Brand activism floods ‘disability awareness’ holidays. But too often, it ends there as well.

• America celebrated its 76th National Disability Employment Awareness Month in October. 
• Brand activism flooded the month, but the disabled workers Insider spoke to care more about actions than words.
• “Who’s holding them accountable to [providing accessibility] the entire year, not just that specific month?” PR professional Chelsea Bear said.

A few months ago, America celebrated its 76th National Disability Employment Awareness Month. The October-long event — which began in 1945 — seeks to shed light on the value disabled people bring to the workforce, along with the barriers that are still heavily present.  

But even with that long history, many people who spoke to Insider say there’s more to be done in order to improve employment opportunities for those with disabilities. For them, increasing disability representation takes more than the  once a year corporate  promotion that themed months are often limited to. 

Rani Mani is one of those people. She’s worked at Adobe for 13 years, and she told Insider that “somebody would have to really walk me to the door for me to leave.” For her, it’s the proactive steps that Adobe has taken — including listening to specific employee feedback and collaborating with the Disability Rights Fund — that keep her at the company. 

A continued commitment, she said, makes far more of a difference than a once-a-year spotlight.

“I kind of take [National Disability Employment Awareness Month] with a grain of salt,” Mani said. “I’m not much about these Hallmark holidays. In general, I think they’re fine, and it’s a nice reminder for people who don’t have the lived experience, but … we know what we grapple with on a daily basis. 

“I don’t need an October or December, or anything, to remind me of the fact that I’m in a world that’s not designed for me.”

Mani said she’s the executive chair of the company’s Access at Adobe employee network, an internal group of more than 1,200 that started in 2017. The collective, known in company parlance as an employee resource group, was sponsored by Govind Balakrishnan, senior vice president of Creative Cloud services. That level of institutional backing is something Mani said helps the stature of the group.

“Having someone that senior sponsoring a group like this, as an ally and as a champion, also goes towards really elevating and giving us [a] tremendous amount of credibility,” Mani said.

Adobe isn’t the only large company where high-profile disabled employees say they feel welcome. 

Ryan Neiswender is a Team USA Paralympian in wheelchair basketball. He’s also been part of Visa’s Olympian and Paralympian Business Development Program, which involves multiple rotations throughout different company departments in six-month increments. The goal is to find where a person best fits in the company and also to provide a wide spectrum of experience. 

For the University of Illinois graduate, that meant moving into a permanent role with the global risk team at the end of his rotations. But he isn’t only representing Visa while in the office. Though the two programs are separate, Visa has been a longtime sponsor of Team USA. That unique combination of support, Neiswender told Insider, is why he feels so welcome at work. 

“It’s brought a really unique blend of me being able to represent Visa from multiple angles, and I can’t speak enough to the support that I’ve gotten from them in my journey to the Paralympics and in my journey as an employee,” Neiswender said. He feels the lack of disabled people in corporate America more generally is a case of “strategic neglect,” and that to involve more disabled people in some workplaces is “not even a thought that goes through their minds.” 

That neglect sometimes leads to some disabled people making their own way.

Chelsea Bear is a disabled public-relations professional who recently transitioned out of a 9-to-5 desk job and toward content creation. She runs a blog where she writes about her experiences with cerebral palsy and also boasts more than 274,000 Instagram followers. 

For Bear, the decision to leave the corporate world came after working from home showed her just how much she was losing by keeping up to workplace norms. 

“[Being self-employed] gives myself that flexibility to make my own schedule in a way that’s accommodating,” Bear told Insider. “You know, if there’s a day where I wake up and I’m exhausted, and I just can’t get to certain tasks, I can have the patience with myself to rearrange some things. Versus, working in a corporate setting, you don’t always have that ability or that allowance from their end.”

Bear told Insider she’s wary of what companies are doing outside of National Disability Employment Awareness Month. 

“I feel like a lot of companies will come out with statements during [an] awareness month, showing their support, sharing the specific things that they’re doing to make an impact,” Bear said. “But what I’m interested in is: Who’s holding them accountable to doing it the entire year, not just that specific month?”

Dev Ramsawakh is another disabled creator who told Insider their choice to pursue self-employment was one tied to their quality of life as a disabled person.  They said they chose being self-employed because there truly was no other alternative. 

“It was very much the fact that the options that were available to me were not survivable,” Ramsawakh said. “I had to create my own experience and create a lot of my own expertise, like my own credentials, essentially.” 

Ramsawakh is critical of awareness months because of what they see as a focus towards promotion, rather than action at a time where disabled people are being met with resistance to access in everyday conversation. They said that they can’t get through even one conversation during the day without having to assert the importance of access. 

“At this point, I do think [awareness months] are mostly just a marketing tool for a lot of organizations, and conferences, and things like that to bring attention to a particular subject,” Ramsawakh said. 

In this complicated maze where promotion and on-the-ground needs collide, Mani has one piece of advice: Don’t give into the idea that you’re asking for too much when you’re asking for access.

“Dare to be unreasonable,” Mani said. “Don’t feel like you’re asking people for favors and that you should be indebted to someone for accommodating you. It’s your God-given right. Ask for what you need.”