National Organization on Disability

How To Have A Meaningful Conversation About Disability At Work

Posted on August 22, 2018August 5, 2020 by Amber Cecil

Nicole, who co-owns a salon in Newton, Massachusetts, says her learning disability is a strength that sets her apart.

August 22, 2018 | Denise Brodey, Contributor

If you have a disability, you very quickly come to understand that it is an issue most people don’t open up about at work. Sure, talking about your experience with chronic fatigue syndrome, depression or a learning disability such as dyslexia might happen behind closed doors. But in a larger setting? It’s still taboo. To say the silence millions keep each day is stifling is an understatement. Many people describe it as feeling like their true self has been hijacked and replaced, at least during working hours. Hiding a disability does colleagues a disservice, too. Truth is, every time someone speaks up for people with disabilities in the workplace, particularly if they have lived experience, it has the potential to build trust, empathy, and engagement.

Advocates, role models, mentors—whatever the label, I know one thing for sure: the workplace needs many, many more to share their strengths. Unfortunately, only 3.2 percent of employees “self-identify” to their employer if they have an invisible disability, according to a National Organization on Disability study. As for people with visible disabilities advocating in the workplace? Well, you may not see as many as you should because, literally, they aren’t there. In 2017, 18.7 percent of persons with a disability were employed, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported. In contrast, the employment-population ratio for those without a disability was 65.7 percent.

Keep reading to get an idea of how organizations can start a real conversation not just about people with disabilities—but with them—in the workplace:

— Consider The Value Of Peer Specialists.

Rob Walker, who runs the Massachusetts Department of Mental Health Office of Recovery and Empowerment, says programs that use peer specialists in addition to trained counselors and medical care, have been very successful. He’s hopeful that “younger adults, who seem to be much more accepting of their learning and mental health challenges” and have been offered curriculum on topics of mental health will help end workplace discrimination against people with disabilities. “It’s harder for older adults to admit they need help and you can see a generational divide on this issue,” says Walker. People who are open about their disabilities often become champions of workplace programs. Walker, for instance, talks openly about his diagnosis of bipolar disorder many years ago and says he shares his story often as part of his programming.

— Rethink Your Wellness Program To Make It More Visible Internally.

Some large organizations have been retooling the old ways of assisting employees with mental health issues and creating programs that go beyond telephone consultations or outside referrals for medical issues of concern in the workplace. American Express’s Healthy Minds program is one. “We have been doing this program for a long time. And from the beginning we knew it was key to reach out and educate management about the importance of our mental health programs, says Charles Lattarulo, Ph.D., director of Healthy Minds at American Express. “Through our discussions with senior leaders, they have come to understand how crucial it is that they lead the way in creating a safe, healthy space for our colleagues.” American Express offers on-site face-to-face counseling in addition to traditional services, such as telephone-based employee assistance programs. But it is the internal communication element of the program—asking key players inside the company to recognize and promote the value of destigmatizing mental health issues—that Lattarulo says is crucial. You can find case studies on workplace mental health programs, including the one at American Express, here.

–Empower Colleagues To Help Each Other.

One way to build trust and open up a conversation is to offer courses such as Mental Health First Aid. The course is an eight-hour immersion in helping someone who may be experiencing a mental health or substance use challenge. Having taken the course, I can say, it’s a long day. But it is time very well spent. I now have it drilled into my mind how to get help for a colleague or friend who appears to be in crisis. A side benefit of taking the course? You’re walking the walk. By setting aside a day to learn about Mental Health First Aid you are showing others this is an issue that really matters to you. Getting the facts straight and sharing them is also empowering. You can learn more about the Americans with Disabilities Act here.

Sharing personal experiences, however, seem to make the most impact. Author Mandy Froehlich’s The Fire Within captures the stories of educators who have gone through trauma and taken strength from what they have learned. She says, “Organizations create a huge disconnect when they say they talk about the value of wellness but don’t show they truly value it.” In education, she told me, the newest thing is to suggest that teachers practice mindfulness.

“That’s just scratching the surface for social-emotional health for teachers who have experienced trauma,” says Froehlich, who is also the director of innovation and technology for a school district in Wisconsin. “We are often afraid of the ramifications of what we tell their colleagues. That’s not how it should be.”

— Talk Often About Your Strengths.

Audrey Bentley, a student at Michigan State University says, “People really do want to give you help if you ask for it.” Her story is one of four documented in Normal Isn’t Real, a short film that shares the experiences of successful people with learning and attention issues. Nicole Vaiani, a master colorist who owns her own salon in Massachusetts, says: “I learn differently. I learn by seeing and doing and it turns out I am better at my job than a lot of other people.” Her differences are her strength and when she talks about it, she isn’t bragging. She’s starting a crucial conversation about her ability, not her disability, which is the key to becoming an effective role model, advocate or mentor. Even if your colleagues don’t recognize it now, the evidence is clear, say economists, that a diverse workforce performs better.

