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Foster a Company Culture That Is Receptive to Disability

RISK TOLERANCE AND INTERDEPENDENCE are both important qualities in the type of people you want to be part of your workforce. In carrying out your recruitment process, you may find individuals with disabilities who are uniquely qualified to add those attributes to your team.

But to effectively attract, hire, and keep employees with disabilities, you need to make sure your corporate culture is receptive to employees with a disability. That means you must go beyond just awareness training about disabilities. You must reinvigorate your diversity values and put those newly defined diversity values into day-to-day practice.

Put Your Diversity Values into Practice

Let’s say you’re in this situation: Because of the tight job market in your organization’s specialty, you have decided to recruit a previously untapped resource: qualified, talented candidates who have a disability. You’ve worked with a disability awareness trainer to prepare people within your organization for working with employees with a variety of disabilities. Based on that training and feedback from these leaders, you sense your organization is ready to walk the talk. You’re ready to start recruiting job candidates with disabilities.

But, are you really ready? Before you start hiring people with disabilities, you need to make sure that the awareness training you’ve all experienced translates into day-to-day practice so you can effectively integrate qualified people with disabilities into your organization. That’s no small task, but as a leader there are three steps you can take to help make your diversity initiatives truly inclusive: clarify your mission and values, communicate that mission and those values throughout your organization, and align those values with daily practices.

You probably have some excellent resource people in your corporate communications and human resources departments who can assist in planning, implementing, and evaluating these three initiatives.

Clarify Your Mission and Values

The period immediately after your disability awareness training is an opportune time to review your organization’s mission and values statements. You might also wish to take a second look at your statement of management philosophy.

In doing so, use your facilitation, interpersonal, and writing skills to collaborate with your fellow executives as well as a cross section of associates representing every level of your organization. Help them clarify why your organization is in business and what values guide its day-today activities.

The goal here is to be understandable and concrete. Help this small representative sampling of people throughout your organization develop a series of specific examples in which each of your organization’s value statements about diversity come alive in on-the-job, everyday ways. Only then will your organization’s values become guidelines for making organizational decisions.

Communicate That Mission and Those Values

Corporate communicators not only can help you plan and facilitate the brainstorming sessions for gaining these concrete examples of your organization’s values in action; they can also summarize and distribute them to the right audiences, using the right media.

What is needed here is an umbrella communication program to show what your mission and values mean to individuals at every level of your organization. Under that umbrella, you, other members of management, and representatives from your human resources, corporate training, and corporate communication departments can personally consult with immediate supervisors/contact people throughout your organization. The discussion topic for this team of consultants: how immediate supervisors/contact people can interpret your organization’s newly focused diversity values and transform them into meaningful and useful information for the people they supervise and the customers they serve on a day-to-day basis.

Align Those Values with Daily Practices

Supervisors/contact people need to know specifically how your organization’s values relate to day-to-day individual, team, and organizational practices. And they need to know how, when, and where to communicate that information to the people they supervise.

Here’s an outline of the questions supervisors need to answer for the employees they supervise whenever an organization is announcing a policy change, such as a revamped diversity initiative:

Why are we changing, and why is it important to me?

What do you want me to do differently from what I’m doing today? Why?

How will my work now be evaluated, and what are the consequences?

What tools and support do I get to make this change?

What’s in it for me? What’s in it for all of us?

By addressing these issues upfront, your supervisors/contact people are proactively helping your organization manage change. They are also in a position to help your organization gain ongoing feedback about your diversity program. They can then review and reevaluate your diversity program initiatives, share and celebrate successes, share and solve problems, and propose and implement solutions.

The result? Your organization’s diversity initiative will become more than a document. It will be alive, real, practical, and relevant. It will grow and evolve. And in this increasingly diverse world on both the employee and customer side of your business, it will contribute to your organization’s bottom line.

According to a July 2005 National Survey of Consumer Attitudes toward Companies that Hire People with Disabilities, 92 percent of the American public views companies that hire people with disabilities more favorably than those that do not. And 87 percent of the public would prefer to give their business to companies that hire people with disabilities (see http://www.earnworks.com/
BusinessCase/roi_level2.asp).

Nearly 30 percent of the 70 million American families have at least one family member with a disability. The disability market, which includes customers with disabilities and their extended networks (family members, friends, colleagues, support service providers, etc.), as reported by the U.S. Census Bureau, represents $1 trillion in discretionary spending.

In fact, according to MarketResearch.com, the disability market is the third largest market segment behind baby boomers and the mature market, placing them ahead of Hispanics, African Americans, Gen X, teens, and Asian Americans (see http://www.earnworks.com/BusinessCase/
marketing_level2.asp).

Create a Work Environment That Values Diversity

Putting diversity values into practice is essentially a management function.

The central goal of creating a positive environment for a diverse workplace is harmony, and harmony fosters productivity.

While the normally stated goal of “doing the right thing” is all well and good (and, doing right, by the way, often results in greater harmony), your responsibility is to your company’s bottom line. When people get along and act as a team, they produce more, stay longer, and have fewer gripes—all of which favor effective and efficient work.

