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Gain a Better Awareness of Disability
THIS CHAPTER GIVES YOU AN OVERVIEW of the concept of employing disabled workers. It explores the reasons why your workforce will increasingly include workers with disabilities. This will happen in the natural course of events as seniors keep working longer, but there also are solid reasons for seeking out disabled people to improve your workforce. If you leave disability awareness out of your diversity program, you truly shortchange your company and your employees. This chapter also discusses methods of incorporating disabled employees into your workforce and describes the benefits your company will derive from hiring qualified workers with disabilities.
How Inclusive Recruiting Will Help You Prepare for Coming Changes in the Employment Landscape
For most businesses today, diversity no longer means recruiting “minority” groups so the employment numbers look “representative” on paper. Instead, diversity is all about capturing and retaining individuals who are creative and talented—and doing that by fostering a workplace climate that recognizes, values, and supports ideas from every direction.
Diversity is inclusion. Diversity is embracing differences. It’s the only way to compete as a business in today’s marketplace.
In 2006, the overall percentage (prevalence rate) of working-age (21 to 64) people with a disability in the United States was 12.9 percent, according to the U.S. Census Bureau’s American Community Survey. In other words, 22,382,000 of the 172,961,000 working-age individuals reported one or more disabilities.
Are your competitors overlooking nearly 13 percent of the labor market? If they are, they are in trouble. And you can gain an edge over them. You can do this by embracing differences in both employees and customers; hiring the best talent within this pool of working-age people with disabilities; and taking advantage of two colliding, long-range population trends.
As a business executive, you track trends that may have an impact on your company’s future well-being. Some of the most important trends are about your workforce.
After all, unemployment isn’t just about people being out of work. It’s also about businesses being able to draw on and support a productive workforce. Keeping on top of population trends gives you the preparation time you need to tap and strengthen the best potential workers available.
Any single trend in the available workforce is important to you. Sometimes more than one trend will overlap, but this isn’t always starkly evident from an employment perspective. You may hear, “There will be twice as many X in the workforce,” but not about some other trend affecting X (such as a population drift, the introduction of new philosophies about training those future employees, or health issues increasingly affecting that group).
Still, you may be getting only half the story if you aren’t tracking these collateral trends as well. What good is it to know that your work force will need to draw on, say, more mothers with school-age children, if those women are migrating to rural areas far from your facilities?
Two trends that do overlap and will color your decisions about human resources in the next two or three decades involve the increasingly older workforce.
Each of the first three decades of the twenty-first century will add 25 million more Americans over age 65, according to Federal Interagency Forum on Aging-Related Statistics (see http://www.aoa.gov/agingstatsdotnet/Main_Site/
Data/2008_Documents/Population.aspx). These aging baby boomers “may be headed for a financial crisis, because they have saved, on average, only 12 percent of what they believe they will need to meet basic living expenses during retirement,” a crisis that will cause them to delay or interrupt their retirement to bring in an income (“Allstate Financial ‘Retirement Reality Check’ Reveals Financial Crisis for Baby Boomers Heading into Retirement,” PR Newswire, at http://tinyurl.com/apyegq).
Many of those baby boomers may become disabled. For example, consider this collateral trend: According to the Allstate study, “Over one million Americans aged 40 and over are currently blind, and an additional 2.4 million are visually impaired. These numbers are expected to double over the next 30 years as the baby boomer generation ages.”
Let’s put this into a larger context. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, 51.8 percent of Americans aged 65 and older in 2005 were estimated to have a disability (“Americans with Disabilities: 2005,” U.S. Census Bureau, issued December 2008, http://www.census.gov/prod/
2008pubs/p70-117.pdf).
Although clearly not all of the over-65 workers you eventually retain, rehire, or add to your workforce will be disabled, it is likely you will be increasingly required to address a range of workplace accessibility issues. Workers who do not regard themselves as disabled but who do need assistance may not be familiar with the many tools that they can use to keep working productively. It will largely be up to you to prepare for this eventuality.
Trend One: Seniors Will Keep Working
Four factors will contribute to the continuously increasing number of workers who are of retirement age: economics, changes in retirement age, continuing need for personal achievement, and employers’ need to keep older workers on the job.
First, many people will not be able to afford to retire. Boomers have a hard reality to face upon retiring, according to economists. In spite of all the predictions that they will redefine what it means to be retired, be more physically active, and champion consumer issues, the fact is that many, maybe even most, will simply not be able to afford not to work, especially after the severe economic downturns during the first decade of the twenty-first century slashed their retirement funds.
Those retirees who are able to work are likely to find themselves striving to keep their jobs just to make ends meet. And the likelihood is that a good many will be forced to stretch the definition of “able.”
As an employer, you will be in a position to leverage this need to work by not only retaining workers but also bringing experienced workers back to fill short-term needs.
Second, the age for eligibility for Social Security retirement benefits is going up incrementally. That age will eventually climb from 62 to 67, with a substantial reduction in benefits for early retirees. During the next couple of decades, your employees won’t be taking early retirement nearly at the same rate as they have in recent years.
This means that many older Americans will spend at least two to five years longer in the workforce or face a reduced lifestyle.
Third, many older people will want to keep working. While many will choose—and demand—volunteer opportunities that are substantial, others will choose to keep working or will go back to work if their need for meaningful volunteer work is not met by volunteer programs still operating on outmoded models.
You will need to recognize the value of older workers. According to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Administration on Aging, the myth of failing competence in older persons is based on an anachronistic picture of the world of work based on industrial and other physically demanding labor. With technology creating a greater emphasis on brain-work over “brawn-work,” employers are tapping into minds that do not necessarily fail with age.
