Disability is a form of diversity that must not be ignored in your newsroom. However, getting disabled journalists through the door is only one half of the equation. A newsroom must also be welcoming and accommodating to these journalists once they work there.
Hannah Wise, central region audience growth and retention editor for McClatchy, shares four tips on how to do exactly this, writing for the Reynolds Journalism Institute.
Make sure disability is shown in your diversity reports, she writes, and build in flexibility across the board. That might mean being open to changes to work hours, remote work and training procedures.
Make the process of requesting accommodations simple and encourage the formation of employee resource groups (ERGs). Her employer, McClatchy, added a disability ERG to give employees a dedicated space to share experiences and raise issues of inequity with newsroom leaders.
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