Access Press, Minnesota’s disability news source, is marking 26 years of providing news and information for Minnesotans with disabilities, their family members, caregivers, friends, and allies.
We recently celebrated 14 years of honoring the legacy of our founding editor, Charlie Smith, with our annual banquet. For 2016 the Access Press Charlie Smith Award was presented to longtime disability rights activist Clifford Poetz.
Poetz captivated the crowd with stories from his decades of activism. His main message was a call to action for people with disabilities, to continue fighting for their rights, needed services and the ability to live a full life in the community. Living that full life requires information from a wide range of sources, which is the role of Access Press.
Many people at the banquet, including Poetz, acknowledged the role of Access Press as a critical news and information resource for Minnesota’s disability community. Access Press is one of only a handful of news sources that strives to provide a broad range of information by and for people with disabilities.
Newspaper staff closely follows disability-related issues at the local, state and federal levels. The newspaper also prominently features the accomplishments of community members in the People and Places section. It provides information on a wide range of activities, from cultural happenings to community activism, on its Enjoy! and Events pages.
We are committed to our mission as a regional news source. Please help us to ensure that Access Press is fully available to our entire community with a financial contribution. Contributions before year’s end can be deducted for 2016 tax purposes.
As a nonprofit newspaper, Access Press can do a lot with even a small contribution. Just $30 covers the cost of a print newspaper subscription for a person who cannot otherwise afford the newspaper. Many of these readers received the paper in the past through direct support agencies, but as those agencies have cut costs, readers have lost the paper. Many of these readers aren’t able to travel to a newspaper drop site to get the paper and cannot read it online.
A $75 contribution helps Access Press pay for an article and photos from a freelance writer. A $100 contribution helps set up a new drop site. A $500 contribution would pay for a series of articles. One big wish on our list is to supplement our file photos but that would require raising $2,500 to $5,000.
If you can help, please contact Tim Benjamin at 651-644-2133 or access@testing.accesspress.org.