The high-tech tools of today’s workforce are extremely conducive to maintaining an older, more experienced and knowledgeable workforce. Further, the coming “senior” population represents a group more familiar and comfortable with these tools than were their predecessors.
And, fourth, despite tough economic times, you will still need these older workers. Rehiring retirees usually involves people with specific skills or specific knowledge who can fill in when work units are short-staffed.
You will find it extremely economical to rehire workers. This will especially be true of those who only recently retired from doing high-level work for you at significant salaries. Many will be willing to come back part-time or on a contract basis in what are increasingly termed “retirement jobs” for much less than they earned before retirement and with scaled-down or no benefit packages to drain your coffers.
Trend Two: The Number of Visually Impaired People Will Rise Substantially
The rise in the number of people over 65 by itself will increase the prevalence of visual impairment in the U.S. population and, by extension, among older working people.
About one in eight Americans is 65 or older according to Dr. Paul A. Sieving, director of the National Eye Institute, in his article spotlighting the institute’s research on projections of an increasing rate of blindness (“Vision Problems in the U.S.: Prevalence of Adult Visual Impairment and Age-Related Eye Diseases in America,” the National Eye Institute, http://www.nei.nih.gov/eyedata/). The research demonstrates that the overall increase in blindness is heavily influenced by the rising median age.
Why does an increase in visual impairment follow from the “Graying of America”? Eye diseases arising from or intensified by age become more common as the ranks of older people rise. One of the more common causes of visual impairment, macular degeneration, is primarily an age-related condition.
According to AMD Alliance International, an estimated 13 million people in the United States had some form of age-related macular degeneration (AMD) in 2009. In fact, AMD was the leading cause of blindness among Americans of European descent in 2004, says the Eye Diseases Prevalence Research Group. In addition, AMD is the leading cause of vision impairment among Americans over 65, according to Prevent Blindness America.
With the aging of the “baby boomer” generation, it is expected that the number of cases of AMD will increase significantly in the years ahead, the American Macular Degeneration Foundation points out.
There are two other eye diseases that are not limited to the aging process but increase in prevalence with age: cataracts and glaucoma. More than half the people over age 65 have some degree of cataract development, according to The Foundation of the American Academy of Ophthalmology (http://www.eyecareamerica.com/eyecare/news/
August-is-National-Cataract-Awareness-Month.cfm). As for glaucoma, it affects some 3 million Americans and is a leading cause of blindness among all ages in the United States.
Retinopathy (due to diabetes) becomes more common as the incidence of diabetes itself increases—in particular the onset of adult type 2 diabetes. The National Institutes of Health has declared diabetes the epidemic of our times. “About 20 percent of type 2 patients have some eye damage when diagnosed, and blurred vision is common,” adds WebMD. More than 24 million Americans have diabetes, and diabetes is the leading cause of new cases of blindness in adults 20 to 74 (American Optometric Association).
Losing vision because of age does not necessarily mean the older worker is in failing health or is losing faculties. An older person with low vision can be as sharp and fit as ever and does not need to retire from working. It just means a person needs to learn new ways to do things for which he or she previously used sight. There are a range of technologies and rehabilitation services to enable a worker to remain productive and effective on the job.
What the Collision of These Trends Will Mean for You
Referring to the increasing proportion of older persons in the United States, the National Eye Institute’s Dr. Sieving cautions, “When you add declining mortality rates and population shifts, such as the ‘baby boomers,’ the number of older people will grow dramatically in the years ahead. Blindness and visual impairment represent not only a significant burden to those affected by sight loss but also to the national economy as well.” The same statement can be made about aging and disability in general.
One way to counteract the economic impact of more workers who are older and who have a disability is to create a workplace now that is inclusive of disability. Another way is to help your colleagues become literate about the adaptations that can be made to remove the impact of disability within your workplace.
The worker who becomes disabled because of age will not be like the disabled workers you are hiring now. Younger disabled people are more likely to self-identify as individuals who happen to have a disability. These younger people are less likely to regard vulnerability as an obstacle to work. They are more likely to be aware of (and have used) adaptive technology, such as scooters, crutches, and screen readers. They are more likely to have experienced working while being disabled.
By contrast, the older adult, for instance, who starts losing vision because of age, identifies herself as an older person but not as a visually impaired individual. It is common to hear older people deny their blindness, even if they are, by definition, legally blind. They will say, “I just don’t see as well as I used to.” They do not know there are ways around visual impairment. They may not be aware that visual impairment does not mean an inability to keep working. And they almost certainly will not be as knowledgeable about the tools to gain access to information and to carry out on-the-job tasks.
The current emphasis is on helping older adults (at the onset of a disability) to achieve skills so they can stay independent—but not to send them back to work.
Therefore, it may very well fall to you to be the one “in the know” about what an existing or returning older employee who has a disability can do to stay on the job. Building disability awareness and developing inclusive hiring and advancement practices into your business now will allow you to be adept at such challenges before they become critical in the years ahead. This book is designed to help you prepare for that opportunity.
Hiring younger workers with a disability now can be your transition to and practice for being able to keep older, productive workers on the job as these two trends (older adults who are newly disabled but still working) change the employment landscape in the United States.
That means you may have to help your company reevaluate its diversity initiative.
Why Your Diversity Initiative Needs to Include Disability
“Well begun is half done.” This familiar rhyme means that getting started is a major step toward a goal. But, in the case of diversity awareness programs, it can also be a caution. A diversity initiative that does not include disability is only half of a program.
