2025 Schneider professional prize and Corcoran student prize now accepting entries for disability reporting

Arizona State University’s National Center on Disability and Journalism (NCDJ) is now accepting entries for the 2025 Katherine Schneider Journalism Award and the Gary Corcoran Student Prize for Excellence in Reporting on Disability. 

The Schneider prize is the only professional journalism contest devoted exclusively to disability coverage. It is supported by a gift from Katherine Schneider, a retired clinical psychologist who has been blind since birth. Schneider wants to encourage journalists to improve their coverage of disability issues, moving beyond “inspirational” stories that don’t accurately represent the lives of people with disabilities. 

In the professional contest, winners will receive a total of $8,000 in cash awards in large and small media categories. First-place winners in each category receive $2,500 and an invitation to speak about their work at an awards ceremony at ASU’s Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication. Second-place winners receive $1,000, and third-place winners get $500.

For the fourth year, the Gary Corcoran Student Prize for Excellence in Reporting on Disability, which recognizes the best work by college journalists on topics related to disabilities, also will be awarded.

The Corcoran student award honors the life and advocacy of the late Gary Corcoran, a wheelchair user from the age of 19 who worked to improve accessibility of housing, public transit, air travel and public venues across Phoenix. Prize amounts are $2,500 for first place, $1,500 for second place and $1,000 for third place. Entrants must have been enrolled as a student at the time of publication or broadcast, and the work must have been produced via a university-affiliated publication, class or program. Refer to the contest entry form for more details.

The award is funded by a gift from Gary’s sister, journalist Katherine Corcoran, who said her brother “was a tireless advocate for accessibility in the Phoenix metro area.” 

Journalists working in digital, print, audio and broadcast media are eligible to enter both contests. Entries are accepted from outside the U.S., although the work submitted must be in English.

Entries for both contests must have been published or aired between Jan. 1, 2025, and Dec. 31, 2025. The deadline to enter is 11:59 p.m. PST on Jan. 16. There is no entry fee, and reporters may self-nominate.

The entry form for the Schneider professional prize can be found at Schneider Prize Entry 2025 and for the Corcoran student prize at Corcoran Prize Entry 2025. Entries are judged by professional journalists and experts on disability issues. Past judges have included PBS NewsHour anchor Judy Woodruff; Tony Coelho, former six-term U.S. congressman from California and the primary sponsor of the Americans with Disabilities Act; and Daniel Burke, former religion editor at CNN. 

About The National Center on Disability and Journalism:

The Schneider and Corcoran awards are both administered by the NCDJ, which is part of the Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication at Arizona State University. The NCDJ offers resources and materials for journalists covering disability issues and topics, including a widely used disability language stylebook. To learn more visit our website here.