Intersectionality and Disability on the Road to Equity: Why Allyship Matters

By Pilar M. Vélez

ADA Program Manager, Global Benefits Program Manager
Intel Corporation

More than 15% of people in the world live with a disability. At some point, disability will touch all of our lives though it will not affect everyone in the same way. This is true, in part, because of intersectionality, a social model for understanding how aspects of a person’s identity overlap to compound the experience of discrimination in society, as defined by Kimberlé Crenshaw, LLM, JD.¹

Living with a disability can be challenging. My disabilities are invisible, which challenges me to bring patience to engagements with others and provide context to help them know what I need. I understand this and am blessed with years of Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) training.

 

In 2015, I was diagnosed with a traumatic brain injury (TBI) called superior semicircular canal dehiscence (SSCD)². My diagnosis took three years from the first symptoms, which progressed from a mild vertigo episode to constant vertigo and migraines, and an eventual need for a medical leave of absence. During that time, I lost the ability to walk upright without two canes, drive a car, bathe myself without assistance, and, most devastatingly, cognitive loss of the full ability to express myself.

Today I thrive after surgery and five years of recuperative therapies. Stay-at-work accommodations support my success, most of which are simple to understand and implement. For example, I use a larger, high-resolution monitor and blue-light blocking eyeglasses when working at the computer. I also do five minutes of vestibular therapy exercises several times a day and have adjusted the overhead lighting at my workspace.

I demonstrate my capabilities, which helps me maintain successful relationships with leadership and key stakeholders. I would be foolish to claim this success independently. It was a hard journey that I would have struggled to complete successfully had I not understood the principles of intersectionality³ and allyship.

Checking Boxes

As a Latinx woman over the age of 40 with a disability, I’ve had several concerns about my success. Am I too old to be relevant? Is my gender or ethnicity going to somehow affect others’ perceptions of me? Or worse, will I be too expensive with all my accommodations? These fears mark the intersectionality of disability discrimination, ageism, sexism, and racism.

When I returned from medical leave in 2016, I was not only healing from the injury. I was overcoming perceptions of those around me who knew something wasn’t quite right. Returning to a modified schedule and not jumping right back into my programs were strategic decisions to support my recovery. Yet there were questions about whether I would ever be able to pull my weight again. The pressure to hurry up and get better was stifling.

Then came a significant reorganization at my company. A lot of my friends retired and suddenly I was one of the visibly oldest employees in my business group as well as one with a disability.

How did I overcome these fears? By engaging with allies. In my experience, allies hold three powerful roles in social interactions:

• Contextual interpreters
• Bridge builders
• Partners in a struggle for which they are allies

I’ve outlined ways to develop allies here and must admit it was difficult to find my allies, people who supported me by instinct instead of instruction. To develop these people and a process that supports success, it’s important to raise awareness of how important it is to support and stand up for each other. A few ways to accomplish this:

1. Empower ADA teams to determine process and outcomes. If they lead compliance efforts (instead of simply facilitating established processes), they can be empowered to be allies for employees.
2. Empower employee resource groups that support employees with disabilities and give the group time and support to do its work.
3. Empower managers to be allies and highlight examples of success — or what I describe as “bright spots” — to illustrate how allies support employees, which can be subjective in terms of approach, but lifts people up.
4. Implement processes that illustrate the company’s commitment to finding and nurturing allies. For example, offer closed captioning at all virtual company meetings or implement a funding plan for accommodations so that employees and managers can remove potential barriers and support accommodations needed for success.

Allies as Interpreters

American Sign Language (ASL) relies on hand and face movements and a finger-spelled alphabet. A highly contextual language, ASL relies on a communicator to provide context using body language and facial expression. Successful ASL interpreters must be deeply fluent in ASL and the language being interpreted because when people interpret from, American English to ASL for example, they are interpreting from a word-based language with context (American English) to a conceptually based language with words and context (ASL). Really good ASL interpreters see — and interpret — both language experiences nearly simultaneously.

Strong allies perform a similar interpreter role in how they support co-workers. It was a key ally — Angela, who knew my work perspective and how severe leadership perceptions can be with slips in performance — who supported me.

For two years, I worked full time as my TBI symptoms progressed from occasional migraine and vertigo episodes managed with medication to nearly constant pain and dizziness. Starting into year three, I knew a change was needed but I didn’t know when or how to notify management.

Angela reminded me about the good rapport I had established with my open communication style and no-surprises approach. I had earned the trust of my leadership and needed to trust them and communicate the situation instead of focusing on unfinished work.

I immediately contacted my manager, who was grateful I had reached out. He knew something was not okay but without information from me, he had nothing to go on but my flagging performance. After coverage plans were made, I was safely out on medical leave.

Allies as Bridge Builders

Allies can help leverage knowledge to improve understanding between a person with a disability and another person, group, or system. As an ADA program manager who is responsible for process and system improvements, my role as a bridge builder helped create an effective understanding between the company’s employees and our ADA team.

While out on leave, I experienced the processes and systems required for leave, disability, and reasonable accommodations, which gave me a better understanding of how hard it is to follow complex Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) and ADA processes while experiencing TBI symptoms. I gained first-hand awareness of an administrator’s perspective and an employee’s experience. I returned to work with dozens of improvements for how we could bridge gaps in understanding between program teams and the employees we serve.

Allies as Partners in the Struggle

Shared ownership is perhaps the most critical form of allyship. Allies who share a sense of ownership and commitment to overcoming discrimination tend to utilize their positions of authority or reputation to advance equity and overcome discrimination. Allies in positions of power can empower employees with disabilities, creating more visibility through sponsorship and a safe, uplifting environment to ensure employees avoid unnecessary risks of failure.

When I returned to work, my manager reassigned me to temporary coverage assignments supporting the team for several months instead of returning me to my independent workload. This enabled me to acclimate to my new accommodations, return to work more slowly, and get back up to speed in a less pressured environment. We maintained a moderate program transition cadence for the first full year until I returned on a full-time basis.

This action — committing to a moderate return-to-work plan — demonstrated my manager’s support and shared ownership as an ally. He trusted my ability to recover and recuperate, and pushed back on senior leadership, who might have desired my efforts to be fully leveraged sooner than I was ready. Because my disability is invisible, it was critical to have my manager stand strong at my side as I rebuilt my self-confidence and reputation. None of it was easy, but it was effective.

When we are acknowledged for our whole selves and feel a sense of belonging, we are most productive. It is our life experiences that grant us resilience and humility, and our different perspectives that add value to our contributions. The fact that we arrive from different paths ensures that our observations bring holistic thinking — and problem-solving skills — to complex problems. If we hold ourselves back out of fear of discrimination, we cannot know our full potential. But when we challenge fear and bias — others’ and our own — and have strong allies by our side, our voices are amplified, our strengths are magnified, and our best selves are unleashed.

References

1. World Health Organization. Disability and Health. Retrieved from www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/disability-and-health
2. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Prevalence of Disability and Disability Types by Urban-Rural County Classification — United States. 2016. Retrieved from cdc.gov/ncbddd/disabilityandhealth/features/disability-prevalence-rural-urban.html
3. The Intersectionality Wars. 2019. Retrieved from www.vox.com/the-highlight/2019/5/20/18542843/intersectionality-conservatism-law-race-gender-discrimination