When, on the other hand, staff members harbor resentments or perceive inequities, they can build an obstructionist interplay that handicaps everyone involved. No one can perform at a peak level. Time is wasted in foot dragging, absenteeism, and higher turnover. And time is money.

As a manager, supervisor, or proprietor, you are responsible for ensuring that your work environment is amicable. If your department has poor performance because of interpersonal friction or errant behavior, this performance deficit will be attributed to you. You need to set and maintain the right tone for your work unit.

There is no upside to ignoring tensions and no downside to preventing or resolving them. In fact, neglecting to give tension its due attention will most certainly result in a greater negative impact than that of any time taken to prevent that tension. Not having time to address tension is a common excuse.

Frank Acceptance of Differences Is the Key

Another underlying reason employers may not pay attention to fostering a harmoniously diverse workplace, perhaps especially in the case of disabilities, is discomfort about discussing the differences between individuals and between groups. It is natural to feel awkward about a person’s disability, but, in fact, that awkward reluctance is what you must dispel in your employees.

One unique characteristic of disabilities (compared to differences in terms of race, ethnicity, or gender) is that there is an obvious mechanical difference between someone who is, say, mobile, and others who are mobile only with some kind of aid (e.g., crutches, a wheelchair, or a scooter). Glossing over this fact can only result in an uneasy atmosphere. Your staff will conclude that open discussion about disability is forbidden.

The key to fostering a friendly and, therefore, productive work environment is recognizing but not magnifying differences. Many supervisors unwittingly cast an employee with a disability in the role of child or sacred cow by communicating to him and to other staff members that he is somehow “special” or is better than others or to be more protected than others.

Being treated as someone “special” will likely foster resentment from your employee with a disability. That employee will eventually display his resentment in some form of disruptive behavior. If he tends to be a workaholic, he may try to overcome his feeling that he has not gained an equal sense of dignity by burying himself just that much deeper into his work.

An employee who has a disability is really no different from others who are not disabled. He just has to do his work with different tools or techniques. He is not more emotionally vulnerable, not unable to do quality work, not somehow more admirable or heroic because he is disabled.

You set the tone. If you coddle a disabled worker, so will other employees—and others will resent that special treatment. If you are hypersensitive about her disability, you will make everyone else uncomfortable. If you treat her as a burden, that will be the view throughout your department.

Instead, you must foster the recognition that every staff member is entitled to an equal sense of dignity, but each has his individual role, responsibility, and work style. The difference with a disabled worker falls only under work methods and refers entirely to what tools he uses to do the work he shares with his peers.

Awareness Honors All Employees

One benefit for bringing employees back quickly after they become disabled is the positive impact it has on morale. Other workers see that the individual’s contribution is valued, that she is not disposable, and that they can count on being similarly valued. Ultimately, fostering harmony for a new worker or a returning worker who has recently become disabled has the same impact on those within the existing workforce.

A work environment in which each person is welcomed, valued, and respected not only benefits the employee who is “different.” Companies that see all positions as necessary to the bottom line and all workers as coworkers bring out the best in people. Creating an atmosphere of collaboration rather than assertion of status encourages high performance and a sense of responsibility for results from the CEO to the mailroom clerk. An atmosphere that honors diverse (and, in particular, disabled) employees as equal contributors to the common goal allows each worker to recognize the collective talents of the group instead of a new employee’s deficits.

Basically, it is your responsibility to prepare other staff members for including a worker with a disability—and it is also up to that worker to get involved. Showing her and the other staff members that you regard her as the chief educator on the subject of how she works and how to relate to her both empowers her and shows her that you expect her to take responsibility for dealing with her peers. She cannot wait for you or others to guess at what she needs. She must speak up.

By insisting on this forthright candor, you are supporting your other workers, too. They see, from your attitude, that you require equal effort from them as well as the employee with a disability.

Remember, it will ultimately be up to you, as a supervisor, to step in when miscommunication or inappropriate behavior on anyone’s part has not been resolved on a peer-to-peer level. If, for example, a new visually impaired employee has asked politely and repeatedly that other staff members not change the location of important tools or supplies but they forget, you may need to emphasize to them the practical reasons for consistency. If, on the other hand, you discover that the employee has not communicated this need but expects others to “magically know” (and is becoming contentious when they genuinely don’t know), you will need to make it clear that everyone, not just that employee, deserves such courtesy.

What Can You Do to Create a Welcoming Work Environment?

A worker with a disability needs no more or no less respect (a sense of dignity) than does any other employee. Neither avoid him nor heap undue praise on him. Here are some other tips for building that harmony:

Stress to other workers that the employee with a disability was hired because he is qualified and can do the work. His disability was not and should not be a consideration. He will have to satisfy the same performance standards as they do.

Encourage the new employee to be candid about his disability. Offer him a chance to discuss it at a staff meeting.

