Inclusion and Diversity Statement

Inclusion and diversity: that’s what Birdability is all about. While our focus is on people with disabilities and other health concerns, and it’s important we are transparent and held accountable for inclusion and diversity of other kinds. After all, there are many kinds of diversity, and just because we are working in that arena doesn’t mean we are automatically inclusive of all people.

Birdability is committed to making the birding community and the outdoors accessible, safe, welcoming and inclusive for everybody and every body. Our mission is to remove barriers to access for birders with mobility challenges, blindness or low vision, intellectual or developmental disabilities (including autism), mental illness, being Deaf or Hard of Hearing and other health concerns.

We work to encourage people to be welcoming and inclusive of all birders, beginner birders and potential future birders, and we work to ensure we are too. We believe that birding is for everybody, and that anyone who enjoys engaging with wild birds is a ‘birder.’ We do not discriminate because of skill level, length of time identifying as a birder, age, gender, skin color, size, sexual orientation, disability, religion, socioeconomic status, or national or ethnic origin.

While Birdability operates on a national level, much of Birdability’s work is done on the ancestral homelands of the Muscogee/Creek people. The majority of the Muscogee Nation were forcibly removed from their home by the US Government to Indian Territory, where many live today. There are also still Muscogee living in Alabama, and Birdability acknowledges and extends gratitude for their past and continuing stewardship of the land that much of Birdability’s work is done on.

 To accomplish our mission, we commit to the following actions:

  • We will amplify and uplift the stories and experiences of diverse birders who experience accessibility challenges to ensure that other birders can be exposed to birders who may not look or sound like them. 

    • We will do this by using our platform and ‘sharing the mic’ by inviting guest bloggers to share their stories and experiences on our Birdability Blog, which we will further amplify on our social media platforms.

    • We will do this by seeking diverse guest co-hosts for our virtual accessible field trips with Georgia Audubon, and in future programming opportunities.

  • We will use our platform and our voice to speak out against discrimination of any kind in the birding community, and we condemn racism, homophobia, ableism, sizeism, sexism, and ageism.

  • In order to be transparent, we will include photos of our team on our website, and share photos of our guest co-hosts and guest bloggers on social media. This will allow others to recognize characteristics of themselves in the birders we highlight, because representation matters.

  • We will continue to learn from others — including other birders with disabilities, BIPOC and LGBTQIA+ birders — about ways to be welcoming and inclusive to all birders, and will add this knowledge to our Welcoming and Inclusive Birders webpage so that others may learn too. We will promote this webpage as a resource whenever possible to help share how individuals and groups can make birding more welcoming and inclusive for all.

  • We will advocate for inclusive practices in any bird-related event or organization with which we are involved, and we will provide free resources on our website for how organizations can do this. This includes using closed captioning on any public-facing online program.

  • We will ensure image descriptions are included in all social media posts, and alternative text is provided for any images on our website.

  • We will include our pronouns in our email signatures.

  • We will amplify events and initiatives related to inclusivity and diversity in birding and the outdoors whenever possible on social media, and share organizations working in this arena through links below. We will especially amplify those that cater specifically to female birders, birders with disabilities, birders who are Black, Indigenous, Latinx, or people of color, and birders who identify as LGBTQIA+. 

  • We will continue to learn about our own internal biases that may impact our abilities to help make birding welcoming and inclusive for all, and we will work to remove them.

 

Organizations working towards diversity and inclusion in birding and the outdoors

We don’t have formal connections with these organizations, but we really appreciate and value their work, and have learned a lot from them! Please follow and support their work too.

  • Feminist Bird Club: With chapters around the country, they hold bird outings specifically to create safe spaces for women, BIPOC and LGBTQIA+ birders, and fundraise to support social justice organizations.

  • Black AF in STEM: Creators of #BlackBirdersWeek, they celebrate the joy of being Black in the fields of science, technology, engineering and mathematics.

  • Let’s Go Birding Together: An initiative that started at Spring Creek Prairie Audubon Center in Nebraska, this encourages Audubon chapters to reach out to local Pride organizations and hold LGBTQIA+-friendly bird outings during June (Pride month).