Denise Brodey is a writer on mental health and disability. She is the author of The Elephant in the Playroom.

Read on Forbes

How Google has stepped up its efforts to makes its own tech more accessible to the disabled

Posted on August 20, 2018August 5, 2020 by Amber Cecil

Jillian D’Onfro | Published 11:00 AM ET Sat, 18 Aug 2018

Homework is a drag for any high schooler, but for the class of 2006’s Laura Palmaro Allen, even starting an assignment required a laborious, multistep process.

She and her family had to strip her textbooks from their bindings, run the pages through a high speed scanner, and digitize them — all before she could use text-to-speech software to actually ingest her history lesson or reading exercise. Allen has limited vision because of a rare eye condition called Choroidal Osteomas: At the time, her school didn’t offer any easier ways to accommodate her.

Fast-forward a decade and a half and Allen now regularly coaches visually impaired kids on far simpler ways to get their work done using near-ubiquitous smartphones or laptops. As a program manager for accessibility for Google‘s Chrome software, she not only gives demos, but spends her days making the company’s products work better for people with all different kinds of disabilities.

Over the past several years, the tech industry generally — and Google specifically — have been more deliberate about baking accessibility into products, and beefing up overall resources for the roughly one billion people worldwide with some form of disability.

While there’s still considerable work to do on existing products, Google sees its next big challenge as exploring how it can use its technology to help make the the wider world — not just the bits and bytes of digital screens — more accessible.

Here’s how the company’s trying to make that happen.

From grassroots advocacy to a cohesive system

Allen first joined Google in a sales role in 2010. She quickly noticed ways that products she used every day, like Docs and Gmail, could be improved for blind or low-vision users like herself.

Back then, there were some Google employees focused on accessibility, but the group was small and scattered. It spurred Allen to take on a “20 percent project,” consulting with different product teams across the company.

By 2013, Google realized that it needed to do better and do more. It launched a centralized Accessibility team to oversee all its products, as well as user research and employee education focused on disabilities.

The crux of that change was that while accessibility-related product decisions used to too-often rely on grassroots advocacy from people like Allen, there’s now a standardized process in place.

“Any new product or piece of a user interface needs to go through a set of accessibility checks and tests,” she said. “In the same way that privacy and security is checked for every product, accessibility is now checked as well.”

Allen now works full-time on making sure Google’s browser, operating system, and laptops work well for people with hearing, vision, dexterity, or cognition impairments. For example, the ChromeVox screen reader and adjustable magnification and contrast settings aid visually impaired users, and there’s a keyboard guide for people who can’t use a mouse.

Eve Andersson, who heads up Google’s centralized Accessibility team as the director of engineering, says the goal is to codify accessibility into every stage of a product’s life-cycle.

That kind of focus pays off widely, according to Dmitri Belser, executive director at the Center for Accessible Technology.

“Designing products with disabilities in mind creates products that are better for everybody,” he said. For example, captions aren’t just helpful for deaf people and even if you’re not visually impaired, high-contrast fonts are just easier to read, period. Plus, disability shouldn’t be a matter of us versus them.

“It’s is the one group we all join,” he added. “We all age, and so we’ll all get to be there at some point.”

Google’s next challenge

Google is quick to admit that it still has a ways to go to improve its existing products, but the company is eying another kind of tech potential, too.

“Disability is still so stigmatized that disabled people often face the ‘tyranny of low expectations,‘ where less is expected of them,” says Carol Glazer, president of the National Organization on Disability (NOD). “But you can’t just assume that people with disabilities are sitting at home in front of their computers — they’re out and about in the community.”

While most of Google’s accessibility efforts center on making all its digital products work better for people with disabilities, Andersson believes that the big opportunity lies in finding ways to use Google technology to make the physical world more accessible.

In March, Google Maps introduced “wheelchair accessible” routes in transit navigation. In May, it previewed a forthcoming app called Lookout that uses a smartphone camera, computer vision, and natural language processing to give users real-time descriptions of the world around them.

The latest safety report for Alphabet’s self-driving car unit, Waymo, includes a section about how it’s developing features like braille labels and audio cues (though it doesn’t mention accessibility for wheelchair users).

Andersson sees voice-controlled smart assistants as being one of the clearest ways to make many more products accessible. As connected-devices become more popular, blind or mobility-impaired people can suddenly control a much wider range of products simply by speaking.

For example, Google’s smart home division has approached senior living facilities to try to figure out how it could tweak its products to work better for older people, several people familiar with the discussions previously told CNBC.

“The possibilities are just wide open,” Andersson says. “With the advances that are happening now in AI and computer vision and internet of things, there is so much opportunity.”

Outside the Googleplex

While Google works to improve its own products and processes and launch into new domains, the Accessibility team has also ramped up its external focus.

