{"id":14014,"date":"2026-04-17T08:00:00","date_gmt":"2026-04-17T12:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/progressions.prsa.org\/?p=14014"},"modified":"2026-04-14T11:45:49","modified_gmt":"2026-04-14T15:45:49","slug":"the-power-of-perspective-navigating-pr-with-a-disability","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/progressions.prsa.org\/index.php\/2026\/04\/17\/the-power-of-perspective-navigating-pr-with-a-disability\/","title":{"rendered":"The Power of Perspective: Navigating PR with a Disability"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Emily Ladau works as a communications expert, author and disability rights activist who strives to promote accessibility through her storytelling efforts. She established her career through disability advocacy work while using her communications skills to support people with Larsen syndrome.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

She has written Demystifying Disability: What to Know, What to Say, and How to Be An Ally, <\/em>and has worked in editorial and communications positions at various disability organizations. Her research aims to transform public understanding of disability through media representation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Emily shares her lived experience approach to public relations through this PRoud Council interview, which demonstrates her understanding of accessibility, inclusive messaging and perspective value in communications work.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Background and the Path to PR\u00a0<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Emily:<\/strong> \u201cI do not identify myself specifically as a PR person but rather someone who works in the broader world of PR and communications and is passionate about using social media to educate, engage, and keep people informed. That is where I fall within the PR and communications space.I initially envisioned becoming a high school English teacher, but midway through college I realized I was having what I call a quarter-life crisis. I shifted away from the teaching program and toward disability advocacy because I have a physical disability and use a wheelchair. I did not know where that would take me, but I found my way into disability related communications, using communications to help people better understand the disability experience. I realized that disability has a PR crisis. People do not understand disability, are afraid to talk about it, and often discuss it negatively because of harmful media portrayals. How we talk about disability shapes how we think about it, and how we think about it shapes how we talk about it. That is when I realized communication was the path I wanted to take.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Interest in Communications Work <\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Emily:<\/strong> \u201cI\u2019ve always been a word person. I am someone who loves being able to connect with people and find ways to bridge gaps around difficult or complicated topics. Communications was the pathway to that for me, and I found myself gravitating towards communications as a career path when I realized that this would allow me to be the word nerd that I have always been professionally.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Lived Experience Shaping Her Career<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Emily:<\/strong> \u201cI think that being disabled has led me to realize we need to meet people where they’re at, and we often need to be patient in how we communicate with people. It can be tiresome to explain the same thing over and over to people, but most people are not socialized to think about disability or to understand disability. Having said that, disability is not a niche issue. More than one in four Americans has some type of disability, and around the world, more than a billion people have some type of disability. So it’s really quite relevant, statistically speaking, and to me, that’s driven my passion to use comms and PR as a way to engage people and to bring them into the conversation and to make them feel more comfortable.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Challenges in PR and Communications <\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Emily:\u00a0<\/strong>\u201cThe challenges are twofold. From an attitudinal perspective, some people are quick to judge, dismiss, or twist what I am communicating to fit their own purposes. That can be difficult when my message does not land as intended. There are also physical barriers. Conferences and professional gatherings often overlook accessibility, making networking and connection difficult because of inaccessible venues or a lack of captioning. Both attitudes and physical spaces can be inaccessible.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Accessibility Limiting Opportunities<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Emily:<\/strong> \u201cI’m in a unique position in the sense that I’m a disabled professional who communicates about disability. I think in my case, being very open about my disability experience has been a way to continue to grow my career. I have been able to embrace my identity as an asset in my work, but\u00a0 when it comes to broader opportunities, I’m often pigeonholed into only being the disability subject matter expert and not being seen for all that I can bring to the table.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Navigating Underestimation<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Emily:<\/strong> \u201cThe best way to navigate things like that is to first remind yourself that you should not have to prove yourself to anyone and that you are worthy exactly as you are. You don’t need to seek validation from others. I find that I use the tool of communication, not just externally, for clients or for educating the public, but also for educating colleagues and for speaking up and explaining very clearly what it is that I need, what it is that I can and can\u2019t do. So I see communications as a tool, as much for external facing in the workplace as internal facing and being able to really clearly communicate with people who might otherwise judge me.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Tools and Strategies <\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Emily:<\/strong>\u00a0\u201cI am big on keeping it simple and straightforward and sending an email if I need something, sending a text if I need something, jumping on a call. I know there are many people who have quite a few tools that they implement into their workflows, but for me, I find that the most accessible tools are the ones that are the most straightforward. In terms of strategies, I also try to be mindful of the fact that everybody is showing up to this work with their own lived experiences and with their own accessibility needs. So, I may work on a different schedule than somebody else. Somebody else may be having a particularly difficult health challenge. One day somebody might need to be off camera when they’re communicating. For me, the biggest strategies are really flexibility and adaptability and meeting people where they are.