Blog

Download PDF to read entire article

Have you ever considered that for those of us who currently do not have a disability that we are actually all only one accident or illness away from becoming disabled?  

If you are born Hispanic you cannot become Black later in life. However, if you are born able-bodied, you can become a wheelchair user at some later date.  

It’s the club that anyone can join at any time and the club that many will join even if the disability is much later in life due to the natural aging process.  

Could it be that this hits so close to home that we completely block out the idea and therefore block out the incredible opportunities of hiring and marketing to the disability community?  

Perhaps for us TAB’s; and by that I mean temporarily able-bodied, not the drink, it’s just easier to think of accessibility related issues as legal requirements rather than an issues of inclusion.  

But remember, what’s easier is not always better.  Hiring, supporting and marketing to the disability community is not just the right thing to do, it’s a good thing to do for profitability and productivity.

Did you hear the news?  Montgomery County, MD voted this week to expand hiring preference rules to include individuals with mental and physical disabilities.  I believe this may be the first local legislation of its type in the U.S. 

Basically, what this means is that a person with a disability who is among the highest-rated candidates in a traditional competitive process, would receive “hiring preference” for the open position.

I believe this will send a very strong message to those with disabilities that if you have the required skill sets, they really want to hire you because of your disability, not in spite of it.  

I wonder if this is an idea that we are going to see replicated elsewhere.

I’ve never had a sense of direction so you can imagine my elation when I got my first car that had navigation.  Some folks say I’m “directionally impaired”. 

In Think Beyond the Label, a new national advertising campaign using humor to encourage companies to hire people with disabilities, workers are shown as having quirky impairments.  Perhaps you have met the woman who is “pattern-deficient” or the man who is “copy incapable?” The theme of this campaign is that labels get in the way but disabilities rarely do.

This wonderful advertising campaign, spearheaded by Health & Disability Advocates, a non-profit organization based in Chicago, Illinois has a budget of $4 million for the first half of 2010.

Look for these ads to appear on Sunday news programs on ABC, CBS, NBC and even on cable channels such as ESPN and CNN.  There will also be print ads that will appear in The Wall Street Journal and Fortune.  

This is serious stuff and you know what?  It’s about time.

The majority of Springboard’s clients are global corporations or national and federal agencies that have in-house council.  

I wonder how our clients would feel if they knew they were potentially missing out on top legal talent just because the prospective employee, who happened to be disabled, was not granted an accommodation that would allow her to “fairly” take the bar exam?

I ask this question because on February 23^rd of this year, a San Francisco, California, law student who is blind will use a computer-assisted reading device (the accommodation), to take the bar exam.

This comes only after a federal judge made a ruling, rejecting the examiners’ arguments that the assistance was too generous and might let someone steal the test questions.  The typical accommodation for applicants who are blind or visually impaired, is a pencil-and-paper test with questions displayed on an enlarged screen, a human reader and twice the usual three-day testing period.

The judge in this case said, “”A disability should not prevent an individual from pursuing their dream, if that’s what it is, of practicing law”.  Thank goodness for a very smart judge.

A friend of mine just called to tell me about a new student organization called ABLE, Access By Leadership in Equity that has been formed by two students for the purpose of raising awareness of students with both visible and hidden disabilities.

As the parent of a Dartmouth student who has a disability, my friend has been most concerned about the school’s responsiveness to her daughter’s accessibility needs and accommodation requests and hopes this will help her daughter and others like her.  My friend says she does not believe in any way that Dartmouth deliberately tries to discriminate against students with disabilities.  

From my perspective it is no different than what we see in Corporate America; a general lack of awareness which can often be remedied with high quality comprehensive disability etiquette and awareness training and a solid disability Employee Resource Group.  It sounds to me like ABLE may become Dartmouth’s student equivalent to such a group. Stay tuned.

If you or someone you know is interested in forming or growing your companies Disability ERG or delivering Disability Etiquette and Awareness Training, contact Springboard today at 973-813-7260 or via email at info@consultspringboard.com.

I would like to announce that on January 14^th, The Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) of the UK appointed Mike Smith as new chair of its Disability Committee, replacing acting chair Alun Davies who stepped down at the end of last year.  

The EHRC is a statutory body that has the responsibility to protect, enforce and promote equality across the seven “protected” grounds – age, disability, gender, race, religion and belief, sexual orientation and gender reassignment for the 60 million people in the UK. 