Discourage the employee with a disability from playing a passive or manipulative role by making sure she knows you are interested only in what she can do and how—not what she can’t. Be sure her responsibilities and those of others are well defined and equal.

Treat everyone the same. Neither ignore nor highlight an employee with a disability.

Realize that employees will often have false perceptions about disability (maybe based on previous experiences with individuals who did not know how to handle their disability appropriately in a workplace situation). Be prepared to deal with those false assumptions, which often are simply due to lack of information. You must make it clear that a new employee with a disability is not to be judged until he has had time to establish himself as a member of the team.

Encourage a relaxed atmosphere that includes humor but does not tolerate stereotyping, bigotry, or mean humor.

Make sure a person taking on new duties is adequately compensated for them when you must shift a responsibility from one job description to another because of a disability. Higher pay or authority (or simply allowing for an exchange of tasks) can make the addition acceptable so it doesn’t breed ill will.

Let the employee with a disability and her coworkers handle issues not related to work.

Finally, be vigilant about typical misunderstandings and myths.

You set an inclusive tone by how well you interact with an employee who has a disability. How well you welcome, value, and respect her as well as other workers will have a direct effect on how well everyone works together. Establish clear guidelines for the type of work environment (based on your corporate values) you want to foster—and then consistently follow them. The harmony (and productivity) of your staff will pay you back many times over.

Workplace Interdependence Makes Disability Irrelevant

A bumblebee, if dropped into an open tumbler, will be there until it dies. It never sees the means of escape at the top but persists in trying to find some way out through the sides near the bottom. It will seek a way where none exists until it completely destroys itself.

As a culture, the business world seems penned in, flat on the floor, buzzing around like a bumblebee in a tumbler. We continue to work toward a twenty-first-century world with workplaces where everyone can be included as members of a team trying to reach a goal. But until we understand the real and elemental nature of how people work together, differences that have nothing to do with working together will appear to be insurmountable obstacles to us. By clinging to those differences, we aren’t achieving the harmony and productivity we seek.

To unburden our U.S. society of inequities and to improve business itself, it is time to change how we look at interdependency in the workplace.

The real nature of workplace relationships goes beyond teamwork. The real action is in the independence of those relationships, and interdependency makes any disability (or any other difference) you may find among the members of a team irrelevant.

Why Disability Is Irrelevant

Teamwork is about how our job functions interrelate. But, with cross-training, functions are not specific to the worker. There is something deeper and less tangible that makes each of us unique and can make a workplace fall apart if someone who plays a vital role leaves.

Yes, disability can have an impact on a worker’s function. If a truck driver goes blind, he can’t be a driver any more. But disability is irrelevant in the areas that are more vital to the health of a company—those roles that everyone else depends on.

While a person in a wheelchair may need someone to take over or assist with a job function, who does what is less important than who can best help the team achieve its objectives. That means we need to stop looking at individuals in terms of their functions and whether one individual can perform every single function in his job description without assistance from another person or a machine.

Is it true that the best candidate for a position exactly matches the description of a specific job? If, for instance, we’re presented with someone who can’t sit right down and use a computer without some modifications because she is totally blind and that poses an apparently irremediable problem for us, there will never be true integration.

However, integration can take place if we understand that this person, using various other tools, can share responsibilities with a sighted person and can do the work in a different way. Using any number of variations, that person, like all others, has a vital role to play in a workplace setting.

But, to learn how minor the differences are among us and what strengths a group of people have, we must get to know each other. The workplace must be integrated. And to integrate the workplace, we must understand that differences are minor and strengths are many.

At times, laws may tend to force the issue so that the integration begins.

But perhaps it can also take individual hiring managers, such as you, who can see beyond the surface issues to the profound interdependencies among us. If we are all so interdependent, why should the fact that one of us is disabled be such a problem?

Functions, Roles, and Archetypes

Most of the time, we think about our workplace relationships in terms of flowcharts and job descriptions. It can be tempting to think that the hierarchy represented in the flowchart reflects the true nature of our workplace relationships.

But the specifics of authority are not always fully reflected in flowcharts. Remember that the corporate world originally took its model from the military. Yet, instead of the chain of command, the structure of a business is based, ideally, on respective responsibilities. All employees, including the CEO and the mailroom clerk, are actually coworkers—not generals and enlisted personnel.

We need to distinguish between function and role as well as teamwork and interdependence.

Function is what you do, what your job is. Everyone has a job. Specialization is the essence of work and teams. Teamwork is people doing different jobs working together.

But role goes beyond function.

Let’s examine the imaginary small team of people who operate a small print shop, Exceptional Printing. Sue believes she is the touchstone and historian, having been with the shop the longest and being in the office itself on a routine basis. Her role is to be the one you can always count on to know “how it’s done.” Her job title and place on the team are irrelevant. She would have this role whether she were the owner (which she is) or the delivery person.

