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When hiring for executive roles at disability organizations, isn’t it better to select the most qualified leader regardless of whether they have a disability?

Disability experience should be part of the qualification criteria for these jobs. These jobs involve representing the disabled community and speaking for the disability community. For example, the head of a blind organization should have a deep understanding of Braille, different screenreaders, cane travel, guide dogs, disability rights laws, alternative techniques commonly used, and the barriers facing blind people. Sighted people have the privilege of choosing how and when to engage with the blind community. By contrast, blind people live this every minute. When the clock strikes five, we’re still blind. When we go on vacation, we’re still blind and often encounter accessibility barriers that require us to keep advocating even while on vacation. So when disability organizations review job applications, the lived experience of disabled candidates deserves more weight.

Join the campaign to increase blind leadership: unitedblindleaders.org #UnitedBlindLeaders.

Join the campaign to increase Deafblind leadership: Deafblindleadershipnow.org #DeafBlindLeadershipNow.

Descriptive Transcript

Haben Girma and Jane Britt are sitting on a balcony overlooking a beautiful Eucalyptus tree. Haben has a Braille computer on her lap, and Jane has a colorful cane with a marshmallow tip by her chair. Haben speaks with an American accent and Jane speaks with an Australian accent.

Haben: Haben speaking. I’m here with Jane Britt, an Australian disability rights advocate. And we have an issue here that matters to people all over the world. And that’s disability leadership. What do you want people to know about disability leadership?

Jane: What I think is really important for people to know, and it doesn’t matter where you are in the world, is that there are so many people that are blind or visually impaired or indeed have any disability who have the experience, the expertise, as well as the lived experience they can bring uniquely to the role of disability leadership. And it doesn’t matter whether someone is trying to be a chief executive officer or be a non-executive director sitting on a board somewhere.

Haben: So for a lot of people, it’s a job. But when you have the lived experience, it’s something you’re thinking about all the time. When it’s 5 PM, you’re still blind. When you’re on vacation, you’re still blind. So you’re very invested in accessibility. We are having the same situation in the United States: a disability organization called Helen Keller National Center is Deafblind-centered. It’s a training center for Deafblind people, but they’ve never had a Deafblind executive director. And that’s really frustrating. So disabled people and allies are campaigning in the US for our Helen Keller National Center to have a Deafblind executive director. It’s called Deafblind Leadership Now. Is there a hashtag for the campaign to have blind leadership in Australia?

Jane: Yes, it’s United Blind Leaders and we do have a website where we are currently updating it, and be on the line for the campaign. We are aiming to increase the pool of leadership across the country in a number of manners, including, through a podcast series as well as through different leadership initiatives. So I think watch that space, there’ll be a lot more forthcoming. The one thing I would say too is that I think leadership is also important for disability, that you can’t believe what you don’t see in front of you. If you’re not seeing someone else who’s a leader for a young child to aspire to be anything they want to be. If you’re not seeing someone in front of you that maybe has the same disability or something similar, it’s very hard to see yourself in that role.

Haben: And I appreciate how social media helps us find other disabled people to learn from. I remember researching Deafblind leaders, and it’s one of the ways I found you Jane, through social media posts, people sharing online. So I hope more disabled people do that.

Jane: I hope so too. I certainly have found a really close and supportive community through there, and a lot of people with disability that I have never encountered before. I think as we spoke about earlier today , that I grew up in a country town where I didn’t really see people with disabilities. So now having this ready access at our fingertips, through social media and a global reach as well, is fantastic.

Haben: I hope more people will go to the website. Raise your voice. Write statements, make videos, and support disability leadership in Australia and the United States and everywhere around the world.

Trying Vegemite for the first time. A blend of vegetable extracts, B vitamins, and beer production leftovers, the spread packs a strong punch! Australians have eaten Vegemite for over a hundred years now. 

Descriptive Transcript

Seated at an outdoor cafe, Haben has a plate with toast covered in a dark brown paste.

Haben: When I arrived in Australia: several people have been asking, “Have you tried Vegemite?” So I’m finally going to try Vegemite! And we have toast here – sourdough toast with butter and Vegemite.

(She brings the toast close to her nose.) 

Haben: It smells kind of yeasty and salty.

(She takes a bite.)

Haben: That is fascinating! It kind of makes the butter more flavorful.

(She takes another bite.)

Haben: There’s a sour flavor to it too. So kind of several layers of flavors from sour to yeast and salt. I’m also feeling more awake! 

(She holds a hand up to her heart and laughs.) 

Haben: Something about the flavor, the salt and the yeast, feels like an energy boost. Probably also the butter interacting with it too. And also maybe just the flavors being very new. I’m glad I tried this!

