My name is Jena Braunsberg, and I am an attorney who works at Voce as a legal training specialist. I also have multiple disabilities, which may not be evident if you meet me, but they affect how I view myself in the world. I’m grateful to serve on Voce’s DEI Strategic Council where I can advocate for inclusivity in and beyond our workplace.
It is in this role that I offered to write a piece for Disability Pride Month. It seems ironic that my disability is making it difficult for me to write about Disability Pride Month for a website. My eyes blur when I type my thoughts and spots appear. Before diagnosis, I would walk away and determine my voice didn't need to be heard. I used to think that if I could not do the work the way I observed my peers performing, I was lazy and maybe even manipulative. It is isolating to not be able to participate authentically at work and in society.
Changing accessibility can be life affirming for people with disabilities like me. I have a disability that affects my vision. Binocular vision dysfunction is a condition where the eyes cannot coordinate properly to create a single, clear image. Without assistive technology, I have experienced double or blurry vision, eye strain and fatigue, headaches, difficulty with reading, poor depth perception, dizziness or motion sickness, and visual discomfort. Prior to using assistive technology, my quality of life suffered.
Disability Pride Month celebrates the work involved to implement the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) in July 1990. The ADA aims to prohibit discrimination against individuals with disabilities and ensure they have the same rights and opportunities as everyone else. Protection includes those I enjoy in the workplace with reasonable accommodations. Protections also include public services, public accommodations, and telecommunications. It is easy to take the changes this law made for all our daily lives for granted. Let me share a critical example.
A parent is pushing a stroller in their neighborhood. A businessperson swiftly walks into the airport with rolling suitcases. The delivery person pushes a dolly cart of mail into an office building. Imagine accomplishing these tasks nowadays if you had to lift these heavy objects up and down from the sidewalk. Curb cutouts are designed to provide smooth transitions between sidewalks and streets. These examples demonstrate how curb cutouts, initially implemented for accessibility, provide widespread benefits across various segments of the population.
While standardized today, it took disability activists like Ed Roberts from the Berkeley Center for Independent Living (CIL) in 1972 to make it happen. The CIL was one of the first organizations run by and for people with disabilities, and it aimed to empower individuals to live independently. The center provided resources and advocacy for accessibility in the community. One of the significant projects of the CIL was the push for curb cutouts. These ramps were essential for wheelchair users to move freely across streets without relying on others for assistance. The campaign highlighted the importance of accessible infrastructure for all.
Roberts and his colleagues engaged in direct action and negotiations with city officials to implement curb cutouts. Their efforts led to Berkeley, California installing curb cutouts in various parts of the city, making it one of the first cities in the United States to adopt such measures. The success of the curb cutout campaign in Berkeley set a precedent for other cities by demonstrating that accessible infrastructure was possible and necessary for creating inclusive communities. The movement for curb cutouts and other accessibility features gained momentum, eventually influencing the nationwide requirements of the ADA. The ADA requires public accommodations to be accessible to people with disabilities, including installing curb cutouts. We all benefit from this inclusivity.
As we move further into the digital age, organizations need to consider proactive approaches to handling accessibility as virtual content prevails. As someone who uses screen readers for my visual disability, many digital materials, such as websites and social media posts, are not accessible. This is because the information does not utilize alternative text when programming the information. Nothing is worse than hearing "blank page" when my blurry eyes see paragraphs of information. Likewise, we isolate those with hearing difficulties when we do not include transcripts or closed captions on audio or visual presentations.
Like curbs from the past, providing inclusive access to information platforms is one step to address an overlooked but significant barrier for people with disabilities, like me. I’m proud of Voce for the steps it has taken, and continues to take, to nurture inclusivity in our workplace. This Disability Pride Month, how can your organization work to overcome barriers for individuals with disabilities?