To date, Mike has served as the Chair of the National Centre for Independent Living. He is also a member of the board of Stonewall (2006 to date), the lesbian, gay and bisexual charity. Prior to this he worked for PricewaterhouseCoopers for 19 years, most recently as Director of Policy & Compliance.  Specifically, the Disability Committee of the EHRC is a decision-making committee with wide powers and responsibilities delegated by parliament. These powers include:

• monitoring and providing advice on disability law
• publishing and disseminating ideas and information, providing education and training, and giving advice and guidance on disability rights
• publishing and revising codes of practice on disability law
• monitoring and preventing crimes affecting disabled people
• arranging conciliation on non-employment Disability Discrimination Act (DDA) disputes
• providing or arranging legal assistance for DDA claimants
• conducting or intervening in disability-related judicial review proceedings

A new law recently passed in Northern Ireland making it illegal for transport operators to discriminate against customers who have disabilities.  

The “Disability Transport Regulations” cover trains, buses, coaches, taxis and vehicle rentals.

Translink, which is the main provider of public transport in Northern Ireland, said it welcomed the regulations and said all of its new vehicles already meet “the latest accessibility standards including low floor ramped access, dedicated wheelchair space and priority seats” as do their NI Railways trains.

What’s wonderful is that Ireland’s Equality Commission is launching a major advertising campaign to advise people of their new rights and “to make transport operators aware of the guidance available to help them comply with the law”.  

New legislation, of any type is only as good as the awareness, understanding and compliance around it.

Like many of you, I went to see the movie, Avatar last month. I was quite pleased to finally see a movie featuring a character with a disability in a key movie role. 

The character, Jake Sully, played by Sam Worthington, uses a wheelchair in this wonderful film. Unfortunately, the many journalists talking about the film need to participate in Springboard’s Disability Etiquette & Awareness Training. The reason is the language these men and women have used to introduce the character from “crippled ex-marine” to “wheelchair bound soldier”.

They, like many others, need to keep in mind that the wheelchair is what enables the person to independently get around, giving them their freedom and that “crippled” is an outdated term.  

So what would have been a better way to refer to the character? “Jake Sully, an ex-Marine who has a disability”.

Caltrans, which own and maintains California’s state highways, plans to spend a billion dollars over the next thirty years to improve sidewalk access as well as Park and Ride facilities next to public transportation hubs as a result of a landmark class action settlement for disability access. The improvements will include curbed ramps as well as yellow detectable warnings.

This settlement is the largest Americans with Disabilities Act settlement involving architectural barriers to date.

The complaint was made when an individual who is blind almost got hit by a car, thinking he was standing on the curb when he was actually standing in the gutter. Though a lawsuit was not planned, it is how the issue was finally resolved.

Unfortunately, it is how many of these types of issues get resolved.  You then have to ask yourself why; particularly, when the ADA clearly requires sidewalks to be safe for people with disabilities.  

Wouldn’t it be wonderful if every street in the country had a curb ramp?

I’ve written before about what truly defines accessibility.

Recently this question was raised in the form of a complaint filed by the National Federation of the Blind and the American Council of the Blind, along with an Arizona State University student who is blind to the Department of Justice (DOJ) that use of the Kindle devices discriminates against students who are blind or visually impaired. A daily dose of postings from The Chronicle’s technology blog ((sfgate.com/blogs/tech) … 01.15.10)

I have a Kindle and it does have a feature that reads the book to me. Unfortunately, it does not verbally navigate the buttons on the device. The DOJ said that without access to the menus, students who are blind have no way to know which book they have selected or how to access the Kindle DX Web browser or its other functions yet the technology to make navigational controls or menu selections accessible by blind users is available.

This upsets me greatly because my book, DIVE IN, is now available on the Kindle. The initial thought was by making DIVE IN available on the device, it would provide everyone with access to the book. Once again, when is accessibility truly accessible?

How accessible is your office, lobby, etc.? Since I am still using a wheelchair for longer distances, I have had the opportunity to personally experience what folks call accessible in a variety of ways.

I was at an event last week where the main entrance had a blue accessibility sign but when I entered, I was told the venue was located upstairs and there was no elevator so my only choice was to go back outside in the frigid cold and wheel myself up to the complete other side of the building where the entrance was on the second floor. When I did finally make it to that entrance which had the blue accessibility sign, the doors were locked. In order to get inside, I had to wait outside in the frigid cold while someone went back to the other side of the building, walked to this entrance and opened the doors for me. Accessible? Not really.

If that was not bad enough, when I got to the hotel, the lobby entrance was fully accessible but in order to get to my accessible room (which was great) I had to manually open a door to get access to the first floor hallway while balancing luggage on my lap. Accessible? Not really.

The next time you tell a prospective employee, customer or friend that your building is fully accessible, you may want to think about what that really means by putting yourself in their shoes, walker, wheelchair, etc. When was the last time your company or organization had a physical barrier assessment? Perhaps 2010 is the year to have one. Contact Springboard today by calling 973-813-7260 or emailing us at info@consultspringboard.com (subject: Barrier Assessment) to learn more.