They tried to silence her. They told her to limit her voice to disability issues, but Helen Keller never stopped advocating for human rights. You, too, have a voice. Keep advocating!

This video is an excerpt from the White House Disability Pride Month Convening. The entire recording is on the White House YouTube channel.

Descriptive transcript

Haben Girma speaks on stage, sitting with a Braille computer on her lap. Also sitting on stage are, from left to right, Gene Sperling, Mychal Threets, and Eric Harris. The camera shows a lively, diverse group in the audience, including people with wheelchairs.

Haben: Helen Keller was a brilliant Deafblind woman who lived from 1880 to 1968. She had a powerful voice. But many times when she wrote down essays about causes she cared about, editors would reject it saying, “That’s too political, just stick to talking about blindness.”

And she was stuck and prevented from speaking up on a lot of issues. Today, a lot of disabled people can speak up online. Our social media channels allow us to share our views—on videos, written posts, all kinds of ways we can get our message out without going through ableist editors. Helen would be thrilled with all that we’ve done today!

One of the things that gives me hope is when I witness disabled people advocating for the end of suffering in Gaza, in Sudan, in Ukraine, and many other places where there are humanitarian crises. We don’t have to be single-issue people. We have advocates who’ve worked hard to win us our right to speak, and protect our right to vote.

Keep lifting up your voices. Keep advocating! Thank you everyone.

(Applause)

The euphemism Special Needs, after many years of service, has filed for retirement. Nondisabled people receive countless supports, so why should supports for disabled people get treated as something extra? The only difference between accommodations for nondisabled and disabled people is ableism. That’s why the overworked Special Needs decided the time had come to move on.

The video is an excerpt from my remarks at the White House Disability Pride Month Convening.

Descriptive Transcript

Haben Girma speaks on stage, sitting with a Braille computer on her lap. Also sitting on stage are, from left to right, Gene Sperling, Mychal Threets, and Eric Harris. The camera also shows a lively, diverse group in the audience, including people with wheelchairs.

Haben: The biggest challenge, in schools, medical centers, workplaces, is ableism. Ableism is the system of belief that treats disabled people as inferior to nondisabled people. When I arrived in college, I discovered the menus in the cafeteria were only in print. I couldn’t read it not because of blindness, but because of the format of the menu. The idea of disabled people going to university still surprises some people who work at schools. And that’s a classic example of ableism: we need to plan for disabled students. I went to the manager and I told him, “The format of the menu doesn’t work. But if you provide it in Braille or post it online or email it to me, I have tech that allows me to read emails and websites that are accessible.” The manager said, “We’re very busy. We don’t have time to do special things for students with special needs.” Just to be clear, eating is not a special need.

(Laughter)

Haben: There’s this myth that nondisabled people don’t need help, but nondisabled people need lots of accommodations. The cafeteria was full of chairs, hundreds of chairs. Those are accommodations for nondisabled students. Students with wheelchairs roll in with their own chairs. So the school was spending money on accommodations for nondisabled students.

(Laughter and applause)

Haben: And along the ceiling, there were lights. Those are accommodations for sighted students.

(Laughter)

Haben: Blind students didn’t need the lights. In fact, the school would have saved so much money if they turned off the lights.

(Laughter)

Haben: The difference between accommodations for disabled people and nondisabled people is ableism. And if we learned to notice ableism, we can remove it from our schools. But back then, I didn’t know that. I didn’t know how to advocate, so I was stuck not having access to the menu. I told myself, don’t complain. There are worse things in the world. It’s just menus. And the barrier followed me day after day. One day I did research and I learned about ada.gov. I learned about the Americans with Disabilities Act and I realized, we have rights. The Americans with Disabilities Act prohibits discrimination against people with disabilities, including students. And I went back to the manager and I told him, “if you don’t provide access to the menu, I’m going to take legal action.”

(Applause and cheering)

Haben: I had no idea how to do that.

(Laughter)

Haben: I was 19, I couldn’t afford a lawyer. Now I know there are nonprofit legal centers like DRC, where Eric works. Within the government, there’s the U.S. Department of Justice Office for Civil Rights, where we can send in complaints. There’s the U.S. Department of Education Office for Civil Rights. So we have all these resources, but I didn’t know about them. All I knew was I had to try. I had to do something. The next day, the manager apologized. He was scared of getting sued.

(Laughter)

Haben: And the culture changed at the cafeteria. Instead of thinking of it as something extra and charity, they realized they must provide accessibility. The ADA helps us fight ableism and I hope more people learn about the resources: our laws, the agencies that can help us to fight ableism and discrimination. Thank you.

(Applause)