Andrew Pulrang
Feb 21, 2022,12:47pm EST|112 views
Disability issues like accessibility, equal service, and employment rights are important to disabled people. But are they really important to anyone else?
Businesses are legally required to follow the Americans with Disabilities Act, state civil rights laws, and sometimes local accessibility standards as well. But there are ways to “comply” with these laws and regulations with only minimal attention and care. And too many businesses still tend to think of accessibility and disability accommodations as semi-voluntary “good deeds.”
Disability advocates have for decades asserted that accommodating disabled employees, properly serving disabled customers, and otherwise taking disability rights issues seriously is “good for business.” But why, exactly? Disability awareness is a subject that slips much too easily into abstraction and vague moralizing. So it never hurts to get more specific by reviewing some basic facts about disability and businesses today.
These four points are pretty obvious, or they should be. But we rarely think of them all together, and seldom really process their implications for businesses.
According to the CDC, about 61 million Americans have some kind of physical or mental disability. That’s 1 in 4 Americans, 26%. These numbers may be surprising, even doubtful, if the term “disability” only triggers images of wheelchair users. But there are many different types of disabilities, all of which are relevant to discussions about disability rights – for example:
These and other disabilities also span all age groups, including children and youth who grow up with disabilities, young and middle age adults who become disabled due to illness or accident, and older adults who become disabled mainly from age-related conditions.
To understand the size of the disability community, it can help to compare it with other familiar demographics. For instance, Census data report that there are 42 million Black people and 60 million Hispanic / Latinx people in the U.S.
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It’s important to take care with these kinds of comparisons. They are unfortunately sometimes used to feed a latent resentment in the disability community that “other minorities” get more attention for “their” issues than the comparatively-sized disabled population.
But of course all of these groups overlap. Millions of people are Black and disabled, Latinx and disabled, LGBTQ+ and disabled, and so on. The only helpful reason to compare these numbers is to adjust the common but mistaken notion that disabled people are a tiny minority whose concerns are highly specialized and rare. In fact, disabled people are a significant minority, worthy of due consideration, both morally and in practical terms.
Think of wheelchair users who want to eat comfortably at a restaurant – and use the restroom if they need to. Think of older people using canes or walkers who might avoid certain shops and go elsewhere if there are awkward steps and heavy doors at the entrance. Think of a Deaf couple that uses Sign Language, that to buy a car, and needs communication more precise than notes jotted on a piece of paper. Think of a person with Down Syndrome and their friends and family, who will remember if they are treated condescendingly or rudely by customer service staff in a grocery store or doctor’s office.
Imagine a qualified applicant for a cashier’s position who needs to sit instead of stand because of chronic leg and back pain. Imagine an employee with intellectual disability who it turns out is capable of doing more than they have been, and deserves better pay. Imagine a wheelchair user applying for a sales position, who could be a substantial new asset to the company. Imagine a longtime valued employee who is newly disabled after a terrible car accident, but with the right accommodations and flexibility could continue to help the company instead of becoming a financial liability and loss to the team.
And of course there is a connection between employment opportunities and building a strong customer base.
Disabled people have purchasing power; gainfully employed disabled people have even more. Disabled people can be loyal customers to businesses that are notably accessible – not just “ADA compliant” –
and that treat them as valued customers rather than an annoyance. Much the same is true for disabled employees in companies that bother to understand disability issues and take seriously the responsibility to support true equal opportunity for disabled applicants and employees.
Most people who aren’t disabled know someone who is. This includes:
A place that can’t accommodate one disabled customer may lose the business and goodwill of their relatives or friends. A memorably bad impression on a disabled customer can make a similar bad and lasting impression on friends, coworkers, and family. Some of them have long memories, and can be quick to judge.
Disabled people can be prickly and aggressive advocates for their own rights and access. They have to be. But sometimes the most uncompromising advocates are nondisabled best friends and members of their families. Disabled people are often used to running into barriers and having their rights delayed or denied. They don’t like it, but are rarely shocked. Non-disabled people, on the other hand, are often truly stunned and outraged when confronted for the first time with disability discrimination through their close connection with a disabled friend or loved one.
It’s a mistake to think that it’s only disabled people themselves who care about accessibility and a welcoming, accommodating environment for people with disabilities. The community of disabled people is large. The community of people who care about disability issues is larger.
The disability community is constantly shifting, because new people are added to it every day. Anyone can be born with a disability, or have a disabled child. Anyone can have an accident or go through an illness that creates problems lasting long after the acute phase. Long Covid is emerging as just the newest example of this.
Those who get through most of their lives without directly experiencing even temporary disability usually get at least a taste of it as they age.
Age doesn’t always result in disability. But the likelihood of experiencing new disabilities goes up with age. Failing eyesight, hearing loss, arthritis, memory loss, and other ways of being “lame” or “frail” may not always be considered disabilities, but they are. Older people don’t always think of themselves as “disabled,” but a great many of them fit the most common sense definitions.
The longer people live, the more likely they are to experience disability. That alone should give any business owner or manager pause before dismissing disability issues as “someone else’s problem.”
The disability community is not a tiny sliver of a minority. It may not be as self-conscious and unified as some other social groups. But it is steadily becoming more so. In the 2020 elections, 15 of the Presidential candidates felt the need to appeal to disabled voters by offering detailed disability policy platforms – an unprecedented recognition of the disability community’s growing power and self-awareness.
And it’s not just the most visible and noisy activists that businesses have to think about. Despite the undue publicity and angst they generate, ADA lawsuits are still rare. Many if not most disabled people make their working and consumer decisions passively, quietly, by default.
Businesses that ignore disability issues lose millions in disabled people’s talents and patronage without even realizing it.
Original at https://www.forbes.com/sites/andrewpulrang/2022/02/21/4-reasons-why-businesses-should-care-about-disability-issues/?sh=340c57264c21
