In Spain, there are nearly 4 million people with disabilities, according to the National Statistics Institute. Of these, 1.8 million are of working age, but the unemployment rate is double the national average.
In addition, when facing disinformation, they encounter a third risk factor: informational barriers and the lack of accessibility in many media contents for people who are blind, deaf, or have intellectual and developmental disabilities.
For this reason, Maldita.es and Servimedia, which belongs to the ONCE Social Group, are joining forces by combining their knowledge and experience to detect hoaxes and create content aimed at combating the risk of disinformation among people with disabilities, who often face social and labor discrimination due to their physical, mental, or sensory conditions.
These specific contents will be produced using Maldita.es’ verification methodology and will be distributed through television programs with subtitles and sign language interpreters, podcasts designed for people with visual impairments, and videos in easy-to-read formats for people with intellectual or developmental disabilities.
This project also involves the collaboration of the Spanish Society of Immunology, the Spanish Association of Vaccinology, and the Spanish Society of Epidemiology. Their experts will contribute their knowledge to the verification of information and participate in other outreach activities.
The project is supported by the Google News Initiative as part of a $3 million open fund aimed at enabling journalists to play a key role in combating vaccine-related disinformation through more and better fact-checking.
The Servimedia and Maldita.es project was selected from 309 applications from 74 countries by a jury of experts and a team of 17 evaluators. Other awarded projects included Chequeado, Africa Check, Agência Lupa, La Diaria, Factcheck.org, Univision, and Verificat.cat, among others.
In addition to this project with Servimedia, Maldita.es is also part of the LatamChequea network, coordinated by Chequeado, which was also selected in this initiative to carry out a project aimed at older people, indigenous populations, and young people aged 18 to 26.
Servimedia was founded in 1989 and is the leading news agency for social information in Spain. It belongs to the ONCE Social Group and produces more than 45,000 news wires each year, distributed to major media outlets, public institutions, large companies, and third-sector organizations. More than half of its staff are people with disabilities, making it a unique example of inclusion in the sector.
Maldita.es is Spain’s first media outlet specialized in fact-checking. Since 2018, it has been a signatory of the International Fact-Checking Network’s code of principles and has a team of around twenty journalists specialized in fighting disinformation, science, data, and media literacy.