Accessibility Matters^™ Episode 6: Craig Leen

Transcript for Interview with Craig Leen, Partner at K&L Gates, Former OFCCP Director, Former Coral Gables City Attorney

Webcast interview hosted by John Griffin, Publisher of Accessibility.com, featuring Craig Leen, Partner at K&L Gates, Former OFCCP Director. John and Craig are in separate locations and the interview was conducted over video conferencing. The speaker is on screen at any given time.

[Introductory chime accompanies 'Accessibility MattersTM' animation on screen, briefly. Music accompanies 'Accessibility Matters' on screen, briefly]

John: I'm John Griffin. I'm the publisher of Accessibility.com and I'm the host for this series of interviews and discussions with personalities within the disability industry.

So these interviews are conducted to prove the point that accessibility matters, not just how, but why. And who exactly are these individuals that work every single moment of their life with tremendous passion to make that come forward?

John: Craig, how did you get here?

Craig: You know, it really started in Coral Gables. And I’ll get to them in a moment. You know, when I was -- when I was a child, you know, I did do a lot of work in advocacy, even in middle school and high school for kids in the special education program, fellow students at where I lived in Bellevue, Washington. I was a coach in the Special Olympics program. And I could tell right from the beginning that it was, you know, an area that was very meaningful to me, and that there needed to be advocates in this area, because this, you know, very substantial and important part of our population, at that time, did not have a lot of advocates, in my opinion, and needed more resources.

So, you know, just in the background, I've always had an interest in disability inclusion, going back to when I was a kid. But, you know, it really started in Coral Gables when I became City Attorney. And my daughter, Alex, right before I started as City Attorney, a couple years before, had been diagnosed as having autism, and having profound autism, and substantial intellectual disability. And, you know -- so, you know, there as a parent, I was advocating on her behalf to get her resources, to get her applied behavioral analysis therapy, speech therapy, occupational therapy, trying to get insurance to cover it, that was a big deal, you know, and being an advocate in that way for my daughter.

And then when I went to Coral Gables as the city attorney, we moved there in 2005 right after Alex was born. And I noticed right away that there were -- it was not -- it was a beautiful city. It is a beautiful city, the city beautiful. And it's a city that's known for its customer service to its residents, and yet I saw right away that it was not that accessible for my daughter. They didn't have any programs that she could participate in. I brought her to the Venetian pool, which is one of the nicest public swimming pools in United States, one of the largest as well. And I wanted to get her swim lessons, and they -- they would not offer swim lessons to her because she needed someone in the pool who would be with her at all times. And they wouldn't let a parent do that, and they didn't have anyone else to provide.

So, when I became City Attorney soon after that, I -- you know, I inquired, not just on behalf of my daughter, but on behalf of the disability population as the city attorney, why is it exactly that we're not offering opportunities for people with disabilities, for kids with disabilities in our recreational programs, for example, at our swimming pool, for adults with disabilities, at our -- we had a -- even for senior citizens with disabilities in our senior center? Which at the time, was still in the process of being developed at our youth center, and in other programs. And then even just, frankly, the streets and sidewalks, which -- and many of the old public buildings which were historical buildings that the city had not made accessible. Sometimes they were allowed to do that because they're under historic preservation rules and some of the exceptions to the ADA. But nevertheless, as a city that wants to go beyond the requirements of law, why wouldn't the city be making everything accessible that it could?

So, as City Attorney, I engaged and spoke with the commissioners on this topic. I brought it up at commission meetings. One of the commissioners, Pat Keon, wanted to work with me to sponsor legislation on behalf of the city that would commit it to going beyond the requirements of law and full disability inclusion. We started in April, a number of years ago now. But we started in April for Autism Awareness Month, and then a resolution on autism inclusion, autism awareness, autism acceptance, and committed the entire city to fully accommodating people with autism. And not just in general, but with specific programs, empowered department directors and agency heads to be able to grant accommodations as a matter of course, in a much easier way, setting up that any denials of an accommodation would have to go all the way to the highest level, which was me and the city manager. And of course, we typically would not deny an accommodation.

