Equal Access Public Media to rebrand as Organization for Accessible Journalism

National nonprofit says clearer name will better communicate a focus on accessibility in journalism

Editor’s note: Equal Access Public Media is the publisher of the The Word. The Word reports on issues of accessibility in journalism, which includes covering its parent company. To avoid conflict of interest, reporter Beth McCowen worked with an independent editor, Even Urquhart. Urquhart is the founder and editor of Assigned Media.

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Equal Access Public Media will officially rebrand as the Organization for Accessible Journalism on Aug. 1, 2026, after leaders concluded the nonprofit’s original name was creating confusion about the organization’s work.

Leaders said the change is intended to reduce the time spent explaining the organization’s identity and allow more focus on the accessibility barriers affecting both newsrooms and public-facing journalism products.

The transition will include a new logo, website, email addresses and branding, alongside the launch of the organization’s new website, accessiblejournalism.org.

The nonprofit, founded in November 2023, provides accessibility training, newsroom guidance and journalism resources focused on disability access and inclusive design.

It was created following months of collaboration with an advisory council of disabled journalists. The original name — Equal Access Public Media — was intentionally constructed by the advisory council, word by word.

“Equal Access” reflected accessibility. “Public” referred to journalism’s public-interest role. “Media” represented the journalism industry itself.

But over time, said founder and Chief of Editorial and Accessibility Projects Stacy Kess, the organization realized the name was creating confusion rather than clarity.

“When we go out to give our 30-second elevator pitch, we spend a lot of time explaining what Equal Access Public Media is — the name, not the organization,” she said. “We don’t get a lot of time to talk about the great work that we do.”

That work includes accessibility training, conference presentations, the EAPM Style and Accessibility Guide and The Word, the organization’s monthly magazine focused on journalism and accessibility.

“While our name is changing, our mission is the same,” Kess said. “We remain focused on bringing accessibility to the journalism industry and to public-facing news products across the industry.”

“Part of accessibility, I think, is being clear in language,” Kess said. “And our name was not clear.”

A clearer identity

Kess said conversations about a potential rebrand had existed in the background for some time, but the organization’s small team had little space to prioritize it while managing day-to-day operations and funding pressures.

The idea resurfaced while Kess was recovering from COVID-19 earlier this year.

“We joke that it was my COVID fever dream,” she said. “But really it was because I finally had time to think about all the things I don’t normally get to think about.”

The result, Kess said, immediately felt more direct.

“Organization for Accessible Journalism just feels good,” she said. “It says exactly what we do.”

E. Simone Jenerson, the organization’s Chief of Operations, said the rebrand reflects the organization’s broader evolution from an ambitious concept into a more clearly defined operation.

“I think the rebrand is an outward reflection of a natural progression of where we were with EAPM,” Jenerson said.

Jenerson said the organization initially struggled to explain exactly what it was trying to build while balancing limited staffing and resources.

The organization’s early ambitions were intentionally broad, but leadership eventually recognized the need to define clearer priorities and more concrete offerings.

“We had to get very clear on what our offerings were, what we wanted to produce, never mind services, just what we wanted to be known for in the world,” Jenerson said.

The original EAPM name, she said, reflected that expansive approach but often made it difficult to communicate a singular identity.

“It was hard to discuss what we were singularly without the comparisons,” Jenerson said. “I think this rebranding allows us to stand on our own.”

The organization will spend the summer preparing audiences for the transition through banners, announcements and redirects across its current platforms. Existing email addresses and URLs will remain active and automatically forward users to the new branding.

Jenerson said the new name resonated internally because it simplified how the organization explained itself publicly.

“Hopefully the name helps and has weight and it does its work,” she said.

Accessibility beyond compliance

Kess said the organization’s work increasingly grew out of frustrations with how slowly many news organizations have adopted accessibility standards, both in newsroom operations and in the design of public-facing journalism products.

She pointed to ongoing barriers inside journalism workplaces, including inaccessible office spaces, rigid scheduling expectations and newsroom structures that often fail to account for disabled journalists, caregivers and those living with chronic illness.

“Journalists work when interviews happen. Journalists work in the field,” she said. “And yet we still have these structures that say, ‘Be in office nine to five.’ None of it makes sense.”

Kess also criticized the slow pace of accessibility improvements across many U.S. news websites, particularly compared with efforts in countries including Australia and the United Kingdom.

“Australia has been pushing accessibility standards heavily,” Kess said, pointing to accessibility work produced by the Australian Broadcasting Corporation and accessibility-focused resources developed by the BBC.

Kess said many U.S. outlets still treat accessibility as an afterthought — relying on overlays, inconsistent alt text or automated systems that can create additional barriers for audiences using screen readers or adaptive technology.

“If you’re using AI to do your alt text, you are using AI to do public-facing content,” she said.

Inaccessible journalism can exclude audiences who rely on screen readers, captions, flexible formats or accessible website design to fully engage with news coverage, leaders at the organization say.

Jenerson hopes the new name itself may encourage organizations and journalists to more directly question how accessible their work really is.

“I think the name in and of itself naturally prompts the next question: ‘So what does that mean?’” she said.

“For those organizations that are in fact curious, or those individuals that are in fact curious, I think there are natural questions that can come from this.”

“Equal access by eliminating barriers”

For Kess, the rebrand is also about encouraging more direct conversations around what accessibility actually means.

“There is an internationally accepted definition of accessibility,” she said. “If I were to pare it down to five words, it would be: equal access by eliminating barriers.”

Kess argued that journalism organizations have historically lacked a centralized effort focused specifically on accessibility infrastructure and practices.

“We needed an organization solely focused on accessibility in journalism,” she said. “There are organizations advocating for disabled journalists and disability coverage, but there was nobody focused specifically on making journalism itself more accessible.”

Still, she acknowledged that moving away from the original name carries emotional weight for the organization’s leadership and volunteers.

“There’s a lot of love for the original name,” Kess said. “We’ll always be EAPM at heart.”

The organization’s broader values, including its public-media-inspired philosophy, remain unchanged. Like many public media organizations, EAPM does not use traditional advertising on its platforms, instead relying on grants, underwriting and public support.

“When you go to The Word, you don’t have ads interrupting every five paragraphs,” Kess said. “We believe in that same public media ethos.”

Jenerson said the clearer organizational identity may also create more opportunities to expand accessibility initiatives while maintaining a narrower focus.

“Before it was, ‘Does this align?’ because EAPM was so broad,” she said. “Now it’s more like, ‘How deep do we want to go with this?’”

As the transition approaches, Kess said she hopes the rebrand ultimately allows the organization to spend less time defining itself and more time pushing journalism organizations to think seriously about accessibility.

“I want people to think about accessibility and how we apply it to journalism,” she said. “That’s the conversation I hope this sparks.”

Beth McCowen is a freelance journalist who specializes in women’s health and sport. Her work seeks to alter how individual journalists and the media as a whole approach and raise awareness of issues. Follow her on Bluesky at @bethmccowen.bsky.social.

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