Introduction
Effective advocacy is difficult. It requires subtle skills that few disability inclusion advocates possess. Effective advocacy is about getting enduring positive outcomes for a person with disability, not just getting an audience with a decision maker who may or may not act in response to the case put to them.
Below I want to reflect on the advocacy challenges that shaped my approach to disability inclusion.
The no advocacy rule
When I became chair of my department’s disability ERG there were terms of reference that prohibited advocacy on behalf of members who had notified that they were having issues with the department on an inclusion matter. I immediately thought this was an absurd constraint. We couldn’t act in support of our members?
I changed that. The department had policies and systems in place to address inclusion issues. But if they were not working there was no constraint against identifying them and then working with the department to discover what wasn’t working and fixing it. I worked with the Manager Inclusion & Diversity (M I&D) to identify and implement remedies to a range of policy and system failures. I also spoke with Executive Directors, Deputy Secretaries and the Secretary to address other instances of policy and process failures. I was mostly successful. There was one persistent failure which illustrated the entrenched problem of managers and executives who were not only not empathic but also stubbornly cruel.
Of parking and toilets
One ERG member with a significant mobility disability reported that the few accessible parking spots available to them were taken up by managers with no disability but a sense of hierarchical entitlement to more convenient parking or by visitors directed to the parking spots by staff who viewed them as fair game for visitors in need of a place to park.
I spoke with the relevant Executive Director who was not happy about the culture that had developed. I was invited to a subsequent meeting of 3 managers and the Executive Director. I was only a witness. The facts of the matter had been shared in writing. The meeting re-affirmed that accessible parking spots were for staff who needed them – and nobody else. The managers were put on notice that they must ensure the policy remained active. The problem went away.
But the same staff member had another issue that the subsequent Executive Director had little motive to address. The one accessible toilet was routinely used by staff with no need for its accessible features. It was just closer. People disappeared into it for 20-30 minutes (with their phones). The ERG member was not able to use a normal toilet stall. One day, in desperation, after waiting over 20 minutes, they banged on the accessible toilet door and pleaded for access. The staff member who emerged had no evident disability and they complained to their manager that they had been ‘harassed’ while in the toilet. The ERG member was strongly chastised by their manager for ‘harassment’.
In this instance the Executive Director declined to take any action, declaring that this was a local matter that could be sorted out within the team. But how?
Rescued from an oppressive management culture
A staff member with a physical disability had been subject to persistent discrimination by their business area’s management team to the extent that significant psychological distress was evident. Approaching the relevant Executive Director was not an option. They had a reputation for being supportive of the management team. An approach was made instead to the then Deputy Secretary with the result that the ERG member was transferred on an interim basis to another division. This was subsequently made a permanent move.
Working from home
An ERG member with a degenerative disease found it increasingly difficult to work in an air-conditioned office. The work they were doing could be done remotely with no problems, so they asked to be allowed to work from home. Their manager declined the request instantly.
After I had a conversation with M I&D the decision was reversed subject to review. On the day of the review the ERG member was in hospital. Sick leave had been applied for and approved but, because they had not directly told their manager they would not be able to attend the review meeting the work from home approval was withdrawn with no right to review. After a few ‘back channel’ conversations that determination was overturned and the right to work from home was approved at senior executive level.
A moral problem gone wrong
An ERG member advised me they were being subject to disciplinary action they thought unjust. I was asked to be a support person. I agreed. Their management team approached me to discuss the situation ahead of a meeting. This was unusual.
The ERG member was seeking redeployment because of a moral concern about their current role. This was a personal issue rather than a genuine moral concern that alleged the department was acting unethically. It wasn’t.
There was an evident psychological health concern that the department couldn’t ignore and its perceived threat to dismiss the ERG member for non-compliance was problematic.
I discussed the situation with the ERG member, and they agreed that finding alternative employment might be the best option. Within a few weeks they found a role in a NGO where they stayed for over 5 years. They were able to resign from the department with no adverse record being made.
Good will and openness made it possible to escalate a situation and find an outcome that satisfied all.
This was only the second time that I interacted directly with an ERG member’s management team directly and it came about only because they requested it. My chief contribution was to identify a psychological health concern they hadn’t been aware of. I asked only for time to talk with the ERG member about the implications of the position they had taken.
