How We Work
Who We Are
We're a group of (very) keen contributors who have come together to turn an idea into reality. As you’ll see, we’ve got mixed experiences and interests - probably just like you. Some of us have disability, others don't, but we're all passionate advocates for the community and we’d love to have you join us if you want to tell stories about disability too.
Here's a bit more information about the team . . .
Nic Stuart - Editor-in-Chief
Nic is a former ABC Foreign Correspondent who was badly injured in a car-crash in Bangkok. After years spent recovering he became a columnist for the Canberra Times and wrote three books on politics and the Rudd government. Nic is Editor-in-Chief of abilityNEWS.
Mick Barrett - Technical Lead
Mick is a specialist in community engagement using cutting-edge digital marketing techniques and Artificial Intelligence. He’s also a former winemaker, IT manager and surgical researcher, Mick has ‘moved the needle’ for abilityNEWS by bringing his high-end technical skills to solve our urgent e-newsletter needs.
Angela Deka - Creative Lead
Angela is the creative brains behind abilityNEWS, specialising in marketing and creative content strategy. With a background in Applied Psychology, and MA in Creative and Cultural Futures from the University of Canberra, she wears many hats - including mixed media artist, heritage and art conservator, editor and copywriter.
Athena - Community Lead
Athena is the backbone of our community building mission at abilityNEWS, and is currently building strong relationships with our diverse stakeholders to foster inclusivity in our messaging. With a Masters in International Business from the University of Canberra, she has experience in customer service and team management.
Catherine McGrath - Contributor
Catherine is a highly experienced journalist and broadcaster who is a trainer, speaker and facilitator who brings a long experience of living with a person with a disability to abilityNEWS. In addition to working as Political Editor for both the ABC and SBS, Cath was also the ABC’s South East Asia Correspondent.
Melissa Marsden - Contributor
Melissa is a PhD Candidate in Media & Disability at Curtin University. With lived experience of disability, Melissa is legally blind and suffered a traumatic brain injury at the age of six. Melissa has degrees in politics, history, and media. Her current research focuses on media representation of people with disabilities. She publishes regularly on her website Framing the Narrative and is active on Bluesky.
Contribute
abilityNEWS welcomes all contributions, from ideas to proposals to full articles for publication.
We are creating a community and aim to offer everyone the opportunity to participate in this space. We are, however, still developing this website and, as a result, there are currently simple resource limitations on what we can publish.
Do, however, please feel free to get in touch with us anytime at:
Style Guide
The following guidelines outline the style abilityNEWS uses to present items, together with the values and ethical code underlying our work.
General
abilityNEWS seeks to present accurate and complete news about disability issues without either offending or causing distress to any members of the community. We recognise that our community also includes a number of people who may be particularly vulnerable or have heightened susceptibility to be seriously affected or agitated by such stories.
As a core principle, our purpose is to provide news and information about disability. We strive to do this simply and accurately, with absolutely no gratuitous focus on extraneous material sensationalising what has happened.
As a core principle, and while ensuring our coverage is as accurate, complete, and necessary and possible, we will make every effort possible to avoid unnecessarily distressing our community.
As a core principle, we will endeavour to inform our audience of any situations where content is likely to cause distress, harm or offend, in order to minimise the likelihood of this occurring. We will do this through the use of warnings or advice. At times, however, it will be necessary to provide information that risks causing distress. In these cases an informed editorial decision will be made before the news is published.
As a core principle, we will ensure we provide information that Lifeline, on 13 11 14, offers confidential telephone crisis support.
As a core principle, and in order to ensure our audience doesn’t simply dismiss content warnings we will aim to restrict their use to serious cases where there is a real danger of harm.
Specific Guide to Style
We are currently working on a detailed style guide and will publish it here once adopted by abilityNEWS.
Content
The following guidelines represent an interim guide informing our journalistic approach to content that some people may find disturbing. We will continue to make a sincere effort to avoid causing offence or distress to anybody as we go about reporting what’s occurring in the world.
Warning about disturbing content
Unfortunately, terrible - and occasionally horrific - things happen. It is abilityNEWS’ job to report the world and so we are obliged to cover what is occurring, no matter how repugnant or distressing it may be.
This does not mean, however, that we aim to force it in anyone’s face. Many people may feel, quite appropriately, that they do not want to know about or see revolting stories or pictures. And nobody should be compelled to cope with the distress of stories or details they find traumatic.
We will always attempt to add particular content warnings to these stories. Nevertheless, our community should be aware that this may not always be possible and, because we are committed to reporting news, it is almost inevitable that some items may cause distress.
We are always happy to engage at an editorial level with anyone in our community about such issues and welcome such engagement and will always attempt, wherever possible, to use the most appropriate means of communicating stories and content. We do advise, however, that on some occasions it may be necessary to publish items that individuals may find distressing.
The 2022 Systematic Review from the (US) National Library of Medicine provides an authoritative and informed basis for abilityNEWS’ policy on content warnings.
On a slightly different note, although our community agrees about many issues this does not mean everybody shares similar agreement about everything. There are some issues (for example assisted dying) that remain highly controversial and on which people of good faith and intention may disagree.
We believe that publishing a diversity of views will allow all opinions to have the opportunity to be heard. We believe that by doing this we will enable proper debate to flourish and gently propel society towards a better understanding and shared future.
As journalists, we working for abilityNEWS are committed to dealing with all issues in as much detail as necessary; with as much restraint as appropriate.