Disability Pride Month: What You Need to Know

Summary

July is Disability Pride Month. The phrase "Disability Pride" can be confusing. After all, June is Pride month for LGBTQIA+. Is it about taking pride in our disabilities? Not exactly. The purpose of Disability Pride Month is to change the way people think about disability to end its stigma and promote the idea that disability is a part of human diversity. This article explores the challenge of people with disabilities working harder, the value of hiring disabled employees and listening to their voices, and tips on how to be a disability ally.

Yes, there’s a month for everything. Whatever the theme is, the people behind it think about it every single day of the year. Month-long awareness raising can and does make a difference.

So, what’s July? July is Disability Pride Month. It’s inspired by the signing of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) into law on July 26, 1990.

The “pride” part of it might be confusing people. After all, June is Pride Month for the LGBTQIA+ community and allies.

Disability Pride Month aims to change the way people think about disability to end its stigma and promote the idea that disability is a part of human diversity.

The Meaning of Disability Pride

Some people take pride in their disabilities. Some don’t love it, but they also don’t hate it. They accept it. Think about it. I have green eyes and brown hair. I don’t take pride in having them. They’re part of me.

Where do I fall in disability pride? Well, I know being born profoundly deaf made me who I am. I’m competitive. Part of that comes from playing sports while growing up. Part of that comes from not wanting to be seen as less than or incapable. I’ve always had a drive to show I’m as good or better than others.

Many people from marginalized communities and underrepresented groups have said the same thing. “I had to work harder than everyone else because of my [fill in the blank with race, disability, etc.].”

It shouldn’t be that way. Haben Girma explains in her powerful essay, “Why I Never Tell People With Disabilities to ‘Just Work Harder.'”

“Employment discrimination and high unemployment rates still haunt people with disabilities,” Girma writes. “Many work hard, develop impressive skills, and continually face discrimination in the hiring process. Hard work alone will not overcome the widespread discrimination against people with disabilities.”

Disability Employee Innovation and Creativity

Nonetheless, many disabled people have one thing in common. We have creative and innovative ways of thinking and solving problems. These skills can’t be learned in school or on the job. They come from our life experiences and adapting to an exclusive society throughout the life of our disabilities.

People with disabilities have unique skills that can’t be learned in school or on the job. They get it from their life experiences like I did with communication. Here are examples. The first three come from “Disability as a Source of Competitive Advantage” by Luisa Alemany and Freek Vermeulen.

  • British Intelligence hires people with dyslexia to analyze surveillance data because they’re good at spotting anomalies others missed.
  • A shopping center has security guards who use wheelchairs who are good at spotting crimes because they have better visibility at pocket height. They also move faster than people on foot.
  • An insurance company employs disabled people in its call center because they discovered satisfaction was much higher among customers helped by employees with disabilities. Customers providing feedback didn’t know they were disabled.
  • Apparently, bees have unique sounds that mean something. Yet, Bon Appétit story of a deaf beekeeper tells how she recognizes these things based on visuals. She spots the “waggle dance,” recognizes, a specific scent that signals warning, and adapts to the many variables.
  • A disabled person bought a food franchise that outperformed other quick-service restaurants. “Our turnover rate of our 250 employees is 38 percent per year. And the average for the QSR business across Canada is about 100 percent. It’s a very high cost associated with turnover. Our absenteeism rate is lower. Our innovation rate is higher. Our productivity rate is higher. And our safety rating is much better,” says Mark Wafer in “The Benefits of Hiring People with Disabilities: Mark’s Story.”
  • A financial company employs Bernie full-time. He has an intellectual developmental disability. He does data entry, all day, every day. He loves it and is so good at it that he has not made one single mistake in 3 years. WOW!

Sometimes it doesn’t matter what a person with a disability does or how hard they work. That’s because the stigma gets in the way. The wrongful assumptions get in the way.

Pay Attention to Disabled Voices

Please pay attention to the many brilliant voices of people with disabilities. They share their lived experiences every day.

We educate folks to show we’re human beings with feelings and minds of our own. We live full lives. We want to be successful. We want to socialize. We want to work.

Whether someone takes pride in their disabilities isn’t the point here. The point is to know disabled people have a lot to offer. The key thing to do is avoid making assumptions. They’re wrong. Unfortunately, people’s assumptions tend to become our reality. Check out Assume That I Can, a brilliant video that explain.

Many companies’ inclusion efforts overlook disabilities and accessibility. This means they have a huge gap in their workforce. How do I know this?

I know this because a Return on Disability Group analysis of 1,283 of the largest publicly traded U.S. companies found only 3.6% are acting to delight their customers and employees with disabilities to create shareholder value. “Design Delight from Disability” also shows fewer than 2% of the participating companies mentioned people with disabilities in their diversity efforts.

This means their efforts are incomplete and exclusive. Companies that hire people with disabilities gain so much. People with disabilities are some of the most loyal and reliable workers they’ll ever have. We also bring our lived experiences that will fill in the talent gap for companies.

How to Be a Disability Ally

While July is Disability Pride month, making progress needs to be a year-round effort. Most of the time, there is little to no progress. We see lots of platitudes and performative allyship.

Here are some suggestions on how to be a genuine disability ally.

Ask. Don’t assume. Ask and get a positive answer before helping.

Know that “disabled” and “disabilities” are not bad words. It’s OK to say them. Euphemisms tend to make people more afraid to talk about disabilities and interact with disabled folks.

Know there are many disabilities and they’re a spectrum. When you’ve met one deaf person, then you’ve met one deaf person. Don’t assume every deaf is exactly like that one person.

Know that many disabilities are not apparent. You’ve probably met a lot of disabled people and don’t know it. Many won’t share their disabilities in fear of the stigma associated with it.

So, how will you make progress with accessibility and disability inclusion in the next year?

For more on this topic and tips, check out these articles.

Need a Speaker on Disability Inclusion and Accessibility?

Thinking about working with me? Want your employees to be educated, entertained, and encouraged to take action? Check out Meryl’s speaker reel and testimonials. She’s available for in-person, virtual, and hybrid speaking engagements and other opportunities. Drop a line at info@meryl.net.

Feature image: Disability Pride flag. “How will you make progress with accessibility and disability inclusion?” with meryl.net logo and Meryl K. Evans

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