Google reps sit on various web accessibility standards boards and committees, and the company publishes accessibility guides for third-party developers. It launched a free online accessibility development class, which includes training that all new Google employees complete during orientation, and Allen just helped put on an event with Teach Access, an organization that aims to make accessibility training mainstream in higher education.

Larry Goldberg, one of the founders of Teach Access and a director of accessible media at Oath, says that he’s seen an acceleration in interest, resources, and awareness from all major tech companies over the past half decade, in both product development and representation.

“The idea of ‘diversity in tech’ has traditionally looked at women, people of color, and LGBT representation— and now disability is becoming a bigger part of that conversation too,” Goldberg said. “The best way to make sure that products work for their stakeholders is to have people with disabilities on staff: It’s not just what we create, but the way we create it and who creates it.”

NOD’s Glazer says that the tech industry still ranks lower than others when it comes to disabled representation, according to its disability employment tracker.

Part of attracting disabled candidates is making sure the work environment accommodates them seamlessly. Andersson said that the Accessibility organization has steadily helped steer all Google’s campuses to being better equipped for people with disabilities. That includes small tweaks, like putting braille labels on the food in its micro-kitchens, or wider initiatives, like guiding managers on how to make every presentation accessible.

“We’re working really hard to make things better,” Allen stated. “I can’t say that everything is perfect or that our technology works for everyone, but we’re learning and changing so much all the time and that’s exciting.”

Read on CNBC

Let’s Stop Cheating the Disabled

Posted on August 20, 2018August 20, 2018 by Amber Cecil

Sheltered workshops are vestiges of the past and should be reformed or abolished.

By Carol Glazer, President of the National Organization on Disability

Consider this: Businesses in regions with the lowest unemployment rates employ disproportionate numbers of workers with disabilities [1].

The implication? People with disabilities are more than capable, they’re just not companies’ first, second, or even third choice. But when employers need talent, they give new people a chance. And when given the chance, people with disabilities succeed.

Many of those without job prospects end up in sheltered workshops, places that legally perpetuate segregation by isolating workers with disabilities and, for over 140,000 Americans, by paying far less than minimum wage—as little as pennies per hour. Sheltered workshops are vestiges of a misguided time when people with disabilities were believed to need charity and seclusion. We now know both beliefs are incorrect.

Moreover, workshops – which claim to be training grounds for bigger things – don’t actually prepare workers for competitive employment; only 5% of people leave workshops for community jobs. Not because they can’t perform, but because there aren’t pathways. Most go from sheltered workshops to elder care, not better lives.

What many workshops actually do, even with ironic names like Opportunity Village, is profit off of their practically-indentured workforces by providing cheap labor to major corporations. Is this illegal? No. Immoral? Certainly. Can we do better? Absolutely.

Worst of all, the payment of less than minimum wage to Americans with disabilities is a callous rebuke to the dignity for which workers have fought and bled. To pay us less is to imply that we are less. People with disabilities can’t work? Neither could black people or women, at one time. It’s an inane belief, and suited more to 1918 than 2018.

The 40-hour work week. Safe working environments. Child labor bans. A minimum wage.

As recently as 75 years ago these standards would have been dismissed as fantasy. Yet here we are. And as we celebrate our 124^th Labor Day this year, we not only pay tribute to the workers who sacrificed to advance our well-being, we also recertify our collective obligation to leave behind a better workforce than we inherited.

So what can we do?

First, do your homework on the businesses you support. If businesses are profiting off of workers earning subminimum wages, stop buying from them. How do you know which businesses those are? Here are the lists. You may see some familiar names, with Goodwill the most notorious (and frequent) opportunist.

Second, and more simple, tell your friends and families. Sheltered workshops have lasted this long because they exist largely unbeknownst to the public. So spread the word.

We must reform or abolish these institutions. It will be hard for some people, but change always is. For a small number of Americans with disabilities, sheltered workshops provide a purpose and place to go each day. That’s a good thing. But they are woefully inefficient; with a 5% success rate, this cannot be argued. And no one should be paid less than minimum wage.

[1] Brookings Institute, 2018.

Republished from DiversityInc.com where, Carol Glazer is a regular columnist.

NY1 Interview with Carol Glazer: Changing Attitudes Towards Workers with Disabilities

Posted on August 15, 2018August 16, 2018 by Amber Cecil

With the unemployment rate at 3.9 percent, companies are desperate for workers. Yet, employers often either don’t consider recruiting from the disability community when looking for workers or are afraid to hire them. Spectrum News-NY1’s “In Focus with Cheryl Wills” takes a deep dive into the changing attitudes towards including employees with disabilities in the workplace.

In a two-part interview, Carol Glazer, president of the National Organization on Disability, Victor Calise, commissioner, Mayor’s Office for People with Disabilities, and Edward R. Matthews, CEO of the ADAPT Community Network, dig into how companies can successfully onboard talent with disabilities.