And so, what you saw was the city now, and also creating a centralized accommodation system, and ultimately creating a designee in addition to an ADA coordinator, but a designee who was responsible, like a chief accessibility officer for the city to, you know, really make sure that the city was fully accommodating people in all aspects of city services, city employment, etc.

John: Where was the rest of the city fathers on this? Did they go along willingly? Did they...?

Craig: Oh, they supported it.

John: Yeah, they supported it.

Craig: It wasn't that the city was segregating people with disabilities, it was that they weren't -- they just didn't have any programs to include them. And they would rely -- a lot of cities do this, smaller cities in particular, they were relying on the county and the state to provide services in that area. But what it meant for a Coral Gables resident is, you know, whereas most Coral Gables residents could just go to the youth center, or go to the pool, or, you know, the many, the myriad of services that Coral Gables provided. If you had a disability and you wanted to be included, you would typically have to go to the county, which meant a longer -- more travel, typically facilities that, you know, I say this respectfully to the county, but are not as nice as the city facilities, and did not offer as many opportunities to our residents. So, you know, by -- so, yeah, no, I'll tell you something. And this is why I love Coral Gables. They -- I didn't get any pushback at all. It was unanimously adopted.

John: That’s great.

Craig: The city funded it fully. The city -- the city created, first of right away, if you went to Venetian pool, you could either have the city provide you someone who's trained who could help your autistic daughter, for example, swim and learn a swim lesson, or you as a parent could do it. You would have to do a background check because, you know, you'd be working in a public pool with your daughter and with other kids there. But assuming you passed it, then you could also do that as well. And the city would pay for all those things. So, it -- right away, and not only that, the city, for example, at the youth center, has a special populations coordinator, the chief accessibility officer essentially, who, if you ask for an accommodation, she will personally attend to you and make sure you get it.

Now, Coral Gables is not a city the size of New York or D.C., obviously, it’s much smaller. But that same model should exist in every city, even if -- even if it ends up being, you know, somewhat costly. Because that's the only way that you can fully include people with disabilities in your entire population. And what you find out, and what we found out in Coral Gables, is it really is not that costly, in the end. Once you get it started, it's something that is easy to maintain, it's not as expensive as you would think. And more than that, it greatly reduces liability. Because you're going beyond the requirements of law, your -- your city has demonstrated as a matter of policy and practice, that you're going to accommodate people with disabilities.

So, if you have a situation that comes up where let's say, for example, you -- you put a bench in a park and someone makes a complaint that it's not accessible, there needs to be a pathway, well, first of all, the city wouldn't do that anymore. It would have already considered accommodating the person at the front end, not at the end. A lot of cities do it at the end as an afterthought. Now, in Coral Gables, everything's done at the beginning. And disability is part of the primary consideration for what the -- what the city is doing. But in addition, if that happened to -- if that happened, if the city made a mistake, the city now, the department director for public works, for example, knows, “Oh, no. Of course, we're going to fix it right away.” Whereas you see some cities, they'll remove the bench or something like that. Coral Gables will build a path. They will always take the accessible path. Likewise with captioning, in commission meetings, making sure people with disabilities can fully participate in all aspects of city business.

And the city became a leader in Florida, and I as the city attorney became an ambassador for that program. And I would go to other cities, including Dade County, and get them to adopt similar resolutions. And, you know, Coral Gables even has an Emmy Award winning video about their autism inclusion program. And then the other thing the city did was, in October of that year, and now they do this every year, they did the same program for all disabilities to make it as inclusive as possible. So, it started with autism, because of -- you know, probably because of the example, you know, the -- I knew a lot about autism. And I knew that the city was not -- even though the city was, to some extent, accommodating people with physical disabilities, I knew from personal experience that they were not really accommodating people with cognitive disabilities. So, that changed, very quickly. And now, the city goes beyond the requirements of law.

So, anyhow, I know that's a long explanation, but that's where it began for me. And I saw, really quickly, how much of an impact this can have on people's lives. And, you know, Coral Gables, just for Autism Acceptance Month, just rolled out a police car that's decorated in autism acceptance design and logo. In addition to that, the city, when I was there, adopted a set of standard operating procedures for interacting with subjects or witnesses with autism, to make sure that -- and the city police officers were trained to do that. And in fact, many were part of training other police forces in how to engage with someone with autism in a way that's respectful of that person, and doesn't escalate a situation that really doesn't need to be escalated, which could potentially lead to arrest or violence of the autistic individual, even though that individual is not intending to be non-responsive or not cooperating with the officer. It's just that that person and the way they interact with the world does it in a in a different way. It's not typical. And so, training police officers to recognize that. So that -- you know, that's where it all began for me, in Coral Gables.

