Americans with disabilities are proud–and as their numbers grow, so will their influence on business and everyday life.
Oh wait, that was in Canada, which has a large-scale public campaign promoting accessibility and full inclusion of people with disabilities called Everyone Everywhere. The movement was founded by athlete Rick Hansen and their mission statement reads, “We’re going to rally an entire nation and we won’t stop until everyone can go everywhere.” The campaign’s stated goal is to maximize the potential for everyone to have physical freedom and opportunities.
This is a wake-up call to American businesses: Serving the disability community is not only the right thing to do, but it is an opportunity far too big to miss. One annual report from Return on Investment compares the emerging market of people with disabilities to the size of China. That’s an estimated 1.3 billion people with disabilities, many of them Baby Boomers who control a larger share of wealth than any previous generation.
The rise of people with disabilities isn’t just a numbers issue. It’s a generational one. This new workforce—Millennials and Gen-Z—could not be more different in their approach to tackling mental health and disabilities. They’ve never heard of the cone of silence and they’ve never seen anyone whisper the words “She has cancer.” Instead, they are energized by the power of the LGBTQ community, Black Lives Matter and the #MeToo movement—all similarly able to impact public opinion and raise awareness of their community and relevant issues. People with disabilities have always voiced their concerns, but this time it feels different. Maybe because new business statistics show people of all abilities are assets, or that healthcare issues affect people with disabilities disproportionately. Workplace diversity and inclusion initiatives may also be building awareness and understanding. And yes, there’s even real representation of people with disabilities on screen. It’s no coincidence that one of the first seven documentaries the Obama’s will create in collaboration with Netflix is CripCamp. If you don’t know what I’m talking about, read the back-story here.
People with disabilities say they can find very few mentors at work. Thanks to some powerful personalities, that’s changing.
Next year will be the 30th anniversary of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). But even 30 years later, it feels as though the U.S. is still playing catch up, not only catching up to the Canadians ‘everyone can go anywhere’ movement but also to awareness campaigns like the U.K.’s. Let’s Talk disability equality initiative.
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