As donors and social justice organizations have deepened their commitments to racial and gender equity and inclusion, it’s become clear that another population needs attention as well: the estimated 16% of people with disabilities worldwide. The social sector as a whole needs to do far more to meaningfully include disabled people—not only as clients and community members, but in their own leadership and staff. 

At the Ford Foundation, we’ve been on this journey for almost a decade, substantially increasing our disability rights and justice grantmaking while strengthening disability inclusion in our own operations. We also seek to support and learn from grantee partners who are on their own journeys towards disability inclusion. 

What we learned

Through BUILD, each of the organizations received at least five years of highly flexible support to strengthen their institutions in various ways, including exploring different aspects of disability inclusion. Their experience reinforces what the BUILD program has documented time and time again: Generous—and general support—funding provides the flexibility that grantees need to make the cultural and leadership changes that ground inclusive organizations.

Organizations in the study are pursuing a diverse set of strategies for advancing disability inclusion. To start, many engaged the disability community, developed a program or project focused on disability, or included disability within their policy advocacy efforts.

Grantees also focused on activities within their own institutions: staff learning on disability inclusion, accessibility improvements in office spaces, and ensuring that disability is part of diversity, equity, and inclusion approaches. Actions like these provide a roadmap for how all of us can strengthen the inclusion of people with disabilities in our work and at our organizations.

Inclusive employment practices appeared to spur the most substantive change across our grantees. Internal policy and culture changes to support disabled staff and those who acquired disabilities provided the catalyst to significant inclusion across these organizations. Changes ranged from the development of disability policies or inclusive diversity, equity, and inclusion approaches to disability learning to upgrading physical facilities or digital spaces to ensure accessibility for persons with disabilities.

Based on our study, those that achieved the strongest levels of inclusion  engaged in several actions at once, including:

• Two-thirds are collaborating with disability organizations;
• More than half have identified specific indicators of success or incorporated disability within their strategic goals.
• A quarter have disability representation in their Board or Executive Leadership.

How to go deeper

Our grantees are thirsty for technical support and partnerships with disability organizations that share their commitment to BIPOC leaders. In anonymous interviews, grantees expressed significant enthusiasm to learn more about how they could support disability inclusion and address their expertise gaps in this area. Landscape analyses and accessibility audits helped organizations chart a path forward, particularly when internal champions used their social and political capital to advance inclusion.

The report also revealed some unfortunate patterns. For example, a pre-existing commitment to disability inclusion catalyzes inclusion of persons with disabilities, as does the presence of internal champions. But how does an organization build that internal support? Grantees noted that the lack of dedicated disability funding, pre-existing networks, and knowledge are all barriers to doing more. The study provided several recommendations to address the need for technical assistance and foster learning around disability inclusion, including:

• Individualized support for creating inclusive workplace policies, benefits, and practices (i.e., how to factor disability and accessibility into performance reviews and creating self-care plans and wellbeing policies)
• Support and references to hire consultants that support disability audits and to advise on ‘good practices’ for inclusion.
• Examples of equity and inclusion principles and strategies developed by persons with disabilities, particularly coming from a Global South perspective.

What we’re doing

At Ford, we’re committed to supporting grantees as they close these gaps and build greater capacity within the sector to provide technical support on disability inclusion. For example, we’re working with The Hub, a longtime partner of BUILD, to expand its roster of disability justice and rights consultants. Within the BUILD program itself, we’re using grantee communications and technical assistance offerings to share resources on employing staff with disabilities.

Ford is also assessing how we can support our program staff in this work. Program officers shared that they need additional guidance and resources on what meets the threshold for a “disability-inclusive” grant. While most of the organizations demonstrated some level of disability inclusion, the consultant found that several did not engage in any disability activities. This points to the potential for donors and grantees to overestimate efforts towards inclusion and underestimate challenges in implementation.

Donors and social justice organizations alike have begun to acknowledge the importance of disability inclusion as a way to advance holistic equity and inclusion efforts. But the road to inclusion and the changes needed can still feel abstract. While we learned that long term, flexible funding can help give grantees the dexterity they need to become more disability inclusive, grantees and foundation staff need more training and support to accelerate their journey creating more inclusive organizations. 

We’re grateful to our grantees for learning with Ford on our journey to inclusion, and for informing our next steps together.