A Case for Disability Leadership in Southwest Pennsylvania
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Date
2024-05
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Abstract
This project on disability justice examines the landscape of leadership by persons with disabilities. In primary partnership with Pittsburgh, PA-based FISA Foundation, which partnered with Chicago, IL-based Disability Lead, we investigate the opportunity to expand a disability-focused leadership development program (LDP) to Southwest Pennsylvania (SWPA). A review of extant literature revealed themes of barriers to leadership. As the literature failed to address persons with disabilities as leaders, we introduce a framework for disrupting the social model of disability by illustrating a ceiling of leadership expectations. Examination and coding of over 150 pages of documentation from interviews, focus groups, FISA Foundation meetings, and Disability Lead program curricula exposed four findings. The findings indicate FISA Foundation is well established in SWPA to launch a disability-focused LDP. They must act as a convener to align other advocacy groups towards a common goal, identify additional support within the community to serve as mentors, intentionally design the program to ensure physical accommodation and remove financial barriers, and forge partnerships within the business sector for financial support. The findings suggest that barriers to leadership by persons with disabilities exist at the societal level. To overcome barriers, individuals from the disability community must be deliberately and purposefully positioned as leaders at a societal level, not just within the sector serving individuals with disabilities.
Description
Leadership and Learning in Organizations capstone project
Keywords
Social Model of Disability, Disability Justice, Disability-focused Leadership Development Program, Ceiling of Leadership Expectations, FISA Foundation