Watch the First Segment | Watch the Second Segment

The ADA: 28 Years of Opportunity Unrealized

Posted on July 19, 2018July 26, 2018 by Amber Cecil

While the Americans with Disabilities Act has helped close many gaps, employment is not one of them

July 19, 2018 | Carol Glazer, President, National Organization on Disability and Jesse Fryburg, Program Manager, National Organization on Disability

On July 26, 1990, the president of the United States looked into a television camera on the South Lawn of the White House and proclaimed that the signing of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) “signals the end to the unjustified segregation and exclusion of persons with disabilities from the mainstream of American life.” Twenty-eight years later, it has not.

The keystone of the American ethos is that anyone, through work ethic and perseverance, can achieve success. We believe in bootstraps and self-efficacy, beliefs that have guided public policy and formed the fabric of our culture. Here, you get what you earn.

Americans with disabilities are no different. We want no special treatment, only the opportunity to work and strive for success. And while the ADA has helped close many gaps, employment is not one of them. The current labor force participation rate of working-age people with disabilities in the United States is 20 percent, compared to 69 percent for those without a disability. How do we explain this?

Certainly, the ADA was a transformative policy achievement. It physically reshaped American communities by opening inaccessible spaces to people with disabilities, from office buildings to restaurants to the chambers of Congress. It built on the Civil Rights Act, making disability a protected class and giving the community recourse within our legal system. And perhaps most important, it gestured that no one should be stripped, due to a disability, of their inherent personhood and the birthrights which we hold so dear: life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.

This, the bill’s most spectacular ambition, is where it has fallen most flat. Because culture cannot be legislated, nor can full inclusion.

People with disabilities have for so long been excluded from mainstream life that we, as a society, simply don’t understand them. As a result, we fall prey to the tyranny of low expectations, leading to euphemisms like special and exceptional to describe people. And although this language sounds benevolent, it is detrimental in practice. People with disabilities don’t want to be held to a different standard. We can — and want — to do the same jobs at the same levels for the same pay as anyone else; we just occasionally get there in different ways.

At companies hiring people with disabilities, their performance ratings are equal to those of their peers. They help companies tap into a trillion-dollar consumer market. They are problem solvers and doers. They are assets.

The ADA has removed a great number of barriers for people with disabilities, but not all steps can be bridged with ramps, and not all walls toppled with hammers. We are the carriers and arbiters of our culture, and it is upon each of us to consider the ways that we think about, talk about and interact with people with disabilities. Are we afraid of difference, or can we embrace it as strength? Because until every American is allowed to realize their full potential, none of us will.

Republished from DiversityInc.com where, Carol Glazer is a regular columnist.

U.S. Companies Eager to Hire Talent with Disabilities, but Struggling to Attract New Employees

Posted on July 19, 2018July 19, 2018 by Amber Cecil

National Organization on Disability Releases Disability Inclusion Data from Nearly 200 Companies as ADA Anniversary Approaches

(NEW YORK) July 19, 2018: As the 28^th anniversary of the Americans with Disabilities Act approaches on July 26, the National Organization on Disability (NOD) today released findings from its corporate assessment, the Disability Employment Tracker™. Offered annually, this free and confidential tool provides companies with essential benchmarking data to measure their disability and veterans’ inclusion performance. Among the aggregate findings is evidence that more companies want to diversify their workforce by hiring talent with disabilities, but many are struggling to attract new employees who identify as having disabilities.

The release of the Tracker data on this anniversary reminds us of the promise of the ADA—that Americans with disabilities can equally participate in all aspects of life, including the workforce. During a White House signing ceremony in 1990, NOD Honorary Chairman President George H.W. Bush said business holds the key to the ultimate success of the ADA by unlocking a “resource of untapped human potential.” NOD President Carol Glazer says, despite major gains, that vision has not yet fully materialized all these years later.

“Experience has proven it is not a lack of will. These companies have good intentions, but fall short on execution,” said Glazer. “There’s a disconnect between wanting to build a disability-inclusive workforce—and having the right tools and techniques to recruit and retain this growing diversity segment.”

According to the 2018 Tracker’s survey of nearly 200 employers, which together employ over 8.9 million workers, the average workforce representation of employees identifying as having a disability is only 3.9 percent—far below the U.S. Department of Labor target of 7 percent. In fact, only 12 percent of companies reported meeting the target.

Across the various channels that companies are using to source candidates with disabilities, the Tracker found that utilization rates were much greater than the rates of resultant hires. For example, while approximately 73 percent of employers are using disability-specific job boards to advertise openings to the disability community, only 36 percent of companies have actually hired candidates through this particular channel. The gap could be attributed to companies’ lack of knowledge about leading practices in disability inclusion, which go a long way in making an employer attractive to this talent pool.

