The Americans with Disabilities Act turned 30 years old in July. That's three decades of comprehensive civil rights protections in areas ranging from communication and employment to transportation. Leaders in the field have seen progress, but they continue to educate individuals and organizations about what it means to have a disability and what it means to accommodate one.
While some organizations may think they don't serve people with disabilities, statistics show that they probably do, says Michael Roush, director for the Center for Disability-Inclusive Community Development at the National Disability Institute.
"We all serve people with disabilities, whether we're a disability-specific organization or not," says Roush, who spoke last year at the NeighborWorks Training Institute (NTI) in Portland. It's important for organizations to understand who people with disabilities are, he added. "When I stand in front of a group of people, they would not think I was someone who is protected by the American Disabilities Act, but I have a hidden disability." Many people still think a disability has to be something you can see, he says, but that's just not the case.
"Last year, before the NTI, we did a survey of financial coaches and counselors," Roush says. "A large majority of the financial coaches surveyed said they don't serve people with disabilities. However, we know that they most likely do because one in five Americans has a disability. That's a key piece to understanding. When we understand that we serve people with disabilities, we can create an inclusive environment."
Roush says that it's important to be client centered and to know what individuals with disabilities can achieve — including homeownership. "Oftentimes, people think if I'm receiving Supplemental Security Income (SSI) or Medicaid I can't own a home, though SSI allows me to own one home that serves as my primary residence without it affecting my benefits. Achieving financial wellbeing is possible."
Roush has been with National Disability Institute for 12 years and in the field for close to 20. "When I was starting in this work … it was about access to education and to buildings. That's still a key piece. But financial empowerment of people with disabilities, of equal rights, of equity, is more evident now. We're challenging assumptions," Roush says. "There are more opportunities for people with disabilities to own a home, to go to college, to achieve the American Dream."
According to Roush, statistics also show that people with disability are three times more likely to have extreme difficulty paying bills and 31% are more likely to be late on mortgage payments, often due to the cost of having a disability. ABLE accounts, protected savings that allow people with needs-based benefits to save more than $2,000 a year, are tools that people with disabilities can use, he says. There are others.
Molly Barackman-Eder, senior manager of financial capability at NeighborWorks, says being flexible and not making assumptions about what people want and need are both important lessons, as is remembering that people with disabilities don't all need — or want — the same accommodations.
As an example, she recalls that last year, a NeighborWorks organization learned that a group course would not be accessible to one of their clients with disabilities. They offered a one-on-one workshop, Barackman-Eder says, but the client wanted to be in the group with everyone else. The organization was open to a conversation about what would work best, Barackman-Eder says, and she urges others to have that same openness.
"Create a space where the customer feels like they can ask questions," she says. Flexibility and communication are key. "There's a difference between saying, ‘let us know if you need an accommodation' and really creating the space for someone to ask for an accommodation and have a real conversation."
Nonprofits want to make sure they get it right, Barackman-Eder says. That can happen by making people with disabilities a part of the conversation. "Take the information, do the research. You might find out about a program you didn't know about and it might work really well with the programs you did know about."
According to NeighborWorks America data, 66 of the more the 240 network organizations provide wrap-around services for people with disabilities. But, as Roush says, it's still likely that they serve people with disabilities.
Teresa DeBroux, director of family services for Pensacola Habitat for Humanity, a NeighborWorks organization in Florida, says the more a family can communicate their needs, the better organizations can be at fulfilling them. Communication, and making sure to ask the right questions, are the key to serving families.
"That's something that as an organization we should be sensitive to," she says. "They may need something a little extra. Just the placement of the driveway could make a huge difference. It's important to collaborate and communicate with the homeowner. Having the customer feeling like they have a voice in the process to be able to do that — that's important."
She says organizations should educate themselves about clients' needs — and also about mortgage products or funding assistance that individuals with disabilities may qualify for but aren't aware of. "Being able to explore on their behalf makes a difference," she says.
Trey McClendon worked with Pensacola Habitat to buy his family home and found that he was welcomed into the conversation.McClendon was working on his undergraduate degree in psychology when he got an assignment to describe, creatively, where he wanted to be in five years. The father of two, who has been disabled since September 2012 when a dive into a swimming pool resulted in a spinal cord injury, approached the assignment by writing a song.
At the time, he, his wife, Bethany and their children were living with his father-in-law, where they had been ever since McClendon finished rehab. The lyrics of his song, "Five Years from Now," saw him in a new job with his own home, he says. Through a faculty member who heard the song, McClendon ultimately was connected with Pensacola Habitat for Humanity. "I was just hoping I could find something I could afford while giving us as much room as a family while also giving us accessibility," says McClendon, who is on disability.
The family of four — his daughter is 10 and his son is 8 — was approved. Soon, they were working with DeBroux's team, going over plans that followed Americans with Disabilities Act guidelines. The construction manager asked them if they had any ideas about what they might change. McClendon says he was surprised by the request, and that he and his wife did have some ideas. The construction manager had a few more. The result included more outlets for his medical equipment, moving a wall to create more wheelchair space in the master bedroom, and moving the sidewalk. "They never missed a beat," he says. "They listened to me and they listened to my wife. I never felt that because of my disability or because of my needs I was any less of a homeowner. If anything, they went that extra mile."
McClendon says experiencing how accommodating they were was "phenomenal." Since he's become disabled, he says, he's had experiences where people overlook him. In school — he just completed his master's degree — and in restaurants, "people speak to my wife as if she's my caretaker. Well, she is but she's also my wife." He's capable of placing his own orders, he says.
McClendon, speaking as a disabled citizen, a social worker and a homebuyer, says that when dealing with disabled citizens, network organizations "should let the client be the subject matter expert." Just because someone has the same disability doesn't mean they have the same experience, he says. "Remain humble and open-minded, teachable and eager to learn.
"Put your foot in your mouth before you get there. Say, ‘I'm new to this and I'm just going to let you tell me what you need.' I think the disability community would love to see the able-bodied community take the steps to meet us half-way." Usually, he says, "we have to roll all the way to meet everybody else."
"We all serve people with disabilities," Roush says again. "We may not think we do, but we do. People with disabilities can achieve financial wellness. The same activities you provide for a person without a disability, a person with a disability has the same hopes and dreams. They can achieve them as well."
A few things that network organizations can do to help people with disabilities include:
- Establish relationships with the disability-related organizations in your community if you haven't already done it, Roush says. "Connect and build that relationship."
- Bring disability awareness training to your staff.
- "With the Association for Financial Counseling & Planning Education, we created Financial Inclusion Essentials, an online course that helps build awareness about building financial wellbeing of people with disabilities," Roush says.
- "On our website, nationaldisabilityinstitute.org, we have a list of resources. Each of those tools help people begin to understand who people with disabilities are."
- Do be flexible and communicate. Don't make assumptions, says Barackman-Eder.
- Be open-minded and eager to learn, suggests McClendon.
Additional reading: Pathfinder integrates arts into its work to provide an innovative way to accomplish the nonprofit’s core mission: enabling people facing physical, developmental or economic challenges to achieve independence, inclusion and stability.
