www.diverseabilitymagazine.com DIVERSEability Magazine 35
DIVERSITY & INCLUSION
A
fter my leg was amputated in 1994 due to an accident as I trained for my third Olympic trials, my thoughts turned to my identity. I found work quickly. The United States Army Community and Family Support Center in Alexandria, Va., hired me as a sports specialist for the Armys World Class Athlete Program (WCAP). The accommo- dations afforded me to do my job were met with no resistance. For many people with disabilities, the road to sustainable work does not come easy. If the person with a disability happens to be a person of color, the odds dwindle even more when seeking employment. Since the signing of the Americans with Disabilities Act in 1990, the unemployment rate has barely made a tick downward. Still, over 70 percent of people with disabilities who desire to work cant. The 2021 Forbes article titled, Creating A More Accessible And Inclusive Workplace For People With Disabilities references the Top Strategic Predictions for 2020 and Beyond by Gartner, stating that, by 2023, the number of people with disabilities employed will triple due to artificial intelligence and emerging technologies reducing barriers to access. Meagan Taylor, a project manager at Deque Systems who has a pas- sion for dismantling systemic barriers to capital and opportunity, writes, Employees across industries are quitting their jobs. It is a job-seekers market, with more than 10 million job openings as of November 2021. Many of these job seekers have disabilities and were disproportionately impacted by COVID-related layoffs. Taylor notes, Not only is de- ploying accessible hiring practices the right thing to do - and a re- quirement under the ADA - but also might mitigate widespread labor shortages, connecting companies to a large, talented pool of applicants. Employers look to hire people with disabilities with a quota mindset rather than a best for the company mindset. Employers commonly be- lieve the myths that they must: Lower work standards to include people with disabilities. Backfill work because people with disabilities are more absent. Incur expensive accommodation costs. I noticed the significant lack of representation of people of color in the disability community when I was in Washington, D.C. and had just been awarded the Paul G. Hearne Leadership Award for emerging lead- ers in the disability arena. I received the honor of founding and building the Paralympic Military Sports Program for the United States Olympic and Paralympic Committee. One of the other awardees that night was TyKiah Wright. A brilliant Black woman who happens to be a wheelchair user and founder/CEO of WrightChoice, Inc. I noticed both TyKiah and I were in the minority within this minority population. That is when I realized there are diver- sity disparities inside of disability. After reading Joseph Shapiros book, No Pity, I recognized that the disability civil rights movement was birthed from the Black Civil Rights Movement of the 1960s. The difference between the two movements
Diversity Disparities in Disability: Accessibility and the Workforce
By John Register
was while Black Americans fought to sit anywhere on the bus, people with disabilities fought to get on the bus. When I speak with people who are currently able-bodied, they rare- ly see the disability community in terms of value add. It is glaringly apparent that there are vast disparities between people of color with disabilities and those of the majority population. Lets just take health care and couple that with health care in the United States. According to the Amputee Coalition, about 73,000 lower limb amputations, which are not related to trauma, are performed on people with diabetes. We know, as Dr. Jamila Taylor, the Director of Health Care Reform and Senior Fellow at The Century Foundation, points out that people of color face tremendous barriers to accessing adequate health care. The coronavirus pandemic brought the health disparity these communities must contend with into laser focus, says BNC News in their show notes from their episode, Government Aims to Eliminate Health Disparities, Achieve Health Equality. It is not hard to connect a diversity concern inside of disability. When building the military sports program, I visited injured veterans at Walter Reed, Brooke Army and Naval Medical Center San Diego. I saw a multiracial force healing together from wounds suffered overseas. Yet, in their rooms I could rarely find a magazine article or see a televi- sion ad that showed a balanced representation of all who sacrificed for
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