She identifies another person at the shop, Matt, as the detail person. He can take an idea and develop it into a workable plan. Matt turns to Sue for the long view. Sue turns to Matt to tell her if a plan is a good idea and how to pursue it. The technology expert, Lance, is a great deal more than a computer guru. He is a catalyst for everyone on the staff. He regards everyone’s job as important and supports them in it. Lance is the reliable, willing team builder for everyone else.

Which of these individuals is disabled is not relevant.

We see that these three people go well beyond their interrelated job functions. Sue oversees customer service and bookkeeping. Matt presides over project management. Lance is the operations person. Clients are triaged by Sue, work on a day-to-day basis with Matt, and come to Lance to learn which process to use.

You can learn about the interdependencies in your own workplace and, as a result, uncover the genuine, underlying roles individual employees are playing. You can then see many other subtleties: how some employees manipulate others, why a certain worker seems out of place, why leaders emerge from other than leading ranks, and even how to build a team that does something better than teamwork. And you can see how little disability affects these more important workplace dynamics.

The Virtue That Transcends All

Whether the average workplace demonstrates an awareness of the interdependence of roles is a matter of debate.

How we come to rely on one another and what roles we take when the interconnections become established transcend other considerations in any grouping of people: real, fictional, family, workplace, adults, children, men, women, rich, poor, and disabled and nondisabled.

Since disability is the one “minority group” consisting of members of every single other group (anyone can be born or become disabled no matter one’s race, ethnicity, gender, gender preference, religion, socioeconomic status, etc.), people with disabilities can take on any of the multitude of roles and interdependencies.

In our Exceptional Printing example above, Lance is the disabled person. He uses a wheelchair. And yet, when we discussed Lance’s role as supporter and catalyst, it had nothing to do with his disability, or, for that matter, any other of the personal characteristics of that team’s members. Sue’s historian and Matt’s strategist roles have nothing to do with the fact that neither one is disabled.

The differences and the adaptations are tiny compared to the potential that workers with disabilities offer. And while these roles cannot always be predicted, a job candidate with a disability is just as likely to fulfill a more elemental role in your company as anyone else. He is just as likely as a nondisabled worker to be the level head in a crisis or the one who always knows where to get a tool or the person who makes everyone want to work together. He is just as likely to be the person who inspires the others to work harder and reach higher standards or to break out of a rut and try something new—the person whom, when you look back on events, you simply cannot imagine having done without.

This is not an argument for hiring people with disabilities. But it is a powerful argument for analyzing your work unit and making sure it’s receptive to superficial differences that have nothing to do with this important dynamic: who is going to rely on whom and what roles your team members are going to play when a new member joins your team and its interconnectedness (interdependencies) need to be reestablished.

Bridge Builders Can Be Valuable to Your Corporate Culture

Some individuals with disabilities have gained a healthy sense of self-esteem despite the negative messages they often receive from others about their perceived personal vulnerability. They know others perceive them as “different” because of their disability. These “disability survivors” tend to be bridge builders between the nondisabled and disabled communities, and their team-building skills can be valuable assets for your business.

They understand both cultures and are not taken aback by the differences between them, because they often go back and forth between each frequently. They have experience in working with individuals of different abilities, attributes, and attitudes—experience you, as a hiring manager, may find helpful in developing teamwork within your work environment.

In short, whether they are aware of it or not, disability survivors know how to use that experience in establishing interconnections (inter-dependency) within a work group.

Your best job candidates with disabilities may have had to develop a sense of personal dignity and self-worth without the support you would normally expect they would receive from friends and acquaintances who also have disabilities.

As a hiring manager, you want to attract and hire individuals with a disability who consider themselves “somebodies” but who also understand the subtle “rankism” that can exist between two individuals with a disability—one employed and the other not. Those “somebodies” have seen how rankism can be counterproductive in a workplace setting (because they’ve experienced it firsthand within the so-called disability community).

Those experiences could also make them effective bridge builders within your work team.

Dignity, Respect, and Fair and Equal Treatment

Let’s look at this dialogue among seven people with disabilities who are actively building their careers in today’s job market. It may tell us something about what type of corporate culture twenty-first-century companies need to build in order to be truly inclusive.

Melissa McBane:

I have to admit that, as a blind person who works full-time, I get frustrated by those who don’t work when they probably could. We need to get out there and show the rest of the world that being visually impaired does not mean we cannot be productive members of society.

I think those who don’t work think those of us who do work are somehow not worthy of being part of organizations for the blind. At least that is the experience I have had with others I have been associated with locally. I have been told that I am not a productive member of my local and state chapters of the American Council of the Blind (ACB). … I wish I could do more, but I cannot get out of work any time I want. I am also a wife, a mother, and a student, so I juggle a lot as it is. But I have many of the same concerns and problems as any other visually impaired person.

There are programs in my area that bring the visually impaired together for social outings and so forth. I can never participate because they always plan things during weekdays. Those of us who work cannot participate. I feel kind of left out and abandoned by people I thought would accept me.

Kelly:

The emotion of jealousy will rear its ugly head, and, like with siblings, it is best not to compare, even though it is unavoidable. We have to tell ourselves, instead, that we are doing the best we can with whatever God, or a higher power, gave us.

