NCDJ announces winners of Schneider and Corcoran Excellence in Disability Reporting awards

The National Center on Disability and Journalism (NCDJ) today announced the winners of the 2024 Katherine Schneider Journalism Award and Gary Corcoran Student Prize for Excellence in Reporting on Disability, recognizing outstanding reporting that illuminates the stories of disabled individuals worldwide. 

The Schneider and Corcoran prizes are the only national professional and student journalism contests devoted exclusively to the coverage of people with disabilities and disability issues.

"Every year, we see an increase in entries in these contests. That's a testament to the growing awareness of the importance of this type of coverage and the growing demand for it by the over 1 billion people globally who have a disability," said NCDJ Executive Director Pauline Arrillaga. 

The Schneider Prize is supported by Katherine Schneider, a retired clinical psychologist who has been blind since birth. This year's winners represent Schneider's hope that journalists will move beyond "inspirational" stories to portray the full lives of those living with disabilities. 

"I'm so pleased that there was a broad and deep field of contenders for the Schneider awards," she said. "The winners show excellence in respectful, thorough and balanced coverage of significant issues."

Schneider Award "– Large Media

The first-place winners in the Schneider Award Large Media category are Amanda Morris, Caitlin Gilbert and Jacqueline Alemany of The Washington Post for "Some disabled workers in the U.S. make pennies per hour. It's legal," a series about an obscure government program that leaves thousands of workers with disabilities making less than the federal minimum wage. Two months after the story ran, the U.S. Department of Labor proposed a rule to end subminimum wage practices in the U.S.

Like other NCDJ contest winners, the Post worked to ensure the reporting was accessible to people with disabilities, adding alternative text to captions and graphics and producing a podcast about the topic so that people could choose to listen instead of read.

Second place goes to Christie Thompson, Sydney Brownstone and Esmy Jimenez of The Marshall Project and The Seattle Times for "They Were in a Mental Health Crisis at a Hospital. This Is How They Landed in Jail." Their investigation explores how a law intended to protect health care workers in Washington state has led to prosecutions of people with severe mental illness.

The ProPublica team of Annie Waldman, Duaa Eldeib, Maya Miller and Max Blau placed third for "America's Mental Barrier," a series about the underreported subject of the struggle that even insured people face obtaining mental health care. 

Honorable mention goes to Abimbola Abatta of the Foundation for Investigative Journalism for "Inclusion or Exclusion? Vignettes of Students With Disabilities in Nigerian Higher Institutions."

Schneider Award "– Small Media

In the Schneider Award Small Media Category, the first-place winner is Lily Altavena of the Detroit Free Press, who, over a period of two years, investigated how schools for students with behavioral disabilities were called or were visited by law enforcement at far higher rates than

nearby traditional schools.

Natalie Eilbert of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel won second place for "The Nervous Limitation." Eilbert analyzed five years of lawsuits filed over the denial of long-term disability benefits claims and found more than one-third involved mental health conditions. Her reporting shows that while insurance coverage for physical ailments have expanded, coverage for mental health remains out of step with advances in understanding its causes, impacts and treatment.

Third place goes to the staff of the Disability Justice Project for "Rising Tides, Raising Voices," a film that calls for intersectional, inclusive, community-led solutions to the climate crisis, focused on Pacific Islanders with disabilities.

Honorable mentions were awarded to Rachel Litchman of Tone Madison and Helina Selemon, Shannon Chaffers, Damaso Reyes and Noy Thrupkaew of New York Amsterdam News for their stories, respectively, about inaccessible housing and the financial toll of gun violence. 

Corcoran Student Prize for Excellence in Reporting on Disability

This is the third year of the Gary Corcoran Student Prize for Excellence in Reporting on Disability, which honors the advocacy of the late Gary Corcoran, a wheelchair user from the age of 19 who worked to improve accessibility of housing, transit and public venues across Phoenix.

This award is supported by Gary's sister, Katherine Corcoran, who said her brother "would be so proud of these young journalists bringing these barriers and prejudices to light. This is excellent journalism." 

First place in this contest goes to Ella Robinson of American University for "DC fails to enforce its own law, leaving wheelchair users stranded." The story reveals how Washington, D.C., is failing to enforce its law requiring 20% of taxis to be wheelchair accessible.

The second-place winner is Daniel Nworie of Lagos State University for "Poor Inclusivity Efforts at LASU Expose Students with Albinism to Stigmatization." Nworie's piece reveals the way in which those living with disabilities are often subjected to bullying and ridicule.

Third place goes to Celeste Hamilton Dennis of the University of California, Berkeley, for "Counselors help seniors clean up, avoid eviction," which shines a spotlight on how hoarding behavior, an often-overlooked mental health condition under the Americans with Disabilities Act, can lead to evictions for vulnerable seniors. 

Honorable mentions were awarded to Chelsea Casabona and Surabhi Sundaram of Columbia University and Tilly Kennedy Griffiths of Stanford University. The Columbia team produced "Mettle," a short documentary following the life of a blind judo athlete on her way to the 2024 Paralympics in Paris. Griffiths explores what happens when airlines damage wheelchairs.

Winners are invited to discuss their work on April 17 in the First Amendment Forum at the Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication in downtown Phoenix. The event, which is open to the public, also will be live streamed.

About the National Center on Disability and Journalism (NCDJ)The Schneider and Corcoran awards are both administered by the NCDJ, which is part of the Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication at Arizona State University. The NCDJ offers resources and materials for journalists covering disability issues and topics, including a widely used disability language stylebook. To learn more visit our website here.