As we all know, many colleges and universities offer programs for students with disabilities to help them succeed in school even if they have a learning, physical or other disability.  But, did you know that there are now many colleges and universities that offer programs for young adults with intellectual disabilities?  The latest school to offer such a program is the College of Charleston in Charleston, SC through a grant from the College Transition Connection, Inc.

Mr. Al-Momani speaks fluent Arabic and recently graduated from a top rated MBA program in Finance, earning an overall 3.9 GPA.  Over the last year he has interviewed with companies, universities, even the U.N. and yet, not even one job offer. 

Mr. Al-Momani has a visual impairment that would require him to use special software at work.  He also uses a cane which makes his disability visible and in his opinion, often makes for an awkward interview as the employer processes concerns about his ability to do the work and/or his effect on other employees.

Mr. Al-Momani was the subject of a Fox News piece which aired on December 23^rd (last month) by Jamie Colby, titled, On the Job Hunt. 

Unfortunately, Mr. Al-Momani’s experiences are not unique.  As one employer interviewed by Ms. Colby said, his employees with disabilities are extremely loyal and rarely take sick-time. What employer would not want an employee who wants to work, performs well, has low absenteeism and is extremely loyal?  And by the way, there are tax benefits as well.  

The morale of this story is an old one.  Don’t judge a book by its cover; you may be missing out on an incredible story.

“Huge success. It was so special and wonderful.  What a rare opportunity.  It was amazing and heartwarming. What a joy to see the excitement on the faces of the young women like my daughter being treated so wonderfully in a retail environment, for what I am sure was the first time, just hopefully not the last.  I only patron certain companies because of their accommodations, understanding and interest in special needs families.  We are quite a loyal group! I hope they made a lot of money from us.  They deserve it.”

These are just some of the quotes from individuals who attended a recent retailer’s event targeted at the special needs community.  These words are music to a marketer’s ears because they quite simply convert to revenue and sustainable revenue at that.  If you are not currently hearing these words from your customers then you are either not marketing to the disability community or if you are, you’re not doing so in an appropriate manner.

Want to get 2010 off to a great start? Interested in learning more? Then contact me at Nadine@consultspringboard.com.  

As some of you may know, I had surgery on both feet last month which has required me to use a wheelchair to get around which led to an interesting experience the other day while shopping in a well-known book retailer. 

When I asked for some assistance finding a book, the store employee quickly directed me to where the book was located and then just as quickly, pointed to the book located on the top shelf which was clearly not in my reach and walked away.  There were two other customers standing in the aisle, witness to what had just occurred.  One immediately looked the other way and the other, a kind soul who offered to get the book for me.  

Folks often tell me they are “afraid” to offer assistance to someone who is visibly disabled since the help may not be appreciated.  In instances like this, please keep in mind that while not everyone is going to want your assistance or perhaps even appreciate the offer, common sense should always prevail; i.e., seeing someone who is in a wheelchair with both feet wrapped up on leg-rests should be a clue that the individual cannot stand. 

If that was not enough, I then had trouble navigating out of the store because of an after-Christmas sale that had items piled all over the floor and did not leave enough room for the wheelchair to get by. 

Did this store meet ADA guidelines?  Yes, but we need to remember that compliance with those guidelines can so easily and accidently be altered by things like this, especially so in the event of an emergency. 

As I say often, perspective is everything!

We all know that people with disabilities are protected from discrimination at the workplace and may be provided reasonable accommodations under the ADA, The Americans with Disabilities Act. What I find many folks don’t know is that employed parents, while not a legally protected class, cannot be discriminated against at their workplaces due to their relationship with their child who has special needs (or other caregiver related situation).  In fact, one of the most quickly growing segments of employment law is “family responsibilities discrimination (FRD)” which in the last ten years has seen over a 400% increase in claims. Specifically, FRD refers to adverse employment actions taken based on an employees’ family responsibilities.  

 As most of you know, Springboard is a big believer in “practical” training, especially for those professionals in management and human resources.  This type of training is recommended to provide participants with an overview of the law while focusing on an understanding of the unique issues related to exceptional care-giving and the stereotypes that negatively impact employees who are parents of children with special needs.  This type of training will arm companies with the knowledge that will help them to avoid such claims in the first place.

I received a phone call from someone this week asking about the laws governing employment in Russia, Moscow specifically, as she was going to be re-locating to that city after the New Year.  

UN experts state that one of the fundamental rights determining the level of conformity by a country’s national policy with international standards is the right of people with disabilities to work. 

