Pittsburgh’s disability community organized a town hall inviting local media outlets to discuss how people with disabilities were, or rather, were not, being represented in news and entertainment. Almost no one was in attendance.
“PublicSource showed up, and the Northside Chronicle showed up,” Jennifer Price recalled. “But none of the other local outlets came at all, and that spawned a much bigger conversation about representation and what’s getting lost.”
Price, a former disability rights attorney who has lived in Pittsburgh since 2008, is working to fill that void through the DiME Network, a streaming platform available on Roku, Apple TV, Fire TV and mobile apps. Her mission is straightforward: to make disability representation authentic, normalized and reflective of real life, not just the limited narratives that dominate mainstream media.
Before founding the DiME Network, Price spent nearly a decade representing people with disabilities, which gave her a clear view of how structural barriers, including harmful media representation, shape public understanding.
Disabled roles were often played by non-disabled actors. Storylines revolved around “overcoming” disability or rendering it as tragedy. Price calls this the “medical model,” where disability is framed as brokenness or something to fix.
She also had personal motivations.
“I have a family member who’s deaf,” she said. “I have a best friend from high school who’s brother is schizophrenic. My cousin has never been able to see himself on TV represented.”
When COVID hit, Price saw an opportunity to transition into media. After learning about an independent TV station in Texas, she realized, “If they can do it, I can do it,” and began building an alternative.
Hollywood’s approach, Price said, often strips away nuance.
“They cast non-disabled actors to play disabled roles,” she said. “And the storylines tend to center around overcoming the disability.”
Even when the casting is authentic, the storytelling rarely is.
“There wasn’t anything showing the full spectrum,” she said. “Whether you’re frustrated over your disability or just being happy and you just happen to be someone living with a disability.”
At DiME, Price focuses on employing actors, consultants and creatives with disabilities. She also differentiates between “disability 1.0” content — awareness-focused stories for non-disabled audiences — and “disability 2.0” content, which speaks directly to disabled viewers.
“Disability 2.0 says: ‘I see you, and I know what you’re going through because I’m going through it too.’”
DiME features many types of content: short films, interviews, comedies and more. Out of all the content produced, Price seems most excited about sports coverage.
“From a watch-time perspective, what’s gaining more traction is sports,” Price said. “And that’s the direction I really wanted to get into anyway.”
Adaptive athletics such as wheelchair basketball and sled hockey are played year-round but usually only receive mainstream visibility during the Paralympics. Price sees that as a missed opportunity.
“People want more than that,” she said. “These sports are being played all the time.”
DiME is now developing partnerships with teams across the country. It’s working on a docuseries with Eastern Washington University’s wheelchair basketball team and coordinating livestreams with local and regional wheelchair basketball organizations. Price also hopes to cover Pittsburgh-area programs like Three Rivers Adaptive Sports and the Mighty Pens sled hockey team.
Building a team of sideline reporters, especially reporters with disabilities, is another future goal.
“There are almost no sideline reporters in adaptive sports right now,” she said. “It would give the whole experience a real upgrade.”
Price expected challenges launching a specialty streaming network, but not the one she encountered most often.
“The number of people who told me I should turn this into a nonprofit was shocking,” she said. “I realized I was running into a mindset that disability should always be associated with charity.”
She firmly rejected that pressure.
“I intentionally wanted to keep it for profit because I firmly believe in the buying power of the disability community,” she said. “They’ve been underestimated.”
The broader challenge is reshaping how people think about disability on screen.
“When people turn on the TV and see disabled actors, I want it to feel normal,” she said. “Disability is the one minority group anyone can join at any time. It’s part of the human experience. Our media should reflect that.”
DiME’s growth has created space for actors, editors, videographers and journalists with disabilities to get involved. Price specifically emphasized the need for more news reporting by and about the disability community.
“We’d love to have regular news,” she said. “News in the disability community, or news affecting the disability community. It’s a gap in coverage.”
She encourages media professionals with disabilities to reach out directly at [email protected].
Price envisions a media landscape where disability appears naturally, not framed as inspiration, tragedy, or something exceptional, but as part of everyday life.
The DiME Network’s ultimate goal is to cultivate an environment where disabled audiences not only see themselves on screen, but feel seen accurately, authentically and without limitation.