Glazer added that many employers are new to embedding disability inclusion within their overall diversity strategy and may need expert assistance to make recruiting and retaining employees with disabilities successful. “Organizations like NOD can help companies improve their practices, policies and culture to become an employer of choice for talent with disabilities,” Glazer said.

The Tracker found that only 62 percent of companies perform an assessment of their current disability inclusion efforts, potentially leading to missteps and missed opportunities when planning future efforts. “For companies unsure of where to start, using the Tracker self-assessment is a good first step to find out how your policies and practices stack up—and importantly, it’s completely free and confidential,” Glazer continued.

Those companies that have made a dedicated commitment to disability inclusion are leading the way—and it shows. The Tracker analyzed what the top performing employers, those with a total disability workforce representation of 4 percent or greater, had in common and having a strategic disability inclusion plan, driven by an internal champion, was key.

Glazer notes that people with disabilities bring value to the workplace through their perseverance and problem-solving skills. “When people spend their entire lives solving problems in a world that wasn’t built for them, that’s an attribute that can be translated into innovation and high productivity in the workforce,” she said.

View all the results from the 2018 Disability Employment Tracker.

Haven’t used the Tracker Yet?

Companies that want to start or advance their disability inclusion efforts can get instant access to the Disability Employment Tracker™ and receive a free benchmarking scorecard.

Meet The Interns

Posted on July 17, 2018 by Amber Cecil

NOD is excited to welcome our three summer interns. Although this is only our third year of onboarding interns, we have truly benefited from their fresh perspective and excitement to learn. We are dedicated to helping our interns build upon their current skillsets by engaging in high priority projects. They have consistently proved to be exemplary additions to our team. Learn more about them here:

William Elias

Alan A. Reich Intern

William was born and raised in Brooklyn, New York and is the eldest boy of a family of eight. As a child, he was able to accomplish his dream of becoming a professional dancer. William worked in the industry for over thirteen years. He has traveled extensively to Europe, Asia, South and Central America, as well as, Canada and throughout the States. He has performed with Toronto Dance Theatre, Ballet Hispanico of New York, Elisa Monte Dance Co. as well as other companies. Due to an acquired disability, he was forced to give up his dream. William managed to remain active and worked as a flight attendant for companies such as, Northwest Airlines, US Airways, Tower Air, and Primaris Airlines. He was an inflight instructor for Primaris, teaching potential flight attendants in Turkey, Trinidad, and New York. William is excited to be a part of the National Organization on Disability’s family for the summer.

Education: William graduated Summa Cum Laude in May 2018 from CUNY’s Lehman College with a Bachelor of Arts and departmental honors. He majored in Sociology with a concentration in Urban Studies, Inequality, and Education. William also attended The Borough of Manhattan Community College where he earned his Associate of Arts in Liberal Arts studies. He is affiliated with Phi Theta Kappa, CUNY’s Golden Key International Honor Society, and Alpha Kappa Delta. He is the recipient of CUNY’s Mathew Goldstein Scholarship and Lehman College’s Hausknecht Award for Sociology.

Favorite Part of the Internship: The excitement of reporting to work and facing challenges on a daily basis is William’s favorite part of interning with the National Organization on Disability. The organization does a wonderful job in making him feel welcome.

What He Hopes to Gain from the Experience: William hopes to gain valuable office experience and insight into the workings of a non-profit organization.

Future Goals: William’s goal is to return to school in 2019 and attain a Master’s Degree in Social Work. In the interim, he is currently seeking employment in the social service sector and would enjoy doing advocacy work for those who feel they are not able to find their voice and rightful place in life.

Deanna Ferrante

ConantLeadership Intern

NOD found Deanna through our Campus to Careers program. Deanna is from Carver, Massachusetts. She has spent her whole life advocating for people with disabilities, as her little brother was diagnosed with autism a few years after birth. Since she was 12, she has been involved in the disability community as a teaching assistant for a small, therapeutic school for students in grades 5-12. She attended high school at Milton Academy, an independent school in Milton, Massachusetts. In her sophomore year of high school, she was diagnosed with a learning disability. Immersed in a school environment in which disability was adequately supported, but not frequently discussed, she began to look at her academic career in a whole new light, devoting more time to understanding the most effective way for her to learn. The addition of this new label to her identity was pivotal in how she thought about herself and her accomplishments. Now, she prides herself on the big impact that she has made on the disability community at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, where she is enrolled. This past semester, she interned in the Assistive Technology Center, where she created an accessible handbook of all the assistive tools that are offered to UMass Amherst students. By disclosing her whole identity, she hopes to empower people to do the same. This summer is her first time living in New York City, and she is excited to explore the many unique opportunities.

Education: Deanna is a rising junior in the Commonwealth Honors College of the University of Massachusetts Amherst. She is a candidate for a Bachelor of Science in Psychology, minor in Education, and certificate in Developmental Disabilities & Human Services.

