Brother Doug McCullough, Beta Eta Chapter, Virginia Tech, has released his first book, “A Billion People in the Shadows.” As a person with a disability, Brother McCullough realized the number of people with disabilities that are overlooked, creating the world’s largest minority group. With his No. 1 seller in the Business Diversity and Inclusion genre, he takes a deep dive into ways society can bring disabled people and their points of view out of the shadows.
Born with spinal muscular atrophy, a disease that deteriorates nerve cells that control motor movement, Brother McCullough didn’t know anyone with a disability growing up on his family’s dairy farm in Pennsylvania.
“I sort of bought into the stereotype that disability is something to be sort of hidden or looked down on,” Brother McCullough said. “I was just focused on living my life the best I could as a person with a disability.”
He said as he got older, he started getting into adaptive sports and adaptive recreation, which led him to meeting others with disabilities. Brother McCullough then got involved in helping people with disabilities lead more active lives and began community service in the realm of disabilities.
Brother McCullough began working for Johnson & Johnson in 2000 and in 2012 he had a shift in his career to a new position. It was then that Johnson & Johnson reached out to him about helping them start an employee group for people with disabilities after seeing in his biography that he helped disabled people lead more active and fulfilling lives.
Around the same time, Johnson & Johnson had launched their version of a “Ted Talk” program where Doug listened to many people discuss disabilities using very stereotypical methods. He knew he could do better.
In 2014, he did his first Ted Talk, which was seen globally through the company. Brother McCullough was invited to different groups within the company to talk about having a disability and what it was truly like to lead a life with it. Throughout his time public speaking, he would realize moments where he could have done better, and as he came up with ideas to improve his messaging, he began to write it down.
The summer of 2018 was the beginning of his writing journey that led to “A Billion People in the Shadows.”
“About a year ago, I got connected to a publisher that specializes in diversity,” Brother McCullough said. “I talked with them, they really liked what I had and then we spent this year developing the book.”
He explained that although the book can be helpful for people with disabilities, it is also impactful to those without a disability and are looking to learn more. Doug said he believes his book takes a straightforward approach to diversity and inclusion, making it easier to digest and be discussed among various groups of people (not just those affected by disability).
