Rachel M. Arfa

ID: a square graphic on a blue gradient background with the header: “The D-30 Impact List, 2021 Honoree, Rachel M. Arfa, she/her/hers, United States.” Rachel’s headshot on the right. Rachel is a white woman with medium brown hair and is wearing a black blazer and red blouse. At the bottom, “Diversability, #D30DisList.”

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Rachel M. Arfa (she/her/hers)

Commissioner

United States

As the Commissioner for the Mayor's Office for People with Disabilities, Rachel makes an effort to get to know disabled people of all types of disabilities so she can talk and learn from them directly about what they need. Equipped with that information, she then gets to work, diplomatically working across city government and with community partners to follow-through. She engages and mobilizes disparate groups to work together to make Chicago—and the world—a more accessible, inclusive place.

Rachel was appointed as the commissioner in July 2020 in the middle of the pandemic, so she got right to work on making the city's COVID response more accessible. She was essential to developing a social story, connecting Chicago's residents with disabilities to vaccines and additional information, amplifying videos in ASL about vaccines and COVID for the Deaf community, and much more.

We asked Rachel if she would like to add anything else to her accomplishments, and she stated: “In addition to my professional experience as a disability rights advocate and as the first deaf Commissioner of a Mayor's Office for People with Disabilities, I have been an advocate for accessibility in cultural spaces and for artists with disabilities.  I believe access to the arts, as well as all other areas of society, is paramount.”