Disability Inclusion · Foundations

Disability, Diversity and Belonging

Who is already in the room, what a barrier actually is, and why being present is not the same as belonging.

45–50 minutes · 4 lessons · Voluntary learning

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Course outline

Disability is ordinary: who is already in the room
How common disability is, how varied it is, and why “we do not serve people with disabilities here” is never true of any DHS team.
12 minutes
Four words, kept apart
Impairment, disability, access need and barrier are not synonyms. Keeping them apart is what lets you fix the right thing.
12 minutes
Presence is not belonging
A disabled person in the room proves nothing. Participation, agency, influence and the wish to come back are what inclusion looks like.
12 minutes
Your barrier map
Walk one process as a participant would, find where a person is stopped, name the owner, and commit to the first fix.
12 minutes

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What you’ll be able to do

Explore and practice

Describe disability as a common, varied part of human diversity, including non-apparent, episodic and acquired disability.
Distinguish impairment, disability, access need and disabling barrier in a real workplace or service example.
Identify at least four sources of barriers: design, policy, training, attitude, communication and assumption.
Explain the difference between presence and belonging using participation, agency, influence and return.
Complete a barrier map of one process you touch and name one barrier you will look for.

What you can take into your work

A sorting exercise separating facts, barriers and assumptions.
A knowledge check in every lesson with feedback that explains the inclusive answer.
A completed barrier map and one written commitment.

Walk one process you own as a participant would, registration, a meeting, a form, a notice or an application, and record the first barrier you find, who owns it, and what you will do about it.

Read the introduction

About one in four adults in the United States lives with a disability, and most disabilities are not visible. That means disabled people are already your colleagues, your applicants, the households you serve and the partners you meet. This course gives you four words to keep apart, a way to see barriers before someone is stopped by one, and a clear picture of the difference between being present and belonging. It is the foundation for every other course in the series.

Disability, diversity and belonging

One page for any staff member, any process

One in four. Most of them you cannot see. Fix the design, not the person.

Keep the foundations in view while you plan a meeting, write a notice, design a form or report on an event.

About one in four adults has a disability; most disabilities are non-apparent, many are episodic or acquired.
Impairment, disability, access need and barrier are different things; barriers and their fixes belong to the organization.
Presence is not belonging. Look for participation, agency, influence and return.
Nobody owes a disclosure to deserve a usable process.

Walk one process this month as a participant would and make the first fix in the step you own.

When you plan anything

Assume a quarter of the people affected have a disability you cannot see.
Send materials early, as real text, with captions on and a named contact for access needs.
Ask what would help; do not ask what the disability is.

When you describe a problem

Make the barrier the subject of the sentence, not the person.
Name the people stopped, the owner of the step and the first fix.
Never write “declined” or “unable” for someone who met an inaccessible process.

When you report on a meeting or event

Replace the attendance sentence with the four signs: participate, decide, influence, return.
Say what changed because of what disabled participants said.
Pay people for expertise and tell them what happened to their input.

Participation and course completion in this program do not count toward DHS-required training credits unless management, a director, or DHS leadership expressly approves an exception.

Sources and further reading

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Disability Inclusion
What disability inclusion means in practice and the CDC's estimate that about one in four adults in the United States has a disability.
ADA National Network
Plain-language information, guidance and training on the Americans with Disabilities Act.
ADA.gov, U.S. Department of Justice
The federal government's ADA information and technical assistance.
Minnesota Council on Disability
Minnesota's advisory council on disability policy, access and rights.
Minnesota Department of Human Services, Olmstead Plan
Minnesota's plan for integrated, self-determined lives for people with disabilities.
W3C Web Accessibility Initiative
International standards and introductions to accessibility of digital content.

All research and sources across the program

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Course outline

Sources and further reading

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Disability Inclusion

What disability inclusion means in practice and the CDC's estimate that about one in four adults in the United States has a disability.

ADA National Network

Plain-language information, guidance and training on the Americans with Disabilities Act.

ADA.gov, U.S. Department of Justice

The federal government's ADA information and technical assistance.

Minnesota Council on Disability

Minnesota's advisory council on disability policy, access and rights.

Minnesota Department of Human Services, Olmstead Plan

Minnesota's plan for integrated, self-determined lives for people with disabilities.

W3C Web Accessibility Initiative

International standards and introductions to accessibility of digital content.