Best practices and ethics

We want to make sure that the storytellers you work with are portrayed as people, rather than sources of inspiration. Make sure this is embedded in your framework while planning this event. We caution against themes that only encourage stories of personal hardship or overcoming the disability. Your goal is to design this event in a manner that gives agency to the storytellers and allows them to share comfortably. This means picking neutral themes that aren’t necessarily related to sharing joy or despair. “Best Day Ever” would result in all-positive stories, and you want to avoid a prompt like “abuse” or “hurt” so you are not triggering anyone or encouraging them to share stories they might not feel comfortable sharing.

You don’t want to try to tease out horror stories to use in your reporting – that’s absolutely not the goal here – however, if someone does share something that makes you question their physical or mental safety, be sure to contact the program director you’re working with and depending on what they have to say, the storyteller’s guardian if applicable.

The purpose of this event is to engage people with IDD. Not their guardians, caregivers, teachers, or other surrounding relationships. Those communities have stories to share as well, but they get more coverage than people with IDD. We want to focus on these specific voices.

Just like any other community engagement event, we encourage you to be a community member first. Yes, you’ll still have your journalist hat on – but you’ll also hold the role of teacher. To that end, don’t push anyone to tell you anything, particularly anything controversial. If someone does share something that gives you concern about their wellbeing, you’ll need to consider how that should play out on a case-by-case basis.