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Individuals with Disabilities Day 5: Inclusion in Society

Welcome to the final day of our 5-Day Journey: Individuals with Disabilities. What a journey we have taken! Today we focus on inclusion, not just in the workplace, but society as a whole. Over the years, great strides have been for providing equity and access for individuals with disabilities; however, much more work remains to be done. The content provided today serves to help inform on the potential growth areas that allyship can focus on, while also serving to raise awareness around the stigmas that are slowly being broken every day within this community.

Inclusion in Society

The goals of reaching a fully inclusive society are highlighted by the following stats provided by the United Nations:

  • About 13% of the population has a disability = about 41 million people
  • 7% of adults have a disability in mobility (ex. walking, climbing stairs),
  • 8% of adults have a disability in cognition (ex. concentrating, making decisions and remembering),
  • 8% of adults have a disability in independent living (ex. doing errands alone),
  • 9% of adults have a disability in hearing (ex. deafness or serious difficulty hearing),
  • 6% of adults have a disability in vision (ex. blindness or serious difficulty seeing),
  • 7% of adults have a disability in self-care (ex. difficulty in dressing or bathing).
  • Unemployment rate for persons with disabilities is 2 times more than that of those without disabilities
  • 1-in-4 American adults has a disability
  • 2-in-5 adults aged 65 and older have a disability
  • 1-in-4 women have a disability
  • 2-in-5 Non-Hispanic American Indians/Alaska Natives have a disability

Further Reading:  Inclusion in the Workplace

The win-win of disability inclusion – InfoStories

The Definitive Guide To Disability Inclusion In The Workplace | ThanksBen

Reflect

Think about a time that you observed or interacted with someone noticeably different from you? How did that experience impact you?

 

How can we create a shared community in which we are better able to see the commonalities that exist between us and not our differences?

 

How does your professional work impact disabled populations? Have the needs of individuals with disabilities been fully considered?

 

What can you do differently moving forward to further incorporate these individuals with special needs into our community?

The 5-Day Social Justice Journeys are presented by