Employers, schools, organizations, and government offices have reaped the rewards of creating a better understanding about race, ethnicity, religion, gender, and gender preference. But this rainbow only goes part of the way across the sky. If you leave out disability in your diversity program, the rainbow is not complete. And you will never reach the pot of gold.
What You Miss with Half of a Diversity Initiative
During a time when employers in some sectors of the U.S. job market are finding it difficult to recruit and retain skilled and loyal workers, it seems strange that one group of potential job candidates goes virtually untapped. According to the President’s Committee on Employment of Disabled Persons, approximately 75 percent of people with disabilities are able to work and are interested in joining the workforce but are unemployed.
Today’s technology makes nearly any work situation possible for these job seekers. So, statements from employers that they can’t fill empty positions are hollow. Such assertions demonstrate that employers continue to be misinformed about the opportunities they have to recruit qualified job candidates with disabilities.
People with disabilities bring unique benefits to a workplace, and those benefits outweigh the simple requirement that they receive equal opportunity to join and advance in it. As employees, people with disabilities generally have great work records. According to studies dating back to the 1950s at DuPont, “Employees with disabilities equal or exceed coworkers without disabilities in job performance, attendance and attention to safety.”
In addition to considerable commitment and enthusiasm for work, individuals with a disability often have superior experience in one vital area of any job: problem solving. This is why some use the term “challenged” to describe people with disabilities. They face and overcome challenges on a daily basis. They have a lifetime of practice doing just what your best employees need to do: solve problems.
At Google Research, for instance, Dr. T. V. Raman is a leading-edge expert in Web standards, auditory interfaces, and scripting languages. Blind himself, he’s intrigued by how something should work when the user is not looking at the screen. He’s the holder of more than twenty-five patents, has tailored Google’s search service for blind users, and has developed a software program to read aloud complex mathematical formulas (see http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/04/
business/04blind.html).
So, the complete awareness training approach (one that includes disability) not only avoids overt and unintentional discrimination against minority employees; it can enhance your work unit’s creativity.
And, in fact, it can enhance your bottom line by:
Reducing recruitment costs when you expand your access to talent
Avoiding productivity losses incurred from unfilled positions (when you have a larger talent pool, filling your positions can be easier and quicker)
Reducing turnover costs with a talent pool that tends to stay with you longer
Creating more efficient work processes through accommodations for your workers with disabilities that may yield an overall increase in your productivity
Leveraging tax incentives, when applicable, to realize tax credits ranging from $2,400 to $15,000
But, specifically what kind of record are businesses showing as a result of inclusive diversity initiatives that include disability? Let’s look at some statistics cited by earnworks.com (http://www.earnworks.com/
BusinessCase/roi_level2.asp).
A recent DePaul study of 314 employees across several industries indicates participants with disabilities had fewer scheduled absences than those without disabilities and that all participants had nearly identical job performance ratings.
Anecdotal and survey research indicate that employees with disabilities may be less likely to leave a company than their nondisabled counterparts. For example, HirePotential found that its placements stayed on the job an average of 50 percent longer than those without disabilities, and Marriott employees hired through its Pathways to Independence Program experienced a 6 percent turnover rate versus the 52 percent turnover rate of its overall workforce.
Remember, the costs of replacing employees, including those who acquire a disability, are high, ranging from 93 to 200 percent of an employee’s annual salary; retaining them makes good business sense.
All-inclusive diversity goes beyond helping people work harmoniously in spite of different work and communication styles and experiences. It shows that an organization’s leaders embrace the multitude of approaches diversity brings to each task. That encourages everyone to work as a productive team.
In fact, treating disability as part of building an awareness of diversity can help you avoid disciplining or dismissing a person because her particular behavior is mischaracterized as a performance problem.
Judy, a new employee who is visually impaired, for example, continually shows up late for your Monday 7:00 A.M. staff meetings, which you like to hold an hour before your office’s regular work hours begin. You and your colleagues and her coworkers have been perplexed by such lack of promptness in Judy, who is otherwise performing well on the job. What you do not realize is that Judy is having difficulty scheduling paratransit (transportation) services for that early hour and is reluctant to tell you about the problem because she believes getting to and from work is her responsibility. Including disability awareness in your diversity initiative perhaps could have prevented that misunderstanding within your workplace.
In short, by leaving disability awareness out of your diversity program, you are shortchanging your company and your employees. Your other employees, including supervisors, will no doubt lack the knowledge and enlightenment they need not only to give opportunities to the employee with a disability but also to simply not stand in the way as he or she strives to succeed.
Demand balanced and well-informed disability awareness training from a diversity trainer. By doing so, you will be taking steps to make sure your employees have the tools to put together all the pieces of an inclusive workplace that is receptive to the concept that individuals with a disability want to control their own lives, to achieve self-defined goals, and to participate fully in society.
How to Choose the Right Disability Awareness Trainer for Your Company
You know it’s important to include disability awareness in your personnel training. But how do you choose the trainer or consultant who best fits your organization?
Make sure your diversity training includes solid information about disability awareness by following your own internal policies for selecting training services plus these specific guidelines for disability awareness training:
1. Avoid waiting until you have a disabled customer coming in or a new employee who is disabled (or a current employee who has just become disabled) about to start work. You don’t want to rush it—and you may be tempted to do just that. In a rush, you’ll likely prepare your staff for serving or working with just that one disability. It’s more effective and efficient to get well-rounded training all at once.
