How my daughter changed my reporting
By Amy Silverman
By the time my second daughter was born , I ’ d been a journalist for more than a decade . As a general assignment reporter at the local alternative newsweekly , I didn ’ t have a beat . I could pitch anything .
But as I looked at Sophie , tiny in her hospital bassinet , I realized that I had never written about Down syndrome . I had never met a person with Down syndrome . I wasn ’ t even sure what it was .
That changed , slowly . For a long time , I couldn ’ t do any research , didn ’ t meet families of other kids with DS , couldn ’ t bear the thought of what might be coming . Sophie was teaching me what I needed to know . And then one day I was talking to my boss at the time , and shared a story idea about Down syndrome that I had handed to a colleague .
“ You need to do that story yourself ,” he said .
“ I can ’ t , because of Sophie ,” I said .
“ She ’ s why you need to do it .”
So I wrote a story about a family in a Phoenix suburb that had three biological children with Down syndrome – then shared my own . As she grew , Sophie gave me idea after idea . I reported stories about charter schools that pushed out kids with disabilities and a Special Olympics program that put high school students with intellectual and developmental disabilities ( IDD ) on teams with typical peers with the goal of true integration .
Now that Sophie ’ s grown , I find myself increasingly interested in the lives of adults with IDD . This reporting isn ’ t easy – and not only because people are afraid to talk and the state doesn ’ t want to give up records . Every time I hear a new horror story , I imagine Sophie in the same position . I know I ’ m not alone . As journalists , we can ’ t help but bring our hopes , fears and life experiences to our reporting .
To be honest , I hate it . So does Sophie . During the pandemic – with the whole family locked in the house together – she ’ d often wander into the kitchen where I was on a work call and hold up a pad of paper . “ To much ,” she wrote .
She ’ s right . It ’ s too much . And yet , it ’ s never enough . While there has been more awareness recently of the need to cover the disability community , journalists still aren ’ t always interested in covering people with intellectual and developmental disabilities . I get it . It can be hard to understand people with IDD , if they communicate at all . Family members are often hesitant to speak , or they have too much to say . Sometimes they ’ re not around . It ’ s delicate , messy work .
And too often , we either write stories about unimaginable tragedies or heartwarming events , like a girl with Down syndrome getting asked to her prom by the captain of the football team .
What about the grays ? Like the rest of us , people with IDD don ’ t simply have good or bad lives . Usually , it ’ s a mixed bag . That is what drew me to this story – I want to show the real lives , including both the joys and struggles , of people with
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