CHEST: What are some of the biggest challenges that you face in your advocacy work?
Dr. Valdez: One of the biggest challenges I experience in my disability advocacy is deciding where to dedicate my time and attention. In the context of health sciences, my advocacy spans the local, within the UVA Health System and the local health district, to the national, as an advisor for the Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute, the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine and the National Committee for Quality Assurance, among others.
In many spaces within the health ecosystem, the experience of disability has been historically absent from conversations related to diversity, equity, and inclusion. Often, this absence stems not from intentional exclusion, but rather from a lack of awareness and knowledge about the ways disabled people have been and continue to be marginalized. Many are unaware of the need for attitudes, structures, and policies to be reimagined to eliminate persistent inequities faced by the disability community.
There are many spaces in which disability advocacy is essential, but because of the persistent barriers, there are not enough disabled people who also have formal training in health sciences to engage in these conversations. Another challenge (and opportunity), then, is ensuring that my advocacy both focuses on eliminating these barriers and on creating connections between groups who want to engage in this reimagining and members of the disability community outside of academia who have valuable expertise to share.