Oftentimes this is easier said than done. For example, I have a cousin who is working at a prestigious law firm and already has an apartment at age 21. Sometimes, it is hard for me to feel happy for her because I do not have this opportunity, but, at the same time, I do not want to deny her the joy a new job brings.

While this vortex of emotion is going on inside my head, I am constantly reminded of what Winston Churchill said: “Never give up, never give up, never give up.”

Also, in contrast to sibling rivalry, your feelings of jealousy regarding the employed and the unemployed or the disabled and the nondisabled person can motivate you to persevere, making you stronger in your field of interest.

David Lingebach:

I’ve been visually challenged half my life, and I have worked with many visually challenged individuals of all types in my profession. Through personal development and professional observation and research, I have come to some basic conclusions:

I have heard many say over the years, “You have to earn respect.” I now believe that the respect and dignity that others have for you is directly related to the respect and dignity you have for yourself.

Thus, if you have resentment because you are underemployed or overqualified for your job, this is a direct reflection of your own self-esteem. And it can be overcome!

I have observed individuals with stellar credentials and résumés who continue to be unemployed. Why?

My observation is that whether you have been [disabled] from birth or later in life is not the critical factor. The critical factor is how one perceives oneself. This is a very sensitive area, but I am convinced it is the most critical area that affects one’s success or lack of success.

Barney Mayse:

Resentment or jealousy among those of us who are disabled about having better jobs may be a natural inclination. However, it is incumbent upon us to be bigger than that.

Resentment is based on what we do not have or want. We can have what we want. We may have to work harder to get it, but it is possible.

Each of us needs to define coherently what it is that we want. What kind of job do I want? Do I have the skills for the job, or will I need to gain training or education to be able to attain that goal? What contribution do I wish to make to the world with my work and my life? Each of us has gifts that we are here to use. What gifts do I have? How will I use them to create a better world for myself, my family, my community?

If we are happy with what we have or know clearly what we want, there will be no time for resentment because we will be busy in pursuit of our goals.

Within the disabled community, we need to stop playing games with each other and treat each other with the respect and dignity that we want the world to give us. There are no exceptions to this rule.

We need to start now and not stop until we achieve our goal of a fully integrated world. We need to discuss this openly, frankly realizing that it will not happen overnight. We need to be clear, concise and dedicated to achieving equal dignity for all people. We need to persevere regardless of the obstacles.

Dan TeVelde:

Self-respect is very important since, if you care about yourself, it will be easier for you to interact with others in any situation.

Wendy:

I don’t resent the jobs others get or the achievements others obtain. I just want to be treated fairly and equally. That’s all I ask.

Molly, my friend at work, says sometimes I’m a “pushover”—that I don’t stand up for myself in getting the new work and promotions she thinks I should be getting, especially because we work for a large hotel chain.

But why should I have to fight for everything I’m entitled to? Doesn’t my work speak for itself?

Shouldn’t my supervisor see what’s right and conduct herself accordingly and give me the recognition I deserve? Why should my disability have anything to do with how I’m treated while at work?

Maybe I’m too trusting, but eventually I feel good work gets rewarded—at least when you’re not in a wheelchair. And even if you’re in a wheelchair, it may take a little longer, but you’ll eventually win out. People with disabilities usually have to work harder to get what they want. I can accept that.

Yet Molly says I should leave the hotel and go work someplace else that offers more opportunity and more excitement. I’m twenty-six. I have my degree and quite a bit of experience. She says, “‘What is there to lose?” I’m not sure. It’s tough to get a new job.

My nondisabled classmates are doing very well, and I wonder when I’ll get my break. But it’ll come.

Charles:

Employers need to focus not on disability, but on ability (how job candidates can be assets to your organization even if they have to do it differently by means of adaptive technology).

Developing the Right Type of Corporate Culture

The previous dialogue reveals some important clues about the type of corporate culture today’s companies need to develop if they are to successfully attract and hire talented people who just happen to have a disability. These seven discussion participants have personally experienced rankism, not just with people outside their social circles but also within them.

Consider these seven sentences (paraphrased and personalized) from that conversation:

1. “Being less assertive than I am in pursuing opportunities holds us all back.”

2. “My feeling of not being accepted is often based on misunderstanding, not fact.”

3. “Envy is seldom a positive motivator; I’ve found it most always is destructive.”

4. “Respect that others have for me reflects the dignity I have for myself.”

5. “Pursuing interesting personal goals gives me less time to resent others.”

6. “I seek equal treatment.”

7. “I want my abilities to count—not my disability.”

Let’s assume many of the individuals we have just met in this conversation would seek out employers who are:

Proactive in making diversity real

Savvy in mentoring new employees

Dedicated to treating all employees fairly

Stringent in implementing a management system based on setting, achieving, and rewarding quantifiable objectives

So, as you recruit job candidates with disabilities, look for survivors of this all too natural situation, which can yield estrangement and resentment, as well as understanding and reconciliation. In doing so, you may find an individual—a bridge builder—who is comfortable as a team player in both the nondisabled and disabled worlds and has a strong sense of identity and self-worth. That bridge builder can bring added value to your work group.

