A Call to Language Access Practitioners: Reconsider Your Approach to Center Disability

In 2016, the City of Boston was one of the first to pass a Language Access Ordinance that specifically identified prioritization of the experiences of people who use languages other than English and people with communications-related disabilities.* From then to today, speaking with municipalities and nonprofit organizations across the country, I was astounded to see that so many engaged in language access were not centering people with communications-related disabilities in clear and specific ways.**

In many cases, the organization’s designated Language Access Coordinator would state that when it came to providing services like American Sign Language Interpretation, that was out of their scope or jurisdiction. 

In other cases, their centralized language access fund could be spent on sign language interpreters, yet staff would be expected to engage with their respective disability office to navigate making such requests. 

In instances when organizations did try to be more inclusive of disability in their scope of work, they would add language saying that they also “serve people who are hearing and visually impaired”, or who are deaf and blind. ***

These examples highlight the unfortunate reality, where the nuance, breadth, and richness of experience of people with disabilities are not understood, prioritized, or appropriately planned for, even though resources are being dedicated to making the organization “more accessible”. The question of course is, accessible for whom? **** 

Unfortunately for many people in the language access field, the overlap between language access and disability is exclusively reduced to providing American Sign Language interpretation and Braille transcription services. While it is important that organizations streamline the process of planning for such services, approaches to designing accessible programs and communications that meaningfully encompass people with communications-related disabilities are much wider in scope. 

In the field of language access, there is a more consistent understanding and awareness of the nuance within language. When we consider communication through language as taking place through speaking, writing, reading, and understanding, a person’s ability to communicate in a single language can vary immensely between two people. When we consider how people, culture, and history shape language, we see clear variations in a single spoken language. The field of language access is tasked with reflecting the specific nuances of language used within and across specific local communities. 

Yet, the language access field as a whole has not realized the nuance of experience for people with disabilities, as well as individual disability communities. The experiences of people with hearing disabilities, seizure disabilities, cognitive disabilities, mobility disabilities, and visual disabilities (to name a few) are vast. Two people with the “same” disabilities can have such different experiences and may seek different accommodations (or none at all) to engage and communicate in their everyday lives. The ways that people, culture, and history have both impacted and been influenced by disability communities, are unparalleled. 

I write this to emphasize that it is critical that we not only consider our relationship to language and communication through the lived experiences of immigrant and refugee communities but also through the lived experiences of people with disabilities.

March is Developmental Disabilities Awareness Month and Brain Injury Awareness Month. March 21st is World Down Syndrome Day. I encourage you to consider the following:

In what ways do you already consider people with disabilities to be beneficiaries of language access? And particularly people with cognitive or intellectual disabilities?

This is a call to all language access practitioners to consider your approach to serving people with disabilities -- particularly people with communications-related disabilities. 

While no two organizations are the same, and many things may impact the decisions of internal operational processes, it is still important that we expand our definition and understanding of language access, and who we consider to be the beneficiaries of such increased access. I encourage you to consider how language and disability relate to each other. Specifically:

• How do you formally or informally partner with your organization’s dedicated personnel centering disability access, or the provision of accommodations?
• In what ways do you consider people who communicate non-verbally to speak a language other than English (LOTE)? 
• In what ways has your organization duplicated processes as a means to separate language from disability (whether as a result of funding streams, your organizational structure, or other bureaucratic decisions)? 
• How do you encourage staff to consider the nuance of language for your local immigrant and refugee communities? 
• In what ways do you reflect on your relationship to disability and ableism?

If you’ve never asked yourself any of these questions, both in and outside of the context of your work, I would encourage you to begin now. If you never have before, I encourage you to educate yourself by doing the following;

1. Engage your organization’s designated staff centering disability
2. Engage community members and organizations run by people with disabilities, 
3. Explore some must-reads centering on disability and disability justice, including:- Demystifying Disability, by Emily Ladau; - Skin, Tooth, and Bone: The Basis of Movement is Our People, by Sins Invalid

I encourage you to reconsider how you center disability through your work. 

* Disability definitions and categories are filled with nuance. In this case, I use the term people with communications-related disabilities to reflect any person who self-identifies as having a disability that impacts how they communicate. In many instances, they may leverage an accommodation (or an auxiliary aid or service) to participate, communicate, or engage with another person. 

**In the last two years, I have both encountered and directly worked with several municipalities that have begun to do this work thoughtfully. They are seeking to streamline their organizational infrastructure to meaningfully reflect the experiences and needs of people with communications-related disabilities as a part of their scope of language access. And they seek opportunities to do so in ways that are community-driven and people-centered. While this is the reality for some municipalities, and such strategic planning centering disability has been growing, it is not currently a common practice. While people with disabilities continue to participate in advocating for language access at the local level, they continue to be left behind in terms of the provision of accessible services and programs.

***In the fewest of cases, the organization’s Language Access Coordinator was additionally serving their organization as the ADA Coordinator. By default, their role was to uphold the entire municipality's infrastructure centering people with disabilities and people who speak languages other than English. While a very different experience than those listed above, infrastructurally, this would often lead to its own set of challenges around scope and capacity.

****Rhetorically, can something even be considered accessible if people with disabilities cannot experience, engage, or communicate with it?

About Us:

Sway B Access LLC is a boutique consulting firm that designs accessibility and language justice-centered solutions for complex organizations. Our mission is to support organizational change efforts that advance equity, accessibility, and justice for all. At Sway B Access, we seek to advance how government organizations strategically serve populations who are culturally and linguistically diverse, such as individuals who use languages other than English and who have communications-related disabilities. Through our strategy and design process, we seek to co-develop solutions with and alongside the communities and people most directly impacted.

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