John: What a great story. But -- but where it all began for Coral Gables was with your voice (laughing) you know?

Craig: I think that's fair. [>> JOHN: Yeah.] I mean, I don't want to take too much credit. [>> JOHN: No.]

But I think if you ask them, they would say that. But what was -- what was amazing, because you can always have one person who's an advocate based on their personal experience [>> JOHN: Sure.]

But was how much the city embraced it. And the city commission, at the time, was split between Republicans and Democrats. Although it's an apolitical commission, it's non-partisan. You know, but it was commissioners of different political perspectives, coming from different experiences and perspectives generally. And they all engaged and embraced this. And that's why it became sort of a signature aspect of what Coral Gables was. It was a disability-inclusive city and environment. And -- and they put that as part of their marketing of the city. They made that something that was really important and central to the city's character and what it was. That -- that the city deserves.

John: I saw the piece online that showed how you executed that with the cards that identified drivers of cars. And, you know, my first thought was that -- that it both -- it moderates the situation. But it also puts the police in a -- in a much, much better position. Because that's a difficult thing if you have no training or you have no understanding of the -- of what it takes to engage with somebody in an autism situation. There is something about that that's really, really confirming. And it worked very, very well. And there are -- that's graduated way beyond, way beyond the -- just Coral Gables. Isn't it? Isn't it moved to other cities around the nation?

Craig: [inaudible] county for example, the League of Cities, some other cities in Florida. And then what I've seen is a lot of other cities across the country have adopted the same sort of approach. [>> JOHN: Yeah.]

So, yeah, it's become a -- it's great to see local governments taking the lead in this area. And, you know, I'm really -- I'm really proud of that. If you go to Coral Gables now, every intersection, you'll see -- you'll see crosswalks that are accessible. You'll see...

John: Yeah.

Craig: Cutouts on the sidewalk that are accessible, roads that are access -- everything that -- the thing I like about is they think about it now in everything they do. It's part of the planning. And, you know, the thing that -- the advice I would give to organizations and local governments is this is really what you want to change. There are workplace cultures out there where supervisors or leaders or department directors, if they do anything that's -- that's not typical, they grant an accommodation, or something that is, you know, out of the -- out of the norm, that can get them in trouble in some workplace cultures. And they’re -- they’re more looking to see, “How can I say no to this?” Or they might be afraid to say yes, thinking that that will, “Why did you grant this request? This is atypical. We don't typically grant this request. Why did you grant this request?” And they might get in trouble.

The difference is, in Coral Gables, it’s the opposite. It's clearly the opposite. Everyone there knows that they should be accommodating. And if they deny an accommodation, or they cause an issue for someone with a disability, that's what will get them in trouble. So, they're going to be looking for ways to approve things. And if then, in the end, there's some reason they don't know if they can approve it, let's say into more costly accommodation, most accommodations are not costly, but let's say it is, they know go right to the city manager and city attorney and get approval. They know to do that, and they know that that would be welcomed. It wouldn't be like, “Why are you asking me this? This isn't budgeted for.” That culture you don't want at a workplace. You want to culture that, “Let's see what we can do to accommodate this person. Yes, let’s -- let’s move some money into the centralized accommodation plan. Let's figure out a way to accommodate this individual.” You -- when you have a culture like that, then accommodations are typically granted as a matter of course, and you have a much happier workforce.

John: And in your next step, you took your compassion, and empathy and understanding and life, and infused it into a very, very productive career at the Labor -- the Department of Labor. So, how did you find that?

