Don’t Forget Women with Disabilities in Women’s Leadership Programs

As more Jewish programs provide women with increasing leadership and mentorship opportunities, it is important that all Jewish women are given an opportunity to succeed, including disabled women. In 2018, I acquired a disability due to a fall and was diagnosed with Reflex Sympathetic Dystrophy, which affects my sympathetic nervous system in my right arm and leg, causing chronic pain. Twenty-five percent of Jewish adult women in the United States have a disability. Yet, often it is incorrectly assumed that women with disabilities cannot be in leadership roles.

This past year, I was honored to take part in Jewish Women International (JWI)’s Jewish Communal Women’s Leadership Project, created in part as a response to the #MeToo movement. With 75% of Jewish organizations scheduled to be looking for new top leadership in the next five years, the goal of this program is to support and mentor a select group of senior-level women seeking C-suite positions. I was one of 13 women to be in the pilot 2019-2020 cohort.

This year, we also celebrated the 30^th Anniversary of the Americans with Disabilities Act. However, while the desire to be inclusive may exist, too many organizations — including Jewish nonprofits — do not yet know how to do so. In fact, in early 2019, RespectAbility — the disability nonprofit where I work — published Disability in Philanthropy and Nonprofits, which demonstrated that 75% of the social sector wants to include people with disabilities. And a landmark study by RespectAbility of more than 4,000 Jewish respondents in 2018 found that more than 90% who responded indicated that this was a priority for them.

Yet, RespectAbility’s nonprofit survey showed that this inclusion is practiced by less than one-third of nonprofit organizations. For example:

• Only 14% of those surveyed said that their organizations use video captions to ensure people who are deaf or hard of hearing can use the content. Captioning services are easy to use and often free and yet 86% do not even attempt to take advantage of such tools.
• Just 30% of respondents said their organizations enable people with disabilities to request accommodations such as sign language interpreters on event registration forms.  Asking about accommodations sends a clear signal that people with disabilities are welcome and that inclusion is a consideration, yet 70% say their organizations do not make this effort.
• In addition, only 59% said their events (pre-pandemic) always are held in physically accessible spaces.

Over the years, the well-intentioned push for diversity, equity, access and inclusion in Jewish organizations has led to improvements for people with disabilities. However, there is still a long way to go, as time and time again, organizations unintentionally exclude people with disabilities in their events, programming, resources, websites, grant applications, volunteer recruitment and hiring practices. For example, many Jewish events include a reception with little seating options for individuals who cannot stand for an hour.

Organizations unintentionally exclude people with disabilities in their events, programming, resources, websites, grant applications, volunteer recruitment and hiring practices.

JWI, however, was intentional about ensuring my ability to participate. Most importantly, the program created a safe environment where I could share some of the unique issues I was having while adjusting to a life with a disability as well as the joy when I found unique workarounds not only to keep working but thrive in my work and as a disabled mom.

JWI has gone a step further by coordinating training for all of its employees. They have ensured live captioning opportunities for major events, including the December Women to Watch Impact Summit, and have provided opportunities for individuals to request additional accommodations. I am thankful that CEO Meredith Jacobs understands the importance of including the one-in-four Jewish women who have a disability in all of JWI’s programming, including equal access and opportunity to participate in women’s leadership programs as both participants and speakers.

In 2021, JWI is taking the Jewish Communal Women’s Leadership Project national with two virtual options: 1) participating in live workshops and smaller peer groups for monthly guided conversations or 2) having access to recordings of the presentations. Being virtual allows the program to be more inclusive of people, as transportation and other physical accessibility issues are no longer an issue. Applications close on December 15, and workshops begin in February.

One of the most helpful parts of this program was building a community of supportive women, where we can continue to help each other as we make our journeys. I hope to see applications from Jewish women with disabilities, especially those who have not been able to access prior opportunities. After all, whether overt or implicit, prejudice against people with disabilities has become a significant barrier to meaningful inclusion efforts in nonprofit environments. But the more disabled women take on senior leadership positions, the more we can create systemic change in how people value all women with disabilities.

Lauren Appelbaum is the Vice President, Communications, of the disability advocacy nonprofit RespectAbility. She regularly works with entertainment studios to create equitable and accessible opportunities to increase the number of people with lived disability experience in positions of authority throughout the overall story-telling process, as well as diverse and authentic representation of disabled people on screen.