Journalism & "Inspiration Porn"

"For decades, the media has tended to portray people with disabilities (or those around them) as inspirations or heroes—a genre of reporting known as 'inspiration porn.'” writes Wendy Lu in the Columbia Journalism Review. She says, "This emotion-driven journalism is the hallmark of inspiration porn" which was "popularized in a TED talk that the late Australian activist Stella Young gave in April 2014." She pleads with journalists to "consider where a story’s newsworthiness comes from and how it contributes to overall disability coverage." Read the full article here.

Obama picks Deaf Black Female Lawyer for White House job

The White House has a new person in the job to oversee its efforts on disability issues. Claudia Gordon moves over from the Dept of Labor where she dealt with potential discrimination by federal contractors to now work between the Obama administration and the disability community as the White House's disability liaison. Her new title is associate director in the White House Office of Public Engagement. The discrimination Gordon experienced as a deaf child in Jamaica compelled her to become a lawyer. Her family moved to the U.S. when she was a child. She attended New York's Lexington School for the Deaf where she learned sign language and later became the first deaf student to graduate from the American University's Washington College of Law. Gordon has worked for the National Association of the Deaf Law and Advocacy Center as well as the U.S. Department of Homeland Security.  You can learn more about Gordon at the White House website here.

Disabilities in the Workplace

About 20% of the population has a disability of some kind, according to the Census Bureau. Here's a breakdown of their place in the workforce:

• 48% of those with non-severe disabilities between the ages of 21 and 64 are working full-time compared to 63% of those without any disability.
• 82% of businesses have no programs in place for integrating people with disabilities into the workforce, according to a Kessler Foundation survey.
• The same survey found 19% of companies have a specific person or department overseeing the hiring of the disabled. When the foundation survey businesses and asked the same question in 1995, the percentage was more than twice that high (40%).