Craig: So, I was very fortunate to be asked to go up to Washington to be at the Department of Labor. And it was largely because of the work I had done in Coral Gables in disability inclusion. And so, when I -- and also on civil rights issues, which I also worked on in Gables. And, you know, we can talk about that another time. But, you know -- but you know, those were the -- those two issues were parts of what I had done in Gables. So, they asked me to come up in lead OFCCP. Initially, I was the senior advisor, and then I became the director pretty quickly, six months. And, right from the outset, I could see that the agency needed to invest more time and resources into disability inclusion, and an into Section 503 of the Rehabilitation Act, which is the authority that OFCCP enforces, that requires nondiscrimination and accommodations based on disability status. So -- and also affirmative action based on disability status.

But what I noticed right away was that, whereas OFCCP had been extraordinarily successful in identifying and eliminating and remedying discrimination based on race or gender, it had not done so in the area of disability. In fact, if you look at OFCCP's recoveries for discrimination, about 99% is because of race or gender discrimination, and less than 1% for disability discrimination. And, you know -- and I want to be clear, we continued the significant focus on race and gender discrimination. But it seemed to me that we should also be devoting similar resources and time and care and attention to disability discrimination. And that we needed companies to be thinking that racism or sexism in employment, which is wrong, and they know is wrong, that disability discrimination is as wrong. And it's something that needs to be looked at in the same way as something that everyone should reject. So you don't hear jokes about people with disabilities. So you don't hear use of anachronistic, antiquated or offensive terminology related to people with disabilities. So you have people thinking about people with disabilities as a matter of social justice, and equity.

And, you know, the numbers cried out for it. The labor force participation rate for people with disabilities is, you know, a little bit over 20%, compared to about 63 to 65% for people without disabilities, for the general workforce. And the unemployment rate for people with disabilities tends to be about double the general unemployment rate. And the wage gap for people with disabilities is over 30 cents on the dollar. So, when you look at all of these, discrimination against people with disabilities is very similar in its impact to discrimination based on race or gender. So, right when I started OFCCP, my goal was to ensure that the agency was treating disability discrimination as seriously as race or gender-based discrimination.

John: Give me some examples of how you made that work.

Craig: In a number of ways. First of all, I made sure to include in every speech I did, I gave over 100 public speeches as OFCCP director, including some to hundreds, even thousands of listeners. And I always mentioned disability inclusion and disability nondiscrimination and made that a priority. I made it a point. And I told my whole staff to make it a point.

We started doing outreach events based on Section 503 in particular. We then created the Section 503 focused review program, with the goal of that program being to bring more attention to disability discrimination. And through that, we created about 15 to 20 best practices that asked companies to go beyond the requirements of law in fully including people with disabilities and all aspects of employment. And I ordered, as OFCCP director, 500 focus reviews of corporate headquarters of the largest corporations in the United States.

I knew that by auditing a company, it would get a company to focus on that. And we gave them a lot of time to prepare, thinking that that would lead companies to adopt best practices, put their house in order, and do great things in this area. So, that was one area where I was a major advocate.

A second area, which I'm hopeful the current administration will continue, because I was not able to get it across the finish line, although I tried very hard, was one of the reasons why OFCCP is so successful in eliminating compensation and hiring discrimination based on race and gender is because, in its -- in its scheduling letter, when it schedules an audit, it requests, from contractors who are audited, detailed information based on compensation and selection and hiring and promotion, of people based on race and gender. And then the agency runs regression analyses across the workforce to look for structural discrimination, pay disparities, or hiring disparities based on race or gender, or the intersection of race and gender. The agency does not do that for disability. And that's where really, the biggest impact the federal government can have for people with disabilities is to look at hiring and compensation of people with disabilities.

So, I proposed, as part of the focus review program, that the agency, when it does a Section 503 focused review, that it received detailed hiring, compensation, and promotion information for people with disabilities in the workforce, so that it could run -- the agency could run regression analyses. And to get companies then, in advance of audits -- because they have a yearly requirement to audit their workforce if they're a contractor -- to be looking at disability as well. And my sense was, because there's a large pay gap related to people with disabilities, and because there is a lot of discrimination, my sense was we would find significant pay and hiring disparities, and then we could do class settlements for people with disabilities, similar to what we do in the other areas. Anyhow, the end of the story is I proposed this. I ultimately got the Department of Labor to support it, but OMB blocked it.

John: Why did they block it, Craig?