The contributors who are offering you their personal commentary in this book are “bridge builders.” We all have had considerable experience in reflecting the disabled world to the nondisabled world and vice versa.

Our common goal is to help individuals in each world understand one another. And we are all particularly interested in providing you, whether a human resources professional or hiring manager, with two things:

1. A description of the type of person with a disability we believe would offer you the best opportunity to extend your personal and corporate success

2. A comprehensive “how to” process for recruiting, selecting, and managing that person

In the process of doing that, we’ve come up with some relevant guidelines in this chapter for making sure your corporate culture is receptive to job candidates with a disability who are bridge builders. After analyzing the feedback we received from eSight members, it’s amusing to discover that what they, as bridge builders with a disability, find attractive in a company culture is indistinguishable from what any other job seekers, disabled or not, probably seek in a prospective employer. Our similarities are so much greater than our apparent differences.

The next section discusses another attribute of disability survivors: elasticity—a vital quality that you need to continually add to your corporate landscape during these rocky economic times.

Job Seekers with a Disability Can Add Elasticity to Your Workforce

Interview a survivor—someone who has beat the odds in dealing with a disability and who is competing successfully in the mainstream workplace for jobs—and more than likely you’ll have a job candidate who knows how to go about resolving some tough personal problems.

Such problem-solving know-how can be transferred to a work situation and help your team develop the elasticity it needs today to compete on a global scale.

There was an illuminating discussion among eSight members on the “Swimming in the Mainstream” (SiM) blog about how to survive mainstream employment when you have a disability. Specifically, the SiM participants discussed this question: What special rules for survival have you, as a person living with a disability, created for yourself at work?

Vulnerability as a Strength

We, as human beings, are quite fragile. Unlike the penguin, we don’t do well in cold weather. Unlike the elephant, we can’t detect an upcoming tsunami.

We may be vulnerable, but we are adaptive and solution oriented. We wear insulated clothing. We use technology to track storms.

We also use technology to compensate for a wide range of disabilities, which in U.S. society is considered by some to be a personal vulnerability. Those of us with mobility difficulties use electric scooters and even Segways to traverse city parks and shopping malls. Using adaptive technology to compensate for our human frailty, we have found, can make personal vulnerability irrelevant.

In fact, our individual vulnerabilities are valuable—to our society as well as individual organizations and companies—because they stretch our ability to be adaptable as human beings.

In the competitive business world, that kind of reasoning is often lost. An all-able-bodied workforce, for instance, can become flabby in terms of creativity and problem solving, precisely because it lacks diversity and does not include individuals who look at opportunities just a little bit differently than the rest of us.

Individuals with disabilities can be valuable employees because they bring a creativity to the workplace based on what they’ve learned in solving problems that stem from their personal vulnerabilities.

And, although they may need help occasionally, they have most likely learned to be self-sufficient on a mature, adult level. They have managed to use their creativity to overcome or sidestep barriers that, at first glance, would likely block them from thriving in the mainstream.

The Spectrum

Don’t be surprised if you get this reaction (or something similar to it) from your next job candidate with a disability:

The main rule I have is not to expect coworkers to accept you in the workplace. They have “no concern” about the disabled. None. State advocates tell me, “Tell them you are visually impaired.” This statement is viewed as an admission of guilt that you have a problem. Other co-workers do not have a problem. Your admission allows others to disregard your human qualities and make every attempt to disallow your right to be employed or even befriended. …

Some workplaces have not changed from the 1950s. If you go back to this timeline and look at the difficult situations minorities had in employment, then, in the 2000 era, you’ll see the disabled need to survive the same types of situations.

—Anonymous

That’s one individual’s perception of reality. Here’s another from the opposite end of the spectrum:

Choose how you’re going to react to everyone and everything at work or anywhere else. You can be nasty and bitter and resentful and negative and reactionary because no one understands or you can choose not to be and help them understand while still standing your ground. …

My mom said to me very early on: “The unfortunate thing is you’ll have to do 99 percent of the adapting to the world; they aren’t going to do it especially for you.” I’ve found that to be true. I don’t go in with any preconceived expectations. I try to be friendly but also firm about my strengths and weaknesses. I know what they are.

I don’t tolerate bullies or nastiness toward me or anyone else, and I’m not afraid to state my case. I do the most professional job I know how to do, but I also make sure I’m kind and empathetic to others as well. I make sure I have interests outside my work so that I am able to converse with my colleagues. I don’t always talk about me, me, me. I’ll ask for help if I need it, and I’ll explain the accessibility issues I have—but not with a sneer or a snarky attitude.

—Liz

Workplace Survival Rules

Three SiM bloggers submitted particularly interesting, specific workplace rules for survival. They are highlighted here because you may find them helpful in selecting job candidates with disabilities who will best fit your corporate culture.

