Several realizations led NRCDV staff to focus our attention on accessibility related issues and how the organization may become more responsive to and inclusive of the experiences, needs, and priorities of individuals with disabilities. Such realizations included:
- Before 2006, the NRCDV had expended relatively little effort or resources to educate staff or constituents on issues of disability;
- Although there were assistive devices on hand in the office (for example, a TTY machine), they were underutilized and few staff were trained on how to use them;
- There were no staff who had openly disclosed their disability although people knew anecdotally that some of their coworkers had disabilities and faced workplace barriers to full participation; and
- The NRCDV had not documented requests for technical assistance to increase access to domestic violence services to people with disabilities, or requests from disability rights advocates to learn and support victims/survivors with disabilities.
Note: Since the Access Initiative has been in existence, we have noted significant changes in the culture and processes of the NRCDV. The sections that follow provide several examples of how the NRCDV has increased capacity to educate staff, provide accommodations, and become better equipped as a resource to the field on this issue.
Some of the preliminary questions that were identified by the NRCDV as it explored accessibility and disability included:
- What is a disability?
- What does it mean to have the label “disability?”
- How can we be sure to not just understand, but practice awareness and responsiveness to disability and the fact that it also intersects with multiple oppressions?
- How do we apply this information to ourselves and weave it into our work as change agents?
- What does it mean to link domestic violence and disability? What are the implications of this?
Initially, the NRCDV Management Team was charged with incorporating the Access Initiative work into the agendas for monthly staff meetings. As a first step, the Management Team, based on feedback and recommendations from staff, reviewed the document “Increasing Accessibility for People with Disabilities: Domestic Violence Agency Self-Assessment Guide” by Cathy Hoog. Given that the NRCDV is not a direct service organization, the document was adapted to best reflect the nature of our work, as well as the needs and interests expressed by staff. Of note is the fact that we started at the very beginning by assuming that many, if not all of us, had little knowledge about disability issues. So, for example, we began by encouraging staff to think about why the questions listed in the assessment guide were important. Until then, many of us had never thought about why it might matter how high or low our office signs are posted!
Staff received the adapted assessment guide with instructions to review the tool and select the questions or sections in which they had an interest. The general approach was that, in this manner, staff would assign themselves to researching and learning about particular issues and expect to take a lead on facilitating all-staff discussions in order to share new knowledge and understandings, including factual information and personal experiences.
As months passed, the project hit some roadblocks. Access Initiative work began to fall off of staff meeting agendas. Also, staff responsible for developing a reading list and planning and facilitating an all staff discussion on disability and disability rights activism did not do so. Early in federal fiscal year 2008, the NRCDV Management Team recognized that they were not prioritizing the Access Initiative the way they had hoped and, because of this, the project lacked direction and structure. A recommendation was made to convene an Access Initiative Leadership Workgroup 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. (Learn more about this key point and other take-aways from the project in Lessons Learned and Recommendations.)
Staff accepted the recommendation and convened a workgroup consisting of at least one representative from each NRCDV team at the time (policy, technical assistance, administrative, managers, Women of Color Network, VAWnet, and library). The workgroup was assigned with the task of drafting a workplan for implementation of the Access Initiative, beginning in January 2008. Staff time was set aside on a regular basis for meetings, and some of the guiding principles and approaches of the workgroup included:
- Social change is, by definition, part personal ownership and engagement. Therefore, it is critical that the Access Initiative be staff owned and driven.
- Leadership and decision-making is team-oriented and consensus-based.
- The workgroup is responsible for planning and implementing all aspects of the Access Initiative.
- Workgroup members are responsible for taking the lead within their teams and within ad hoc subgroups to keep the Initiative moving forward.
- Each workgroup member understands that their membership means doing twice the work and be prepared to model the behavior and participation expected of all staff.
- Workgroup members commit to working hard and have high expectations, but should also expect to make mistakes and utilize lessons learned as opportunities to reflect and improve.
- The work is to be approached from a dual perspective: dismantling attitudinal barriers and crafting responsive practices.
In time, the Access Initiative Leadership Workgroup decided that we could be most effective in carrying out the work by dividing into three smaller task-specific workgroups: 1) Resources, 2) Communication, and 3) Policy. The tasks were identified as:
- Enhance the NRCDV’s collection of resource materials on the topic of disability, especially as it intersects with violence against women;
- Identify and respond to internal training needs and priorities;
- Build external relationships with disability rights organizations;
- Strengthen the accessibility and readability of our written materials and websites;
- Conduct a building audit and implement changes to increase the physical accessibility of our workplace;
- Revise job descriptions to specify physical job requirements;
- Improve our meeting and event planning process to offer accommodations to participants with disabilities; and
- Document the work of the Access Initiative.
As tasks were accomplished, the workgroups merged into two – the Resources and Communication Workgroup and the Policy Workgroup, and eventually we found ourselves in a place where we had achieved greater capacity to be ever mindful of the needs and experiences of people with disabilities. Creating accessible websites and resources has become commonplace. We have established strong relationships with partners in the disability rights community. We continue to build our library of materials related to ableism and audism. We routinely select meeting spaces and virtual learning tools based on their ability to accommodate a variety of needs. Although we are in no way “finished,” we have arrived at a place where the goals of the Access Initiative are woven throughout our daily work at the NRCDV – at varying degrees or levels of progress.