2. Decide what you need to accomplish with the training. Not every work setting is the same. Depending on your work site and business, you will likely have some specific needs. Assess how your staff will likely interact with disabled customers and coworkers. When you shop around for a trainer or consultant, be thorough in conveying your unique needs to everyone you interview.
3. Network to find a disability awareness trainer. Contact organizations that serve people with disabilities, such as Easter Seals or your state’s federally funded disability protection and advocacy agency for recommendations of trainers in your area. You can also contact the human resources departments of other companies to learn whether they have had training.
4. Choose a trainer who is disabled or has a training team that includes at least one disabled person. Interview candidates and check references from other clients of the training firm. Just because someone is disabled does not mean he knows anything about disability issues or awareness training or a range of disabilities.
5. Look for the same personal qualities you expect in the other trainers you choose—such as warmth and humor, which tend to put training participants at ease and communicate that no question needs to be withheld and remain unanswered.
Other factors in disability awareness training need to be considered. It may be difficult to manage interaction in an auditorium full of people. And there may be a diverse array of cultural attitudes toward disability that will need to be addressed. Talk about all these issues with the trainers and consultants you interview.
The trainer or consultant you hire should be able to make a lasting impression on your staff, be well-informed, be warm, and be open. As in everything else, you want to get the most for your money. And the product you are buying here is transformation of your workplace into a truly adaptive, inclusive environment. When you invest in top-notch disability awareness training, you model for all of your internal and external associates the real diversity you want your organization to radiate.
And, to do that modeling effectively, it’s helpful to understand what “self-determination” means to today’s job seeker with a disability.
The Right to Self-Determination for Individuals with a Disability in Today’s Workplace
You probably recall the familiar saying, “America is a place where every boy can grow up to be president.” The value highlighted by this statement is self-determination. Americans like to believe we no longer prescribe personal life choices for our citizens based on class or economics.
“The irony is that the gender bias is so explicit in the statement, despite long battles for inclusion of those outside the ‘default’ gender, race, religion, sexual preference, and ability,” writes Nan Hawthorne, historical novelist and author of An Involuntary King.
But, as a cultural belief, the statement still stands. Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton further modified the implications of the statement during the 2008 U.S. presidential election.
Opportunity is still the key. It’s fundamental in self-determination.
What is self-determination? According to the Center for Self-Determination, self-determination is “broadly defined as the ability of individuals to control their lives, to achieve self-defined goals and to participate fully in society. Self-determination is used to describe a set of beliefs and behaviors adopted by people (individuals, families and communities) seeking to improve their own lives and by those who seek to help them” (see http://www.centerforself-determination.com).
In short, people who have a disability want the opportunity to control their own lives, to achieve self-defined goals, and to participate fully in society.
Clearly, legislation—such as the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990, the United Kingdom’s 1995 People with Disabilities Discrimination Act, Australia’s Disability Discrimination Act of 1992, the 1997 additions to Canada’s Human Rights and Criminal Code, and Japan’s Law to Promote the Employment of the Handicapped—put an emphasis on self-determination. Many such laws worldwide mandate removal of barriers to equal participation by people with disabilities in their communities. But, on the face of it, legislation usually focuses on providing access to “work”—not “choice of work.”
Without choice, there is no self-determination. Remember how thirty years ago newspaper “help wanted” classifieds were divided into “Help Wanted: Men” and “Help Wanted: Women”? Women had the right to work, but the division of occupations by gender was strictly limited.
The choice of work open to people with disabilities still remains limited. Here is one example. Although jobs that cannot be carried out by a person with a visual impairment of any level (airline pilot, truck driver, etc.) are few in today’s job market, that person’s job choice is narrow (piano tuner, transcriptionist, vendor, etc.) due to common misconceptions. That limitation is based on ingrained cultural biases and lack of knowledge—not the law.
Importance of Self-Determination at Work
Perhaps one of the most difficult self-determination issues for bright, capable, ambitious adults who happen to have disabilities is being regarded as adults. They are often perceived as and treated like children who need to be protected from the rigors of life.
Imagine how you felt at age 16. You had many of the abilities you would have ten, fifteen, and twenty years later. You certainly had the desire to make your own choices, but you could not. Legal as well as customary restrictions kept you a child—or, at least, as a nonadult. Now imagine staying at that point, no matter your age or level of maturity, your entire life. That is one of the primary barriers adults with disabilities seek to break: the misconception that they are still children.
There are unavoidable limits in life: lack of opportunity, lack of money, and lack of time. Anyone can suffer from these. But they tend to be circumstantial and can be, with effort, broken. But imagine, when for reasons that defy your own judgment and ability, others step in and establish arbitrary restrictions on your choice of occupation.
A capable person with a disability can be at a loss about how not only to overcome those hurdles but also to deal with something more fundamental: how to articulate the value of his or her own choice. Other than teenage angst, there simply aren’t words in our language for what such a person feels. The person is forever trapped in a world that views him or her as a terminal adolescent.
This is where legislation stops and attitudes take over. There are laws that outline the rights of people with disabilities, but attitudes often can elude both law and reason. While evidence of that fact can be found in every walk of a disabled person’s life (right to maternity, access to consumer goods and services, access to education, access to the community), it is nowhere more obvious than in employment.
Our culture equates adulthood with work. Although not long ago women who worked outside the home were looked down upon as neglectful mothers, in the twenty-first century women are more likely to be sheepish about admitting they don’t have jobs.
