Times. As part of the Post’s Well+Being desk, Morris has reported on long covid, the cognitive benefits of “brown noise” for people with ADHD, and how AI “voice banking” can help ALS patients communicate.

“My job is to make sure that we don’t forget about people who are marginalized and struggling—to make sure that we’re paying attention to [disability] issues, the same way that we paid attention to other issues in the country,” she told Study Hall. 

Morris spoke to Study Hall about the barriers disabled journalists face and how newsrooms improve their coverage of disabilities.  

This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

Amongst journalists with disabilities, what was the reception like to the news that The Washington Post was hiring a full-time disability reporter?

A lot of the reception was, “Finally, we’ve needed this.” It wasn’t just journalists with disabilities, but readers who have disabilities too. 

I love the work that I’m doing right now. I think The Washington Post is amazing for supporting it. It’s interesting because disability is one of the biggest marginalized groups [Editor’s note: According to US Census Bureau data, as of 2021, 42.5 million or 13% of Americans were living with disabilities]. We’re also often one of the most misunderstood underrepresented groups. On TV and in the media, you don’t see nearly as many disabled characters as there are disabled people in the world. Disability is usually framed as tragic or as inspirational, rather than as a complex and nuanced identity and issue.

What are some of the issues that disabled journalists face in the current media climate?

As much as I hate to say, I have dealt with ableism before. I’ve had bosses straight-up tell me that if I couldn’t figure out how to hear better, I wouldn’t be able to make it in the industry. I’ve had bosses taunt me. 

A lot of journalists with disabilities are afraid to say that they have a disability when they’re applying for a job or even after they’ve gotten a job. A lot of people are afraid to ask for accommodations, when newsrooms are shrinking and are cutting back on resources for journalists. It’s nerve-racking to ask for accommodations when your company might be struggling with money already, or if they’ve been unwilling to listen to workers on other issues. 

There is also this stigma in journalism around asking for help. There’s a lot of pressure to be able to do it all—to be able to lift heavy cameras and run after a congressperson or stay up late to work on a story and eat nothing but Fritos. There’s this expectation in journalism to do anything for a story, even if it’s at the expense of your health. For journalists with disabilities, that [expectation] is even harder. I’m not saying that we can’t have high expectations for [journalists] But I think we’re seeing a shift now towards making sure that we’re staying healthy. 

How do those ableist internal dynamics impact newsrooms’ coverage of people with disabilities? 

I think a lot of stories are not as nuanced as they could be, or we miss stories completely. It’s hard for me because I can’t cover everything, so it’s helpful when other people incorporate disability onto their beats whether it’s sports, business, or politics.  Sometimes I’ve gotten asked to read articles as a gut check because I’m an openly disabled journalist who’s willing to do it. Often, I’ll notice issues with framing or interviewing, like did we even interview a person with a disability for this article? That has happened an astonishing number of times, where somebody will write an article about people with disabilities, or an issue affecting people with disabilities and they won’t quote or interview a single person with a disability.

What’s interesting is that, as a disabled journalist and a disabled woman, I’m well aware of my own personal attitudes towards disability. I’m able to recognize them and make sure that I’m [being fair] in my reporting. Most journalists [don’t know] to even think about it. With more disabled journalists in the newsroom, we can normalize disabilities and talk about newsroom biases. Non-disabled journalists can write about disability—it’s a lot easier when you have a newsroom where disability is represented to do it in a strong, comprehensive way. 

How did the Society of Disabled Journalists come to be? 

When the COVID-19 pandemic happened, I started reaching out to other journalists that I knew that had disabilities, because it became really clear during the pandemic just how underreported [issues affecting disabled people were]—what we saw with nursing homes, institutionalized care facilities, how the medical profession was dealing with disabled people and how disabled people were being impacted by this pandemic. We realized that there wasn’t really a professional association for working disabled journalists. There are groups that work with disabled writers, but that’s a little different than a professional group for working journalists. 

It wasn’t until the initial chaos of the pandemic died down that we were able to actually start working on it. Back in spring 2023, we started a more concerted effort to reach out to disabled journalists. Once we launch, we’ll open it up to disabled journalists from all over the country.

What are some of the projects that the organization will be working on? 

What we’re hoping is to build a community for members, to be able to connect with each other and talk on a more regular basis. We would also like to launch a resource center on our website for disabled journalists about how to get through in the industry and deal with ableism or other barriers. We will also roll out resources for newsrooms themselves, on how to cover disability in a robust and fair way. 

We’ve talked about a speaker series: events where people can come and learn more about disability and being a disabled journalist. We’ve talked about a mentorship program—matching [younger disabled] people with [journalists in] different jobs that they might want to apply for. Also conferences and networking events where [disabled] people could more easily get a foot in the door in the industry. We want to build a [visible] pipeline [for disabled people] to becoming a journalist.

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