Favorite Part of the Internship: Deanna’s favorite part of the internship is how she has been assigned tasks that are individualized to her strengths and interests. She has particularly enjoyed staying up to date on news pertaining to the disability community and bringing her college-student perspective to the Campus to Careers program.

What She Hopes to Gain from the Experience: Deanna hopes to learn more about the process of building and executing a public awareness campaign, particularly surrounding the branding, funding, and creative development.

Future Goals: After completing her undergraduate degree, Deanna hopes to continue her education to obtain a Doctorate Degree in School Psychology or Disability Studies. Deanna ultimately aspires to work at an independent secondary school advocating for students with learning disabilities.

Ansley Hopton

Returning NOD Intern

This is Ansley’s third summer as an intern for NOD. Ansley was born in Cincinnati, Ohio in 2001. Only several months old, her family moved to New Jersey where she was raised alongside her siblings. Ansley was four when her younger brother, Braden, was born. It was soon discovered that Braden was born with Down syndrome, a common genetic disorder. Having little experience and involvement with the disability community, Ansley and her family would embark on a new endeavor of uncharted territory. Throughout childhood, Ansley and Braden developed an everlasting bond that would provide Ansley with the immeasurable drive and momentum that pushed her to get involved as an advocate and activist for disability inclusion. Growing up with Braden, Ansley has approached life in a unique way, and this has given her qualities such as patience, compassion, and kindness. Ansley is a Student Ambassador-Mentor for the Arc of Essex County, the Junior Board Fundraising and Community Outreach President for the Candle Lighters, and participates in many clubs offered at her school, including the Special Olympics Program. Ansley, now approaching her senior year of high school, plans to be a student volunteer for the Special Education program of Madison High School.

Education: Ansley will be a graduate of the Class of 2019 at Madison High School in Madison, New Jersey. She is looking to attend a highly competitive university where she can further her education and continue to develop the strengths and qualities of a well-rounded individual.

Favorite Part of the Internship: Ansley’s favorite part of the internship is the invaluable experience she has gained as a result of working in an office throughout her time in high school. Her several summers with NOD have allowed Ansley to expand upon her role each summer, taking on new tasks and roles within the office. The independence, interactions with others in the office, and job experience have provided Ansley with the tools she needs to confidently enter college, participate in future internships, and excel in the workplace.

What She Hopes to Gain from the Experience: Ansley seeks growth of her job experience, maturity, and overall character development. She plans to use the tools she has learned at NOD to advance in college and the workplace.

Future Goals: Ansley is looking to obtain an undergraduate degree in business and later attend law school. She is considering minoring in political science due to her interest in U.S. government and politics. After furthering her education, Ansley hopes to enter a competitive work environment where she can use the skills she has acquired and create change in the world. Ansley sees herself continuing her involvement alongside individuals of all abilities and advocating for equal opportunity, acceptance, and inclusion for all.

The NOD team is excited to help William, Deanna, and Ansley reach their goals this summer, and we cannot wait to see what else they bring to their positions.

Key Tactics to Promote Inclusion of Invisible Diversity Traits

Posted on July 10, 2018August 5, 2020 by Amber Cecil

Takeaways from the NOD Corporate Leadership Council Executive Luncheon

On the 20^th of June the National Organization on Disability held its Corporate Leadership Council executive luncheon titled “Bringing Our Whole Selves to Work: Harnessing the Power of Difference by Uncovering Invisible Diversity Traits.” Presented in partnership with The LGBTQ Community Center, representatives from over 45 companies attended this exclusive event that spotlighted how corporate cultures can welcome unseen diversity segments, like LGBT identities and non-apparent disabilities, such as mental illness. Sarah Mikhail, Executive Director of the LGBTQ center highlighted that “Sarah Mikhail, Executive Director of the LGBTQ center highlighted that “there is no such thing as a single because we do not live single issue lives.” We are all a combination of many things which impact our daily living.

Set the tone from the top down

Panelists Nora Vele Executive Director, Global Diversity & Inclusion of Merck; Eric Mitchel Associate Vice President, Human Resources of AT&T; and James Mahoney Executive Director & Head of Autism at Work at JPMorgan Chase & Co., shared insights and leading practices to support employees with invisible diversity traits in the workplace. The panel encouraged self-identification and disclosure of disabilities by managers, supervisor and higher management as a way to inspire a safer environment for employees to also self-identify and request accommodations if necessary. It has been proven that those whom disclose their disability to employers are more productive than employees that chose to mask their true selves.

