Intersectionality Series: Why Accessibility May Also Be a Racial Justice Issue

Published April 24, 2022

Oftentimes, accessibility is addressed in a silo. An employee who is disabled might need to work from home more often. A student who is deaf might seek out a specific school that offers the services they need. However, these approaches often make assumptions about the privileges of the people involved. An employee doesn’t always have a job that can be done at home (or the internet access to do it). A family can’t always move houses so a child can attend a different school.

One of the main sources of privilege in regard to disability is race. White Americans with disabilities are more likely to have an easier time with employment, medical care, and fighting societal discrimination than people of color – and specifically Black Americans with disabilities.

Learn how race and disability together impact the American experience, and why advocates are fighting so hard to make people of color with disabilities more visible.

African Americans are more likely to have a disability

Different groups of people are more or less likely to have a disability than others. The Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) tracks disability likelihood by race, gender, income, and lifestyle factors. Their data highlights how some people of color are more likely to have a disability than white Americans.

  • 3 in 10 American Indian/ Alaska Natives have a disability
  • 1 in 4 Black Americans have a disability
  • 1 in 5 White Americans have a disability
  • 1 in 6 Hispanic Americans have a disability
  • 1 in 10 Asian Americans have a disability

This data doesn’t imply that people of certain races are more prone to having disabilities. Instead, it highlights how existing racial structures and income inequality can hinder access to treatment and preventative care. 

Both Beyoncé and tennis star Serena Williams are living examples of how racism prevents people of color from getting the care they need. These women experienced harrowing experiences during childbirth, and Williams was bedridden for six weeks after she left the hospital. Black women are 243 percent more likely than white women to die of pregnancy or childbirth-related conditions. Similar studies have found that doctors discount the pain levels and symptoms of black patients more so than white patients.

A doctor discounting pain or ignoring symptoms can be deadly for any patient, and this bias can have lasting complications. It means black children are more likely to experience birth complications that result in disabilities. It means black adults are less likely to get the intervention they need to prevent brain damage, loss of limbs, and other life-altering medical issues.

Income inequality leads to worse medical outcomes

Additionally, access to medical care is both a racial and accessibility issue. A third (36 percent) of Americans who earn less than $40,000 per year put off medical treatment because of the cost. This means problems can worsen and eventually reach the point of no return. People are more likely to become disabled because they couldn’t afford to get the preventative care or early interventions they needed when problems first occurred.

“Having a disability creates extra costs for people and can limit their economic opportunities,” the National Disability Institute reports. “This can be especially difficult for people of color who already have poorer outcomes in education, income, and employment, and who also are less likely to be fully banked and more likely to use predatory financial services.”

This is why the data from the CDC is relevant. Saying that it’s more common for black Americans to have a disability than other races in the country highlights economic disparity, lack of access to medical care, and the inherent discrimination in our healthcare system.

Disability and race increase health risks

One of the best examples of how race and disability intersect and affect a person’s chances of success is the COVID-19 pandemic. From the first lockdowns issued because of the Coronavirus, people from predominantly black communities were hurt more than others. They were less likely to have jobs that allowed them to work from home and were less likely to have savings funds to cover furloughs and lay-offs. The black community was also more likely to experience adverse reactions to the virus because of existing conditions caused.

“Large percentages of Black people with disabilities have the types of chronic, underlying health conditions like obesity and diabetes that make them particularly vulnerable to the effects of the disease,” says Daniel Young, a policy analyst for the National Health Law Program. “Statistically, Black people are also more likely to live in areas that have fewer COVID-19 testing resources, and receive poorer care when able to access resources.”

A year later, as the COVID-19 vaccine started to roll out, healthcare providers noticed that many white people were the first to be served – even in predominantly black communities.

“Suddenly our clinic was full of white people,” says George Jones, head of Bread for the City in Washington D.C. “We’d never had that before. We serve people who are disproportionately African-American.”

The challenges of finding vaccines and making appointments were exacerbated in underserved communities. People spent hours on the phone when the vaccine first came out or navigated convoluted websites to book appointments. They needed to travel across town to get the shot and miss work to do so. These hurdles are uncomfortable for many but seem impossible for low-income Americans and people with disabilities.

This doesn’t mean that every person with a disability or every black American struggled through the pandemic, but it highlights how the pandemic experience was (and still is) worse for some groups of people over others.

Black and disabled Americans are more likely to experience police violence

There are plenty of other examples of how disability and race intersect to create worse experiences for Americans. Another topic to focus on is the rate of police violence against the black community – and particularly black disabled Americans.

Dr. Nick Winges-Yanez, the coordinator of the Critical Disability Studies program at the Texas Center for Disability Studies at the University of Texas at Austin, wrote a powerful piece for The Hill that highlighted the impact of police violence against black Americans with disabilities. She addresses ablism in the police reports from the murders of George Floyd and Elijah McClain in 2020.

In particular, Winges-Yanez pulled a phrase from the first report of Floyd’s death, which said he died because of, “cardiopulmonary arrest complicating law enforcement subdual, restraint, and neck compression.” This phrasing places the blame at least partially on the victim, making their medical condition the problem, not the behavior of the aggressor.

“As if most human hearts would somehow remain unaffected by a grown man kneeling on their neck for more than 8 minutes,” says Winges-Yanez.

Writing off a person’s death because of a medical condition dismisses violence against the black community. Similarly, it continues to vilify disabilities and position people who have them as victims suffering through their conditions. (The use of this phrasing is called negative language.)

Intersectionality is not optional

Despite the rise of the Black Lives Matter movement in 2020, many black disability advocates feel like they are being left behind. They are shouting in a crowd that they matter, too, and deserve an equal seat at the table to discuss their experiences.

“Our Blackness is often seen as a distraction in the disability justice movement,” Vilissa K. Thompson, founder and CEO of Ramp Your Voice! an organization focused on promoting self-advocacy and strengthening empowerment among disabled people. "And our concerns are rarely prioritized by other movements [...] but we can’t have our race or disability take a backseat because fragmenting our identity means we are not seen.”

Even organizations that prioritize racial equity or work to promote accessibility have a lot to learn about intersectionality, or the idea that a person can experience different forms of discrimination or privilege at the same time.

“I am a Filipino/Black woman with a disability who works in philanthropy,” says Nikki Brown-Booker, program officer at the Disability Inclusion Fund. “When I enter a room no one looks like me...As an advocate who promotes racial and disability justice, I can tell you that organizations engaged in philanthropy have a lot to learn before they can effectively serve intersectional communities.”

Consider how accessibility impacts your community

Advocacy is a learning process. As many Americans confront their unconscious bias and invest in fighting racism in this country, it’s important to elevate the voices of people with disabilities. People of color with disabilities have their experiences to share and want to be heard as well.

To learn how you can better talk about disability in your community, turn to our Glossary. We define a variety of terms related to physical and invisible disabilities. We also highlight offensive jargon that you can remove from your vocabulary. You can also learn about people-first language and in order to be respectful when talking to people with disabilities.

 

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