Disability Inclusion Programming

Discussing Disability & Driving Change

Background/Vision: 

Build Belonging seeks to deepen the D&B learning of our employees by producing thought provoking content that tackles one topic per quarter. 

This quarter, we want employees to better understand disability as an important aspect of diversity. We want to elevate the voices of the disability community and outline the opportunity we have to create real and meaningful accessibility. 

Goals: Three things we want people to leave with:

1. Awareness of the spectrum of disabilities- incl. non-visible disabilities, chronic illness, neurodiversity, etc. 
2. Insight into what accessibility looks like in action
3. Intention to be an effective ally to the disability community

Series of pre-recorded talking-head style videos of current employees interwoven into event hosted by MTH. Between some sections, have MTH share reflections and insights.

Introduction:

MTH: (Length is approx 4:00)

• Thank you for attending. 
• It’s been a while since I’ve seen many of you. I’m Melissa, affectionately known to most of you as MTH. My pronouns are she/her.
• For over two years, I had the pleasure of leading the Diversity & Belonging team here and I am still actively involved in our ongoing Research on Connection & Belonging and D & B initiatives.
• For our low-vision viewers, I wanted to take the time to share that I’m a Black woman with a half-updo hairstyle and a black top with white scarf. I’d like to say that I’m invoking my hometown NYC chic, but in reality I found a Zoom background that I like and black and white attire works well.
• I join you as we’re wrapping up Disability Employment Awareness Month
• This is an important and perhaps historically neglected conversation at the company and more broadly but we’re beginning to remedy that
• Disability inclusion is global and intersectional. Impacts us all. 
• Even though more than 15% of the world population has a disability, it’s often not discussed in public discourse
• It’s nuanced and it’s deeply personal

• On that note, I wanted to set an expectation at the outset.
• Today, one of our goals is to broaden our mindset about the spectrum of disability.
• We’ll talk about neurodivergence, non-visible disabilities, chronic illness and so on.
• And while it may feel like we’re defining what is and isn’t a disability for the purposes of this event, we are also very conscious that individuals may not personally consider themselves to be disabled. They may also choose different language to describe how they move through the world.
• And we approach this event with that in mind, fully respecting people’s choice to identify in any way they choose. 
• The goal of today is that we want everyone to leave thinking about how they can make a difference by being more inclusive in their every day—to move beyond the well-intentioned, but often hurtful, assumptions and categorizing people.
• Let’s all think about how we can be better at listening, be more open to learning, and better at asking thoughtful questions. 
• And above all, how can we respect each other as multi-dimensional individuals who are diverse in their perspectives, particularly as we engage in 2 dimensions?

• During today’s event we’ll hear from a range of people through video segments. 
• And in between, I hope we can reflect on our own journey
• We can certainly not do justice to everyone’s story in 1 hour.
• I sincerely thank our participants for their candidness. It takes courage to share on a global stage. We have a history of our people demonstrating vulnerability that allows us all to connect more deeply with one another and grow from it
• I hope you’ll honor their contributions by engaging today and even more deeply after this event.
• Finally, I have one housekeeping detail. We are mixing the format of this event and will be bringing many of your colleagues from around the world to you on pre-recorded video. When I am speaking, you may find that the live broadcast closed-captioning might obstruct your view. You have another closed-captioning option for the videotaped segments. 
• During the pre-recorded videos, you may wish to switch to the embedded closed-captioning instead. You will do this by clicking the white circle marked cc in the lower right-hand side of your computer screen and turning off the live closed-captioning.
• This inconvenience is another reminder that, yes, disability inclusion is still a journey here as in so many workplaces. Our consideration and incorporation are not yet seamless.
• And with that, “Take it away, James.”

Video section 1: Defining Disability (Length is 10:03)

This section features assorted members of Able@ speaking to a wide range of disabilities incl: non-visible, chronic illness, physical disabilities and neurodivergence.

• Interview questions for video participants:
  • Tell me about the part of your identity that connects you to the disability community
  • Walk us through a typical day in your life. How do you experience the world- and how do you feel like the world experiences you?
  • Many definitions of disability are centered around the premise of INABILITY. Is there a definition that you personally prefer?
  • Where relevant
    • What is it like having a non-visible disability?
    • Often disabilities co-exist and make for exponential challenges. Can you tell us how this shows up for you?

MTH: (approx. 40 seconds)

• Talking about this is why we are here today. Thank you for sharing your stories.
• Without real attention to the voices of the disability community, we risk what has been called “disability invisibility.” People being relegated to the sidelines.
• If we don’t take the time to stop and listen, we can’t begin to understand. 
• That lack of comprehension can lead to misconceptions that can become hard to shake.
• In this next segment, you’ll hear about what that looks like in practice and what it means for those who feel misunderstood. 

