The Best Tip: Ask the Expert - the person you are interviewing - about how best to provide their access.

Before the Interview
Ask the interviewee if they require any specific accommodation (Wheelchair access, quiet place, interpreter, etc.). If unsure about how to provide the accommodation, ask the interviewee.

Allow plenty of time for the interview. Some accommodations require additional time (for example: interpreters, speech boards, etc.)

Setting up the Interview
Place yourself and the camera (if applicable) at interviewee's eye level. If the interview will take place on a platform, and the interviewee has a physical disability, be sure there is proper physical access to the interviewing area.

During the Interview
When interviewing a person with disability, speak directly to that person and maintain eye contact rather than interacting directly with an interpreter or companion. Use the same interviewing techniques and manner as you usually do. Speak in relaxed, everyday tones.

When talking with a person with a hearing loss, be sure to face them and do not cover your mouth when you speak. Place yourself so that you face the light source and are not backlit. Make sure you talk when the person is looking at you.
When meeting an interviewee who has a visual impairment, identify yourself and others who may be with you. When conversing in a group, remember to identify the person to whom you are speaking.

Listen attentively when you are talking with a person who has difficulty in speaking. Be patient and wait for the person to finish, rather than correcting or speaking for them. Never pretend to understand if you are having difficulty in doing so. Instead, repeat what you have understood and allow the person to respond.

When covering an event where a sign or oral interpreter is present, be aware of the communication between an interpreter or real time captioner and the person using their services. Avoid walking between them or blocking their communication while taking a photograph. Often people who use interpreters are located near the front in a designated section. Remember, blocking this communication is like pulling the plug on the public address system.

Other Etiquette Suggestions

Focus on the person you are interviewing, not the disability.

Shake hands when greeting a person with a disability. People with prosthetics or limited hand motion usually shake hands.

If you offer assistance, wait until the offer is accepted. Then listen or ask for instructions. A wheelchair or other assistive devise is part of the person's body space. Don't lean or hang on a person's wheelchair.

Service animals and guide dogs are working. Do not make eye contact, praise, talk or pet the animal. It is distracting for the animal and owner.

The following tips from Reporting Diversity Handbook by the British Diversity Institute are also very useful:

People with disabilities —whether physical or mental — are frequently ignored by the media. When they are not ignored, they are usually written about as people to be either mocked or pitied. Reporters often discuss their problems and issues with doctors, government authorities and others without ever talking to disabled people themselves, so they have little idea what those affected are feeling and thinking about their own situation. This may have something to do with the fact that it can be hard to find people with disabilities to interview. People with schizophrenia, retardation and other mental and emotional difficulties have long been hidden a way, either at home or in institutions, because their families have been ashamed of them or have wanted to protect them from social discrimination. The same is true for people missing limbs or suffering from cerebral palsy, multiple sclerosis and other physical handicaps, especially since society has made little effort to accommodate their needs in education, the work-place and the physical infrastructure, such as streets and public buildings.

Another difficulty is that people with some forms of disability are frequently also members of other social groups viewed negatively by the larger society. Although anyone can become infected with HIV and AIDS, drug addicts, prostitutes and homosexuals who generally are not accepted as valuable members of society are frequently viewed as having the greatest risk.

Here are some things to keep in mind when covering people with disabilities:
----- First, make sure to cover them. And when you cover them, make sure to actually talk to them. What others tell you about them even if they speak of them sympathetically should be just the starting point for your material. You should make contact with disabled people themselves and ask them if what other people have told you corresponds to how they themselves view their situation. If there is a contradiction in what you hear, you can go back to the doctors or others who perceive themselves as experts and question them again.

----- Do not cover disabled people only in the context of their disabilities. Disabled people have interests, careers, and families like everyone else. If you come across people who have attained success as artists, politicians, or professionals in spite of having a disability, that might make a good story. Spend some time with them to find out how they overcame many difficulties on the path to success. Ask them what advice they might have for others in similar situations.

----- Be careful with language. Every language has its own set of words some insulting, some not-to describe people with disabilities. You may think that a particular word or expression is not hurtful, but you are not the best judge. If people with that disability tells you that they prefer to be referred to in some other way, you should seriously consider their request.

----- One important aspect of journalistic coverage of people with disabilities is the issue of access. Write a story about whether or not society is making an effort to allow people with disabilities to participate in important social activities. If it is not, why not? Is it a question of money, lack of political will, deeply entrenched prejudice, or some other reason? What kind of education and professional opportunities are open or closed to disabled people?

----- Explore the issue of whether, and how people with disabilities are forming groups or working with other non-governmental organizations to promote their rights. In many countries in Eastern Europe, for example, people with HIV and AIDS have created their own associations, both to find a way to support one another and to pressure the government and society to acknowledge their needs. In some areas, people with mental and physical disabilities, and their families, are demanding greater access to effective treatment. Find out what is going on in your region.

----- Make sure you know what you are talking about. If you are writing about people with HIV, for example, make sure you understand the difference between being infected with HIV and having AIDS. Make sure you understand how HIV is transmitted and how it is not transmitted. Journalists have a wonderful opportunity to inform people, but they also have a great responsibility not to misinform them.

----- There is a difference, for a journalist, between feeling empathy for people with disabilities and pitying them. If you feel empathy, it means you respect them as individuals because you have spoken with them, spent time with them, observed their lives first hand. Pity is often tinged with a condescending attitude that you, or others, know better than they do what they need. If you have formed opinions about the people with disabilities based on what people other than the disabled say about them, you are more likely to feel pity and are not yet prepared to write about their issues.

----- Because the disabled people are often hidden from society, it can be difficult to find people to talk to. The best approach to start is to contact groups and NGOs that represent them. Talk to the organizers to develop a general understanding of their concerns, and ask them to put you in touch with some of their members. You should also make sure to talk to others not involved with the group, who may have a different perspective or may offer more forthright or straightforward thoughts and opinions.

----- It is often true that stereotypes have an element of truth. There may be many beggars or homeless people among those without limbs but that is most likely because society does not offer them any other choices. Drug addicts may have a higher rate of HIV but that may be because they do not understand how to protect themselves from infection or do not have access to clean needles. The reasons for the association often have deep roots in society's problems, and blaming the people themselves is not the role of the journalist.