Cultivate trust to boost disability self-ID rates

When asked what was being done within each organization to promote harnessing the power of difference while bringing your whole selves to work, Ms. Vele stated that in creating a culture of inclusion for people with disabilities, Merck began with their employee resource group (ERG) and focused on eight aspects—one being the importance of self-identification. Merck found by using infographics they were able to increase the amount of employees whom chose to self-identify. Merck also created “A Day in the Life of an Employee” to help promote awareness of a fellow employees discussing their disabilities while filming them at work and home. Ms. Vele shares that companies become more enlightened when employees are listened to and feel cared for—and companies can reap increased productivity when employees can free up ‘emotional real estate’ by disclosing their full identities at work.

Disclosure can reveal supportive networks

Carol Glazer, President of the National Organization on Disability engaged in a fireside chat with Lisa Lucchese, Global Head of External Reporting Operations & Co-Executive Sponsor of Access Ability, Mid-Atlantic, JPMorgan Chase & Co. Ms. Lucchese shared her experiences and challenges navigating understanding and disclosing her mental health diagnosis in the workplace. Ms. Lucchesse makes clear that because someone has a diagnosis it doesn’t mean it’s easier, it just means they have more information to work with [to understand the supports needed to succeed].” It was through focusing on her career that she was able to feel normal. “The harder we work the more normal we feel,” she contends. When asked how disclosure helped her as a worker, she shared that now she can talk to people about her own experiences and her own realizations. Emphasizing the importance of being true to yourself, she shared that when faced with hardship, an opportunity to make the biggest changes in one’s life may also presents itself. “Having a network encourages you, and honestly, you want to do more.” Bringing your whole self to work creates creativity, enhances ability, builds resiliency and develops empathy; it’s a winning formula.

Tackle stigma head on to succeed

Eric Mitchell spoke about how AT&T branded their health insurance as “Bringing Your Healthy Self to Work.” They believe that not disclosing a disability causes a stress—that’s largely avoidable, so they’ve launched a campaign for employees to sign a pledge, take a photo and share their disability as a way to help stamp out the stigma of mental illness. In addition, they have created a webcast entitled, “Everything is not fine: I may look o.k. but you don’t know what is going on under the surface,” to inspire and promote authenticity around mental health. A year later a second version followed: “Everything is still not fine” took on a more pronounced stance on ensuring employees were comfortable disclosing a mental illness—which proved to be even more successful. Sharing personal stories is a powerful tactic, so finding ways bring your organization’s stories to life can encourage employees to be authentic regarding their disability.

Get outside of your comfort zone

James Mahoney of JPMorgan Chase & Co. spoke about their innovative program to hire candidates with autism, which touts a high success rate in terms of productivity and integration. Regarding their aptitude in visual detail, these new hires with autism were equal in quality to their peers and 48 percent faster. “Today we are at 95 people in a dozen locations and in 25 different roles,” states Mr. Mahoney speaking JPMorgan Chase & Co.’s employees who are on the autism spectrum. The firm has designed, along with their office of disability inclusion, new techniques for this cohort in terms of recruitment, onboarding, and integration well up to retirement. Mr. Mahoney stresses the importance of thinking outside of one’s comfort zone with the understanding that it is healthy for people to challenge your perspective.

Take action to advance a culture of authenticity

“After all is said and done, let there be more done then said,” shared moderator Karen Brown, Global Diversity & Inclusion Executive & Advisor. This insightful quote was a rallying cry for all to take a proactive approach to improving the culture of inclusion within the workforce. Ms. Brown spoke on the importance of being authentic, saying: “authenticity is a daily practice of letting go of who we think we should be or who we’re supposed to be.”

The executive luncheon sought to chart solutions to common corporate challenges, providing the attendees with useful tools to promote diversity, inclusion, and harness the power of difference within their own companies. Ultimately, trust and authenticity are key especially in bringing your company’s message around disability inclusion and mental wellness to life.

Don’t miss the next discussion—join the NOD Corporate Leadership Council today. Learn more at NOD.org/council.

Maintaining Stability A Tough Job For Single Mother On Disability

Posted on July 2, 2018 by Amber Cecil

Jennifer Muschette volunteers at the Covington Food Pantry

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Jennifer Muschette worked her whole life. She moved from Jamaica to New York when she was 19 and started taking factory jobs, working in home health care. In 2007, she found work doing housekeeping for a nursing home. It had benefits and a pension. She thought she was going to retire from that job.

“I was having so much issues at work where days I was able to go into work and, you know, my body just start just aching sometimes I couldn’t even get up,” Muschette said.

She was diagnosed with degenerative arthritis in her spine and, suddenly, the working life she knew was over.

“The job that I used to do nobody wants you to come to work and can’t function you know,” said Muschette.

She’s been on disability ever since. Muschette is 62 now, and improving economy or not, the options she has to change her life feel limited.

“Get a rich husband?” she offers, but takes it back quickly. “No, not a husband honey. I was married once and that was it.”

She does her best to keep the bills paid, between social security checks and some help from family, but she worries about her son’s future. He’s 16.

“He wants to go to college. I don’t have a college fund,” said Muschette.