Blind since birth, Jake believes it’s important for an individual to be independent but also realistic. He writes:

“There are just some circumstances where we, as individuals, cannot be as independent as we want to be. In most (if not all) cases, these circumstances are beyond our control, and unfortunately we have to rely on [others] to help us.”

Melissa is between jobs and has quite an extensive list of survival tips based on her experiences:

“Don’t develop a chip on your shoulder. The world did not deal you a bad hand.

“Depending on the extent of your disability, ask for accommodations that you realistically need for the job; don’t ask for extras that you don’t really need. This means [that you need to] do your homework about the job ahead of time and be current on the assistive technology available.

“If someone treats you in a way that is uncomfortable—like a fragile child, for instance—speak up in an assertive and polite manner. Don’t be confrontational. Talk in private.

“If someone asks you a question about your disability, even if you think it shows ignorance, answer it. We can combat ignorance in small ways. Someone asked me how I ate, since it was ‘obviously too dangerous for me to cook.’ I explained to the person that I had enough vision to operate most kitchen appliances, but I was not above burning my homemade lasagna on occasion.

“Get a mentor at work. If you are having a problem, [a mentor] can be a good sounding board for you.

“Be assertive, not passive and not aggressive.

“[You’ll probably] have to do a lot of the adapting, but employers are more receptive if you are honest about your needs and clear about them. Otherwise, do whatever you can do to make your workspace fit your needs and ask others to respect that if they use the space, too. Tell them you need them to put things back where they got them to make it easier for you to retrieve them. People will get it, if you respect them. They cannot read your mind and are not experts on the needs of the visually impaired.

“Show a positive attitude—even when you’re ready to bite someone’s head off. When you keep your cool and show tact, others respect you for it.

“If someone is really making your work life miserable and nothing seems to help, check to see if your company offers any resources. I had an employer that offered a hotline for all employees where they could anonymously get advice on work-related issues. I used it more than once.

“Remember, you are a viable member of the team. If someone is blatantly disrespectful or seems to be out to create problems for you, handle it as any other employee would. If you cannot work it out with the person in a civil way, follow the chain of command.

“Don’t forget the human resources department. Part of its job is to provide for the needs of the employees.”

Jo, trained as a minister and an assistive technology expert, is also blind. She offered this insight on the SiM blog:

“I have found that a little humor in appropriate places goes a long way toward easing tensions or fending off embarrassing moments in the workplace.

“I was a hospital chaplain and got caught trying to introduce myself to an empty bed! Nobody knew quite what to say until I quipped, ‘I was just offering a little comfort to that bed; it gets pushed around a lot!’”

All three of these people sound like they would be the type of employees who could help your company or organization continue to move forward in a business climate that increasingly requires resiliency on both a corporate and personal level.

How You’ll Know Your Inclusion Efforts Are Working

More than a dozen individuals on eSight’s SiM blog also submitted entries about incidents in their careers that indicated to them that their coworkers were including them as full participants on the job.

These incidents provide the benchmarks by which you, as an employer, can measure the effectiveness of your inclusion efforts. They also show some of the savvy you can expect from employees who are living well (and working effectively) with a disability.

The six benchmarks of inclusion/acceptance are as follows:

1. Focus on customer service

2. Inclusion in social events

3. Job promotions

4. Acceptance as individuals

5. Respect for privacy

6. Learning about disabilities

Here are prime examples of each benchmark that bubbled up from the SiM blog conversation:

A Focus on Customer Service

Laura:

My experience has been that people “forget” you are blind once they know you. Not that they try to forget because it is a bad thing, but it just genuinely isn’t one of the top things they think of when they think of you. They think, “Wow, she knows about computers; I can ask her my techie question.”

Moses:

[Many of my colleagues] depend on my expertise and would always call me, even if they are out of the office at the time, just to check with me on how to solve sticky situations.

Darrell:

One of the ways I know I am accepted is that some of my colleagues refer to me as “The Oracle” because I have excelled in initial and ongoing job training classes and I frequently provide technical assistance to others on the various accounts we serve.

Inclusion in Social Events

Darrell:

Another illustration of how I am accepted by others in the workplace is that I am fully included in the fun activities we conduct from time to time.

Today is an excellent example. We had a sort of tailgate party to celebrate the upcoming Super Bowl game. One of the activities was a ping-pong tournament. I was able to participate, thanks to some interesting modifications to the game. When I played, I had help from a coworker to guide my hand to the ball. I also served the ball several times, mostly all on my own.

I actually won, 22 to 18! Fun was had by all! Since I had never before played ping-pong, I enjoyed this new experience.

Moses:

I very often dine with [colleagues], party with them, and even tour with them, and this is a clear sign that I have been accepted as one of the team.

Job Promotions

Moses:

Though I am visually impaired, I have received several promotions, the first job being a telephonist, and finally ended up as an Administration Manager. Receiving such promotions, just like the sighted, is a clear sign that I was accepted.

