I’m going to take a little break from writing this month – as there is more than enough good reading in this issue already.

Last month I had written about the conundrum of whether or not we should give special attention to employers who step outside of the box and proactively employ people with disabilities. That article generated a lot of reactions from readers and I have included some of the more thoughtful ones in this issue.

Rich Luecking, through his organization TransCen, has demonstrated outstanding proficiency at developing effective working relationships with employers. In recent years, he co-authored the book “Working Relationships”. In this issue of Disability Network, Dale Brown, herself an outstanding author on employment and disability issues, offers her review of this book.

I’ve also included a Guest Article by Toby Olson of Washington State’s Governor's Committee on Disability Issues and Employment. My friend Shayn Anderson alerted me to it. We both liked the tone and substance of the article. I think Toby offers some interesting perspectives and challenging notions.

No doubt many of you who have been engaged in issues of employment and disability for more than a few years have run into Richard Pimentel at a conference or training event. For over two decades, Richard has tirelessly traveled across North America – challenging and changing the commonplace attitudes and misconceptions that so often restrict people with disabilities from opportunities to join the workforce. Over the years, I have been able to put Richard on stage dozens of times and watch him weave his magic on the preconceptions of thousands of employers.

Something very exciting has happened for Richard lately. A major motion picture has been made about his life. We are excited about what this movie might do as it finds its way into theaters throughout North America. “Music Within” hasn’t been released yet, but we anticipate that it will bring a powerful message to its audiences about people with disabilities and the rightful role in our society that is still being denied many of them.

In this issue, we’ve provided readers with a sneak peek at “Music Within” – a link to the movie's online “trailer”.

There was a lot of excitement during this past month as special events were held across the United States in celebration of National Disability Employment Awareness Month. Let us all do our best to ensure that we sustain the same level of enthusiasm and commitment throughout the next twelve months!

~ Rob McInnes

- By Toby Olson

(Toby Olson is the Executive Secretary of the Washington State Governor's Committee on Disability Issues and Employment. This article was published in the Seattle Post-Intelligencer on October 25, 2006. In agreeing to let us republish his article, Toby asked that I encourage our readers to become active in bringing disability issues to mainstream media in their own communities.)

Each October we celebrate National Disability Employment Awareness Month, yet we have made little or no progress toward initiating the open, mature public dialogue essential to improving public awareness on disability. As a result, we continue to endure the human and economic costs inflicted by attitudes and policies shaped by widely held, but false assumptions and myths.

As things stand now, the general public is consistently, spectacularly wrong in nearly every truth it holds dear about the experience of life with a disability.

When I say that to someone, that person usually will look sad and thoughtful and nod in agreement, and I'll know that person is thinking, "He's right; I couldn't possibly imagine how horrible it must be."

Let me tell you, every one of us has much more than enough experience imagining how horrible it must be, and if our imaginations were ever to fail us in this regard, we could always count on Hollywood to shovel out yet another overblown, melodramatic, cliché-riddled treatment to help us along. What the general public is unprepared to imagine is just how wonderful, rewarding and full of accomplishment life with a severe disability usually is.

There have been dozens of studies that have shown not just a disconnect but rather an immense chasm -- we're talking the Grand Canyon here -- between the popular assumptions and the actual experiences of people with disabilities. One of the earlier studies compared overall satisfaction and happiness rates for people with paraplegia and people who had won the lottery, and found not much difference. I buy lottery tickets, and I see this as very good news. Since my odds of having a spinal cord injury are much better than they are for picking those winning numbers, it's good to know that either way, once I make it through the disruptive process of adjustment to the dramatic changes in my life, I'll probably end up being about as happy as I am right now.

The kinds of things that the popular perception of the experience of significant disability consistently and spectacularly underestimates include: what we can do; how happy we are; our level of self-esteem and virtually every other measure of competence, productivity and quality of life.

All of this plays well for telethons, personal injury suits and other efforts to tug at heartstrings to loosen purse strings, but it's a real disadvantage in any endeavor that requires being accepted as a competent, functioning adult. Some examples include applying for a job, trying to get a date, rent an apartment, preserve parental rights or help someone else understand that disability is first and foremost a civil rights issue.

We must develop a public dialogue that actively challenges the preconceptions and stereotypes about people who have disabilities, forces an examination of those beliefs and replaces them with beliefs informed by the actual experiences of people with disabilities. In other words, we need to talk.

