A need ‘almost hiding in plain sight’
Councilwoman urges surveys to better serve disabled
Growing up, Councilwoman Melissa Cabello Havrda often spent time with her twin cousins, who are around her age and diagnosed with a significant form of nonverbal autism. Her family always supported them, she said — but as she grew up, she realized how others treated her cousins differently.
That family background was the impetus for Cabello Havrda’s eventual work in disability law. The experience of people with disabilities in San Antonio has long been a top concern for the councilwoman who represents District 6 on the far West Side.
Now, she’s asking City Council to include demographic questions related to ability and disability on city-sponsored surveys — much like questions that ask about age, gender, race or ethnicity.
“We can’t represent a community if we can’t see them, if we don’t know where they are and what they need,” she said. “I think it’s a very obvious thing we should be doing as a city, and it was almost hiding in plain sight.”
Like similar survey questions, people could choose not to answer if they don’t feel comfortable sharing. But for those who do, Cabello Havrda hopes the information can impact city policy on issues like transportation or even public art.
The city sends out all kinds of surveys looking for feedback on things like federal COVID-19 relief spending, housing and the city budget.
If San Antonio is asking residents what they need in public transportation, and answers come from the perspective of someone who uses a wheelchair, the city should take that into account, she said.
The idea stemmed from DISABILITYSA, a local organization that connects people of all types of disabilities with resources and other opportunities.
The nonprofit hopes the city can use the data from the surveys to prioritize its plans, said Melanie Cawthon, executive director and co-founder of DISABILITYSA.
SA Climate Ready, the city’s climate change action and adaptation plan, is one example of a city priority that could further develop based on feedback from people with disabilities, Cawthon said.
If climate change impacts the disabled community at a higher rate, survey responses could show it — and change how the city implements strategies to slow climate change. The same idea could apply to the city’s recently adopted Strategic Housing Implementation Plan.
The city could learn from survey responses in other ways, too. For example, residents who have issues with their eyesight particularly may be impacted by a matter but can’t access city information on it. San Antonio could respond by changing its method of communication.
And if the results show not enough people with disabilities are responding to surveys, the city could try a new form of outreach.
“We don’t know how the decisions we’re making are impacting our disability community,” Cawthon said. “By adding those questions, we can start to understand where we’re falling short or where we’re doing a good job.”
The actual survey questions could ask about difficulties hearing, seeing, walking or living independently. Questions also could ask about cognitive difficulties.
Those are some of the same queries from the U.S. Census Bureau in its American Community Survey. Cabello Havrda said she wants to work with DISABILITYSA to formulate question language from the city more specifically.
While transportation is the main subject the councilwoman imagines survey questions could influence, other everyday issues could benefit from more demographic information. She pointed to food insecurity and how San Antonio could tailor its response to help someone who can’t walk get to the food bank or a pantry.
Cabello Havrda said she doesn’t file a lot of requests for City Council to consider, but this one is deliberate. When she graduated from law school, she worked for a disability firm in San Antonio. She now runs her own firm that primarily focuses on representing people with disabilities.
While supporting the disabled community may be of specific importance to Cabello Havrda, she wants to make sure San Antonio follows a city policy long after she’s gone from City Council. It’s important for her and other council members to know what people are asking for if they’re going to represent them properly, she said.
“I know the stigmas they go through every day and the obstacles they’ve overcome to be successful,” Cabello Havrda said. “To represent them (people with disabilities) like any other demographic, it’s important to record and understand that information.”
The governance committee of City Council will consider the policy request before it heads to the full council.