A database of news and information about people with disabilities and disability issues...
Copyright statement: Unless otherwise stated, all posts on this blog continue to be the property of the original author/publication/Web site, which can be found via the link at the beginning of each post.
Ken Davis's newsroom is much quieter than most others. There are no phones ringing, no reporters shouting. Even if there were such commotion, nobody would hear it. The one person behind the operation is deaf.
"My goal is basically to help the deaf community get the news," said Davis (pictured).
Davis runs a website called deafnewspaper.com, where he uploads sign language stories in video form. The former computer repair man turned journalist reaches an audience of over 140,000 people from as far away as Germany and China.
"One of the things that I focus on is deaf culture," said Davis. "A lot of people who watch our program are better served by that."
Deafnewspaper.com has everything from news, to cooking segments, and even warnings about scams on the deaf community. Davis says it started as an idea when he launched it six years ago. Since then people just can't get enough. "I was just playing with it at first as a hobby and deaf people from all over said, ''we want more."
In one sense the website, and technology in general, are tearing down communication barriers the deaf have long encountered. "I wish I would have had these things when I was younger," said Davis.
Now with the aid of computers, the Internet, and email, Davis communicates with a lot of people. He may not be able to speak with sounds, but all over the world those people are hearing him.
Beth Haller, Ph.D., is Co-Director of the Global Alliance for Disability in Media and Entertainment (www.gadim.org). A former print journalist, she is a member of the Advisory Board for the National Center on Disability and Journalism (https://ncdj.org/). Haller is Professor Emerita in the Department of Mass Communication at Towson University in Maryland, USA. Haller is co-editor of the 2020 "Routledge Companion to Disability and Media" (with Gerard Goggin of University of Sydney & Katie Ellis of Curtin University, Australia). She is author of "Representing Disability in an Ableist World: Essays on Mass Media" (Advocado Press, 2010) and the author/editor of Byline of Hope: Collected Newspaper and Magazine Writing of Helen Keller (Advocado Press, 2015). She has been researching disability representation in mass media for 30+ years. She is adjunct faculty in the Disability Studies programs at the City University of New York (CUNY) and the University of Texas-Arlington.
From KOAA-TV in Pueblo, Colo.: 