For a person with a disability, having a job means she is that much closer to being regarded as an adult. She has responsibility; a paycheck; a reason to dress well; peers with whom to relate; and a better chance to have the other trappings of adulthood, such as a home. She doesn’t have to cringe and receive odd looks when asked, “Employer?” and she has to answer, “Disabled.” She is a fully functioning, contributing member of the world of grown-ups. She is not a child.
However, without self-determination, this adulthood status is on shaky ground.
Nan, for instance, who has a visual impairment, says, “I can’t tell you how often it has been assumed that I could only work for—or even volunteer for—an organization for the blind. While I was training professionally, a woman commented about how nice it was that the group ‘let you train.’”
This is a regular experience in the lives of most people who have disabilities. The assumption is that their options are limited. That limitation is external. While they may not actually be working in supported employment (such as a sheltered workshop), the assumption is that they need some sort of artificially erected “safety net” to work—because they are not grown-ups.
No organization or individual these days would assume that African Americans can work only in businesses operated by African Americans, or women in special employment projects for women, or Jewish people in Jewish companies. But it is commonplace to hear people consign a person with a disability, no matter how accomplished, to “special employment.”
The loss is devastating to the individual with a disability whose personal dreams are shattered, whose education and training go to waste, whose potential may never be reached, and whose quality of life will be stuck in the tiny pigeonhole to which she’s been assigned.
The impact stretches far beyond the individual with a disability, though. It is a loss that every one of us (and, in some ways, more so as employers) has to bear.
Importance of Self-Determination for Employers
Just as our well-being suffers from artificially limiting access to relationships, cultural life, consumption, and citizenship, business also suffers from the limits placed on the careers of those with disabilities.
What’s the payoff for employers when people with disabilities have the same access to a career as anyone else? Think back to the earlier statement, “Every boy can grow up to be president,” and how this contrasts with a rigidly defined class system. Victoria, no matter how suited to being a monarch, never could have ruled in her own right or likely been queen at all had she actually been a poor farmer. How many leaders were not born in the social and economic class most conducive to success? That has changed somewhat in America.
Take the example of Abraham Lincoln. The Lincoln family was dirt poor. Abe did not own a pair of shoes for most of his childhood. Yet, he grew up to be president. He’s one of the three people in history (along with Napoleon and Jesus Christ) with the most books written about him. What would we have lost had his right of self-determination been denied? His intelligence. His wisdom. His way with words. His ideals. His determination.
By limiting a disabled person’s self-determination in the workplace, we limit our own access to whatever makes that individual unique and wonderful. We say, “Sorry, Abe, it doesn’t matter that you are destined to be a legend. You simply can’t be president unless you have shoes as a kid. That’s the rule.”
Telling Jenny she can’t teach math to teenagers because she walks with crutches means the school district has lost her ability to communicate an excitement about mathematics to bored high school juniors.
A health insurance company misses out by telling a partially sighted fellow named Juan that he can’t do its legal research (due to a hiring manager’s personal misconception that he can’t use adaptive technology and the Internet as a research tool). That company doesn’t receive the insight Juan may have had into how a new regulation affects its bottom line.
In fact, that insurance company loses more than Juan’s legal insight when it throws up an artificial barrier to his pursuit of a career in legal research. The insurance company loses:
Juan’s excitement and knack for the job that led him to pursue his particular career in the first place, often against the odds
Juan’s high level of commitment and loyalty to a company that gave him the chance to pursue his chosen career
Juan’s impact on other employees as well as the public because he is doing work he loves with talent, commitment, and enthusiasm—not just work someone else thinks he’s fit for
The key is to help your colleagues think about the best fit for each individual, based on what he can and wants to do—not what he can’t do or what your colleagues simply don’t realize he can do.
Supporting Self-Determination for Individuals with Disabilities
What can you and your colleagues do to support self-determination among workers with disabilities? Here are several suggestions on a number of different fronts:
Hire them. Hire people with disabilities to do the work they are trained for.
Equip them. Work with them to find and put into place the tools they need to compensate for the purely mechanical limitations their disabilities create.
Challenge them. Expect top-notch performance. Keep your standards high.
Tell the world about them. Make sure other employees and managers, the media, the community, your competitors, your clients, and everyone else knows how they have contributed to your company.
Challenge those who limit them. Call your mayor, write a letter to the editor, talk to your own kids, withdraw your charitable support, speak at the school board meeting and in your place of worship—and speak anywhere you see people with disabilities cast as dependent, childlike, or pitiful. Help destroy the stereotypes.
Help the advocates. Reinforce the emphasis organizations and individuals in your community are putting on self-determination for people with disabilities and help them.
Demand opportunity. Make sure the workers with disabilities you know are getting equal opportunities for an education, access to advanced training, and degrees in your field; encourage staffing services and headhunters to recruit them; and help your community be accessible and supportive of their options as much as any other worker.
Having options is simply a “good thing.” It’s an absolute value. The more “those” people have options, the more everyone does. The more freedom for people with disabilities the more freedom for each of us and our loved ones—whether or not disability ever becomes part of our lives.
It’s your choice.
How Individuals with a Disability Define Inclusion
Self-determination, as defined by controlling your own life, having the opportunity to work toward self-defined goals, and participating fully in society, is not only based on choice; it is also based on respect, dignity, and inclusion.
And inclusion for people with disabilities is the opposite of tokenism. Inclusion lies in the attitudes of those involved.
