Access Press

One in four of us will, in the course of our lifetimes, experience life with a disability. More than half a million Minnesotans are disabled. Disabilities can be obvious or they can be invisible. Life with disabilities means many challenges. It can be difficult to find needed resources. Advocating for oneself can be daunting.

Access Press was founded in 1990 and exists to promote the social inclusion and civil rights of people with disabilities by providing a forum for news, features and commentary to benefit people who are often invisible and marginalized in mainstream society.

Access Press is also meant to serve as a resource for people with disabilities, their family members, employers, advocacy groups and other allies. We are Disability 101 for many people. 

In 1990, we didn’t have the Internet. We didn’t have social media. Having a fax machine was a big deal. Community organizing took the form of phone trees – when we’d call an assigned list of people and give an update. Or we had newsletters and later, newspapers.

Access Press was one of a group of neighborhood and community newspapers in the Twin Cities that became nationally known. We were among the first nonprofit newspapers in the country founded to cover issues important to specific urban neighborhoods, to BIPOC communities and in the case of Access Press, to the disability community.

Newspapers like Access Press gave communities a voice that did not exist in mainstream media. Coverage of disability issues in 1990 was largely limited to “pity stories” about disabled people. Issues important to our basic rights and our lives got scant if any news coverage. If there was coverage, we were not speaking for ourselves.

Again, one in four us becomes disabled in our lifetime. Disability transforms our lives, in ways we could not imagine. We may lose employment, housing and the ability to be part of our greater communities. Our news coverage provides information on disability issues that don’t get attention in mainstream media. And we are read by thousands of Minnesotans, including legislators, policy-makers and service providers 

Our From our Community section gives voice to issues and to people who are otherwise powerless. Here is one of their stories.

In 2024, one major issue in the national election was women's right to control and make decisions about their bodies. We published an article by L.A. Reed in July about the rights of people with disabilities to make decisions about their bodies, their housing, and their lives. 

Reed told the story of friends, all actively involved in disability politics for years, who, during the years since Covid, had become homeless, or ended up in group homes and long-term care nursing homes because they could not find personal care providers. They were forced out of their long-time homes--one after living independently for 25 years.

The friends in group homes said they have to give over nearly all of their money to the control of the facility. They have almost no control over their finances and many other aspects of their lives. Despite these challenges, Reed has stayed active, contacting the Metropolitan Council about the need for affordable, accessible, safe housing. And writing about the situation in Access Press.

This is what we do. And this is why it is important. But newspapers are at risk. Since 2005, the United States has lost one-fourth – 2,100 – of its newspapers. This includes more than 70 dailies and more than 2,000 weeklies or non-daily papers. 

That’s why your support at any level matters. Thank you.

Read the December issue of 
Access Press