One day in a week
An ERG member contacted me. They were off work with a serious health condition and as part of their recovery they were working one day a week. For their manager this was an issue because they didn’t have access to the other 4 days a week and they needed those hours. They were talking medical retirement. The ERG member was distressed.
I spoke with the Deputy Secretary. That one day a week was important for the ERG member’s sense of wellbeing – and it was unlikely to be more than that, given the nature of the condition. The Deputy Secretary spoke with the ERG member who agreed that their role would become part-time thus releasing the 4 days a week to be used. The part-time role would be reviewed regularly and restored to full-time when possible.
The solution was compassionate. An ERG member with a serious medical condition was able to continue working without the additional stress of the threat of forced medical retirement and the department recovered 4 days a week it could then use.
The failed advocacy
An ERG member with a significant sensory disability was persistently subject to discriminatory conduct by their manager and director. This had been going on for years, long before I became ERG lead. Both the Executive Director and Deputy Secretary were unresponsive. The M I&D was unable to make any enduring progress in reducing what seemed to be entrenched and persistent discrimination.
There was some success, however. Through the influence of a senior executive disability champion the ERG member was able to have their workplace changed as a permanent adjustment. This significantly reduced travel stress and safety risks.
What’s going on?
The stories above are necessarily short and non-specific but they convey two vital themes. One is the persistence of harmful attitudes toward staff with disabilities that tend to be most exhibited in managers – and not addressed by executives. The other is the potential for sensitive and compassionate responses by decision-makers.
In any workplace community a proportion will lack empathy and even be cruel. Another small proportion will be actively responsive to the needs of colleagues with disabilities. The rest will generally have good will but may not be highly responsive. They won’t engage in intentional acts of discrimination but neither will they go out of their way to challenge discriminatory acts.
People who behave in cruel and discriminatory ways will continue to do so until obliged to desist – and even then, they may continue in surreptitious ways. And, if these people are in leadership roles, they have the advantage of having a disproportionate level of influence upon senior leaders, plus the ‘in-group’ pass.
Without an effective advocate a staff member with disability has little chance of ensuring that policies and procedures designed to protect them will work out without effective advocacy.
In most organizations that advocacy role does not exist.
I agree that ERGs should never directly engage with a member’s immediate line management. The responsibility for ensuring that it acts consistent with law and policy lies with executives. An ERG has a duty to its members in advising executive leaders that violations of policy and legal responsibility are known, and to support the organization to address the concerns raised.
This isn’t mimicking a union because an ERG is a partner with an organization in assuring policy and legal compliance concerns are effectively addressed. Unions exist independently from the organization. An ERG is reliant on the organization – it is a part of the organization. Hence its advocacy function is a critical feedback function.
Conclusion
In September 2009 I returned to work after 18 months. I was experiencing residual problems in the aftermath of contracting GBS. Getting back to work was a challenge. My colleagues were fantastic. My team leader and managers not so much. They weren’t intentionally awful. They just didn’t know what to do and chose hard options most of the time. But one manager was so discriminatory and offensive I had to lodge a formal complaint and ask to be assigned to a different team.
I felt comfortable advocating for myself. I had endured 10 months in hospital. The last 7 months was in a rehab ward so badly run it was at times totally Pythonesque. I survived because I insisted on getting adequate physiotherapy. My future depended upon it – so it wasn’t negotiable. Even so, my hands remain permanently impaired because that was one area I had zero ability to influence.
Having a disability can be disempowering in hierarchical organizations where there is no active commitment to advocacy for the most vulnerable. Advocacy works well when it is understood as a critical part of a culture of accountability. Senior leaders want to ensure that vulnerable staff are neither abused nor excluded, and they welcome feedback.
Unfortunately, such advocacy isn’t inherently popular. It takes a certain culture to favour it – and that’s far rarer than we should be okay with.
Effective advocacy is a skilled art because it isn’t adversarial or about assigning blame. It is about helping an organizational culture evolve in line with its most beneficent spirit and intent.
There’s a saying that the price of liberty is eternal vigilance. It is true to say that the cost of inclusion, compassion and fairness is the enduring capacity for effective advocacy.