Disability & Business: A Book Review

I recently completed a book entitled " Disability and Business: Best Practices and Strategies for Inclusion" by City University of New York professor Charles Riley. The book itself is a wonderfully written, detailed introduction to the basic ideas of the value that people with disabilities bring to the business landscape. From the beginning Riley states that no longer should big business view the disability commmunity as just providing handouts, rather, the disability community will become a critical component in the future of good business practices. Moving beyond the traditional "hand out" model (which so often the social service organizations still cannot get past) he begins to explore areas like human resources, marketing and universal design. While ALL of these elements are critical to the overall business strategy the one draw back that I found was that the book provides a very basic overview of these themes and never really delves into case studies. Riley interviewed hundreds of people for the book - people in mangement, executive positions and so on. While the information provided was solid I often felt that there were knowledge gaps that were to broad for my taste. But in all fairness, as someone in the field who craves detailed information I know that my biases maybe unwarented.

The book itself I believe is a wonderful start to the growing ouvre of Disability Studies literature and provides readers with a greater understanding that these issues are vital - but more importantly business executives, management and scholars must begin to think about creating a paradigm shift when thinking about the relationship between business and disability.

Some Recent Thoughts & Observations...

Over the past several posts I have been discussing about the importance of the idea of livable communities. What often goes unstated is the definition of what a livale community is as it pertains to the disability and aging arena. I think that in light of recent events such as Walter Reed in particular it is critical to explain what the idea of a livable community is and the importance that this idea will have in the next decade and beyond.

I. Brief Definition

A Livable community can be defined by the enviornment (physical,social) that is accessible by all. All members of the community can feel welcome and utilize all areas of the community settings NOT limited by physical or social barriers.

II. Importance

The importance of this idea is to break down barriers so that there can be an inclusive enviornment that can serve its community on every level from healthcare, education to areas of policy. If we do not have these key pieces in place there is a continual perpetuation of discrimination.

III. Going Foward
Briefly, going foward we as a society must be aware that the concept of liviable communities and Universal Design go far beyond the traditional sense of building codes & technological advances. We as a community must incorporate the ideas of of cultural & social values as a critical element in the process of creating livable communities.

Liviable Communities

With the Walter Reed debacle in full swing it sheds light on the value of creating a livable community. Livable Communities by definition should NOT ONLY be about access to great medical care but alsothe enviornment surrounding that care. Access to areas of universal design, clean spaces and a greater understanding that care is a holistic process. A livable community should be just that - a commmunity - where people can feel a connection to one another and be able to create that link.

Walter Reed: The Value of Livable Communities

Since the Walter Reed fiasco, I have been thinking about the systemic effects of such an event. What kept resurfacing for me was the notion of livable communities. What often gets overshadowed in the healing process is looking beyond the "medical model" and seeing that enviornment plays a critical role in both rehabilitation but a sustained healthy lifestyle. For people with disabilities and those who are aging livable communities will be catch phrase that will begin to be bantered about in the coming years. But what does this mean in terms of the Walter Reed incident and more importantly what can we learn from it for future reference.

My thoughts are that what the Walter Reed staff need to comprehend and hopefully approporiate is the importance of physical space and enviornmental surrounding as part of the ongoing treatment both physically, mentally and psychologically. Functionality must be part of any treatment model but also livable conditions and the ability to feel safe in a situation where one is vunerable. The idea behind livable communities is that a person can function to the BEST of their ABILITIES and not feel hindred by the enviornment or even social barriers. While I am not disputing the medical care at Walter Reed I would suggest a larger review of treatment of people with disabilities maybe going outside the medical model.