This is the Plain Truth Project. We are:

• Journalists

• Researchers

• Self-Advocates with Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities (IDD).

We want the news to be more inclusive. That means putting people with IDD front and center. Some ways we can do that:

• Using quotes from people with IDD in stories.

• Making news stories easier to read.

• Having storytelling events with the public.

We want to teach other people how to do these things.

In 2018, a woman with IDD was raped by her staff in Arizona. That story led to a year-long project about disability services in Arizona. That’s when we started thinking about making the news more inclusive.

We wanted to connect with the people who would get the most out of our story. We asked questions and listened to the community. Listening helped us do new things that have not been done in the news before.  We changed the way we wrote and shared the story to make it more inclusive and accessible.

Journalism has not done a good job including disabled people. We want to change that.

Right now, the Plain Truth Project is:

• Talking to people with IDD about the news.

• Making a guide for how to write the news so more people can read it.

• Making tip sheets about how to connect with your audience better.

Do you want to work with us? Visit our Contact  page.

The Plain Truth Project is a collaboration among journalists, researchers, and self-advocates with intellectual and developmental disabilities aimed at making the we deliver the news more inclusive. For us, this means promoting practices that center communities journalists often write about but have not always written for or with. From seeking out people with intellectual disabilities as sources to audience engagement strategies like plain language and Easy Read translations and public storytelling events, we are interested in developing and teaching best practices toward more just and inclusive journalism.

This project began after a year-long reporting project in Arizona following the 2018 rape of a woman with an intellectual disability living at a long-term care facility in Phoenix. We used the cornerstones of audience engagement (constantly listening and asking for feedback) as our bedrock. This enabled us to design journalism with radical new audience and engagement formats, everything from fully accessible theatrical storytelling sessions that inspired audiences to share stories with our reporters to plain language translations to make stories more accessible to people with IDD. In an industry where accessibility for all vulnerable communities is an afterthought — and especially so for disabled people — our work began a conversation we want to continue.

We are currently working on a number of projects, including a series of focus groups with self-advocates with intellectual disabilities about access to the news, a guide on plain and accessible language for journalists and tip sheets for audience engagements.

We encourage other journalists, self-advocates with intellectual and developmental disabilities, and researchers to engage, collaborate, and partner with us. Check out our Contact Us Page for more information on how to get in touch!