A stressed and duress brain depicted in the form of digital art. The brain is shown as being red and pulsating with veins visible.
Advocacy is not complaining.
Constantly advocating for our rights can take a toll on our mental health. Fighting for equal access and accommodations should not be seen as "complaining" or "problematic," but rather as a necessary step to ensure that we are able to live our lives. Yet, too often advocacy is dismissed as a nuisance by those who aren’t able or refuse to understand our lived experience.
Advocacy is about educating, raising awareness, and creating change. Those who view it as a problem do so from a place of privilege. Having the audacity to ask for equality isn’t complaining. What too many advocates know is that if laws were upheld, if equity were normative, if the 61 million disabled Americans or 1.3 billion worldwide felt heard and understood, we wouldn’t have to be as persistent as we are to effect change.
Persistence often gets mislabeled as a problem, when in actuality the problem itself is the inequity, and injustice we grapple with daily. Too often when faced with the question of which problem is easier to solve, the scale overwhelmingly tips toward silencing us as advocates. The inequity we’re laser focused on addressing is dismissed as either too costly, too time-consuming, or too unimportant to solve.
Advocacy can sometimes be a threat to our psychological and physical safety. As a recent case in New York City highlights, we may face significant challenges when seeking reasonable accommodations for our disability. The New York Post reports a woman is facing eviction after requesting reasonable accommodations for her disability following a note from her co-op stating she “complained" too much after initial requests were ignored.
The optics and power imbalances are also hard to ignore. While some advocates are thought to be complaining, the same complaint from someone in a position of power gains traction. As Amanda Morris of The Washington Post reported Friday, The Mobile Act, aimed at easing air travel for disabled passengers, has gained bipartisan support in Congress thanks to the leadership and advocacy of Senator Duckworth who has led the charge for equitable travel since joining Congress in 2013.
Advocating for our rights and equal access should not be seen as a burden or a complaint. It is our right as individuals with disabilities to have equal access to housing, employment, and other opportunities. However, it is important to recognize the toll that constantly fighting for our rights can take on our mental health and well-being.
A survey conducted by the Disability Rights Bar Association hosted by Burton Blatt Institute (BBI) at Syracuse University found 77% of disabled respondents reported experiencing discrimination, and 73% reported experiencing mental health issues related to that discrimination.
It is time for society to recognize the importance of accessibility and the rights of disabled individuals and to work toward creating a more inclusive and supportive world for all.
#MentalHealthAwareness