Across generations, the disability community has gained traction in securing rights and equality in many areas of life from school to the workplace. However, there remains a pervasive stigma surrounding the disability community. This stigma seeks to define what people with disabilities can do or cannot do, where they can be in society, and how they can exist outside the disability community.
Joshua Fields, CEO of The Next Step Programs, has seen this stigma firsthand in society. The Next Step creates sustainable models of independence for the disability community.
“One of the biggest things plaguing the disability community is not about what they can’t do, but what they can do,” says Fields. “It’s the expectations that the rest of society has for the disability community that’s really holding folks back.”
Taking the Next Steps
Graduating high school and going on to college or a career is a natural rite of passage for most people of a certain age. However, for the disabled community, it can be a time where the stigma surrounding their abilities can rear its ugly head.
“When people with disabilities get ready to leave high school, there’s a huge lack of opportunities,” says Fields. The trending mindset is for employers and colleges to focus on what people with disabilities can’t do, ignoring what they can.
At Next Step, Fields and his team help people with disabilities obtain and maintain employment. He began the organization when he was in high school, starting Next Step with a friend he met while working at a summer camp for children with Down syndrome.
Fields noticed that while he and his friends without disabilities were busy planning their next moves after graduation, whereas the friends he made who had disabilities were not. The same resources extended to Fields were not offered to the people with disabilities that he knew.
“I’ve seen hundreds accomplish jobs and tasks that most employers assume a person with disabilities can not do,” says Fields.
A Deep-Seated Stigma
Disability is a broad term, and there are many definitions of what makes up a disability. The stigma surrounding the word “disabled” is deep-seated due to several factors. The stigma could prevail because of a lack of exposure to people with disabilities, a lack of education, or a more phobic bias. To Fields, however, the actual disability doesn’t matter.
“These are humans. They have skills,” he says.
The approach by Next Step Programs to fight the stigma surrounding the disability community is to create opportunities, access, and move towards equity with peers who are not disabled. There is a lack of funding for services, along with a lack of education on the skills that people with disabilities possess, that Fields is fighting hard to change.
“I believe everyone has a right to do what they want to do and what makes them happy. It’s such a simple premise, but people with disabilities don’t always have that option,” says Fields.
Focusing on the transition from childhood to adulthood, The Next Step educates people with disabilities, their parents, teachers, and the community at large on issues of integrated living, employment, and job support. Fields has built strong connections to community employers and works with them to create viable employment opportunities and celebrate success stories.
Outdated legislation allows employers to pay people with disabilities less and relegate them to behind-the-scenes roles away from the public. This treatment of the disability community further exacerbates the stigma, allowing it to fester.
Support Even in the Toughest Times
The COVID-19 pandemic created an especially difficult situation for the disability community. Many were grappling with issues of being immunocompromised along with trying to make their way in the world. During this time, the Next Step extended virtual one-on-one meetings and remote transition opportunities to the disability community. The Next Step extended telehealth resources to the community, educational materials for schools and employers, and links to online classes for people with disabilities to avoid disruption in their education journey.
When Josh Fields was just 16 years old, his work as a camp counselor for children with Down syndrome sparked his idea for The Next Step. For Fields, immersion in the community and working directly with people with disabilities erased any stigma that may have been present for him personally. From a young age, his personal connection to the community has spurred his important work through The Next Step.
“When you look at The Next Step, the first thing you see is an organization that works with people with disabilities,” says Fields, “But what you should see is a human rights organization trying to level the playing field.”