We need to talk about the backlash currently directed against the Americans with Disabilities Act. We need to talk about why the only right of a person who has a disability that seems to be capable of commanding the public's attention and inspiring the media is the right to die.

We need to be talking about why there remains so much distance and misunderstanding between the disability rights movement and its progenitors, those earlier civil rights movements that by their example taught people with disabilities how to understand the nature of our predicament and provided us with the model for redressing it.

Because of the failure to develop this discourse, myths about disability are so uncritically accepted as common knowledge that they nearly crowd all serious discussion of the reality of the experience of disability from the mainstream marketplace of ideas.

Most of us know people with disabilities who are going about their lives, working, supporting themselves and their families and actively contributing to the diversity and vitality of our communities. But these examples can be before us on a daily basis and have surprisingly little impact on our preconceptions. We accommodate our stereotypes by perceiving such people to be something extraordinary. We need to challenge that. We should not see people with significant disabilities who have achieved some measure of satisfaction and success as brave, heroic or inspirational. Such people should be the norm. Such people should be exactly what we expect.

Instead, we should be looking at the lives of people with disabilities who have been denied those experiences and asking what went wrong.
 

New in our online store, the 2007 Multicultural Calendar (16th annual edition) is a wonderful expression of valuing diversity. This year's poignant theme is The Working Parent and Child. Working parents of all cultures were invited to send practical and creative parenting techniques that they have discovered to help them bond with their children. Twelve of these were selected to become the colorful pictures for each month. Hundreds of widely-recognized Holy Days, Festivals and United Nations Days are highlighted throughout the calendar. The Multicultural Calendar is available as a wall calendar, a desk calendar and in electronic format (for corporate intranets).

When I found out what Walgreen's was doing in placing emphasis on hiring people with disabilities in their stores and their warehouses, I e-mailed them that I was switching all of my prescriptions to Walgreen's. I also e-mailed everyone I could think of with the news and told them I was switching all of my prescriptions to Walgreen's. I have rheumatoid arthritis and I have many prescriptions on a regular basis.

I also told the store manager of the local Walgreen's that I am using that I was switching for that reason and I told the pharmacy manager. What I haven't done, is to notify the chain I was using of the reason I switched which might place the idea in their head to hire people with disabilities. I am going to do that now.

- Marilyn Burr, CAP Director, Office of Handicapped Concerns, OK
 

The word "special" is so often overused when it comes to people with disabilities. The Very Special Arts, the Special Olympics. What makes it "special" is unclear to me.

I guess I disagree with your point of view, (which rarely happens). I think we need to congratulate employers of people with disabilities for their wisdom and good business sense and assume since they are of this world, they already know that it is difficult for people with disabilities to get jobs and that they are in the minority. I don't think this would come as new information/insight. We need to move away from the charitable model for disability, and towards the business imperative.

Yes, for some people with disabilities the fact that they were able to obtain a job is remarkable given that others similarly situated who are not employed. I understand the desire to showcase best practices, but let's do it like we would for employers who hire women, people of color and veterans, praising their commitment to diversity inclusive of disability and not their willingness to hire people who are "special." God help me if my employer gets an award for hiring me as if this is celebrated as an act of courage because I am "special."

- Deborah Dagit
 

I work for a not for profit agency that helps people with disabilities find employment throughout Montgomery & Delaware Counties in PA. Everyday I come up against employers who are unable to step outside the box and see another perspective to their hiring needs.

Last March 14, 2006, Montgomery County, PA, recognized March as Mental Retardation Awareness month. An annual awards luncheon was held to commemorate the month and recognize the many important people for excellence of service and commitment to others during the past year. US Restaurants & Greg Winans, Vice President of Operations, were nominated by Gateway Employment Resources for The Community Spirit Award… for recognizing that people with developmental disabilities make effective contributions to the work environment; and for finding innovative ways to make sure they have the opportunity. When it comes to hiring people with disabilities, Greg Winans says; “I'm just hiring the right person for the job!” He thinks he is just doing what anyone should do - hire a hardworking person who wants to work and wants a job at Burger King. They become part of the BK Team.

I felt that Greg should be recognized for all his support over the years, and by doing this, he becomes an example of how little is actually needed to make such a huge impact on so many people. If it's in his power Greg does what it takes, but I know that this kind of a belief should be more universal, but it always surprises me to find that it's not.

