Within the past year, Disability has been transformed from a small, esoteric group of professionals into a thriving and highly visible Section. Our new status has provided us with a seat at the table of public health, where we now have the opportunity to participate in a much more dynamic and interactive way on major issues related to public policy, human rights, education and health care reform. In our 20-year journey from a special interest group to a Section, we have arrived at a good place.
As one of the elite 25 in APHA (Sections, that is), we’re now closer to the action. We get to hear what other Section leaders are doing to advance their own agendas, and we get to share our agenda with other leaders in public health. This gives us unprecedented breadth and scope to advance the rights of people with disabilities, and to ensure that disability has a place at the table on every major issue that comes out of public health.
What is so interesting about our transformation is that it is happening within an organization that has spent most of its years on prevention; yes, prevention of disease and disability. Terms such as ‘disability-adjusted life years’ (or DALYs) and ‘disability prevention’ are found in every public health textbook and journal from here to eternity. We now know that these terms are counterproductive to promoting health among people with disabilities because it leaves many public health professionals with the impression that disability is not their responsibility; that’s someone else’s job. But what we have learned from this culture of apathy is that it does great harm to under-served groups by displacing them from their own community. People with disabilities have very high levels of unemployment, live in complex social and physical environments, and have much poorer health compared to the general population.
Every section in APHA has a responsibility to bring disability into the mainstream of public health. Medicine must advocate for health care reform that includes assistive technologies for people with disabilities; accessible medical equipment in all hospitals and offices including exam tables and mammograms; and training methods in medical schools that provide physicians with the knowledge and skills to provide better care to their patients with disabilities. Epidemiology must support the inclusion of people with disabilities in more population-based data sets; help create a universal definition of disability; and provide new strategies for analyzing data on small samples. The Environment Section must increase their awareness of the enormous health disparities reported among people with disabilities related to the insurmountable barriers associated with the built environment; develop universally designed instruments that reflect the needs of every member of a community; and help shape national environmental health and protection policies that include people with disabilities. Public Health Education and Health Promotion should promote training materials in accessible formats (which have been developed by professionals in disability) that are relevant to people with physical, cognitive and sensory disabilities; encourage schools of public health to include disability-related content in their curriculums; and engage community service providers in promoting health among all members of their community, including people with disabilities. Every Section in APHA has a role to play in integrating disability-related issues into their long range plan.
The Disability Section’s mission is to ensure that all areas of public health represent people with disabilities. We need the help of every Section leader to achieve this goal.