The National Center on Disability and Journalism annually recognizes journalists for their reporting about disability. The NCDJ, which is affiliated with the Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication at Arizona State University, invites nominations for the Katherine Schneider Journalism Award and the Gary Corcoran Student Prize for Excellence in Reporting on Disability.
The Schneider Award and Cochran Prize carry substantial prestige (and monetary awards, too). Here is a brief description of each from the NCDJ Web page about them
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.
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[T]he 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.