On this episode we were joined by Stacy Kess to talk about disability and accessibility in journalism. Stacy is a journalist and the founder and head of editorial for Equal Access Public Media. She's a graduate of Indiana University and is based in Boston.
The mission of Equal Access Public Media is to make news more accessible to all audiences so that it is more inclusive of those with disabilities, chronic illnesses, and others with accessibility needs; and to make jobs more accessible to journalists with disabilities, with chronic illnesses, who are military veterans, and who are caregivers.
EAPM started out with two notions: News is a public good meant for everyone. Journalism must be accessible.
Here are some excerpts from the interview, which have been lightly edited and pared down. Check out the episode to hear the rest of the interview.
What are newsrooms getting wrong these days?
How most outlets are platforming their information these days. Social media tend to lack alt text, which is the No. 1 missing thing from media. Color contrast is the second missing thing, and then lack of plain language is the third. Those are the three big three that are audience-facing in newsrooms.
When you talk about plain language, what are you talking about?
So, plain language is something I champion a lot and I get a lot of pushback when I talk about plain language. People say, oh, you're dumbing down language and plain language is dumbing it down. And I say to journalists, now, wait a minute. Plain language is not dumbing it down.
When I went to journalism school, we were taught to write for the broadest audience possible, to use words that most people would understand. When I was in journalism school, we were taught to write to a sixth grade reading level. Now I know they don't teach that anymore, but we were told to write to the local audience or to the greatest possible understanding of your local audience and sixth grade was about the reading level that we were told to write to. We don't use a grade level in plain language. We say the greatest possible understanding and the local or common vernacular. Commonly understood language.
What is inspiration porn?
Inspiration porn is when you see an article that I guess my favorite example is 'homecoming queen, nominated because she's disabled.' We champion things like 'disabled person goes to the grocery store, yay, you went to the grocery.'
I go to the grocery store all the time, I'm disabled. I go do things all the time. Don't congratulate me for things I do every day, or things you do every day. Disabled people do lots of things. We're normal people. We're disabled by the fact that there's not ramps and there's not alt text and there's not all sorts of things.
We're disabled by the lack of accessibility in the world.
When you think about journalism, the institution, what do you think about and how do you view your place in it?
I see myself as a change maker and I don't think I always saw myself as that.
I think at one time I saw I saw myself as the head-down editor and now I see myself as a changemaker. And I think that moment came in 2022 when I started trying to get jobs again after five years off. I couldn't get a job and an editor told me, basically to my face, that it was disability (why I didn't get it). Now it's about changing things and it's not that I'm focused on disability. It's that I'm focused on accessibility. Disability justice and accessibility are two different things.
For me, accessibility is the thing. Because I see accessibility as such a big issue, and I saw so many, so much accessibility lacking. I would love to go back to being a head-down editor soon. I hope that. I make enough change in the next couple of years where I can just go back to worrying about the news and go through the morning budget meeting and decide on the day's budget and, grind out the day and that's it.
What's the most important thing for a young journalist to know about entering the profession?
Oh, I think I think it's a calling. I think journalism is a calling and you have to know that, you're going to miss birthdays and you're gonna miss holidays, and it's not always easy, but there is a pang in your gut that this is what you're doing. This is you. You are doing this for a reason. You have to do this. You can't stop doing this. You go out every day and you're pursuing the facts and there's nothing else you'd rather be doing.
You can donate to Equal Access Public Media at
Listen to the interview to learn more about the organization.
In 2025 we had a new episode each week and featured more than 60 guests. I don’t know that we were the most diverse journalist interviews podcast out there, but we certainly tried to be.
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A reminder to professors and teachers
You can find episode guides that you can use if you wish to integrate the podcast within your classroom. There are more than 50 available. Each one has suggested questions for discussion and activities a class can do.
I’m also happy to help you find an episode that would be appropriate for what you’re teaching. Reach out to me at [email protected].
Additionally, I’ve curated some of the 2025 episodes into groups. If you’re teaching a class or unit in any of these subjects:
- Investigative Journalism
- Feature Writing
- Covering government policy
- Social justice, immigration, and identity
- Local News
Check out the sets of episode guides that would be useful to you. I don’t have a good term for them, so I’m borrowing from Bluesky and calling them “Starter Packs” - sets of 5-8 episodes in each category that may be useful in your classroom.