ELORA – A new media style guide will increase accuracy, care and nuance of stories about disabled individuals and communities.
And it will be co-written by Elora resident and Centre Wellington District High School English teacher Alanna King, alongside Sarah Trick, the lead journalist on the project.
“I think our project will have a great impact,” King said.
She added she hopes the guide will result in more journalists telling stories that go beyond the struggles faced by disabled individuals and communities to “actually celebrate their lives as well.”
The Michener Awards Foundation Fellowship
King and Trick have been awarded a prestigious Michener Awards Foundation fellowship to support the creation of the style guide, which includes a $45,000 research grant.
General Governor Mary Simon presented the award to King and Trick during a ceremony in Rideau Hall in Ottawa on June 16.
The Michener Awards Foundation celebrates excellence in public service journalism, and the fellowship King and Trick received is the Michener–L. Richard O’Hagan Fellowship for Journalism Education, an annual award supporting projects that expand knowledge in newsrooms and advance and enrich the education of journalists.
“The fellowship is a really amazing thing,” King said in a phone interview with the Advertiser. “The award itself and the magnitude of that is quite surprising.
“I thought we were applying for a research grant – which it is – but the ceremony was above what I expected.”
The Michener Fellowship was presented by Governor General Mary Simon, middle, to Sarah Trick, left, and Alanna King for their media style guide on disabilities. Submitted photo
Though the money will certainly help, the benefits of winning the fellowship go beyond the financial windfall.
It has already opened doors for King and Trick by bringing recognition to their work and providing opportunities to network, King said.
“People are reaching out from all over the place to ask how they can support or get involved,” and after the award ceremony King and Trick had the opportunity to connect with “people who are like-minded and have experience we can rely on as we go into the project.”
Trick is a multiply-disabled and neurodivergent digital media producer at TVO.
TVO and Carleton University are partners on the style-guide project, and TVO will publish the guide next summer.
The guide
The style guide will “set the bar a little bit higher in terms of inclusivity” in the media, King said, and help journalists “bring authenticity to stories that will be impactful.”
It will centre disabled individuals “so they can represent themselves and those choices” regarding what language to use.
“If we start to position disabled people as part of every community – not as an other, but as part of the norm,” systemic change will take place over time, King said.
“Having a style guide means that journalists would have recommendations about how they would approach and form relationships.”
King noted narratives involving disabled people in the media are often presented in an ableist way, as if the stories “are for the betterment of able-bodied people.”
Disability representation is a “soft science,” she added, and the style guide will be regularly maintained and updated as best practices evolve over time.
“All we can do is hope to move that needle a little bit ahead,” King said, and the most significant impact will be the “discussions that come out of the style guide.”
