Sources

Now that we’ve discussed how to apply a disability lens in your reporting and framing (see Framing), it’s time to turn our attention to how to craft the best possible stories. And, as every journalist knows, a story is only as good as the sources you interview. This section will give you a head start on how to find the most useful and appropriate ones.

Before we get into the weeds about this, we should consider this question: Who is your best source?

 
Your best source is, almost always, a person who is directly affected by the disability policy you are covering or has the disability that you are covering — ideally, both. There are very few exceptions to this. Even better than finding one disabled source with direct experience of the disability or disability policy you are covering is finding two or three or 10 people. Even better than that would be to find disabled sources who have viewpoints and proposed solutions that differ both from one another and from those implementing the policy.
There are some times — fewer than you’d think, but some — when speaking directly to a person who has the disability that you are covering and who is directly affected by what’s happening in the story will not be possible. I can hear pretty much everybody start to raise objections now. We will deal briefly with some of these objections in this section, but let’s get the best practices straight first.

 
If you start from the premise that your most important job is to find primary sources who are affected by the policy that you are covering and if, from the outset, you do not assume that this will be impossible, your reporting will already be stronger than what is commonly done in newsrooms.