According to the law in Russia, organizations with more than 100 people, have a quota for disabled employees which is not less than two percent and not more than four percent of the average number of employees.  In accordance with this law, working conditions/benefits are created for these employees irrespective of the organization’s legal form or type of ownership.  Such benefits are a shorter work day for full pay and thirty days paid vacation annually. Additionally, for those employees who become disabled while working for a company, have priority in retaining their jobs in the event of staff cuts.

Approximately seven percent of Russia’s population is considered to be disabled. Even so, the people of Russia like all other countries are on a journey when it comes to understanding that disability does not equate to inability but rather often equates to unique abilities that lead to increased innovation, productivity and profitability.

I wish Lia much luck in her new home.

Exciting news!  DIVE IN, Springboard into the Profitability, Productivity and Potential of the Special Needs Workforce Is now available for download on your Kindle.  Reading this most important business book is now easier than ever.  Download your copy today!

Many of you have heard me speak about how language is a critical component of disability etiquette and awareness, from the use of person first language, to the appropriateness of referring to someone with a disability as being disabled versus having special needs. I often explain how adults who have a disability prefer to be referred to as such but that folks who are parents of children (typically minor children) with disabilities typically prefer referring to their children as having special needs. In fact, the children, when old enough, also typically refer to themselves as having special needs. The use of “Special Needs” begins at the earliest of ages, beginning in early intervention and continuing through the school years (K-12). At some point, when the child is ready, they make the transition from referring to themselves as having special needs to having a disability (often as they approach adulthood). I write today because this transition happened in my own home this week at the dinner table. My eighteen year old who began college this fall was telling us about a new friend and described it this way, “Though I have other issues too, Linda has a learning disability just like me”. A parent who has a child with special needs often looks for developmental milestones in very different ways and at different times than a parent whose child does not have a disability. This was one of those milestones that when she was born, I never wished for but at the dinner table this week, made me very proud.

I had surgery on both feet on Friday.  In speaking with some folks just prior to the surgery, I received the following comments: “Oh no!  How will you be able to work while you’re confined to the wheelchair”?, “I guess you will have to cancel your out-of –town speaking engagements for a while”. These comments, though not meant to be hurtful in any way, reminded me once again of how quickly we equate someone’s ability to work or travel with their ability to walk or be able-bodied.  In fact, even the word, “confined” illustrates how the perspectives of people without physical or other disabilities need to change to realize the productivity, profitability and potential of the special needs workforce (the subtitle of my book, DIVE IN).  Keep in mind, when it comes to disability and most forms of diversity, perspective is everything.

So often our clients tell us how difficult it is to obtain up-to-date information regarding disability and it’s impact in the workplace, workforce or marketplace.  In an effort to change that, Springboard is now offering an electronic newsletter.  Just visit the Springboard web site at www.consultspringboard.com and at the bottom of the home page you will find a very short form to register to receive the newsletter automatically and on a regular basis.  The first issue which is scheduled to be released the first week of January addresses the topic of veterans with service related disabilities.  We hope you will register today.

It was announced yesterday that the EEOC and Department of Labor could receive a major financial boost in 2010.  The House approved a massive $447 billion spending bill of which $367 million is earmarked for the EEOC.  This reflects a $23 million increase over 2009.  The bill is now with the Senate and must be passed by 12/18/09.  Why is this important for employers?  Because in 2008 the EEOC received 95,402 private-sector discrimination charges, the biggest increase in the agency’s 44-year history.  While not all of these charges were from employees who are disabled, many were.  No matter how this bill plays out, President Obama’s administration is placing a high priority on employment and labor law reform, particularly the laws designed to protect employees, including those with disabilities.

In light of this, Springboard suggests kicking off the new year with the following:

• An internal audit to identify any issues that may require immediate attention
• A review of all employee policies and procedures in light of the ADA Amendment Act which took effect earlier this year
• Consider developing a RAC, reasonable accommodation committee
• Step up your disability etiquette and awareness training program

Keep in mind that Springboard offers an ADA Hotline.  Please visit www.consultspringboard.com/category/ada-adaaa/ to learn more.

Abledbody.com founder Suzanne Robitaille has written a new book entitled, The Illustrated Guide to Assistive Technology.  The book chronicles new devices and gadgets for people with disabilities in the workplace.   It reviews the history of AT and addresses specific technologies for people with visual, hearing, communication and/or cognitive disabilities.  It also covers the important topics of Assistive Technology and the ADA and considerations for paying for AT.

 To learn more about this wonderful book, Suzanne and Abledbody.com, a web site that covers disability news and assistive technology, visit www.abledbody.com.  

We hope you are as excited about Springboard’s newly designed website as much as we are! We anticipate that you will find the information useful. Please keep coming back as we plan to add new content on a regular basis.