Advocating for Accessibility Isn't Just the Right Thing to Do
On July 26, we honor the anniversary of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) - a landmark civil rights law that affirmed what we continue to fight for every day: access is a right, not a privilege.
Advocating for accessibility isn’t just the right thing to do—it benefits everyone. Captions, interpreters, accessible design - these aren’t extras. They’re basic needs, especially in healthcare.
We know advocacy can be exhausting. But we’re stronger when we work together. The ADA laid the foundation - now it’s up to all of us to keep fighting.
💡 These insights came from powerful discussions at the 2024 Innovation & Advocacy Summit hosted by the Patient Advocate Foundation on achieving health justice: www.patientadvocate.org.
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Transcript and Video Description
[Video Description: The post has a video thumbnail with blue shading overlaid. The middle has a text bubble that reads “Advocating for accessibility isn’t just the right thing to do” in white text with rose background. A yellow banner at the top of the video has “Achieving HEALTH JUSTICE Together” in white text, with “Fall 2024 Innovation Summit” in the corner of the banner. In the video, a woman with blonde wavy hair is sitting in front of the camera with shelves, books, and decorative items behind her. She is wearing a maroon shirt.
Transcript: Advocacy is constant work that we do every day, while also trying to remind people when I’m educating and sharing information that we’re all in the same boat together. And, it might not feel like it right now, but in the future you might lose your hearing. This could happen to you later in life. There could be chronic disabilities that happen later on. So advocating for accessibility isn’t only “the right thing to do” but it also applies to every single one of us. It can happen to all of us at some point and I think that everybody will benefit from these positive innovations. A lot of people have started to prefer to use captions on videos, social media, and TV. Even people who know English as a second language find that captioning helps their English understanding. So constantly advocating, educating, and amplifying voices is important. I also recognize that this work is exhausting. I think a lot of advocates experience burnout, trauma, they get triggered, they are oppressed while working in this space every day. It can be quite difficult. So going back to what Gwen mentioned from the very beginning of this session: zero sum concept. I think we are all stronger when we work together collectively. I think we need that. Otherwise, we can’t do this alone. [The screen fades to show a thumbnail of a faded white background of a doctor holding hands with another individual] Deaf. Healthy. DeafHealth. Learn more at www.deafhealthaccess.org.].[The screen fades to show a thumbnail of a blue lighthouse] Paf. Patient Advocate Foundation. www.patientadvocate.org]