Perhaps that’s what the members of eSight Careers Network are telling us. Take a look at the following discussion among seven of those members:
JD Lewis:
I worked briefly in an initial, seemingly genuine clerical position, only to later discover that I was the only blind/visually impaired employee in 200-plus locations. Despite initial treatment of equal dignity and inclusiveness, three months into the job my workload dropped off, resulting in many idle moments, and, despite my diligent efforts to be trained so I could be helpful in other departments, I was continually turned down.
Such dwindling attention made me feel as if I may have been the national token for this company. Needless to say, I ended up leaving this position. And roughly two years later, this company’s particular location dissolved.
My belief is that it is extremely difficult to determine if you are hired as the “token,” and, if you find yourself in this situation, it may be even harder to rise above this lowly status to become a truly respected member of the team.
Jo Taliaferro:
I still believe that many think the ADA merely involves the widening of doors (and making) the statement, “we are accessible,” but with no attitudinal meat on the bones. That’s another type of tokenism.
Debra:
If an employer hires someone as a token disabled person, that company may get what it doesn’t want: a whiner who expects everyone to cater to him instead of being self-sufficient and productive.
Wendy:
I’m a single gal who uses a wheelchair because of my spinal cord injury. I work in accounts receivable at a large hotel.
I’ve worked at the hotel for seven years and have seen a lot of employees come and go. Many of them have been college students working their way through school. They can be fun. They liven up the place.
But, I sometimes don’t feel as though I fit in, even though I probably have the most seniority among the clerical staff. Mind you, everyone is very nice to me, but sometimes I feel I am tolerated because it makes the hotel look good to have a “wheelchair person” on board—rather than because of the work I have done and can still do. It’s kind of like being the old desk in the corner. It fits.
My supervisor calls me “Steady Wendy.” I suppose she thinks that’s a compliment. Yes, steady can be good and safe, but it can also be boring.
I’ve asked her how I could improve my work, but she always says, “You’re doing just fine.” It’s as though she has no real expectations of me.
Molly is my one buddy at work. We always have lunch together. She works on the payroll and has been with me for five years. She’s looking forward to retirement next year.
I sometimes wonder what kind of job I’d have and what kind of money I’d be making if I weren’t in a wheelchair. I have an associate degree in accounting from our local college and lots of life experience. But I’m still doing the same type of work I did when I first started working for the hotel.
I do love my job, but sometimes it’s frustrating and lonely being the only person who is considered “different” but “steady” and getting side glances from the new people (with no wheelchair or crutches) who always seem to be coming on board.
Pam:
For me, it is incredibly frustrating to continue to be left out at meetings where print is handed out in a job I’ve had for 16 years—when my employer knows very well to send me information electronically ahead of time (due to my visual impairment). I, therefore, believe inclusion is the absolute key to success for people who experience disability issues.
Liz Seger:
We don’t want to be designated as special; we just want to be included and be like everyone else.
John Hargus:
Full inclusion for those of us with disabilities includes but is not limited to the right for us to live happy and productive lives. As a result of my disability, I have not only gained an interest in helping people with disabilities through activism, but I also have learned to appreciate life as a whole.
As someone who was diagnosed not only with a learning disability but also with a severe speech impairment at a very young age and with epilepsy at the age of 11, I knew early on that I was in for an uphill struggle. However, the reality of this struggle never hit home until a few months after my 18th birthday when I got denied employment due to my seizure disorder.
Since being discriminated against on that November day in 1988, I have fought the long and hard battle to obtain full inclusion for people with disabilities. My battle led me to places such as the local city council, when I heard that they were planning to eliminate the special education program in all of the city’s public schools; to my U.S. Congressman’s office, where I questioned a law that gives employers the right to pay disabled employees below the minimum wage; and even to President Bush when I found out that certain states were denying the learning disabled the right to an equal education despite the NCLB Act of 2001 that gives that right.
I have also set lofty goals for myself, despite my disabilities. I’m currently working on my bachelor’s degree in computer/electrical engineering. Upon graduating from college, I’m not only planning to settle down but also to start my own computer consulting business.
I eventually want to go back to school and earn my master’s degree in engineering. My main goal in life is to prove that the disabled can actually do more in life than learn the proper ways of scrubbing a toilet or pushing a broom/mop, because I believe that a person’s disability should not be a hindrance but a tool to raise standards.
Notice the waste (scuttled talent), dishonesty (misleading appearances), and danger (infective whiners) in deliberately allowing—or lazily falling captive to—tokenism within the workplace.
Inclusion, on the other hand, focuses on recruiting and retaining individuals regardless of disability who have the talent, skills, and discernment to help an organization further extend its success. And inclusion applies to all job classifications.
You know talent and skill when you see it, but discernment can be a little more difficult to evaluate. Let’s look at some potential benchmarks for discernment as it pertains to a job candidate’s approach to disability.
The Role of Maturity and Self-Esteem in an Individual’s Approach to Disability
A hiring manager should look for job candidates who have a mature grasp of what it means to live well with a disability. That means living, first of all, with a personal sense of self-worth.
A sense of self-worth feeds an approach to life that maintains that:
A person has a right to equal dignity
Dignity stems from mature perceptions about self and others
A sense of personal dignity cannot be dished out by others
In other words, a job candidate with a sense of self-worth is ready to thrive in the workplace.
In recruiting job candidates with disabilities, you want to go beyond the obvious—beyond often unasked questions such as, “Can you do the job?” and “How do you do this?” (both important questions that any candidate should voluntarily address). You want your standout applicants to get this message (perhaps in a subtle way) across to you: “My dignity is not defined by my disability. My disability does not define who I am. I am a person first. But I’m willing to talk about my challenges so I can then address your questions about my qualifications for this job.”
