HEALTH: Celebrating the Diversity of Ability Through National Disability Employment Awareness Month

So, as many people probably do not know, October is National Disability Employment Month.

I’m not a very big fan of this “National Month” process. First of all, I think it embeds organizational discrimination because it continues to remind people of our differences and not our sameness. Secondly, it implies that all the other 11 months of the year are not for specific groups of people. And lastly, there just aren’t enough months to cover everyone out there. For instance, National Disability Employment Month (October 1 to October 31) overlaps with National Hispanic Month (September 15 to October 14).

HOWEVER, having said this, I REALLY like National Disability Employment Month. It’s an opportunity to show the fortitude of people that not only have to combat stereotypes and discrimination, but also have real, tangible, and every day limitations and obstacles. I do not think this can be said for any other group of people and it truly emphasizes the resilience and determination of this unique population.

Keeping on topic, my motivation for this blog came while I was writing the press release for the Peace Corps for our “celebration of National Disability Employment Month” (click here to see the release). This month gave me the great opportunity to get in touch with Peace Corps Volunteers (and employees!) around the world who are either have limited abilities or are working with disabled host country nationals.

What is so striking about Peace Corps Volunteers in particular, at least to me, is that the not only transgress stereotypes in the U.S., but also abroad. Furthermore, people do not seem to understand that because someone has certain limitations it doesn’t mean that they are incapable of, say, going halfway around the world to help others. These Volunteers are not only able to fulfill the mission of the Peace Corps, but they bring very valuable and specialized lessons to their work and help debunk stereotypes worldwide.

I was able to communicate with four Peace corps Volunteers that truly inspired me:

Brooke James is a legally blind Peace Corps Volunteer who is breaking stereotypes through her Service in Cameroon. James has the juvenile form of macular degeneration called Stargardt’s disease and has been legally blind since the age of 13. However, despite this limitation, she has followed her dreams and joined Peace Corps and has not been disappointed: “I'm here and loving every minute of it,” said James. “However, I have faced some serious visual obstacles.”

Another label breaker is Allison Rice, a Deaf Peace Corps Volunteer who works with the Deaf Education Program teaching literacy and HIV/AIDS awareness. According to Rice, many Kenyans correlate disabilities to ineptitude and are also surprised to discover that Deaf Americans, such as herself, exist.

“There are Deaf people in Kenya and all over the world,” wrote Rice in an email. “At the moment, the only thing I love is being able to deflate the ongoing stereotypes and villagers' limited view on Deaf people in the world.”

Something that I also found very interesting was the immense worth of limited Peace Corps Volunteers, especially in the Deaf Education Program in Kenya. Here, as in other places world wide, limited Peace Corps Volunteers placed in areas where their specific skill-sets are needed not only to provide an example of their capability, but to help teach others who may not understand their perspective. It is the perfect twisting of ‘disabled’ to the, now cliché, ‘differently abled.’

“I have good relationships with all fellow volunteers, which is based on interdependency and being helpful,” wrote Frank Lester, who is also a Deaf Volunteer in Kenya. “I would help them with their sign language skill, as well as educate them on deaf issues. They would assist me with communication access. We all have different strengths we use to contribute to our joint projects.”

As I noted before, there are also abled Peace Corps Volunteers that work to help disabled host country nationals find better ways to contribute their strengths, find employment and help themselves. Megan Monroe, an abled Peace Corps Volunteer in Ecuador, has been working with a blind organization in her host community.

“This group has incredible manual abilities,” said Monroe who continues to be inspired by her counterparts. “The group of the blind is self organized and formed with the intention to better their lives and reach out and provide developmental opportunities for those living with a visual disability.”

The work of Peace Corps Volunteers is just the best example that I have to show the how the disabled are not only abled, but uniquely valuable. And this value is transnational, cross-cultural, imperative, and crucial. My only hope is that people continue to respect, enable, and initiate opportunities for this group of Americans.

-Erika Eckstrom, Issues of Health