About the Style and Accessibility Guide
This guide was initially built to maintain consistency across Organization for Accessible Journalism projects, news outlets, and media. It was also built to bring accessibility to our written and spoken language.
To bring news to a wider audience, language and design must be:
- clear;
- concise;
- accurate;
- and understandable.
In June 2025, the Style and Accessibility Guide was launched as a project of Organization for Accessible Journalism, open to all in media — and beyond — to use. At the time, it was housed on the main OAJ website.
In the fall of 2025, the Style and Accessibility Guide was moved to the current site.
About Organization for Accessible Journalism
Organization for Accessible Journalism was founded in Nov. 2023 by editor and reporter Stacy Kess.
OAJ is a media nonprofit dedicated to making journalism more accessible to inside and out to people with disabilities, chronic illnesses, who are veterans, and who are caregivers. The projects launched by OAJ focus on making news more accessible to audiences and newsrooms more accessible to journalists who have often found it hard to find and maintain jobs.
Now as chief of editorial, Kess oversees the day-to-day projects, ideas, and implementation at OAJ, including the Style and Accessibility Guide.
Kess works side-by-side with chief of operations E. Simone Jenerson, who manages resources, processes, and people across the different areas of OAJ.
Kess and Jenerson believe OAJ can transform news from a public good that reaches some to a public good that reaches most, if not all.
Stacy Kess
Founder, chief of editorial
Stacy Kess is the founding editor and chief of editorial of Organization for Accessible Journalism.
She is a reporter and editor with more than 25 years’ experience and a former registered nurse who has contended with life-long health issues. She is also a survivor of a head-on car-crash in 2017. The crash left her with a traumatic brain injury, unable to access news in a way to which she was accustomed for nearly two years. She credits this as the beginning of OAJ. Kess said this led her to her mission of decreasing the barriers for many of the 28 percent of Americans who can’t read, hear, see, or understand the news. Kess oversees editorial and media at OAJ.
She currently lives in Boston, Mass., with her husband, two dogs, and cat. She enjoys cooking, reading, and all things Boston.
E. Simone Jenerson
Chief of operations
With almost 20 years of experience in the digital product space, E. Simone Jenerson is a passionate and versatile leader who strives to create inclusive and accessible solutions that meet the needs of diverse users.
As the Head of Product Accessibility & Inclusion for Assessments at Aon, Jenerson oversaw the strategic roadmap, vision, and execution of innovative and user-centered assessment products that help organizations make better talent decisions. She is using this experience to oversee operations at Organization for Accessible Journalism.
Jenerson leverages her multidisciplinary background as a user experience researcher, technical business analyst, program and project manager, and developer to collaborate effectively with cross-functional teams, identify and act on opportunities, and drive action as the publisher, a role equivalent to chief operating officer, of OAJ. She has a unique perspective and a strong track record of delivering audacious and complex goals, while holding space for vulnerability and exploration.
OAJ is fiscally sponsored by the Alternative Newseekly Foundation. ANF supplies 501(c)(3) status and documentation for grant applications executed by the OAJ, provides oversight so grant requirements are fulfilled, and receives donated funds on behalf of OAJ.
Founded in 2002 by the Association of Alternative Newsmedia (AAN Publishers), the Alternative Newsweekly Foundation is a 501(c)(3) public charity dedicated to the promotion and support of independent journalism
ANF collaborates with the Black Press (National Newspaper Publishers Association, NNPA), the National Association of Hispanic Publications (NAHP), and AAN Publishers to advance the mission behind the Fund For Equity In Local News, a sponsored project of ANF that supports more than 400 Black and Latino-owned news outlets, local alternative publications, and online news sites.
ANF continues to work side by side with Association of Alternative Newsmedia (AAN Publishers) to support the core principles of the alternative press: Speaking truth to power, telling stories that would otherwise go untold, and giving voice to those who would otherwise go unheard.