As the newly promoted Deputy Director of the Cambridge Commission for Persons with Disabilities (CCPD) and Assistant Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) Coordinator for the City of Cambridge, Kate Thurman is always interacting with people. That is what she loves most about her work.
In her role, Kate serves as an invaluable resource both for members of the disability community who are looking for guidance and referrals to services as well as for residents, business owners, and City employees striving to create a culture of accessibility and inclusion.
“The interactions I have with other people are what fuel me,” Kate said. “I have met some of the most beautiful human beings through my job, whether they be constituents, who trust me with some of their most vulnerable moments, or my colleagues, who are so incredibly dedicated to the humanity of our work and committed to continual growth both personally and collectively.”
While CCPD cannot provide direct services or individual advocacy to constituents, they play a vital role in providing information, connecting residents with services and other agencies, and informing them of their rights and legal protections against discrimination.
“We are here as a resource and encourage folks to reach out to us about any disability-related topic, and also, we’re eager to know how we can do things better, because we can always do things better,” Kate said.
Another major part of Kate’s work is her role in citywide efforts to promote accessibility and foster a culture of inclusion. She collaborates closely with other departments to ensure compliance with the ADA and other disability rights laws, works to identify and promote best practices, sits on various working groups contributing to efforts such as language justice and revamping the employee reasonable accommodation policy and procedures for employees, and works closely with the Community Development Department’s Economic Opportunity & Development Division on the Storefront Improvement and Retail Interior Accessibility Improvement Programs, which provide generous grants to qualifying small businesses for making their storefronts and interiors more accessible.
“We’re very fortunate that the City is highly committed to anti-racism, diversity, equity, and inclusion (ADEI),” she said. “Disability often gets left out of the ADEI conversation, and I’m so grateful to work for a city like Cambridge where it is very much included in that conversation. Intersectionality is, of course, a real thing, and disability is the only protected class that anyone can join at any time. In fact, virtually everyone who has the great fortune of living long enough will experience disability—whether temporary or permanent—at some point in their life.”
Kate notes that accessibility can improve quality of life for everyone, not just people with disabilities. For example, ADA-compliant sidewalks and ramps, while designed to accommodate people with disabilities, including wheelchair users, are also beneficial to caregivers pushing strollers, travelers rolling luggage, and delivery professionals using carts. Recently, she has played a major role in the City’s Language Justice Working Group, whose emphasis on plain language and digital accessibility makes information more accessible to residents with disabilities as well as those who may speak limited English or have lower literacy levels.
“Sometimes, I think that folks in our role can be seen as adversaries giving directives such as ‘You must do X, Y, and Z or you’ll be breaking the law,” Kate said. “While that may be true, I’ve worked hard to change that narrative, emphasizing that we’re all on the same team working toward common goals—and that accessibility is actually helpful to everyone.”
In that same vein, Kate wants everyone in Cambridge to feel comfortable reaching out and asking for help or guidance, emphasizing, “We can’t know what we don’t know.”
“The most vital message I want to share is that we are here as a resource for people, and that includes not just residents; it includes business owners, employers, other departments, and City employees with or without disabilities. We don’t have any kind of authoritative jurisdiction, so we’re not out to get anyone. CCPD’s role is advisory only,” she said. “Sometimes business owners or City colleagues might be afraid to reach out to us because they’re worried they’re doing something wrong … I want you to ask me the questions you’re not comfortable asking.”
Kate keeps this mindset when interacting with people of all backgrounds and perspectives. As a visual thinker, she described viewing humans as carrots growing in the ground; you can only see the very top of the carrot, but you have no idea what is happening beneath the surface. For instance, the greenery atop a carrot may appear to be thriving, but its core beneath the surface could be depleted by the number of roots it must sustain.
“As humans, we all walk around with different life experiences that inform our perspectives, and I think it’s fair to say that we all exhibit behaviors or reactions that may be more influenced by what we’re carrying in the moment than we realize,” Kate said.
While she acknowledges that such imagery may not make sense to everyone, it reminds her to approach her work, including areas of conflict, with curiosity, an open mind, and compassion.
“It’s been really exciting to come from this approach, where everyone has something different to bring to the table,” she said. “And when someone disagrees with something, there’s a reason for it, and I try to get to the bottom of the reason, because then I learn, ‘Oh, you raise a really good point, let’s figure out how we can nuance this in some way that is beneficial to all.’”
A pre-med biology major in college, Kate was drawn to disability advocacy after she met a family early in her career whose toddler had multiple developmental delays and transitioned from her medical assistant job to a nannying position. She described him as “so unbelievably brilliant,” and began going to school with him and working on his Individualized Education Program. From there, she started working as an intake paralegal at the Disability Law Center, and eventually moved to her role at the City, where she has worked for almost 15 years.
“I’ve been part of the disability community my whole life, but I didn’t really know the community or even that it existed,” Kate said. “And I was like, ‘This is a really great community.’ I saw the Disability Project Coordinator role in Cambridge pop up and felt a visceral excitement over the opportunity to grow in this work. My role has grown tremendously over time, and I now serve as the Deputy
Director of CCPD and Assistant ADA Coordinator for the City. So, I kind of accidentally fell into this career path—and discovered my passion”
Outside of work, Kate enjoys yardwork —she describes herself as a “learning, aspiring gardener”—and spending time with her new service dog, Pally, and friends. While she has never lived in Cambridge, she says it is a special place to work, where residents are uniquely engaged in the community and the City is uniquely dedicated to serving the public.
“There’s a real commitment on the City’s part to serve our residents in the best way possible. And particularly those we don’t hear from, who either don’t know that we’re there as a resource for them … or simply don’t have the luxury of having the time to take out of their day to bring an issue to our attention,” she said. “There’s so often a divide between government employees and the people they serve, and I feel that while we don’t always get it right, we really do try to break down those barriers.”