Video section 2: Misconceptions (Length is 5:20)

Interview questions for video participants

• What misconceptions do people have about your disability?
  • Potential themes: tragedy, inspiration, special, look “normal”, incapable
• What do you wish that people would understand about your disability or those of others?

MTH: (approx 4:45)

• Let me pause on Rico’s last point.
• It is an important one to bear in mind as we explore disability as one facet – not the totality of- a person’s identity.
• We know that those other aspects of identity can also come into play in the everyday life of a person with disabilities. The world may not treat all forms of disability equally and it may not treat disabled people with multiple, intersecting identities equally.  
• I’m thinking about another story of intersectionality, one that was referenced in a book called “Demystifying Disability.” 
• Neal, who identifies as a Black, queer, physically disabled man, is a wheelchair user. He recounted the surprise that many people expressed when he would discuss his medical history. What they had assumed, when they first saw Neal in his wheelchair, was that his spinal cord injury was the result of gang or gun violence, rather than a congenital condition.
• They call it intersectionality for a reason. 
• One person with a disability can be perceived in multiple ways based on the layers of their identity.
• There’s another story that I’d like to share.

• It’s a personal one about diversity and disability.
• I want to take you back in my time machine to 2017. 
• At the time, I was about to start a new role as the Vice Provost at Vanderbilt University.
• And it turned out that everyone- people within the administration and the school community at large- was talking about a young man I’ll call Bryan S. 
• I was not yet aware of him, because I had not started. One faculty member wrote to me after my announcement and gave me a head’s up. 
• Bryan was a highly involved Vanderbilt senior poised to graduate within days who had gotten a coveted job at Microsoft and had been born with a visible disability. He had recently written an Op-Ed piece for the Washington Post.
• In that piece, he called out Vanderbilt as a top university for disability research- and also a place where students with disabilities felt isolated and marginalized, despite loving the university. They expected more.
• He rightly pointed out the difference between institutional compliance with federal standards surrounding disability and true inclusivity. Compliance, he said, allowed him to survive on campus. Thriving there had eluded him.
• And then he spoke to a painful irony. 
• Bryan noted that in the few years prior, Vanderbilt had invested heavily in diversity and inclusion, including the appointment of the university’s first Chief Diversity Officer and the creation of the Office of Social Justice and Identity.
• Despite all of that momentum, the university, in his words, “continued to relegate disability to simply being a compliance issue.”
• I realized very quickly that disability was being left out of the diversity and inclusion discussion in a big way. Needlessly so.
• I was so moved by Bryan’s story that I reached out to learn more.
• Even though I “thought” I knew about some of the challenges of access and understanding that people with disabilities face, those personal conversations with Bryan brought me meaningfully further in my own learning journey and my own acknowledgement of the presence of disability in my own family and in my own physical experience- but the absence of discussion or acknowledgement. 
• Between then and now, I’ve stayed in touch with Bryan. 
• And I’ve brought into every workplace I’ve been in since then a level of clarity about just how far behind many spaces and places are when it comes to disability inclusivity. 
• To be clear, this is not an area of expertise of mine though I do feel a connection to the community. I’ve learned more about my family and myself by opening my own aperture.
• I’m clear that we have to move beyond compliance, and build the level of accessibility that creates belonging. Not for the benefit of those who identify as members of the community but for all of our benefit.  
• We lose in a community that does allow all to thrive.
• So, I remain committed to moving the needle in the workplace to help create that.
• What I heard, crystal clear, from Bryan back then was that disability deserved a real place under the diversity tent.
• And that’s what reverberates for me now when I listen to the following voices…

Video section 3: Disability as an aspect of diversity (Length is 4:33)

Interview question for video participants

• People often talk about diversity without naming disability as one aspect of diversity. Why do you think that is? 

MTH: (approx 4 minutes)

