News Commentary: Profile of Emily Voorde from The 19th
Or: The Impact of Profiling an Accomplished Disabled Person
Image Description: Two women seated in wheelchairs in black and white profile silhouette facing each other in discussion.
Recently The 19th published a terrific profile of Emily Voorde, a disability rights activist (born with osteogenesis imperfect or brittle bone disease resulting in longtime use of a wheelchair) who was the first disability community liaison for the Biden White House and worked for Pete Buttigieg's Presidential campaign. (As an aside, I recommend following the writer Sara Luterman for her quality writing about disability and related issues.)
Disabled leaders or successful disabled people are not covered much in the media. Mostly, the stories about disabled people feature pity or inspiration, not an actual well-rounded or accomplished person. So, it’s refreshing to read this kind of article about a disabled woman, not just as someone with a disability who uses a wheelchair, but who sought out a path to get an education, start a career as an educator, switch paths to go to law school, and then changed her mind to work for a Presidential campaign. It’s not just a story about disability — it’s about a young adult exploring life and career paths to find her way. It’s a wonderful human story!
There’s a lot to learn from and think about here, so I have some reflections below about this profile piece.
The Power of Exposure and Proximity
One of the things I loved reading about Voorde’s life and career path is how meeting Pete Buttigieg and encountering his hope and aspirations influenced her. Not only did she intern for him during college, but was inspired enough by his message to join his Presidential campaign later. It’s terrific how meeting people at the right moment in our lives can change our course and bring us to unexpected places.
For me, I thought it was brave that Voorde turned down law school, packed a suitcase, and flew off to join the campaign. When I was younger I contemplated working for a campaign, but the logistics of how I would manage this kind of job with my disability and motorized wheelchair overwhelmed me. Not Voorde! She went off and made it work.
Hopefully, more years (around 20) of accessibility advancements helped, but she still encountered plenty of physical accessibility obstacles like an airline breaking her wheelchair and hotels and venues that turned out to be inaccessible. We are alike here in figuring out accessibility problems during travel on the fly! It’s a skill I can relate to and admire.
It’s fantastic that Voorde made these choices to bravely adventure a campaign position (not held by many people with disabilities due to accessibility challenges) because it brought her into proximity to a prominent Presidential candidate (now Secretary for the U.S. Department of Transportation) and led to her later role at the White House.
Buttigieg’s exposure to Voorde and the reality of her life as a disabled person has definitely influenced him and helped to bring about much needed changes in air travel regulations currently in progress. It says a lot about how people need to be exposed to different life experiences (including a variety of disabled people) in order to better understand the challenges, the discrimination, and the needed remedies. Sometimes seeing is truly believing when it comes to disability experiences.
The Limits of Being the Lone Representative
However, I was also struck by the limits of being a solo representative of the disability community. Although Voorde was the disability liaison at the White House during an early part of the Biden administration and shared the concerns of disabled community members, she could not alter the policy decisions that were harming them.
In reading between the lines of this article, I would guess that influence has its limits. I know from my personal experience in many workplaces and other times in my life that I was the only significantly, visibly disabled person “in the room” so to speak. It carried only so much weight being the only disabled voice. Most often my perspective was either ignored or not asked about. Sometimes it felt like being the silent pebble in a shoe — present, causing discomfort, but no one was willing to take action on the hard truths that would alleviate the issues.
Perhaps just one disabled person within high levels of government is not enough, but instead many with various disabilities and also within the various agencies are needed for greater understanding and influence. Buttigieg has successfully raised disability awareness to improve accessibility and address discrimination in the transportation sector, similar activity does not appear to be happening at high levels in many other government agencies. I would suggest this kind of leadership is needed in many areas to improve the lives of disabled people.
Lessons on Advocacy
At the beginning of my career, I worked at a nonprofit that trained advocates. The leaders of the organization were an interesting balance — one with a government career and another who was an outsider advocate. During my time there I constantly listened to the background debate: which was more needed, advocacy inside an organization or outside? Shapers of policy or disruptors of the status quo?
At the time, I came away feeling like the disruptors or outside agitators were more needed. That without someone questioning and pushing, change could never happen. But as I have acquired more life experience, I see how we need the insider advocates to create the path for change in policy and make the goals articulated by the outsiders real and possible.
So here I am saying we need a bit of both. We need advocates like Voorde and others to work from the inside and we need voices from the outside to bring lived experience to the discussion. Perhaps most of all we need more — more disabled people at the table, as leaders in a variety of roles, as counselors and guides, and as disruptors of discrimination.
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I agree completely, Kelly. It's a both-and. People of color are in a similar situation. There have always been the Booker Ts and the MLK Jrs, and they are essential, but the tipping point is the theory of change that makes most sense to me, and that takes numbers.
Thank you for introducing me to Emily and her story!