- Tina Richards, Employment Coordinator, Gateway Employment Resources, Inc. Norristown, PA
 

Thanks for your thoughts...it's an interesting dilemma, isn't it? If we celebrate something that should be happening all the time, e.g. hiring a disabled person, hiring a woman for an executive slot, hiring a minority, etc., does that take away from the fact that it should happen routinely? I think not. I think the more we shine a light on people with courage, the easier it is for others to follow in their footsteps.

- Sandy Johnson, Vocational Case Manager, Standard Insurance Company, Portland, OR

This is the crux of the matter as I see it. Employers need to see assets not liabilities, problem solvers not problems, possibilities not limitations. What if employees came to interviews and their future boss or hiring manager was a person with a disability? What if you came to an interview and your interviewer was sitting in a wheel chair?

Employers currently work under the disability of “perceptionitis” (the inability to perceive the possibility rather than the limitation). If we ask employers what possibilities they look for in employees and then ask them to interview every employee (disabled or otherwise) as if they had those possibilities what transformation might occur? Worth thinking about…

- Barney Mayse, The Whole Person, Inc., Prairie Village, KS
 

Working Relationships Creating Career Opportunities for Job Seekers with Disabilities Through Employer Partnerships

- by Richard G. Luecking, Ellen S. Fabian, and George P. Tilson, Publisher: Brookes Publishing Co.

Reviewed by Dale S. Brown

This book is designed for employment specialists, a term used by the authors to include vocational rehabilitation counselors, job developers, job coaches, and other professionals that link people with disabilities to jobs. Administrators of disability employment programs and policy-makers will also find it useful. The authors and collaborators have extensive experience with partnering with employers. Richard E. Marriott states in the introduction, "The Marriott Foundation has partnered with Richard Lueking, George Tilson, and their organization, Trans Cen since the late 1980's because we are attracted to their application of basic business principles to partnerships with business."

Here are some unique and key points made by the authors:

• The role of the job developer has changed. It once involved fixing the person with a disability to fit a job. Now, job developers are working with employers as consultants to bring employers good people who happen to have disabilities to their jobs.

• Help job seekers reach their dream goals. Two people with disabilities want to become a movie star. One is working as a custodian cleaning bathrooms. The other is working at an array of tasks at several local theater companies, a fine art museum and theater department of local colleges. The first one was given a choice- clean bathrooms at McDonalds or a local office building. He hates his job and is in a program to get rid of problematic work behaviors. The other loves going to work, because helping professionals listened to her dream.

• Exposure precedes interest. People with disabilities often respond to a question about their interests with what they know. If a person has a job folding sheets, they are likely to say that they like folding sheets.

• Employment service organizations must change their programs and procedures to become more helpful to employers. If employers are to be persuaded to hire people with disabilities, they must perceive them as partners in finding good people rather than as charity organizations. This requires self-analysis and change on the part of the agency. Organizational development can be a successful strategy.

• People with disabilities must keep as well as obtain jobs. There is very little literature or emphasis on job retention. Workplace supports, social supports, and lifelong learning can help employees with disabilities stay employed.

Each year since 2002, the U.S. Secretary of Labor has acknowledged the exemplary practices of individuals, corporations, small businesses and non-profit organizations in furthering employment for people with disabilities. This year’s (2006) recipients of the “New Freedom Awards” were:

INDIVIDUAL:

• Ilene Morris-Sambur who is the CEO of CORA, Inc. (Creating Opportunities by Recognizing Abilities). CORA, Inc. provides job opportunities in telework for individuals with disabilities, disabled veterans, their families and spouses.

NON-PROFIT:

• disabilityworks - a pilot project at the Chicagoland Chamber of Commerce and operated in cooperation with the Chamber, the City of Chicago and the State of Illinois. disabilityworks is a comprehensive effort to address economic and employment opportunities for people with disabilities.

• The National Technical Institute for the Deaf (NTID) is one of eight colleges of Rochester Institute of Technology. NTID’s career-focused degree programs prepare deaf and hard-of-hearing individuals for careers in high-demand technical fields.

• California’s PRIDE Industries helps people with disabilities prepare themselves for employment, obtain jobs and live independently.PRIDE employs over 3,100 people nationally, 2,500 of whom are individuals with disabilities.

• The Retaining A Valued Employee (RAVE) Program in Alabama is a comprehensive, one-stop service model for helping people with disabilities enter, remain and move ahead in the workforce.

