News & Advocacy in Disability Rights

Lunch provides food for thought

By Cyndi Jones, Publisher

Last week I attended a wonderful event for leadership development for young women in high school. Women in business were invited to have lunch with the students and share the obstacles we have overcome to achieve our goals. During the lunch I realized that I appeared to be the only person with a disability in a room filled with 500 people.

"Where are the high school women with disabilities?"

I started thinking about how leadership is perceived and who decides who a potential leader is. Students with disabilities must not have been perceived as leaders because they apparently were not on the invite list. Is it that students with disabilities aren't leaders? Or perhaps they don't fit the "image" of leadership. Is it because they do not participate in the team sports? Or perhaps they lead in ways that are invisible to non-disabled teachers.

People with disabilities are invisible. Many times we are simply overlooked, students with disabilities even more so. Sometimes students with disabilities are intentionally put in separate, out of the way classrooms, making them even more "out of sight" when these opportunities come along.

The brochure for this event didn't include any disability friendly information or access symbols, no TTY phone number, or "if you need materials in alternative format..." notations -- the typical clues to tell someone with a disability, "We have prepared for you to participate. Please come."

Over the last few years, with various groups, I have raised the issue: Have you planned for accessibility for participants with disabilities? Usually the groups just haven't thought about access because they haven't needed to. It gets on the agenda now when I am involved -- but only because I raise the issue. When people with disabilities attend the meetings and sit at the table, we create change simply by being there and insisting on it.

This comes back to a similar question I asked earlier in the year: How are we, the disability community, growing leadership among our young people? Do we pave the way for them into mainstream opportunities? Do we work with organizations to insure access so that our students feel welcome and included? Do we encourage students with disabilities to get involved in the events and opportunities of our community? Do we actively reach out to them and make sure they get invited?

Just like we had to advocate to gain education for children with disabilities, we must advocate for them to have access to opportunities both inside and outside of the classroom. These extracurricular activities build character and are a safe place to try new things.

In today's world, the glass ceiling and the chrome ceiling start to be felt very early. If we don't give our kids a hand up, who will?

Cyndi Jones is Publisher of MAINSTREAM.

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