As we enter October, National Disability Employment
Awareness Month in the United States, I think it is time for
me to give voice to a side of the disability/employment
experience that isn’t often heard.
I have to admit that I sometimes feel guilty about
ignoring some of the most poignant circumstances and issues
for people with disabilities – in favor of ones that are
more celebratory or “comfortable”. Sometimes I feel our
attention to disability/employment issues is distressingly
akin to the national morning television show that recently,
as a post-Katrina disability feature, covered the reuniting
of a blind man with is guide dog. While this feature was
certainly touching, I was disappointed that this story was
highlighted while the stories behind the empty wheelchairs
in the streets of New Orleans went untold.
In this issue, I want to take the opportunity to add a
little disquieting balance to this newsletter’s usual
content. To begin with, I want to share an email that I
received this week…
“I left my job of 15 years as a teacher to stay home with
my baby. When I returned, I had to start over to build
tenure. At the end of two years I was fired. After being
unemployed for two years, I finally got another job. At
first, everything was fine. Then they gave me three
different science classes to teach. They were so unfair to
me. They knew I had depression and ADHD. I couldn't teach
out of the book the two teachers before me had used – which
meant I would have to research it all. I asked for help and
wasn’t given any. They gave me even more to do. Finally,
after a year and a half, I was fired. Now, I am unemployed
and so messed up in the head I can't concentrate. My husband
doesn't complain but financially we probably need to start
selling our possessions to pay the bills related to my
disability. I am so depressed my body can't take it anymore.
Could you start a campaign to stop the abuse of people
because they are different? It's not fair. I know my
children see me as a failure. I have no purpose. The next
job will be the same… so I think I will check out of this
world that allows unfair and undignified treatment of
others.”
Because we have a website devoted to employment and
disability issues, we frequently receive emails from folks
with disabilities asking us for help, guidance, referrals,
or resources to help them find employment, to respond to
discrimination from coworkers, to resolve issues with their
employers, to find appropriate accommodations, etc. Far too
many of these emails, like the one above, are from folks who
are in extremely desperate situations – desperate enough to
bare their souls to some unknown organization/person in
cyberspace. Many of my colleagues, like the folks at
disabledperson.com, share this same experience. It is a
topic that we speak of in hushed tones; “There are so many
people with disabilities out there who are overwhelmed and
have lost hope.”
Of course, there is little that we can do for someone in
Red Deer, Alberta or Syracuse, New York whose life is in a
shambles. They need focused help right there where they are.
Happily, on occasion, I can refer them to one of my
colleagues in their area who I can trust to take their hand.
Sometimes I am even able to refer them to a local
organization that they weren’t aware of. Regrettably, most
of the time I can only offer them some worlds of solace,
consolation and/or encouragement.
Far too often, the American economy, as represented by
its workplaces, still shows an unfriendly face to folks with
disabilities. In the life of too many people with
disabilities, American Dream seems to have been unaffected
by the ADA – remaining both inaccessible and
unaccommodating.
The sad and glaring truth is that there are a lot of
people throughout every community on the continent who are
being crushed, financially and spiritually, because their
disability is being met with prejudice and unresponsive
workplace practices and policies. These are people whose
lives are falling apart and who can find no (or ineffective)
help and support from organizations in their communities.
They are the people who “fall through the cracks” in the
social service systems… and they are experiencing how lonely
and terrifying life in the cracks really is.
The woman who sent me the email entreated us to “start a
campaign to stop the abuse of people because they are
different.” That is a tall order, but perhaps those of us
who have read her story, as we enter National Disability
Employment Awareness Month, can do it with more reverence
and more purpose than we have in the past. Maybe we can each
take a determined step to make a concrete improvement in the
life experience of at least one person with a disability or
make at least one tangible improvement in the
disability-friendliness of our workplaces. And each step we
take, however small, will be a cause for celebration.
- Rob McInnes
© Rob McInnes, Diversity World, September, 2005
(If not used for commercial purposes, this article may be
reproduced, all or in part, providing it is credited to "Rob
McInnes, Diversity World - www.diversityworld.com". If
included in a newsletter or other publication, we would
appreciate receiving a copy.)