Craig: Okay, there we are. OMB blocked it, well, because, you know, it was a Republican administration. [>> JOHN: Mm hmm.] And Republican administrations, and including particularly the last one, we're very concerned about anything that would add a regulatory burden to companies. So, they viewed this as regulatory in nature, asking companies to now start keeping this information as well and provide it to the agency. I respectfully disagree with OMB. There was -- I didn't disagree that there was a regulatory component to it, but it was a regulation that already existed. It's Section 503. And it says that you're not supposed to -- you may not, it's illegal, to discriminate based on disability status. Just like the executive order does for race and gender, they're the same.

So, why aren't we doing what we're doing for -- for race and gender discrimination, why aren’t we doing that for disability discrimination? Frankly, I found it discriminatory against people with disabilities. I found the whole federal government -- and this is not just the last administration, it's every administration, in my opinion -- has not prioritized disability discrimination to the extent it should. So, although I understand that OMB felt that it was a regulatory burden, I take them at their word, and, you know, it was consistent with other decisions OMB made, I felt because the need to focus more on disability discrimination was so evident and compelling, particularly considering the regulations that already existed that were not being enforced, I felt that an exception should be made, and that this should be approved in a Republican administration.

And I did get the Department of Labor to approve it, but OMB blocked it. And ultimately, we were not allowed to approve it. So, we did not approve it. And -- but my hope is that this administration will approve it. Because Democratic administrations tend not to be -- I mean, I say this respectfully, but tend not to focus as much on regulatory burden. And so, maybe they'll be more likely to grant this.

Now, having said that I am -- I am a Republican. I'm, you know, a moderate Republican, and I've always been apolitical. But I care about regulatory burden, and I care about businesses, and I want businesses to be able to be businesses and not be, you know, saddled with many regulations. I tend to agree with that approach. But this is a regulation that is an important one, that already exists and that was not being enforced. And for that reason, I felt that the right thing to do for a Democratic or Republican administration was to enforce it. And I stand by that.

John: Government moves the way government moves. It moves a lot, a lot of gears, and a lot of politics, and a lot of lobbying, and so on and so forth. You have recommended something that has been a pet peeve of mine for quite some time with regards to disability. I think it belongs -- I think that disability and minorities belong in the cabinet, that there should be a secretary who reports directly to the President who can kind of do what the Secretary of Homeland Security does. Now, nothing happened about that -- within that, until 9/11 came along. And the first thing people said is, “Okay, we've got to coordinate all of this, put it under one person's authority, and have them have access back into all of the rivers that flow through how this gets done inside of our government structures, and consolidate the focus on it at the top.”

It feels, to me, that -- what you've lived through and what you -- you make a -- you make a great case for democracy is very, very hard to comply to if you don't have authority, at the top. Or at some point, you could make things happen in Coral Gables because you were inside City Hall, and you're respected, and you were given authority. Then you went to the Department of Labor, and you were respected, and you were given authority. And somehow or another, the bureaucracy said, “Okay, that's far enough, Craig. (laughing) We'll take it from here.” But [crosstalk], go ahead.

Craig: They did support me a lot. [>> JOHN: Yeah.] I mean, I just brought up that one instance, but I got a lot of -- I got a lot done as OFCCP director. And I’m grateful [>> JOHN: That's really good. Yes.] to the former administration for putting me in the post and supporting me.

Just -- and I have no idea whether that proposal ever made it to the White -- I mean, the OMB is associated with the White House. But, you know, my sense is I believe that the President would have supported me in doing that. And I'm certain President Biden would as well. The issue is these issues have to be brought to the President's level. Because Republican and Democratic presidents have typically supported people with disabilities. For example, with President Trump, I was -- I got a lot of support from the White House for basically everything I did in the disability space. And when I met President Trump, I met him with my daughter, and he spent time with her. He was extraordinarily kind to her. He took a photo with her. He made sure to include her. And then he told people to include her. I could see he cared right there about my daughter. And typically, and you know, it's well documented that the ADA was signed by President Bush. The ADA Amendment Act was signed by the second President Bush. So, you know, you have presidents from both parties that should support this. But the point that you're making is key. There needs to be a chief accessibility officer of the United States.