Saving for the future is just not something that’s happening. She doesn’t like not working, but she worries about losing what stability she does have.

“Because if I go out there and start working, and I get sick in two weeks, I’m not going to get anything. I’ll probably end up losing my social security. Jeopardizing what I’m getting to go get an extra 200 dollars,” Muschette said, throwing up her hands up.

Carol Glazer, president of the National Organization on Disability, made a similar point.

“In some aspects, it can be an irrational decision to accept a job offer when you’re having to walk away from those benefits,” Glazer said.

There are state and federal programs that try to help people connect with employers who will take on workers with disabilities. But depending on what kind of federal help you’ve been getting, keeping on top of all the requirements can be a challenge.

Curtis Rodgers works in the Benefits Navigator program in Atlanta’s Shepherd Center. It’s his job to help people figure out the balance of working and getting benefits. He believes the system can work, if folks have the right information, which he acknowledges isn’t always the case.

“Their primary practice at social security is not disability. So social security doesn’t really send out this information or give it to people in a way that’s helpful,” said Rodgers. “For some people, having to act on that information is like having a second job, because it’s a lot of stuff that you have to keep up with.”

Curtis says if someone messes up their reporting to social security, it can take anywhere from a couple months to the better part of a year to get back on track. The potential for getting tangled up is real.

On top of those basic challenges, in Muschette’s case you can add tragedy. The June day we met happens to be the third anniversary of her son’s death. He was 19 when he was shot and killed walking down the street.

She says it’s always on her mind. The grief has changed her.

“My house is not kept the way that I like my house kept. And I get sometimes I eat just I don’t sleep most of the time,” she said.

Piling on mental health issues can make searching for a job even tougher.

Glazer says four out of five working-aged Americans with disabilities don’t have jobs. And while back to work programs are helping, the path is smoother for some than others.

“In a white collar job, it’s a lot easier for someone who is living close to the margin and has always worked in blue collar jobs. There’s no question about it,” said Glazer.

Physical work is all Muschette’s really ever done, and she misses the structure. To get out of the house, she volunteers at her local food pantry in Covington.

“I came to get food and I never left,” she said, cutting into some boxes.

It’s low stress. She likes the people there. It’s just not getting her closer to paying for college.

Read on NPR-WABE

Invisible Disabilities the Subject of NOD Corporate Leadership Council Meeting

Posted on June 26, 2018June 26, 2018 by Amber Cecil

Discussions about how employers can support their team members to bring their whole selves to work

Jayme S. Ganey | June 25, 2018

Last week, National Organization on Disability’s (NOD) Corporate Leadership Council hosted the “Bringing Our Whole Selves to Work: Harnessing the Power of Difference by Uncovering Invisible Diversity Traits” event that brought together executives, managers, and employees from various corporations challenged the attendees to think about how people tend to leave a part of themselves at home when they come to work, and how difficult it might be for employees with ‘invisible disabilities’ to” come out” at work.

“None of us have a single identity”, NOD President Carol Glazer remarked. The emotional weight of carrying a hidden identity can be overwhelming and letting it go can “free up emotional real estate”.

During the talk, employers in the room were confronted with another question: what assumptions do they make? Particularly about what employees needed, wanted and were capable of. Glazer talked about employers needing to be supportive, transparent, and to allow the freedom to discuss their disability for peace of mind.

She also discussed her own personal journey as a caretaker and learning that through that experience she was no immune to mental illness. But until the last few years, she had made light of it and chose one identity (caretaker) over the other (PTSD patient) because it was easier.

The important point of authenticity was made, especially in discussing disability in the workplace, and attributed to what allows individuals to bring their whole selves to work.

Eric Mitchell, AT&T’s Assistant Vice President of Human Resources and one of the panelists, brought up the many opportunities employees have to be authentic at work, including within those discussions in their ERGs, which are actually independent 501c3 non-profits.

Completely controlled by employees with some company guidelines, including being open to everyone, he talked about how ERGs were resources for both employees who identified as a specific demographic, as well as a place for those who “needed to get schooled” on what they didn’t know about people.

In the act of sharing, Mitchell said empathy is created. “When people share personal stories, it’s powerful… And it creates collaboration and inclusiveness.”

He also said allies come from that, including executives. His hope: that executives would also “come out” so that they could be a role model for others.

The support, once AT&T employees share: online trainings on working with those with disabilities and the aging population, and job coaches assigned to managers and employees to help them work better together.

Some of the AT&T and ERG’s campaigns Mitchell mentioned were “Stamp Out Stigma”, “Everything is Not Fine” (both connected to mental health) and “Ignite” (a panel on invisible diversity) that encourage all to consider the whole person, not just the parts they see.

This, of course, was NOD’s message, along with stirring up action. Attendees were encouraged to take notes from the event back to their companies for action to ensue.

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