An Interview with Bob Williams

By Lateef McLeod    

Bob Williams is a Senior Advisor to the Acting Associate Commissioner of the Social Security Administration’s Office of Employment Support Programs. Immediately prior to this, he was the Special Assistant to the Director of the Washington, DC Department on Disability Services. He also has advised the Kaiser Foundation, the Commonwealth Fund and others on policy issues affecting the health, independence and economic well being of Americans with disabilities of all ages.  From 1993-2000, Williams served as Commissioner on Developmental Disabilities and then as the Deputy Assistant Secretary for Disability, Aging and Long Term Care Policy in the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. In 1990, he worked on enacting the Americans with Disabilities Act and began his career serving on a court appointed monitoring team charged with closing Forest Haven, the District of Columbia’s institution for people with developmental disabilities. 

Q: Could you give a brief background about where you grew up?

“I am the youngest in a family of five.  I have two brothers and two sisters.  We grew up in small town Connecticut in the 60’s and 70’s.  My dad and two brothers had a small construction business, and my mom was a homemaker.”

Q: What is your family background and childhood history?

“I come from pure blue-collar stock, and I think that has made a critical difference. Some of my earliest memories are of my Dad getting up early in to go off to work in all kinds of weather and coming home late and of my Mom working long hours cleaning, cooking, baking and taking me to therapy appointments about 30 miles away. I learned early that hard work matters… things took persistence, and through my young eyes I could see my work paying off, things that enabled me to keep up with my brothers, sisters and cousins and also to explode the low expectations of others and to demonstrate to myself that I could do far more than most others thought me capable of achieving.  When someone is able to experience small successes early and often as a kid – especially when he or she is facing other challenges created by bullying, disability, poverty, family problems, etc., it often can have a tremendously positive cascading effect.  We need to create those experiences for all of our kids.

“After graduating from high school, my first grade teacher told me that if I had not begun to henpeck away on an IBM electric typewriter when I did that in all probability she would have assumed I would never be able to learn to read or write.”

Q: Did you have any challenges with your disability growing up?

“Like most people growing up with a significant disability 40 to 50 years ago, I faced my share of barriers, bias and discrimination.  I was far luckier than many, however, who were institutionalized and/or denied an education altogether.  The thing that still affects me most from those early days is the bullying and name-calling, and I say that because in some ways I think it is far worse for kids today.  Things like texting, YouTube and Facebook make it far more pervasive and acceptable to bully. 

"Looking back, I realize that in some ways being bullied made me stronger and certainly strengthened my commitment to advancing the human and civil rights of all people and people with disabilities. The single most important thing I have had going for me throughout my entire life is that of being able to live in two vastly different worlds.  One has been the world of bias and false limitations I have just been describing.  The other world is one where I am surrounded by family, friends, teachers, mentors and colleagues who have constantly held up a mirror to me so that I can see the real me, where my strengths and passion lay and what course I need to be setting, making adjustments and pursuing.  And often those whom I have taken my lead from most have been others with significant disabilities that have raised the bar for others of us to meet and exceed,” says Williams.

Q: What challenges did you have to go through in school to acquire your education?

“The single greatest barrier and threat I faced in school and really throughout my life has been to be viewed by other people not simply as different but really as someone who was “less than” and the outcast.  That is what got millions of my generation and previous generations barred from schools altogether and millions of us thrown into so called “special classes” that often provided a substandard education. I was more fortunate than many others of my generation to even see insides of a classroom. Nevertheless, it was segregated and I, my classmates and every other kid without a disability knew it.  We were frequently mocked for it.  I remember vividly the day that the  special education director  in my town told me  point blank  that I would never be fully mainstreamed or attend school with students without disabilities because of my speech. Of course, that was precisely the wrong thing to say to me, and he got an ear full of my wrath whether he could fully understand it or not, so the morning after my eighteenth birthday, I simply sat down  in the middle of the main hall of the school and refused to move. After the principal noticed me there, I spelled out me demands on my florescent green glow word board-- namely, that I wanted to take college prep courses. Not long after that, my parents and I were sitting in the principal's office listening to a dissertation from the school psychologist with a Sigmund  Freud goatee on how little Bobby was being completely unrealistic. Okay, so the thing you need to understand about my father is he's still a Marine in his 80's just as he was during the Second World War. He has never been a fan of civil disobedience, least of all on the part of his youngest son. That day, though, my Dad had heard enough and told the Freud look-alike that he was the one with the problem.” 

