Disability Inclusion and Equity Pledge

This pledge will be put forward by Santa Clara County Board of Supervisors on October 19, 2021. This pledge was written with community input and adapted from the Presidents’ Council on Disability Inclusion in Philanthropy, retrieved 2021, June 6.

There are 61 million adults in the United States who live with disabilities. The United Nations defines disability as an evolving concept resulting from attitudinal and environmental barriers hindering the participation of persons with disabilities in society. The notion of disability is not fixed and can alter, depending on the prevailing environment from society to society. Disability can include difficulties in hearing, vision, cognitive function, and ambulation. It can also include chronic health issues.

People with disabilities experience exclusion through physical, attitudinal, financial, and policy barriers. This includes higher rates of poverty, employment, education, and health problems. Disability intersects with all identities, and structural forms of marginalization including racism and gender bias exacerbate the stigma and discrimination experienced by people with disabilities.

Ableism is the core barrier to equity and inclusion. As defined in the book, We Move Together by Kelly Fritsch and Anne McGuire and illustrated by Eduardo Trejos, ableism is a form of discrimination that “wrongly considers only some bodies, minds, and behaviors to be normal, worthy, and valuable… Ableism creates barriers for disabled people, making it hard to meet friends, learn at school, find a place to live, get a job, and participate in community events…” Disability must be recognized as a key element in any commitment to social justice, equity, and inclusion.

We commit to prioritize disability inclusion through a learning process and action steps, which may take us beyond the minimum legal requirements.

We affirm that the full and complete realization of the human rights of all persons with disabilities is an essential, integral, and invisible part of all human rights and fundamental freedoms.

We pledge to prioritize disability inclusion to ensure the human rights of persons with disabilities are achieved.

We promise to work to build trust and confidence among persons with disabilities as ongoing ableism has harmed the trust and confidence among people with disabilities.

We confirm that people with disabilities deserve an environment that allows them to participate on an equal basis fully and effectively with others.

We will strive for the Disability and Independent Living motto of “Nothing About Us Without Us.” We cannot make sure our community adequately addresses the needs of all residents if there is not adequate awareness of every demographic’s need. All people must be included for planning and problem solving.

We recognize that these are first steps and commit to a continuing learning and implementation process that will advance systemic change within Santa Clara County and serve as a model for disability inclusion in the County and beyond.

We commit to pursue the following in our efforts to gain disability inclusion:

• Engage the Disability Community through the creation of explicit policies for including people with disabilities in community engagement activities and other advisory roles in the spirit of the disability rights principle “Nothing About Us Without Us.”
• Implement Best Practices that help recruit, retain, and promote people with disabilities on County staff, including but not limited to accommodation policies, job descriptions and training of hiring managers.
• Build Staff and Community Training programs that includes disability education in diversity, equity, and inclusion training.
• Prioritize Events Accessibility that includes accommodations language on invitations and registrations for all events that the County hosts and sponsors.
• Use Disability-Inclusive Language by recognizing that the language of identity is an individual choice that varies widely among the disability community, use both person-first and identity-first language to respectfully acknowledge different preferences in internal and public facing communications and style guides.
• Include Disability Metrics as a dimension of diversity and equity to work collectively to propose a way to track disability participation in our area. This data is then published in aggregate form to show the effectiveness of these measures.