Acceptance as Individuals

Kathleen:

There are some people who will accept you for who you are. There are some people who never will. There are some people who just don’t really care except [about] how it all affects them. I have been pretty well accepted on most jobs that I’ve held. I am blind, but that doesn’t define who I am. It is only a part of who I am. If I’m willing to always do the best job I can, treat people the way I’d like to be treated, and expect to be treated in the same manner, most of the time that’s the way it goes.

Respect for Privacy

Carrie:

We all need to have a bit of privacy, and I do not believe our lives need to be open books in order to gain acceptance in the workplace. If people are truly interested rather than being voyeurs, then I refer them to places where they can read more on their own. This theme in current society of “telling all” is very disturbing to me. I shall never forget when one of the managers working with me stood up in a meeting and asked everyone if they had any questions about [a person’s] disability. First of all, it assumes all in the room are focused on the subject. Second, [it assumes that] if they have questions, they are going to ask them in front of everyone, and, most important, it assumes people have the language and vocabulary to talk about disability—which frequently they don’t.

Nan:

I can’t say I actually draw a line between my private and public life when it comes to my disability. I am an educator of sorts and use my own experience to teach about blindness.

I do draw the line, though, when it comes to appropriate behavior—whether or not related to my disability. There are off-limit topics, but they would be off-limits if I were not disabled also.

Learning About Disabilities

Lauren:

One incident on one former job … did show me that upper staff in my particular area wanted to help bring about acceptance. … They asked me to write a memo that would be sent to all workers, explaining blindness … how it is for me … [and] ways to help others feel less frightened about me and my disabilities. The fact that they allowed me to write this memo was remarkable at the time.

Lauren capped the discussion, however, by reminding everyone that “the idea of one incident showing we’ve been accepted at the workplace might be somewhat simplistic, idealistic, and, though a good stepping-stone, just not the whole picture.”

At its core, inclusion involves actively addressing the outdated attitudes people hold; by habit, they may be relying on what they have learned from an early age and have not taken time to update with new knowledge as adults.

As a human resources executive or hiring manager, you can be an important change agent in helping your colleagues update their knowledge about how people with disabilities can contribute to your company’s success. You can lead by example—by hiring, placing, and grooming the best individuals with disabilities you can find.

In doing so, you will be helping your company develop an inclusive corporate culture—one that enables it to compete for top talent in today’s job market.

And, in doing so, you will also be giving yourself the opportunity to cut your turnover rate, manage a more effective work group, and strengthen your own career.

QUICK TIPS FROM THIS CHAPTER

Putting Diversity into Practice

Before you start hiring people with disabilities, you need to make sure that the awareness training you’ve all experienced translates into day-to-day practice. That’s no small task, but as a leader within your organization, there are three steps you can take to help make that happen: clarify your mission and values, communicate that mission and those values, and align those values with daily practices. For more information, see ““Workplace Diversity: Leveraging the Power of Difference for Competitive Advantage” at http://www.allbusiness.com/government/employment-
regulations-u-s-equal-employment/454352-1.html.

A Workplace That Values Diversity

Set the tone. If you coddle a disabled worker, so will other employees—and still others will resent that special treatment. If you are hypersensitive about the individual’s disability, you will make everyone else uncomfortable. If you treat the disabled worker as a burden, that will be the view throughout your department. Instead, you must foster the recognition that every staff member is entitled to an equal sense of dignity, but each has his individual role, responsibility, and work style. The difference with a disabled worker falls only under work methods and refers entirely to what tools he uses to do the work he shares with his peers. For more information, see “Leveraging Diversity to Improve Business Performance” at http://web.mit.edu/cortiz/www/Diversity/
Jayne%20and%20Dipboye%202004.pdf.

Workplace Interdependence and Disability

In the complex structure of any workplace, how a team member serves as a resource for others transcends any disability. Workplace interdependence makes functional considerations (and thus disability) irrelevant. For more information, see “Interdependence and Role Relationships” at wagner.swlearning.com/ob5e/inet/powerpoint/ch08.ppt.

The Value of Bridge Builders

Disability survivors usually have experience in working with individuals of different abilities, attributes, and attitudes—bridge-builder experience you, as a hiring manager, may find helpful in developing teamwork within your own work environment. For more information, see “How to Thrive in a Larger Corporate Environment: Effective Networking” at http://www.esight.org/view.cfm?x=1520.

Disability and Elasticity

Individuals with disabilities can be valuable employees because they bring creativity to the workplace based on what they’ve learned in solving problems that stem from their personal vulnerabilities. Such problem-solving know-how can be transferred to a work situation and help your team develop the elasticity it needs today to compete on a global scale. For more information, see “Diversity and Problem Solving” at http://www.globalcollab.org/gps/
solving/diversity-GPS.

Successful Inclusion

At its core, inclusion involves actively addressing outdated attitudes, largely because, by habit, adults rely on what they may have learned as children and have not taken time to update with new knowledge as adults. For more information, see “Business, Disability and Employment: Corporate Models of Success” at http://www.worksupport.com/research/
listFormatContent.cfm/5.