John: Yes.

Craig: Can either be a cabinet post. It should be a cabinet level official.

John: Yes.

Craig: That person should be appointed by the President and answer to the President. OFCCP has a best practice, where we say that every federal contractor should have a chief accessibility officer. It's on OFCCP’s website. I put it there as the Republican head of OFCCP, and it’s been kept there by the Democratic head of OFCCP. It's the government's position. Well, why not? The government should lead by example. This is one of the issues I have with the US government, one of the concerns, is that it doesn't lead by example. That's what we tried to do in Coral Gables. The US government should lead by example, by appointing a chief accessibility officer, and giving that person real power by requiring every department and agency to prepare a monthly report about what they're doing to enhance disability inclusion and accessibility within their department, and within their engagement with the public. And that person should answer directly the President.

John: Craig, you have a track record. You have a voice. And you have a very reasoned discussion about it, or you know, it -- the voice of society, in 2021 is really learning, I think, it's navigational responsibility. There is no diversity, there is no inclusion, there is -- there is no progress without accessibility. You can invent all the prosthetic devices you like, but if they stay some place and don't get into us and the training doesn't go into it, where does -- Without accessibility, the rest all crumbles.

Craig: Let me give you an example. I was pleased to see our local movie theater was having sensory-friendly movies, you know, for kids with autism. So, I was going to bring my daughter to see a movie. I was so happy about it. I get there, and they don't have an accessible way to get into the theater. (laughing)

They had a door, which was broken, and the city was doing some work in front of the door. And there was literally no -- my daughter uses a wheelchair. So, there was no way to get her into the theater, which was extraordinarily frustrating. Ultimately, I had to basically, you know, lift the -- the wheelchair to get her there, because I was going to get her there. But you know, what if I couldn't have done that? You know, and also how frustrating and, you know, there's a level of irony there, obviously, that they're trying to do the right thing, but they don't even have basic accessibility.

But you see this all the time. I'm very cognizant of it, because I push my daughter around in a wheelchair all the time. And so, I know, I'm keenly aware of accessibility in terms of a physical disability, being able to get into a workplace. And then with my daughter, in terms of her schooling, I'm also keenly aware of accessibility for people with developmental, intellectual, cognitive, psychiatric disabilities, and making sure that they're fully included and given the supports they need in a work environment, which, like you said before, is not special treatment, it's equal treatment. That's how they're able to participate. And I still can't -- even in this day, 2021, you still see people who think it's special treatment, and -- and it's very sad. And that's why, in my opinion, there needs to be a chief accessibility officer in United States. And the President and the chief accessibility officer need to talk about disability all the time, and about why accommodations are good.

Accommodations, by definition, increase productivity. They're always good. They're rarely expensive. And when they are, if you consider the career of a person that you're helping through the access -- through the accommodation, and you amortize that cost over the course of their career, it's typically a drop in the bucket. But you need forward-thinking, open-minded people leading a centralized accommodation system, so that people think of it that way. And then you would see accommodations granted as a matter of course.

John: Maybe somebody will take this discussion we had off of YouTube and send it to Joe Biden, and should get the President to think about that and he'll say, “That's a good idea. And it didn't come from anybody else. So, let's call -- let's call this guy on the phone and get him in here.” And so...

Craig: I'd love to do it. Let me tell you, I wish President Biden well. I think that, you know, I've seen some of the memorandums and statements he's made on disability inclusion. I take him at his word. I know he cares about it. And disability inclusion needs to be a bipartisan, apolitical issue. It's something that's a human right. It's something that we all need to care about and not politicize. So, yes, if President Biden would like to speak to me, it would be the honor of a lifetime.

John: And there is nothing more that I would add to that. Craig, it has been an absolute pleasure. And I think you've done a tremendous job in terms of illustrating and living inside of what a good life means in terms of disability and accessibility. And you certainly are a great example of why accessibility matters. Thank you.

Craig: Thank you for what you do, John. And thank you for this opportunity. I really enjoyed speaking with you.

[On screen, scrolling: Accessibility Matters, Host: John M Griffin, Guest: Craig Leen. Closing chimes accompany 'Accessibility Matters^TM' animation on screen, briefly.]