Photo | Brad Kane
Liz Myska
Updated: September 28, 2020
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Diversity & inclusion efforts should include helping with employment for people with disabilities
By Liz Myska
I read the Worcester Business Journal article on Aug. 3 about diversity and inclusion efforts among businesses in Central Massachusetts keenly, alert for any mention of the largest demographic in need of support for inclusivity: people with disabilities.
Alas, people with disabilities were, once again, not included.
It is both ironic and tragic.
In the United States, people with disabilities comprise roughly 26% of the population.
Yes, that is correct, more than a quarter of the nation’s population, and that number is a conservative estimate, at best.
Employment statistics for people with disabilities is even more dismal.
In 2019, 19.3% of persons with disabilities were employed.
Speaking personally, stats for people like me – VIPS, or visually impaired persons – are even more gut wrenching.
Only 44 % of people who are blind or visually impaired have jobs.
Again, speaking personally, I want to work; I want to contribute; I don’t want to fade or simply settle.
I am valiantly engaged in an endeavor to address and mitigate the anomaly.
In April, I acquired a national certification, as a disability-owned business enterprise, or DOBE.
But simply having this certification does not mean the services I offer, which themselves deal with the very topics of the Worcester Business Journal article, will be embraced and utilized and I will be flooded with business.
Quite the contrary.
I continually find myself ensnared and combating social stigma and systematic oppression.
I find myself at a disadvantage, constantly having to prove myself, yet never being afforded the opportunity to do so.
The foregoing paragraph is not a complaint, a screed, or an indictment.
It is an entreaty.
I have the goods, I have titles, I have skills and I have expertise.
I have experience, all of which I am itching to deploy.
I am eager to share and collaborate.
Will anyone step up and give me a chance?
Liz Myska is the founder and an attorney for Visions Consulting L3C in Worcester.
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