Disability Media Alliance

03/31/2026

A new resource for journalists and editors is launching this week.

Military Veterans in Journalism (MVJ) and Disabled Journalists Association (DJA) are launching Fix the Frame: A Newsroom Guide to Disability Narratives on April 1, along with a practical workshop series for journalists and editors focused on improving disability coverage under deadline.

Visit the hub page to sign up for the launch event and register for workshops (registration is open):

The Disability Narrative Initiative, led by Military Veterans in Journalism (MVJ) in collaboration with the Disabled Journalists Association (DJA) and other partners, supports stronger disability coverage by giving journalists, editors, and media professionals practical tools for better reporting, e...

12/15/2025

We are honored to receive a 2025 Disability Futures Fellow Nominated Award in honor of our organization’s work in the disability community. This is a one-time funding opportunity from United States Artists, supported by Ford Foundation and Mellon Foundation, as a result of an anonymous nomination process by artists who have received a 2020-2024 Disability Futures Fellowship.

This recognition reflects the disability-led organizations, collectives, and artist support ecosystems we’re in community with and our shared goal of building access, care, and sustainable infrastructure so disabled nonfiction storytellers can thrive.

Thank you to United States Artists for resourcing disability-led futures.

Alt-text: The image features a background of a light blue color melded with white and graphic dark blue lines intersecting and coalescing on the right side. Text reads: 2025 Disability Futures Fellow Nominated Awards with the logos of United States Artists, the Ford Foundation, and Mellon Foundation on the bottom

12/02/2025

On this Giving Tuesday, we’re asking our community to help us invest in disability-led infrastructure that supports disabled nonfiction storytellers around the world.

Your contribution helps us:
• launch a global map of disability-led media organizations
• build an emergency fund for disability-centered organizations
• grow global partnerships and leadership pathways

If you can, we invite you to support this work today.
Donate: https://www.disabilitymedia.org/support

If you can’t give right now, sharing this post is just as meaningful.

ID: A teal background with the Disability Media Alliance logo in a red banner at the top. Below it, a red box with white text reads “Giving Tuesday”. To the right, large white text reads “Invest in Disability-Led Nonfiction Media Infrastructure.” On the left and right sides of the graphic are large orange circular shutter-style icons.

11/06/2025

At the Hot Springs Documentary Film Festival Filmmaker Forum our Executive Director Ranell Shubert shared data from the Nonfiction Access Initiative (NAI) research that over 80% of disabled filmmakers are self-funding their projects, a number that reveals both exclusion and resilience.

"Disabled creators have been working outside traditional systems for years, not by choice but through necessity. In many ways, they’ve already been navigating the crisis that others are only now experiencing. In the process, they’ve developed new models of sustaining through mutual aid and collective organizing.

These are models of resilience that the sector can learn from, and it’s time to start looking to the people who have been surviving outside the system as guides for how we rebuild it.

So when WE talk about the future of documentary, I hope we look beyond survival. This is a moment to rebuild, to design systems where access is foundational, where funding is co-created with those most impacted, and where sustainability means shared power, not scarcity."

At the Disability Media Alliance, we are resourcing this innovation: supporting disability centered collectives, artist programs, and organizations that are building new, access-centered frameworks for nonfiction storytelling.



Alt text: A panel of five people sit onstage at the Hot Springs Filmmaker Forum during the session “Filmmakers Talk It Out.” The moderator, seated at far left, holds a microphone and faces four panelists who are mid-conversation. A large screen behind them displays the session title and list of speakers, along with logos for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, the Video Consortium, the National Endowment for the Arts, and the Hot Springs Documentary Film Festival. Audience members are visible in the foreground listening attentively.

Support this work today.
🔗 disabilitymedia.org

The 3rd annual Filmmaker Forum at Hot Springs was at its best when its attendees got candid about the industry’s unsettling present and uncertain future

09/16/2025

Meet our Executive Director, Ranell Shubert!

She recently joined Toni Bell on the What’s Up with Docs x DOK Leipzig Industry Podcast to share her journey, why disabled leadership matters in nonfiction media, and how DMA is building a well resourced future for disabled nonfiction storytellers.

Listen or access the transcript: https://www.dok-leipzig.de/en/whats-docs-feat-ranell-shubert-dma-star-baby

Want to support this work? Every donation helps DMA strengthen disability-led organizations, build global infrastructure, and expand opportunities for disabled nonfiction makers.

Give today: https://www.disabilitymedia.org/support



ID: DOK Industry Podcasts, Episode 2, What’s up with Docs feat. Ranell Shubert (DMA) Star Baby. Image description: Portrait of Ranell, a white woman with medium-length, straight brown hair and bangs smiles gently and looks directly at the camera. She is wearing a black blouse adorned with a pattern of small white and orange daisies, tied with a bow at the neckline. Also, portrait of Toni, pictured indoors with neatly styled Sisterlocks, parted at the top and cascading gracefully over her shoulders.

08/07/2025

Calling disabled leaders! Don’t miss this leadership development opportunity from our friends at Disability Culture Lab. Apply by Aug 22: https://tinyurl.com/DisabilityRising

07/28/2025

Happening Tonight!
Disability in Film on Turner Classic Movies: TCM
8PM ET / 5PM PT

Movies shape culture—and for too long, disabled stories have been distorted, minimized, or left out entirely. DMA Board President and ReelAbilities Film Festival: New York Director of Engagement, Lawrence Carter-Long returns to TCM for his fourth collaboration, co-hosting with Eddie Muller a one-night lineup that centers disabled perspectives and reframes how disability is seen on screen.

Featuring:
Compensation
Bad Day at Black Rock
Ship of Fools
CinemAbility: The Art of Inclusion

This is more than a film lineup—it’s a disabled-led reframing that reclaims space for disabled perspectives in film history.

Watch TONIGHT on Turner Classic Movies
More info: https://buff.ly/t8q0mx9

ReelAbilities on TCM

07/25/2025

Last week at BAM - Bogotá Audiovisual Market, board member Sebastián Díaz Mariño shared our mission to build global infrastructure for disability-led nonfiction storytelling. He’s also the founder of We Cam Fest , Colombia’s first festival focused on accessibility and disability in media.

From Bogotá to Berlin, Cape Town to Seoul, this work is global, and so is DMA’s community.

Access has no borders

Learn more at disabilitymedia.org



Alt text Image 1
Panelists speak in front of a projected slide that reads: “Disability Media Alliance is a global nonprofit building infrastructure to resource disabled nonfiction media makers.” Audience members are visible in the foreground.

Alt text Image 2
A diverse panel speaks to a full audience in a bright conference room. Behind them, a projected slide displays the Disability Media Alliance’s mission to support disabled nonfiction media makers.

07/22/2025

Access is not extra. Inclusion is not optional.

At Disability Media Alliance, we’re building a global ecosystem to support disabled nonfiction media makers—because we know that disabled storytellers deserve more than visibility; they deserve resources, community, and power.

We’re just getting started. I hope you’ll follow along and join us.
https://disabilitymedia.org



Image Description:
Text reads: Access is not extra. Inclusion is not optional. Disabled storytellers deserve resources, community, and power. DisabilityMedia.org. Image description: A yellow square image features a brown-skinned person with a long dark ponytail wears a quilted metallic two-piece ourfit. They have limb differences and are holding a video camera. There are a yellow shutter and a white viewfinder icon in the background, and Disability Media Alliance's colorful logo in the corner.