Thoughts about the role of disability in the lives of job candidates can provide important markers of the level of self-esteem within those individuals and how they view self-determination (namely, the sense of empowerment they feel for controlling their own lives, for achieving self-defined goals, and for participating fully in society).
Considering these benchmarks shows you’ve grappled with putting disability into a perspective that makes sense to you, and that makes you a more effective hiring manager.
Of course, as in any discussion within a group of individuals, your conversation can lead to a wide range of possibilities when it comes to perceptions about personal vulnerability and equal dignity.
One Variable: Born Disabled vs. Becoming Disabled
For example, let’s consider just one of the variables that you could encounter during your interviewing process. There are likely to be differing perceptions about the right of equal dignity between those born disabled and those who become disabled later in life, for instance. Consider the following dialogue among five people with disabilities who are members of eSight Careers Network and who are pursuing their careers within today’s so-called mainstream job market.
It depends on when a person develops his or her disability. I think that, if [the disability] comes on as an adult, there is a difference, since adults most likely have “established” themselves. I do not think it is right, but I believe it is so.
In my case, I was diagnosed with RP [eye disease] at a young age, but it had no great impact on me until I was an adult. By the time my “disability” became noticeable, I had a leadership position in my company. I often wonder if I would have had the same opportunity if my eye problem had manifested itself sooner.
William Filber:
As an individual with a congenital disability, I say the difference in attitude starts with those of us who have lived with a disability their whole lives. We grow up with a natural acceptance within ourselves and our disabilities. We see [our disabilities as natural] up until we enter society as an adult or a child in an educational institution that separates us from the able-bodied population.
The system itself does not encourage or promote inclusion. There’s segregation from early on. That system must be changed.
But an individual with a congenital disability is usually, from early on, encouraged to achieve the American Dream. We learn to accept our disability early in life.
An individual who becomes disabled later in life, however, often has already adopted the perspective of society and employers.…
The attitudes will change over time, but it will take a generation and must start at an early age. The educational system is totally wrong, and this perspective [separation and exclusion] transfers into other aspects of our lives: employment, housing, transportation, etc.
Barney Mayse:
More than likely this difference in perception between born-with and acquired disabilities is just how people view things. However, the reality we should be seeking is one where it does not make a difference when one is disabled, how one is disabled, or even whether the disability is visible. A disability requires the person to work just a bit harder to do things that others take for granted.
What we can do about [a sense of dignity] is work steadfastly to achieve complete parity for all people with disabilities in all circumstances, with a focus on abilities—not disabilities. We need to focus on how to become an asset to the hiring organization.
Darcey Farrow:
Some people feel that those who have been disabled longer should be entitled to more. I do not think that should matter. Everyone should be able to have their dignity, and no one person should take away from that.
People need to realize that any one person with a disability may have low self-esteem, which I believe has everything to do with dignity. If I am disabled, so be it, but I need not be treated differently than a nondisabled person.
Carlos:
People who become disabled later in life often need time to accept it. They can become bitter. They do not believe that they are part of the disabled population. All within the disabled community have the right to equal dignity.
It will help us all if the public gets to know that being disabled is not a curse. … Individuals can live well despite having a disability.
Each person with a disability is on a personal journey that ultimately determines how he or she weaves the feeling of vulnerability into everyday life. That personal journey is often influenced by the individual’s level of self-esteem, which, in turn, affects:
Acceptance: “I need more time to accept an acquired disability.”
Entitlement: “I was born with this disability and am entitled to more help.”
Competitiveness: “I need to do better than the nondisabled to succeed.”
Happenstance: “I wouldn’t have this job if I had been born with my disability.”
In any case, a sense of self-worth in a job candidate tends to decrease the importance that disability plays in his or her personal life and work life.
How Learning to Live Well with a Disability Can Have an Upside
Of course, having or acquiring a disability is not good news. It’s tangible evidence of an individual’s vulnerability, which, in the United States, is commonly considered a personal liability, especially in the job market.
But many people with a disability have also learned that the implications of vulnerability are not all bad—that, in fact, there’s often an amusing as well as a real upside to disability.
Consider this dialogue among nine members of eSight Careers Network about the advantages they have discovered by learning how to live well with a disability.
Marsha:
As a person who has been blind lifelong, I have been able to focus more on the sounds around me because I have never had the visual distractions that so often beset those with normal vision. For example, as a medical transcriptionist, I have been able to hear the nuances of the various doctors that just might be a key to what they are trying to say.
Another example of a bonus in being blind is the fact that one can read a book in bed without having to have a flashlight under the covers to see the print. I used to do this all the time growing up. My father would do everything he could to catch me as I was reading in bed. Because I didn’t have the telltale flashlight on, it was harder for him to catch me. Unfortunately for me, catch me he did when he started just standing there listening to the soft sound of my little hands smoothly running my fingers across a line of Braille. I was most certainly caught then. Our family all got a laugh out of that one.
The other day I was sitting in the quiet of my living room and working on an afghan for a charity project. As I crocheted one stitch after another, it hit me that the task was easier now than it had been when my vision was just beginning to throw a monkey wrench into everything I did.
Yes, of course, I’m better at crocheting, although I have just taken it up again after many years. What I discovered was more significant than just practice: I’m more accustomed to doing things without my vision.
It’s an example of what I write about all the time: Vision is truly not needed for many of the tasks I do (basically most of the activities of my daily life). This is normal for me now. And that’s a great thing to realize.
