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4 JANUARY 27, 2022
Disability Inclusion Becomes
a Year-Round Endeavor
LO C AL
SASHA ROGELBERG | JE STAFF
IN THE EARLY DAYS of the
pandemic, Jewish Learning
Venture Chief Program Officer
and Whole Community
Inclusion Director Gabrielle
Kaplan-Mayer noticed a lot of
complaints from people unable
to eat in restaurants.

Having an autistic child
with a sensory disability,
Kaplan-Mayer and her family
had adapted to getting take
out and eating at home long
before COVID-19 began. But
her observation struck a chord
nonetheless. “For a moment, many nondis-
abled people had an opportunity
to see what it’s like to be isolated
in their homes,” Kaplan-Mayer
said. COVID has changed the way
people think about disability
and accessibility, Kaplan-Mayer
said. People without disabil-
ities are taking advantage of
access tools, such as Zoom, that
disabled people have been using
for a long time.

The right to work from
home is something disabled
people fought for decades
before COVID, Kaplan-Mayer
said. Now that so many people
are working from home, work
flexibility and access tools have
become commonplace, and
advocates for disability justice
and accessibility are experi-
encing their work come to
fruition. On this year’s Jewish
Disability Awareness,
Acceptance and Inclusion
Month during February —
a national effort since 2009
for Jews to coalesce around
disability justice — disability
inclusion and justice advocates
are hoping that a greater focus
on accessibility in the age of
COVID sticks, even after the
pandemic is over.

JEWISH EXPONENT
Participants at a Whole Community Inclusion family program prior to
COVID Courtesy of Jewish Learning Venture
“This moment is really
important, so we don’t just stop
and be like, ‘When it’s safe,
everyone go back,’” Kaplan-
Mayer said. “Because we’ve
learned how technology can
support access in so many
different ways.”
By highlighting the work of
disability inclusion and aware-
ness in February, there’s a greater
chance that those not thinking
about accessibility from March
through January will think
about it more deeply year-round.

“It’s not just a month,” Philly
Friendship Circle co-founder
and Executive Director Rabbi
Zev Baram said. “Take whatever
the focus is on this idea of inclu-
sion — take it beyond just the
weekend you hear about it, or the
month that we’re recognizing it,
and be able to interact with that
concept throughout the year.”
Philly Friendship Circle,
a nonprofit working to build
friendships between disabled
and nondisabled young adults
and children, is part of Whole
Community Inclusion, a part of
Jewish Learning Venture which
hosts jkidaccess, a program
focused on disability inclusion.

On JDAIM, jkidaccess brings
together many area Jewish
organizations and leaders to
hold events; synagogues are
encouraged to host a Shabbat
during the month centered on
the topic of disability inclusion
or accessibility.

Philly Friendship Circle is
co-sponsoring a dialogue with
Central Jersey-based synagogue
educator Lisa Friedman on
See Disability, Page 24
JEWISHEXPONENT.COM