BUSINESS

• Aetna is a diversified health care benefits company. In any given year, some 300 employees receive accommodations from Aetna’s Workplace Accommodation Unit, which simplifies the process for individuals and supports business groups.

• CVS/pharmacy partners with national organizations such as Goodwill Industries and state agencies, as well as school programs dedicated to serving persons with disabilities. In one tri-state area partnership, CVS hired 55 people with significant disabilities.

• Highmark Inc. formed its first partnership with a local company to employ individuals with disabilities in 1995. Highmark has taken the lead in Pennsylvania’s Business Leadership Network, a group of employers committed to hiring people with disabilities, and is very active in the leadership of local high school/high tech programs for students with disabilities.

• Raytheon Missile Systems (RMS) maintains ongoing relationships with several colleges, universities and professional organizations that support people with disabilities, and recruits new employees from these organizations.

SPIRIT AWARD

• Dave Dravecky is a former Major League Baseball pitcher, bestselling author, motivational speaker, and founder of Outreach of Hope - to offer comfort, encouragement and hope to those who suffer from cancer, amputation or serious illness.

A few years ago, with ever-increasing interest in self-employment for people with disabilities, we started an online discussion group on this topic. It has been an exciting forum for aspiring entrepreneurs and for professionals who support them. There are currently over 300 members from across the United States and Canada. If you have questions about self employment – this is an exceptional source of experience and professional advice. You can join the group by sending an email to: pwd_self-employment-subscribe@yahoogroups.com or by signing up at the Website below.

There are a number of Internship Opportunities that are specifically targeted at students with disabilities. Several of these have application deadlines, for their Spring programs, due in October and November. On our Career Development page, we have information on targeted internship programs and scholarships.

The 411 on Disability Disclosure: A Workbook for Youth with Disabilities is designed for youth and adults working with them to learn about disability disclosure. This workbook helps young people make informed decisions about whether or not to disclose their disability and understand how that decision may impact their education, employment, and social lives. Based on the premise that disclosure is a very personal decision, the Workbook helps young people think about and practice disclosing their disability. The workbook does not tell a young person what to do. Rather, it helps them make informed decisions about Disclosing their disability, decisions that will affect their educational, employment, and social lives.

Are you an emerging artist with a disability? Are you a writer, a painter a musician, a performing artist? Do you want to connect with other Canadian artists with disabilities and learn more about developing your profession as an artist? If so, the Canadian Abilities Foundation wants to hear from you.

Are you interested in learning more about disability and employment issues? Are you an employer? An educator? A service provider? A job seeker with a disability? In our store, DiversityShop, we carry over 20 of the best books and videos that we have found on issues of disability and employment. Check them out now!

Would you like information or advice on a particular issue related to disability & employment? Tie into our network of over 5000 readers! Send us an email and we will post your question in our next newsletter.

Is your organization holding an event that might be of interest to our 5000+ readers? Would you like to add your event to our listings?

Baltimore, MD: November 8 - 11, 2006

The TASH Conference mobilizes vast numbers of folks from around the world together in a common experience of belief in the presumed competence of every person, and in the powerful role that every person can play in empowering people with disabilities and their families to build the life of their choosing. Each presenter and attendee comes to the scene with a personal perspective to share ~ and each leaves with a renewed sense of energy and commitment towards the great space of possibility for people labeled with the most significant disabilities.

Bethesda, MD: December 6 - 8, 2006

For 25 years, the Perspectives on Employment of Persons with Disabilities conference has given federal managers an edge in recruiting and retaining qualified employees with disabilities. This year’s conference offers updated information on personnel policies and practices, technology, legal updates, and resources.

Orlando, FL: January 24 – 27, 2007

ATIA 2007 serves as a leading forum for the Assistive Technology community to participate in presentations and discussions about new technology, practical applications, and services. Segments of the Assistive Technology industry (Augmentative and Alternative Communication; Blindness; Computer Access; Curriculum Adaptations; Deaf and Hard of Hearing; Electronic Aids to Daily Living; Games and Recreation; Learning Disabilities/Study Aids/Literacy; Low Vision; and Mechanical Accessories and Mounting Devices) will be represented in various presentations, demonstrations and/or exhibits. In addition, a hands-on lab will provide an opportunity to experiment with and evaluate the latest assistive technology devices and software available.

Archives of past issues are available on our website - www.diversityworld.com 

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