With the event taking place on Wednesday 23 March, the publisher aims to improve the representation of staff with disabilities in newsrooms across the UK
Topics up for discussion among journalism diversity experts and leading journalists with disabilities will include the benefits journalists with disabilities bring to newsrooms, how to break into journalism, how journalism can be made more accessible to readers and much more.
Featured speakers include The Sun’s features writer Kate Docherty, junior journalist at The Times Georgia Lambert and more, as well as a keynote speech by writer and columnist at The Times Melanie Reid.
The event will be broadcast from a digital event platform and is open to trainee journalists, journalists with disabilities, university students, executive producers, jobseekers, managers and managing editors.
Speaking about the forum, News UK group chief commercial officer Dominic Carter said: “Alongside the wider industry, we want to learn how to be better equipped to recruit and retain people with disabilities and to take learnings from experts, as we continue to develop our products to make them accessible to all.
“This forum will enrich our business and beyond, with the knowledge to foster new talent and insight into how to make the media more accessible than ever.”
Will Gore, head of partnerships at the NCTJ and a speaker at the event, added: “Making professional journalism training accessible to all is one of the NCTJ’s core objectives. Supporting people with disabilities into industry is therefore an important priority and our work through the Journalism Diversity Fund and other recent projects bears testament to that.
“Of course, there remains more to do and we’re delighted to come together with other journalists and media organisations at News UK’s conference to share insights and discuss ideas for the future.”
Find out more information about News UK’s Disability & Journalism Forum event here.