Q: As a man who uses AAC, what are some of the challenges and obstacles you faced as you obtained your professional success?

“The single most important piece of advice I can give any young person, particularly those with significant disabilities, that is based on my own experiences is to find as many ways to get as much work and volunteer experience as early and often as possible. The fact that I used a communication board with letters and words printed on it and a typewriter to express myself throughout school, college, and 10 years into my career really did not pose a barrier.  I did not think about it as limiting me, nor do I think others view it that way. When I was at George Washington University, I interned for the then Senate Subcommittee on the Handicapped editing its newsletter. After George Washington University, I worked as a court monitor overseeing the closing of Forest Haven, DC’s institution for children and adults with developmental disabilities. Then in early 1990, I joined UCPA as a policy analyst to work on the passage of the ADA.  In each case, those who hired me knew me fairly well before bringing me on and created the job to play to my strengths. Today, we might call that customized employment, but back then, we just regarded it as commonsense.   

“Interestingly, it was right after the ADA was signed into law that I went to a two-week immersion training on how to use my first electronic speech device, which was held at Temple University.  I made the change at that point for a couple of reasons. First, I felt I had gone as far as I could in my career absent making a major change and that to do so I needed to be able to use a phone. Within three years, of course, the power of speaking on the phone was eclipsed by the Internet.”

Q: What made you to desire to enter into a career of public policy?

“I got interested in history when I was young.  A special education aide read me a book about FDR when I was nine, and it created what became a lifelong interest. FDR was the first person with a disability that I looked on and still think of as a mentor.  The rap on Roosevelt is that he hid his disability.  The way I viewed him then and now, however, is he steadfastly refused to let the disability biases define him or what he contributed to the common good, and as a kid with significant disabilities, I found his example extremely powerful.  The idea that as Americans we could work together to continuously create a better nation also resonated deeply with me. I began to come of age in the late 60’s and early 70’s, so the ideas of Dr. King, Bobby Kennedy, as well as the civil rights and anti-war movement opened my eyes and influenced my worldview. I was fortunate to get involved in disability civil rights movement in Connecticut – even though we did not call it that then – when I was a teenager.  From there I knew I wanted to influence policy and change,” Williams says. 

Q: If not these conferences, do you think there are other conferences and organizations that give the AAC community this network ability?

“Social media is creating immense opportunities for all kinds of folks to network.  It is great to see increasing numbers of people that use AAC able to connect in this way. Undoubtedly this trend will continue.  Given that the number of us that are both using voice devices and have access to the Internet is quite small, using social media to network among ourselves has its obvious limitations.  However, it is a great launching pad to reach out both with folks who use AAC and others.”

Q: What advice you have for people with disabilities and/or use AAC who are striving to start their professional careers?

“I learned what it means to be a professional from my father.  Much of what he did for work was install sewer pipes in new housing subdivisions. Growing up I would watch him operating his backhoe, and he was very particular and precise about how he did things. He was like a surgeon repairing a heart valve or opening up an artery. Why?  Because others were depending on him to get the job done right. So, the advice I would give to anyone trying to establish themselves professionally is that if you want others to take you and your work seriously, take it seriously yourself.  Getting an excellent education and the right credentials is immensely important. Book learning, while necessary, however, is never sufficient. Becoming recognized as a professional and mastering one’s craft requires practice many long nights as well as failing and eventually learning by doing. One of the smartest things I did beginning in high school was to get as much summer job, volunteer, and work experience as possible.”

Q: What else do you want to accomplish with your life?

“The policy challenge that I have been thinking about most in recent years and want to help address is the growing employment and economic security gaps between the haves and have-nots in 21^st Century America.  American workers with significant disabilities and their families are disproportionately impacted by these policies.  However, large swaths of hard working Americans and families are having difficulties.  The recession has exacerbated these problems, but they existed long before now and will continue to persist until we address them in a way that advances employment and economic opportunities for all.”