Then I went on to ask myself: Are there benefits to having low vision? And I actually thought of several. Someone asked me, for instance, if the audio-description on CBS’s CSI gets disgusting when they start to show the inside views of a human body. I love CSI, so I told her, “No, they are just descriptive. And this is one case where low vision is absolutely a bonus. I can hear what is happening without having to be grossed out visually!”
Anthony R. Candela:
I have learned there is more than one way to perform a task. Just when you think something can’t be done, necessity spawns some new invention.
Paul:
I notice that, among my friends with disabilities, there is an abundance of “empathy” (not “sympathy”). Having a disability gives one a greater perspective on the difficulties others have with their respective disability. It should not be necessary to have a disability to acquire understanding, but it certainly is a life-changing event for many.
The other more obvious implication is the effort it takes to do some tasks with a disability. That increased effort is the response to challenge. Without challenge, I wonder how hard I would have applied myself in the past.
Peter Altschul:
I think people with disabilities have more experience in solving problems and dealing with crises than the average nondisabled person. Also, I have discovered that people will say things to me that they wouldn’t say to other professionals. Maybe it’s something to do with their perception of our “semi-invisibility”—that we are sometimes ignored as if we aren’t present—and, therefore, are “safe” listeners to unguarded remarks.
Curt Woolford:
Although having a visual impairment is often a considerable challenge, it does have its upside. The blessing for me has been in character development. If I compare who I was five years ago [before my vision changed] to who I am now, I have grown considerably. I am more compassionate, patient, and tolerant. I am less likely to be judgmental. I pay far more attention to what really matters. I am much stronger deep within.
Kerryann Ifill:
I’ve acquired this understanding: Never let people set your limitations; let situations set those limitations.
Barney Mayse:
The problem-solving capacity of people with disabilities expands everyday.
Debra:
A disability doesn’t mean inability; it’s more often doing things a little differently—listening, for instance, rather than looking when you hear a sound!
Examine this conversation. Notice the more concrete advantages that grow unexpectedly from learning how to live with a disability. Let’s classify the insight detected in this dialogue into two categories, risk tolerance and interdependence, both of which are important qualities in the people you want on your work team.
Risk Tolerance
Less capability does not necessarily mean less ability.
Necessity often spawns innovation.
Challenge can be a motivator.
Problem solving can be learned through personal circumstances.
Limitations are only situational.
Interdependence
Personal limitation allows the luxury of focusing on nuance.
Personal vulnerability can spawn empathy.
Disability can help gain trust from others.
Personal challenge can raise tolerance for uncontrollable circumstances.
What does all this mean to you as a hiring manager? Here are two recommendations:
1. Target job candidates who have learned, perhaps through some form of vulnerability, to effectively take calculated risks in developing their careers and conducting business.
2. Identify job candidates—disabled or not—who can enhance interdependence in your workplace.
In the next chapter, we’ll explore each of these recommendations within the context of a corporate culture that is receptive to disability.
QUICK TIPS FROM THIS CHAPTER
The Trends
In the next thirty years, more seniors will return to work after retirement or postpone retirement, and the number of those employees who have a disability will rise substantially. Hiring younger workers with disabilities now can be your transition to and practice for being able to keep older, productive workers on the job as these two trends change the employment landscape in the United States. For more information, see “Circle of Champions: Innovators in Employing All Americans” at http://www.dol.gov/odep/newfreedom/
coc2007/brochure.htm.
Full Diversity
Leaving disability awareness out of your company’s diversity initiative gives you only half a program. Through balanced and well-informed disability awareness training from a diversity trainer, however, you’ll provide your employees with the tools they need to make interdependency work for them and your company. For more information, see “Defining Your DDQ: Disability Diversity Quotient” at http://www.disability-marketing.com/
newsletter/2006-03-article-ddq.php4.
Awareness Training
Be proactive. Avoid waiting to hire a disability awareness trainer until you have a disabled customer coming in or a new employee who is disabled (or a current employee who has just become disabled). You don’t want to rush it—and you may be tempted to do just that. In a rush, you’ll likely prepare your staff for serving or working with just that one disability. For more information, see “Employment of People with Disabilities: The Win-Win Scenario for Employers and Employees” at http://disabilities.suite101.com/article.cfm/
employment_of_people_with_disabilities.
Self-Determination
The more freedom people with disabilities have in making career choices for themselves, the more freedom each of us has—whether or not disability ever becomes part of our lives. For more information, see “What Self-Determination Is and What It Is Not” at http://www.tash.org/mdnewdirections/
factsheetsd.htm.
Inclusion
All individuals need to be treated with dignity and respect in the workplace. The key to making that happen—real inclusion instead of tokenism—lies in the attitudes of those involved. For more information, see ““Survey of Employer Perspectives on the Employment of People with Disabilities” at http://www.dol.gov/odep/documents/
survey_report_jan_09.doc.
Each person with a disability is on a personal journey that ultimately determines how he or she weaves the feeling of vulnerability into everyday life. That personal journey is often influenced by the individual’s level of self-esteem, and self-esteem levels, in turn, can influence how employers view workers with disabilities in general. For more information, see “Restricted Access: A Survey of Employers about People with Disabilities and Lowering Barriers to Work” at http://www.heldrich.rutgers.edu/uploadedFiles/
Publications/Restricted%20Access.pdf.
Disability’s Upside
Concrete advantages that grow unexpectedly from learning how to live with a disability can include risk tolerance and interdependence, both of which are important qualities in the people you want on your work team. For more information, see “Disability Can Have an Upside” at http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/
hi/health/7408603.stm.