Bucking Bureaucracy: Anti-Ableist Allyship in the Public Sector

Description

Anti-ableist allies have the collective capacity to make ableism a thing of the past. Due to the unique relationship and responsibility to the public, this is especially critical in government workplaces.

This session will explore using preventionist approaches and dissect how language degrades the psychological safety of our colleagues and communities. In addition, we will confront common barriers to uprooting ableism in the public sector, such as political influence, hierarchical leadership structures, inflexibility, and more.

Participants will leave with more skills to act as an anti-ableist ally, and tools to attack ableism head on.

Learning Outcomes:

• Recognize inflexible biases that degrade psychological safety, including brief references to cases of blatant and inconspicuous ableism within government settings
• Explore ableist language and ally alternatives, and walk away with a glossary of anti-ableist language
• Learn techniques to quickly scan to see if our own public sector work environment is perpetuating ableism