NDRP Media Guidance

NDRP funded projects involve diverse communities and, in some cases, sensitive experiences. This guidance reflects common considerations raised by funded teams and is intended to support accurate, safe and respectful reporting.

Centre people with disability as experts and leaders

• NDRP generally uses “people with disability”, while some people and communities prefer identity-first language such as “Autistic people”, “Deaf people” or “deafblind people”. Follow the preference of the person or project.
• Describe lived experience as expertise and leadership where that is the person’s role. Family, carer, clinician and service-provider perspectives are valuable but are not substitutes for the perspectives of people with disability.

Use rights-based, strengths-based language

• Focus on rights, agency, accessibility, barriers, supports, systems and what needs to change.
• Avoid deficit, tragedy, charity or “inspiration” framing, and terms such as “suffers from”, “wheelchair-bound”, “confined to”, “special needs” or blanket descriptions of people as “vulnerable”.

Be precise about the research stage

• These are commencing research projects. Use language such as “will explore”, “will test”, “will co-design” or “will evaluate” unless reporting established evidence or completed prior research.
• Do not present intended outcomes, proposed tools or hypotheses as findings. One person’s experience should not be presented as representative of an entire disability, cultural or community group.

Protect consent, privacy and safety

• Names, images, recordings, quotes and personal stories should only be used where the relevant project has confirmed informed consent and any required organisational or community approvals.
• Take particular care with children, people with justice experience, First Nations communities, refugee and migrant communities, and small or identifiable cohorts. Do not pressure people to disclose trauma, health information or other sensitive experiences.

Respect cultural governance and community authority

• For First Nations research, respect First Nations leadership, cultural governance, Indigenous Cultural and Intellectual Property, data sovereignty and project-specific approval processes.
• Avoid victimising or sensationalised framing, particularly in coverage of justice, restrictive practices, safeguarding and other sensitive topics. Use the project’s precise terminology.

Make the interview itself accessible

• Ask about access and communication requirements in advance. This may include Auslan or other interpreters, AAC, a support person, questions in advance, extra time, breaks or an alternative to a live interview.
• Speak directly to the person being interviewed and do not assume a communication difference means a lack of expertise or decision-making authority.

Project-specific checks: Terminology, consent and cultural protocols vary between projects. Please check with NDRP or the project media contact before publication if a story involves an individual participant, lived-experience story, sensitive finding or community-specific information.