Disability Employment Awareness Month: Spotlight on Cascadian Taryn Eudaly & Her Disability Advocacy

Forging a Path Toward Disability Advocacy at Cascadia

Earlier this year, Taryn Eudaly learned that over the next couple years she is likely to lose what’s left of her hearing. As the Community Manager for Cascadia Health’s Garlington Place Apartments, she quickly recognized the huge impact it would have on her work despite current accommodations. 

“I started to panic about how I would keep going with my job,” Eudaly said. “And that turned into thinking a lot about how to help others continue the work they love.”  

Eudaly came to Cascadia Health in 2022, where in addition to her role as a Community Manager, she brings expertise in disability inclusion, ADA compliance, and reasonable accommodations. After learning the news about her hearing, Eudaly drew from her passions and experience to create a new employee resource group (or ERG) for Cascadia employees—a voluntary, employee-led group meant to enhance the diversity, equity, and inclusion of an organization.  

Cascadia Health currently has three ERGs, including a group for employees of color, LGBTQ+ employees, and a group for white allies to racial equity. With Eudaly’s efforts, the Disability Advocacy ERG is the latest offering for staff. 

Disability Advocacy at the Employee Level  

As an activist and advocate, Eudaly didn’t come into this work to be a pillar of inspiration, rather, she sees her lived experience, internal motivation, and education as the right combination to ensure others have a space to be heard and to work together to remove barriers and create a more inclusive environment. “I talked to leadership about this passion for finding ways to bring disabled people into the work that they care about; that’s when an ERG was suggested,” Eudaly said.   

The Disability Advocacy group will operate under the guidance of their Purpose Statement: “Identify common barriers to access in our buildings and services, and research and suggest processes and mechanisms which remove or reduce the barriers to create a more inclusive environment and equitable care for people with disabilities.” 

The first order of business will be to look at what immediate fixes can improve accessibility at Cascadia Health. The ERG’s first projects will be determined by what group members identify as pressing needs with achievable outcomes based on their experience as employees.  

“There are limits, but we can’t stop because of them. Rather, we must constantly ask, ‘What can we do instead?’” Eudaly said.  

Bringing New Disability Education to Cascadia Health 

Eudaly isn’t limiting herself to working on the Disability Advocacy ERG. In November, she will be teaching a course to help improve communication with, and inclusion of, deaf and hard of hearing clients. The course was designed for employees in client-facing roles, but the foundational information it provides will be valuable to anyone.  

“Especially if you’re working with traumatized, unhoused, or aging populations, there’s a lot of hearing loss. And there’s a lot of hearing loss that clients don’t know what to do with because they’ve spent their entire lives up to this point hearing,” Eudaly said. “If you don’t assume that people communicate the way you do, then you can reduce frustration and stress, and start interactions off on a better footing.” 

Looking Forward 

Eudaly’s advocacy efforts earned her a spot at the Oregon Public Health Association conference, which included a keynote and several panel discussions dedicated to disability topics. She’s adamant about integrating new approaches to disability for both employees and clients in ways that make the conversations around changes and accommodations easier to have. 

“That’s something I love about Cascadia: Whole health is so important to me, so I wanted to bring this work here to Cascadia, instead of finding somewhere the work is already being done,” Eudaly said. “The incredible people here want to be inclusive, accessible, and equitable, there just hasn’t been a focused path to that regarding disabilities. I’m excited to help forge that path.”