• I’m going to ask YOU to stop for a moment and consider: How can we each help move discussions of disability away from a place of exclusion or stigma?
• This may not be an easy question to answer, but we can start thinking about it now and even if we cannot fully answer, we will be further along than we were before.
• While you are thinking, allow me to share.
• Earlier, I mentioned learning more about my own family as I advanced in my disability learning journey.
• There had long been a sad but familiar story in my family history, one of close sisters becoming disconnected over the span of years. The stories varied depending on which of the two sisters you were speaking with. But the brunt of it was always the same.
• “How could she?!” would say the one sister who felt she had been slighted again and again by certain abrupt behavior on the part of the other. There were expectations of normative behavior that the second sister did not meet. 
• The story from the other sister was one of confusion and hurt. “Why is she ignoring me?” That sister knew from experience that her behavior was regularly misunderstood by the world at large. 
• People who didn’t know her tended to assume bad intent when there was, in fact, none. As she herself would tell her loved ones, people could feel mysterious. They didn’t say what they meant and their interactions seemed to follow unwritten rules. But she couldn’t bear it that her own sister would leave her feeling marginalized.
• I wish I could say that this chapter in my family history had a happy ending, but it didn’t. 
• My aunt lived a rich and fulfilling life on the spectrum, but one in which her sister played an ever-smaller role.
• This is a story that I hear more of these days, sometimes with a belated flash of recognition that it was not just personality differences that played a part in a family division. It was a more fundamental misunderstanding.
• At this point in the program, I want to flag a term that I see as a necessary part of the conversation about disability and inclusivity. That term is ableism. 
• Ableism is discrimination or prejudice against disabled people or, conversely, a preference for abled people. 
• It’s devaluing bodies and minds that are perceived to move, process or operate differently.
• Ableism can be conscious or unconscious, individual or systemic. 
• It can take many forms- including making people with disabilities the object of one’s pity or scorn or, conversely, finding their ordinary daily existence somehow extraordinary, “inspirational” even.
• It can exist in our language like “blind spot” vs unseen area, “lame” vs boring/uncool or “crazy” & “insane” versus wild or unpredictable.
• This is not easy. I am on my own journey to eliminate ableist language from my speech.
• In a former job, we had committed to promoting an inclusive approach to disability. I wanted ableist language to be included. A very wonderful team member looked at me and said, “Melissa, I think we need to start practicing in our own office.“ The subtext, gently delivered, was that I had my own work to do.
• Ableism can also look like inaccessibility, like barriers to participation and engagement.
• On the societal level, it can mean expecting people with disabilities to change to fit the environment, rather than figuring out how we can change the environment to better fit everyone in it.

• I want to give you a little background on a shift in the paradigm, a move from outdated ways of thinking of disability to more progressive thinking that puts the onus of change on the system, rather than the individual.
• [H], one of our wonderful Able@ co-leads, was gracious enough to share this breakdown.

H on frameworks for thinking about diversity (Length is 3:44)

MTH: (approx. 1 minute)

• Being deliberate and intentional about disability inclusivity is important everywhere.
• And it is of critical importance here at this company, where our mission is to drive connection and belonging.
• The people who use our listings may be doing so for business travel, or they may be reuniting with friends and family. The homes where they stay should be an accelerator for connection, open and inviting for travelers of all abilities.
• And that’s not all. Those who come to our platform should be able to navigate comfortably and find the listings that meet their needs. 
• Product and platform both should lead with inclusivity
• And so should our workplace
• We asked our speakers about the opportunity that this company has to make an impact.
• This is what they shared.

Video section 4: Why is this important at a company level and where can we have an impact? (Length is 4:41)

Interview questions for video participants

• What is the opportunity that we have to make our product inclusive for those with disabilities? 
• Why is digital accessibility important and what work do we still have to do?

(Includes a quick video overview of accessibility work by CC)

MTH: (approx 1:30)

• This is important work and I’m energized by it. 
• But know that each and every one of us can play a role in furthering accessibility and inclusivity.
• Much like my former team member shared with me, I had my own work to do internally on ableist language. We all need to work on ourselves. 
• When we hold ourselves and one another accountable, genuine progress will take place AND we will be better poised to have that translate into accessibility and a welcoming of the broad disability community on our platform. 
• With all my teammates holding ourselves accountable, we all made progress. In a new environment without partners in the journey. 
• I know that my language has rolled back. 
•  We all have to commit to this path of embracing disability as a facet of our commitment to advancing diversity and belonging
• One of my favorite parts of these Build Belonging conversations is the how.
• We need to figure out how we can do better individually and as a society. 
• At the end of the day, we want to not only advance the conversation about inclusion, but to back it with practices and actions.

• As people with or without disabilities, we all need accommodations of one type or another. 
• It’s of the utmost importance to ask the question- What do you need to thrive?- and truly listen to the answer.  

{Cue the tape with N starting}

Video section 5: Taking Action (Length is 7:06) 

• What kind of resources or support- beyond good intentions- do you most need to help you live your fullest, most wide-open life?
• What does being an ally for the disabled mean to you? 
• How can we amplify and elevate the voices of the community? 

MTH wrap-up: (approx 30 seconds)

• Hope you’ve been enlightened and empowered by this crucial and perhaps overdue conversation. 
• I want to say thank you to G, H, J, J, N, R, S and T, for sharing with us your lived experiences and your truths. 
• We are all the richer for it.
• And thank you, CC, for helping to lead this charge towards inclusivity in the work that we do here.
• For those of you who want to continue your learnings in the disability space, I recommend the amazing resources on the Able@ website.
• I also encourage you to join our 90-minute interactive Introduction to Disability Inclusion class. Be on the lookout for more class information to follow.
• Thanks again for joining us.