Happy Anniversary, We Are 30 Years Behind!

My US fellow accessibility advocates, professionals and friends celebrate the 30th anniversary of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). The ADA offers to route to independence, as I noticed when I visited the US in 2017, because the environment is so accessible and when you struggle to find your way as person with a visual disability you don't feel embarrassed or uncomfortable to ask for help. The contrast couldn't be bigger....

2 completely different worlds for people with a disability

The US added disability to the Civil Rights Act in 1965, where The Netherlands is still working on adding disability to Article 1 of the Dutch Constitution. We entered phase 1 and as I know how complex the Dutch Constitution is protected for change, the protection put's the Dutch Disability Community another 2 - 5 years behind on countries like the United States. As reader this might be a surprise, because the Dutch are known for their high standards for social norms and care system. At the same time, this is the problem for an independent disability community.

When I talk about #accessibility too many people are surprised by the fact this is a business topic, as this should have been over 25 years ago. Why don't people realize that people with a disability seek independence as any other human being does? Why do I have to be happy with people caring for me instead of standing on my own income? Why should I agree with settling for just a job instead of pursuing a career fitting my competences?

I'm not good in settling for anything

I found my way towards a job at ING Bank in Amsterdam, after a detour which took me through a high variety of hurdles, and the opportunity of a lifetime to become ING's first Global Head of Accessibility. This role thought me a new dimension of struggles to advocate for accessibility and to strive for equity instead of equality. As I knew from first hand experience, equal opportunities for people with a disability depend on accessibility of the workplace, school, university, or whatever place you go. To tackle this hurdle we need equity to overcome the unintended barriers businesses, governments, educational programs and society put up in designing and forgetting about people with a disability.

Especially in The Netherlands I often heard I had to be grateful for the adjustments made (FYI these were (seldom) provided after requesting more than once). Or grateful for the option to take my travel guide with me for free, where the only wish I had was to travel by myself, I wish I didn't need my brother as he was always annoying me as brothers should. As you can understand, I was an annoying student in High School because I used to start quite some discussions to be able to participate equally, not realizing I was in fact asking for equity.....

My life changed for the best!

My life changed for the best as soon as I started to use more and more adjustments, especially the digital adjustments such as my Android read aloud function on my phone, of which I'm grateful that Google thought it be worth it to develop this, even more grateful that the ADA actually put Google to delivering this option in their Android services. And when I was reading this New York Times series about the impact of the ADA it made me realize how far we have to travel towards an accessible country in The Netherlands.

My work at ING is carved out for the coming years, and I hope that I can contribute to an increased accessibility awareness in The Netherlands via my role at this largest Dutch Bank. There are many more like me, the younger generations of people with a disability don't settle for the caring model anymore, we wish to be independent as much as possible and this starts with acknowledging disability as a protected class in Article 1 of the Dutch Constitution. As well as a Dutch version of the Accessibility act, already initiated by the European Union with the 2019 European Accessibility Act (EAA).

I cannot address it enough, it's hugely important to realize we have less than 4 years left to provide access for all within the EAA and this will impact all Dutch businesses operating in more than 1 European country as violation of the EAA can lead to enforced product, service, and even digital platform retraction, until the accessibility problem is fixed and approved for market re-entry!

Happy 30th ADA anniversary!