Last April, we called on our colleagues to join us in taking action to end the inequalities facing people with disabilities, and we announced the creation of the Presidents’ Council on Disability Inclusion in Philanthropy. Now, as the Covid-19 pandemic generates discussions of health care rationing that threaten the civil rights of people with disabilities, this call to action has become more urgent than ever.
For years, advocates have implored our institutions to use our financial resources, influence, and power as donors to recognize, respect, and work alongside people with disabilities. Now people with disabilities are sharing powerful stories of how this novel virus is laying bare the misperceptions so many others have and highlighting familiar cracks in our social systems. We are failing people with disabilities on so many fronts, whether it is labeling disabled people as “disposable” members of society or providing too few resources for students with learning disabilities amid widespread school closures. Sadly, this isn’t new.
As a result of structural inequities exacerbated and exposed by this pandemic, people with disabilities are in danger of suffering the consequences of our society’s collective inaction. That’s why we in philanthropy must work with people with disabilities to uphold their civil rights and ensure equal access to vital health care, resources, and support during this crisis.
All of us in philanthropy can help to spearhead this effort by making disability rights and inclusion part of our Covid-19 response, including in our advocacy, our grants, and how we work within our own organizations. To be clear, we both recognize that all of us are at different points in our journeys toward integrating inclusion in all that we do, including at the foundations we lead, but we remain committed to identifying opportunities to take action and moving our organizations to do so. On behalf of the Presidents’ Council, we would like to encourage all foundations to join us as we work to take up this charge.
Include people with disabilities in decision making. Any discussion about Covid-19 makes it clear that some people are disproportionately affected, but rarely are those people included in the conversation or decision making — even in matters of life and death. For example, disability advocates filed complaints after several states and hospitals issued guidance allowing doctors to withhold lifesaving care from people with disabilities in a worst-case scenario. Although the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services responded to these complaints by prohibiting discrimination in distribution of lifesaving health care, disability advocates continue to voice their concern that medical professionals will show their biases and allocate scarce resources to patients deemed “young and healthy.”
Philanthropies must heed these warnings and call for just protocols that value each person’s life, regardless of disability status. Using our voices, we can make sure disability-rights advocates are included in these critical conversations about health care policy, and that people with disabilities have their civil rights affirmed and protected.
Beyond advocacy, we must act. Philanthropies across the country have come together to develop rapid-response funds designed to meet the multifaceted, interconnected demands of this moment. While it’s heartening to see so many grant makers talking about the need for equity in our response — especially on issues of race and class — it is important that we include disability when we talk about equity and recognize the intersections of disability, race, and class. During this crisis, as in all our grant making, we can be inclusive and effective only if we honor the spirit of what disability advocates have long urged: “Nothing About Us Without Us.”
Because people with disabilities are disproportionately affected by this crisis, they should have a stronger presence in conversations about how and where these funds are distributed. We should diligently and deliberately seek out the perspective of people with disabilities on what kinds of programs are most needed. For our part, the Presidents’ Council created the Disability Inclusion Fund, a $10 million donor collaborative housed at Borealis Philanthropy, which will allocate a small portion of its resources to the Covid-19 rapid response focused on mutual aid and systems-change advocacy to model what larger funds can and should do.
Of course, the urgency of this moment requires swift action, and outreach and relationship building can take time. For those who don’t have these direct relationships, resources like the Covid-19 National Call to Action from the World Institute on Disability or the Presidents’ Council’s Disability Philanthropy Forum can offer direction. But disability organizations are also eager to engage in relationship building and share what’s needed. Thanks to the hard work of the disability advocates, there are plenty of ways we can start putting people with disabilities at the center of our work as soon as possible — but it’s up to us to act.
Focus on a building a better future. While this crisis demands we make disability rights more prominent today, we also have the opportunity to start building a more inclusive world for people with disabilities that will last long after the pandemic ends. For example, now that Covid-19 has shifted many of our organizations to work from home, we must make sure our virtual interactions are accessible for all our employees, grantees, and others we seek to engage.
Here are proven approaches for online meetings or events that allow everyone to equally participate. Doing this can be as simple as using accessible communication platforms or making sure captioning features are enabled. What’s more, since we’ve been able to accommodate entire organizations moving online these last few weeks, going forward we can rethink which jobs require physical presence in the office and how we can be more accessible to people with disabilities in every aspect of our work.
Increasing the accessibility of our work and our world is long overdue. But if we make disability inclusion a key part of our Covid-19 responses now, the lessons we learn can inform how we constitute more inclusive, accessible ways of being and doing in the future.
If we truly listen to what people with disabilities have been saying — what they have always said — then we can bring about a more equitable philanthropic world and a more just society.
