Charity

Disabled in Development Project Storyteller #8: Emily Ladau

/ Ingrid Tischer / Leave a comment

“The biggest gap in organizational commitments to disability inclusion continues to be a lack of inclusive hiring.“

Color photo of Ladau, a youthful white woman, sitting and smiling

Photo courtesy of Emily Ladau

Multi-colored hexagons“Currently, it seems a lot of organizations are beginning to recognize disability as an area for funding, but it’s time to move beyond a charity perspective. “

Name or Anonymous:
Emily Ladau
Please share how you prefer to introduce yourself:
I’m a disability rights activist, writer, speaker, and digital communications consultant whose career began at the age of 10, when I appeared on several episodes of Sesame Street to educate children about life with a physical disability.
My writing has been published in outlets including The New York Times, SELF, Salon, Vice, and HuffPost and I have served as a source for outlets including NPR, Vox, and Washington Post. I have spoken before numerous audiences across the United States, ranging from lectures at universities to conference keynote presentations.
At the core of my work is a focus on disability identity, sharing our stories, and harnessing the powers of communication and social media as tools for people to become engaged in disability and social justice issues. More about my work can be found on my website, Words I Wheel By.

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An Open Letter to Advocacy Funders: #FundDisAdvocacy Because Disability + Ableism = Structural Discrimination

/ Ingrid Tischer / 6 Comments

 

Want in on the conversation about ableism? Check out what disabled advocates, civil and human rights activists, and philanthropic leaders had to say at the Twitter chat on 10/12/18 about philanthropy and inclusion. Then make your voice heard at #FundDisAdvocacy.

A Crip in PhilanthropyFoundation funding for disability advocacy dropped 23% between 2011-2015. Disabled people were the only group to see a decrease. Most funders are “aware” of disability but do they see ableism and structural discrimination? How do we make funders see disability civil and human rights as areas of actionable, urgent advocacy? A first step is recognizing disability as a constant but hidden set of variables in nearly all formulas for civil and human rights. 

I’m writing to you in my capacity as a community organizer – which is another name for a social justice fundraiser.
I believe you and I share common ground on the importance of advocacy:
We know that the great civil and human rights gains of the last century, envisioned and organized by the grassroots, were built to last through the courts and legislation, and they will continue to be the battlefields for preserving them.
I’m writing because disability civil and human rights advocacy is missing from your funding portfolios.
The first step in changing that is frank communication.

When you do not explicitly say “disability” in funding advocacy, you send a message to us: Deny, disown, and downplay your disability identity. That denies all marginalized communities access to our hard-won legal tools and, worse yet, our expertise in using them.

You may understand this letter, at first, as pertaining to a discrete group: disabled people. But it is a fundamental mistake to think that civil and human rights for any community can be fully achieved if we neglect, forget, or disregard such a basic human condition as disability and allow it to be the “natural” cause of poverty and abuse. If we are not safe or free to be vulnerable, then we cannot call ourselves safe or free. Our society is not safe or free.

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