"We decided to abandon the original idea to educate before acting, since we realized we could read forever and not do anything." - NRCDV Staff Meeting Notes, December 17, 2007
In this section, we share some of the lessons that NRCDV staff has learned over the course of the Access Initiative. We recognize that there is much more to learn and do on the path toward shared understanding and individual and organizational growth.
Accessibility is a complex process, achieved over time. First – as this may seem obvious now – we learned that accessibility reaches far beyond the accommodations of the Americans with Disabilities Act or any other legal requirements. Accessibility impacts an organization’s day-to-day practices, as well as its culture and mindset as a whole. Working towards accessibility is a lifelong process that requires continuous self-assessments and critical thinking rather than a “status” achieved after a set number of staff trainings or readings. Fortunately, this realization came to us early in the process, as the notes from a staff member following a meeting in December 17, 2007 indicate: “The workgroup decided to address issues of self-education and self-change at the same time. In other words, we decided to abandon the original idea to educate before acting, since we realized we could read forever and not do anything.”
Working towards accessibility requires individual and organizational commitment and willingness to change. The involvement of individual staff members, leadership, and the organization as a whole has proven critical to the success of the NRCDV Access Initiative. Originally, the NRCDV Management Team was charged with incorporating the Access Initiative work into the agendas for monthly staff meetings. At one point, however, it became clear to management that they were not prioritizing the Access Initiative and, because of this, the project lacked direction and structure. A recommendation was made to convene an Access Initiative Workgroup, consisting of at least one representative from each NRCDV team to move things forward. This recommendation was also based on the premise that personal and institutional change cannot – and should not – be legislated or a top-down process. That is, staff at all levels should be engaged and have the resources and mandate to do the work.
Several changes to the structure and functioning of the Access Initiative were made over time to accommodate the natural shifts in the workload and priorities of the NRCDV. At one point, the key workgroup – the Access Initiative Leadership Workgroup – was split into smaller workgroups within the NRCDV to divide the major tasks into key areas of focus (resources, communication, and policy), and to promote leadership among staff who were not in management positions. After a couple of years of operating in this way, we slowly began to see a decline in the activity levels of the workgroups – the meetings became less frequent as tasks were accomplished and new goals were not set. While the workgroups may have fizzled out, the spirit of the project has surfaced in the work of the newly formed Office Culture Workgroup and other internal initiatives that continue to promote accessibility and inclusiveness. The decision to create this document arose from the identified need to re-energize our commitment to the original goals of the Access Initiative and to explore how to re-incorporate this into our current work.
The importance of building partnerships cannot be overstated. An excellent guide out of Wisconsin states, “An exciting and transformative component of 21st century work among disability, domestic violence and sexual assault services organizations is the recognition that together we have the capacity to positively impact the intervention with and recovery and healing of so many individuals with disabilities who have experienced or currently are experiencing violence in their lives.” We could not agree more!
Reaching out to, and building partnerships, especially with disability rights organizations, has been critical to our work of building organizational capacity and of creating a more inclusive environment within the NRCDV, as well as more accessible communication processes, practices, and policies. Designing welcoming and accessible services and environments requires knowledge about available supports for people with disabilities. Therefore, organizations striving towards becoming more accessible are strongly encouraged to connect with disability organizations that can provide support and assistance during this process. Several key national organizations are highlighted under Relevant Organizations. In addition to national organizations, there are key local and state organizations that domestic and sexual violence advocates can connect with in their respective communities.
Adult learning plays a critical role in capacity development. Because building capacity is a key component in the process of creating and enhancing accessibility, understanding the principles of adult learning and creating a comfortable space where staff members feel safe to learn, grow and contribute is vital. Adult learning is most effective when it fills a professional or personal goal. That is, since adults are practical and relevance-oriented, they normally want to learn something for a reason, which will usually apply to their work or other responsibilities. In this sense, adults learn well when they are able to connect their experiences and knowledge to a specific goal or objective, and when the learning process is guided but not forced, as well as active and participatory.
With those principles in mind, the general approach of the Access Initiative was to encourage staff to identify the issues and questions they wanted to address through trainings and other staff development opportunities. The Training Needs Inventory shown below is an example of a short survey offered to all staff in 2010 by one of the Access Initiative’s workgroups. As a general approach, NRCDV staff members were also encouraged to take turns in facilitating all-staff discussions in order to share new knowledge and understandings, including factual information and personal experiences. Staff discussions and trainings were designed to include many points of view and to be responsive to the needs and multiple priorities of staff members.