Welcome to Five Questions, a series where we sit down with members of the Ability Central team and learn more about their background, the work they do, and the impact they’re making. Today we’re chatting with Alyah Thomas, the Accessibility and Partnerships Manager on our Philanthropy team.
Tell us more about yourself, how did you get where you are today?
It’s been a life-long journey, starting with a very early introduction to deafness and American Sign Language (ASL) from my mom. The oldest of six kids, she grew up with a brother who was born deaf and later had surgeries to restore most of his hearing. Before the surgeries, my grandparents made sure that everyone learned a bit of sign language. These days, my uncle identifies as hard-of-hearing and no one in my family uses ASL to communicate, but when I was little, my mom taught me what she could remember: basic signs like “mom,” “dad,” “please,” “thank you,” and “I love you.”
She planted the seed for my interest in d/Deafness, signed languages, and communication access that led me to pursue a degree in Deaf Studies from California State University, Northridge. It inspired my belief in communication as a human right, the work I do now, and several favorite stories from my childhood. I remember a time when I threw a dramatic (and successful) tantrum in a Barnes & Noble over my desperate need for a book called “The Art of Sign Language” (I still have it). Another time I made a precocious observation about Ariel and Price Eric from “The Little Mermaid” – they’d have been able to thwart Ursula’s plans if they knew ASL!
What role has disability played in your life?
I don’t identify as a person with a disability, but I’ve had some amazing disabled role models who helped shape my perspective. The first that comes to mind is the ASL teacher I had in high school. She was a Deaf, mixed-race woman known on campus for her infamously sharp wit, a “no nonsense” attitude, and the immense pride she took in teaching Deaf culture and ASL to her students.
Like many of the best teachers, she taught me far more than what was on the syllabus. She demonstrated what it meant to fight for equity, the power of community, how to gracefully navigate adversity, and that a person’s access to communication, regardless of modality, is as fundamental to human rights as access to food, water and shelter. Sadly, she passed away from cancer a year after I graduated, but I attribute my solid foundation to the time I spent in her classroom and under her guidance.
How did you get involved with accessibility and your role at Ability Central?
It’s not the first, but I would say that my most intimate and informative experience with accessibility was while supporting a program that provides telecommunications equipment and training to DeafBlind individuals throughout California. I partnered with assistive technology trainers to do intakes and assessments before we procured, set up, delivered and provided training on everything from iPhones and braille displays to desktop computers with large-print keyboards for our clients. While supporting this program, I saw how liberating and transformative technology can be. However, I also saw the reality of many adults with communication access needs – living in poverty with diminished access to community or economic advancement, and subpar support from human services organizations. I enjoyed the work but soon realized the biggest limitation of direct services – you can only impact the lives of the people that you can get in front of.
After that observation, as obvious as it may be, it clicked: I wanted to be in a position working with disabled communities to co-create programs and policy to affect change on a system-wide level. That’s when Ability Central came into the picture.
I joined the team as the Philanthropy Program Associate in the summer of 2021, but quickly began to forge my own path. Leveraging my interests and skills to support the mission and garner recognition for the organization, I sought opportunities to promote disability inclusion and the work of our grantees, connecting with people from various sectors who are interested in doing more but don’t know where to start. I outgrew the program associate role, becoming an Accessibility and Engagement Specialist, and in July of 2024, got my current title as the Accessibility and Partnerships Manager.
Now, I have the pleasure of managing our grants portfolio, collaborating with our grantees to support different initiatives, cultivating relationships with other disability-centric organizations, and educating folks on best practices for disability inclusion and accessibility.
Why is the work you do at Ability Central important to you?
The work I do with Ability Central is important to me because I wholeheartedly believe in our vision: “A world where all people have equitable access to communication.” It was that mission that attracted me to the organization and keeps me grounded when things get hectic.
What do you hope to achieve through your work here?
I hope that our work helps to shift the perception of disability from something that is pitied or overlooked to a valued facet of human identity. There’s archeological evidence dating back more than 145,000 years that our ancestors cared for injured or disabled individuals. Today, in the United States alone, approximately 1 in 4 adults have some kind of disability and 1 in 5 are caregivers to loved ones with a chronic health condition or disability. Whether we acquire a disability of our own or assume the role of caregiver, disability is an integral thread to the fabric of our societies.
Disability is extremely likely to impact us all in one way or another. We owe it to those that came before us, the people currently living with a disability, and our future selves to honor the lived experience of our disabled kin by addressing the issues raised by this community, particularly those who are the most marginalized.