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Creativity and Perspective<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Emily: <\/strong>\u201cI see the world through a particular lens because of my disability, and so it’s taught me how to engage in conversations in ways that make people feel welcome. I always say that you don’t owe anyone your story, but for me, I have found that being open and sharing my story is really a pathway to connection. So, I have found that my disability is often an entry point for me to create a deeper connection with people, because I’m able to reveal a little bit about myself and about my personal experiences, and from there, I’m able to begin to break down the walls that otherwise exist in communication.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Overlooked Strengths<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Emily:<\/strong> \u201cBeing disabled often means that I have to be a quick thinker and a creative problem solver, because I am constantly navigating a world that was not built for me and was not made to be accepting of who I am. So, I have found that being able to think outside of the box and not have such a narrow viewpoint on how to handle certain situations or how to communicate about certain situations has really been an asset.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Industry Inclusivity<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Emily:<\/strong>\u00a0\u201cI think that is shifting based on the socio-political and cultural environment. The world of PR and comms, for quite some time, has been really focused on using itself as a tool to engage people in conversations about the diversity of the human experience. And you know, that kind of shifts to meet the moment in some ways, and in other ways, it becomes a barrier for people because they’re afraid to speak up about important issues. They’re worried about the pushback or the backlash, but I believe that\u2019s where the skill set and PR really comes into play, because you can be the person to lead the messaging, and you can be the person to lead the response to the pushback, and you have the skills to navigate both of those challenges, right?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Misconceptions About Disability<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Emily:<\/strong>\u00a0\u201cPeople have very narrow understandings of what disability is, and in a lot of ways, I might feed into that narrow understanding because I am someone who is a white woman who uses a wheelchair and communicates verbally. You might think that I look like any stock photo that you find online when you type in the word disability, but the reality is that disability doesn’t look like any one thing, because disability cuts across all identity groups, and anyone can become disabled at any point in their lives. And so, really, the disability community is quite a big tent, and the world of comms and PR can sometimes forget just how broad the disability community really is.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Practical Steps for Accessibility<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Emily:<\/strong> \u201cOf course, there’s the physical accessibility of making sure that you are providing accommodations, and accessibility if need be, but I also think it’s really about fostering a culture of inclusivity. It’s about creating space at the table for everyone, opening up conversations about disability and not being afraid to engage on topics that might feel more challenging. A tip that I often give to people is, if you’re not sure how to open up the conversation about how you can best support a person, simply say, \u2018What can I do to make this more welcoming and accessible for you? How can I support you at this moment?\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Advice to Students with Disabilities\u00a0<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Emily:<\/strong> \u201cGo for it. Disabled people need to recognize how they can leverage their life experience as an asset and recognize that they have so much to bring to the table. When it comes to anything in the realm of comms and PR, all of your strategies and approaches are much stronger when you have a diversity of thoughts and opinions and experiences that are brought into the conversation. So don’t be afraid to take on a role where you might be more public-facing in terms of shaping a communications narrative – put yourself out there.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Key Takeaway<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Emily: <\/strong>\u201cI want people to recognize that the stories, experiences and perspectives of disabled people have value and deserve to be taken seriously and deserve to be qualified. So, you know, you were asking before about being underestimated, and the real takeaway is, don’t underestimate disabled people you know, recognize them instead as valued members of any team who have so much to contribute to the conversation.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Emily Ladau works as a communications expert, author and disability rights activist who strives to promote accessibility through her storytelling efforts. She established her career through disability advocacy work while using her communications skills to support people with Larsen syndrome. She has written Demystifying Disability: What to Know, What to Say, and How to Be An Ally, and has worked […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":34,"featured_media":14015,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3512,3844,2893,3833,3412],"tags":[3182,4019,4016,4020,4017,4021,4018,637],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/progressions.prsa.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14014"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/progressions.prsa.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/progressions.prsa.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/progressions.prsa.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/34"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/progressions.prsa.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14014"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/progressions.prsa.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14014\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":14016,"href":"https:\/\/progressions.prsa.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14014\/revisions\/14016"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/progressions.prsa.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/14015"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/progressions.prsa.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14014"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/progressions.prsa.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14014"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/progressions.prsa.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14014"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}