Be clear and concise with your ask.

When you reach out to someone for an interview, start by identifying yourself by name, and offering your pronouns (if you feel comfortable), the organization you're working for, and your position there. Include the particular project you're connected with, and how long you expect the interview to take.

Example:

"Good morning, my name's Audrey Homan (they/them), and I'm the accessibility and communications coordinator at the UVM Center on Disability & Community Inclusion. I'm reaching out to see if you'd be interested in being interviewed for our podcast. This interview should take no longer than an hour."

Include information about the project.

• Add a link to the website, if one's available, or attach a (fully accessible) flyer about it to the email.

Respect your interviewee's preferred method of communication.

Email is a great first step, and many people prefer to use email alone for correspondence. Other people prefer phones. If someone asks to follow up with a phone call, respect their choice, in case their preference is tied to a disability.

If their preference conflicts with your own access needs, explain what you need, and try to find a method of communication that works for both of you.

Offer accommodations by default.

• As you set up your interview, ask your interviewee for their preference in terms of the location. Their preference may be tied to a disability. For instance, a lot of people with physical disabilities have difficulty accessing transportation to external locations; can you go to their location? Or is it just easier to interview them via Zoom?
• If you're interviewing someone over Zoom, mention that auto-captions are available; would they prefer a live-captioner? Also mention ASL interpretation as an option.
• If you're meeting in person: 1) send information about parking options, and specific directions to the building or room, and 2) ask your interviewee if they'd like you to wear a mask. 

Example:

"Thanks for agreeing to speak with me. Would it work for you if we met over Zoom? Zoom has auto-captioning, but if you'd prefer live-captioning or ASL interpretation, please let me know."

Ask if you should send your questions ahead of time.

• Lots of people with cognitive or attention-related disabilities prefer to know the questions in advance, either so they can prepare their answers, or to make them less nervous about the interview. Other people can feel overwhelmed by it, or prefer to answer spontaneously. Ask!

Be transparent about payment and paperwork.

If you're interviewing someone for media, such as for a radio piece, or a podcast, recognize that their expertise and time are valuable. Whenever possible, pay people for participating. At CDCI, we pay people with disabilities and family member of people with disabilities a $60.00 stipend to come on one episode of our podcast. Based on research in the industry, we believe this is a median level of payment.

• As you ask someone for an interview, be clear about whether you can offer payment. 
• If you can, specify what you need in order to pay the person. Check in with your financial manager before reaching out to the interviewee. 
• If your interviewee agrees to the interview, you will need to send them a media consent form. Here's the one we use for CDCI: CDCI Media Consent Form (.pdf)
• Before you send over the consent form, fill out as much of the information as you can -- such as the purpose of the interview, how the interview will be used, and the name of your organization.
• When you send over the consent form, explain specifically what needs to be filled out.

Invite questions as part of the process.

• Create a space right from the start where questions are welcome. This could look like including a statement at the end of your email: "If you have any questions, please reach out!"
• This could also look like being clear about how the interviewee could change the interview questions themselves: "Let me know if there are any questions you'd like to skip, change, or add."

Assume everyone is busy.

If you don't hear from your interviewee right away, give them seven calendar days to respond before following up.

First of all, make sure you have consent in the moment.

Yes: consent. 

Even if your interviewee has already signed a consent form, at the beginning of your interview, doublecheck that they still consent to be interviewed. A good way to kick this off is:

"Thanks for joining me today! Are you still good to be interviewed? Does this time still work for you?"

Lots of people with disabilities need to adjust their plans in the moment to account for what's happening with their bodies at that time. Create a space that explicitly supports everyone's needs.

Talk directly with and to the person with the disability, not their carer

If your interviewee has a carer or ASL interpreter, you still need to speak directly with and to the interviewee -- unless their carer is the subject of the interview! 

Put the questions up where you can both refer to them

If you're interviewing the person face-to-face, bring a sheet of paper with the questions printed on them. If you're interviewing the person over Zoom, paste a copy of the questions in the chat.

Go through the questions in the order you originally presented them

However you shared the questions with your interviewee, stick to the order you gave them. Asking questions out of order can be challenging or even upsetting if you're working with some types of neurodiversity.

Give your interviewee more time to respond than you would in a regular conversation

This is a big one, because it depends on you becoming comfortable with what a lot of people think of as awkward silences. After you ask your question, don't talk. Don't interrupt. Sit quietly with an open, pleasant, encouraging expression and... just wait. 

Some people appreciate the time to gather their thoughts. Some people need more time to arrange speech, or get it to come out the way they'd like. Some people just have a different rhythm to understanding conversation. Give each question a lot of room to be answered. 

And when you think the person might be done answering, just to make sure: keep quiet. Give it a few extra seconds in case they are still putting some speech out there, or have an extra thought to bring in.

If your interviewee is blind or low vision:

They will most likely disclose this to you when you first contact them. If they do, start your interview by introducing yourself and thanking them for your time, then providing a brief visual description of yourself. Cover your gender, age, skin color, hair and eye color, and a brief description of your outfit. 

If your interviewee has hearing loss:

If you're meeting in person, remember to face them directly whenever you speak, so they can see your mouth and face. Many people with hearing loss like having the option to lip-read. People with other types of receptive language disabilities benefit from seeing non-verbal facial cues for understanding.

Let the interviewee know when you begin recording. And let them know how to get you to stop.

• Unless you're doing your interview in a live medium such as radio, you should give your interviewee explicit power to pause and rest during the interview. Even if you think it's obvious you're not live, introduce the option of rest to take "performance pressure" off your interviewee.
• When you begin recording, you can say something as simple as "I'm going to hit 'Record' now."

Example:

"I just wanted to remind you that I'm going to record this interview, but you should feel free to stop and take a drink of water, or a deep breath, a stretch, anything to be comfortable while we're chatting. You can also just pause and re-group if you want to re-think something while you're talking, or want to start again with your answer. I'm going to be editing this later, so I can edit out our pauses. Okay? I'm going to hit 'Record' now."

At the end of the interview, be sure to thank your interviewee for their time, and let them know what to expect next, including a timeframe for when they'll next hear from you.

A great final question to ask is:

"Is there anything I didn't ask you that you wish I had?"

This invites the person to further contribute and own their agency. They're your guest; give them the last word.

At the end of the interview, thank the person for their time. Then, let them know what to expect will happen next.

• To make sure that your interviewee has agency and consent in the process, ask them if they would like to see or hear a draft of the piece before you release it publicly. Not everyone does; some people may feel overwhelmed by having to examine their images or words, and other people will find that reassuring.
• Plan ahead and build time for this feedback loop into your production process. A good rule is to give the person three days to review the piece and get back to you with any questions or suggested edits. That's long enough for most busy people, but not so long that people are likely to forget.

Tell them how you're planning on editing the interview.

• Will you be editing it into a larger piece and pulling out quotes, or will you simply be publishing it as is?
• Are you editing for content, or FCC-compliance? 

Finally, tell your interviewee where you're planning on sharing the finished piece.

• Are you distributing this piece publicly online? 
• Are you publishing it in their hometown paper? Will this be on their local radio?
• Are you publishing nationally?

And when you do publish the piece, send a link or file to your interviewee, so they know exactly what's been published about them.