10 things to think about before organizations "celebrate the ADA" July 26th

The 33rd anniversary of the Americans with Disabilities Act is in about six weeks. Many companies create positive social media and advertising campaigns trying to convey how much the ADA means to them. But these posts, tweets, and press releases can go wrong in many ways if the company's words on the holiday don't match their day-to-day actions. Here are ten situations all organizations should think about and avoid when celebrating any disability-related holiday or event.

10. Don't "celebrate the ADA" on an inaccessible web page

The ultimate irony. Praising the ADA from on high while doing so in an environment that disabled people can't interact with.

9. Don't "celebrate the ADA" only on Twitter

The Washington Post reported that Elon Musk laid off the Twitter accessibility team last November. Four months later, Mr. Musk got into a Twitter fight with a disabled Icelandic Twitter engineer, accusing him of faking his disability and doing no real work, both of which were objectively false. Twitter used to be the favored platform of people with disabilities, but is no longer a place where disability advocates feel welcome.

8. Don't "celebrate the ADA" using pictures of or interviews with the same visibly disabled employee every year

Every year I get asked to do pictures for various different publications related to our ESG reports. It is certainly not because I'm photogenic. It's because I have a visible disability. I know I'm not the only one in this situation because I've heard this same story from many others. Those of us with visible disabilities are tired of being poster children for how an organization is doing a good job at disability inclusion, especially if we are one of a few people in a group with a particular kind of visible disability. We feel under pressure to agree to these photo-ops even if we don't want to because it is incredibly awkward and potentially career-limiting to turn down these opportunities when presented to us.

7. Don't "celebrate the ADA" using stock photos of people pretending to be visibly disabled

I wrote an entire article on this topic a few years ago. There is even a hashtag for companies that do this - #Diversish. It’s not just about the subject in the photo, it’s also about how the photos are staged. A white little old lady in an oversized wheelchair being attended to by a nurse of color is uninclusive in multiple dimensions. The only thing more irritating than not seeing any photos at all of people with visible disabilities is seeing photos with people who obviously don’t have a disability that are staged to look like they have a disability. Just like musicians can tell when actors are faking playing instruments in a movie, people with disabilities have disability radar and can tell when people are faking their disability. In the age of the Internet, there is no excuse for this.

Using non-disabled models to represent disabled individuals is the disability parallel to blackface.

Pretty much any use of blackface these days can get you fired, but no one thinks twice about putting someone with no disabilities in a wheelchair and using that as an image.

There are agencies dedicated to models with disabilities like Zebedee and Zetta (formerly C Talent). Craigslist and Facebook groups exist if your budget doesn’t allow for an agency. People with disabilities can always be found, but you have to care enough to find them. Representation matters.

6. Don't "celebrate the ADA" using inaccessible multimedia

If you post a video (including resharing something someone else posted), ensure it has captions and analyze it for described audio. Even if it isn't your video, you can always provide a transcript along with the video. If the video needs described audio, get it. If you don't know what described audio/ audio description is or how to assess a video to see whether it is needed read this article. Otherwise, skip posting the video because you might get publicly called out for performative accessibility.

5. Don't "celebrate the ADA" with inspiration porn

You've seen inspiration porn, even if you aren't familiar with the phrase. The robotics club that built the kid an electric wheelchair. The sign language gloves that won an award. The football quarterback who took the girl with Down's Syndrome to the prom.

Inspiration porn is everywhere. It is a form of unconscious bias that hurts people with disabilities. Inspiration porn is portraying people with disabilities as:

1. inspirational solely or in part on the basis of their disability, or
2. One-dimensional saints who only exist to warm the hearts and open the minds of able-bodied people

Stella Young coined the phrase “inspiration porn” in material leading up to her stereotype-shattering?TED?talk, “I’m not your inspiration thank you very much” Inspiration porn is disrespectful to people with disabilities, bordering on the offensive. Inspiration porn usually comes in the form of feel-good stories, "thank goodness that terrible disability didn't happen to me" stories, or "people with disabilities are superheroes and can overcome anything" stories.

Don't fall for the hype or the clickbait.

4. Don't "celebrate the ADA" if your DEI program doesn't explicitly include disability

Most organizations do not explicitly include disability in their DEI programs despite the fact that:

1. Disability is the world's largest minority group
2. Disability is the one DEI dimension that everyone will eventually join.

"Days" like the ADA's birthday are not just a single day of the year for people with disabilities. They are our entire year, 24/7, because our disability goes with us everywhere we go. If your organization is doing nothing internally to promote disability inclusion, you do not have the right to celebrate any disability-related days or events. Make sure if your organization has ERGs, it has a disability ERG. Disability needs an equal seat at the table to every single other dimension of DEI. If an organization isn't treating disability equally to other DEI dimensions, it is not offering its employees an equitable, disability-inclusive experience, no matter what is publicly stated to the contrary.

3. Don't "celebrate the ADA" if your disability programs exclude invisible/hidden/non-apparent disabilities, Neurodiversity, and mental health.

Disability is not entirely about prosthetics, mobility devices like wheelchairs and crutches, white canes and hearing aids. 70 % of disabilities include conditions that are not immediately noticeable to others. This would include things like dyslexia, color blindness, some ADHD and autism, arthritis, cancer, depression, anxiety or severe allergic reactions just to name a few. I use the word "hidden" to describe this category of disabilities because it is the simplest language available to describe them, other people may use the phrases invisible or non-apparent.

2. Don't "celebrate the ADA" if you don't know your own organization's disability stats

"You can't improve what you don't measure" - Peter Drucker

1. What is your organization's self-identification rate of employees with disabilities?
2. Candidates with disabilities?
3. Managers vs. individual contributors?
4. How many of your managers have taken training on interviewing people who are neurodiverse?
5. What percentage of accommodations are granted?
6. How long does it take from the request being received to the accommodation being in place?

All of these disability-related statistics are an essential yardstick that can be used to measure your organization against other organizations in the field. It is also essential data to have to see whether program changes have the intended disability inclusion effect.

1. Don't "celebrate the ADA" if your organization hasn't publicly adopted some accessibility standard

This standard should be applicable both to the public and employees. WCAG 2.1 Level AA is a good one to start with. However, companies that are leaders in accessibility use WCAG as a floor, not a goal, because there are many things a company can do not delineated in WCAG to make the experience even better for people with disabilities. Don't fall into the trap of thinking that using an overlay is an acceptable substitute for real accessibility..

OK, I'm convinced. How should I celebrate the ADA?

1. Celebrate the ADA by knowing your organization's disability stats. If you don't know them, use this day as a trigger to start trying to figure them out. If you do know them, identify your gaps.
2. Celebrate the ADA by listening to people with all kinds of disabilities' lived experiences.
3. Remove a barrier. Just one, and it doesn't have to be complicated. Caption a video. Enter into a contract with a sign language interpretation agency. Don't require people in Zoom meetings to turn their video on. You have to start somewhere.
4. Make an accessibility commitment. Just one. You now have some excellent ideas to work with by reading this article.
5. Include disability-related activities into your quarterly/annual OKRs, and goals.

By all means, put these things into your social media posts. However, avoid generic platitudes that are not backed up with concrete action.