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In Return to Campuses, Students with Disabilities Fear They’re Being ‘Left Behind’

Posted on by Daniel Golden

Many are having to press their universities for accommodations — or drop classes entirely

Stephanie Lai | November 1st, 2021 at 6:00 a.m. EDT
Jessica Chaikof, 29, and her service dog, Jigg, are seen on campus at American University in D.C. on Oct. 19. Chaikof, who has Usher syndrome, is a master’s student in sociology. (Amanda Voisard for The Washington Post)

It was her first in-person class, and Chaikof had set up a second laptop and a school-provided microphone near her professor and her socially distanced classmates to transcribe the conversation in real time. She squinted to read the resulting words, but even as her three classmates got out of their seats and shouted into the microphone to try to help, the transcription service picked up little.

“It’s affecting my learning. It’s affecting my ability to do well in class,” said Chaikof, whose hearing and visual impairments are caused by Usher syndrome. “Overall, it’s been really frustrating.”

Many students welcomed the return to in-person learning, but the change has revived pre-pandemic difficulties and created new ones for some students with disabilities. Some lamented the reduction of online instruction, which allowed them to read closed captions during lectures in real time, turn their cameras off when needed, and watch recorded lectures at home and at their own pace, among its benefits.

Losing that flexibility, Chaikof and others said, has brought them physical and mental distress — and the feeling that they’re being forgotten.

“I have to work 10 times harder than my classmates just to be able to succeed, and yet I’m not being supported,” Chaikof said.

American University’s sociology department, she stressed, was helpful, but the university response has frustrated her, she said. Chaikof requested an in-person transcriber for real-time captioning, she said and had spoken with the university on multiple occasions to acquire one for her required course. An American University spokesperson said the school could provide Chaikof only remote captioning services because of a shortage of in-person transcribers and a growing demand for them.

Zandy Wong, 19, a student at Johns Hopkins University who is hard of hearing, attends a food, environment and society class Oct. 20 in Baltimore. (Amanda Voisard for The Washington Post)

Experts estimate that 1 in 8 U.S. college students have at least one disability, according to Scott Lissner, the public policy committee chair at the Association on Higher Education and Disability. Some of those students, including those with attention-deficit-related disabilities, say they found online learning harder. But overall, the return to in-person learning presents a pervasive challenge for students with disabilities as well as for every college across the country, said Felicia Nurmsen, the managing director of employer services at the National Organization on Disability.

The challenge is heightened, Nurmsen said, in state schools that have high percentages of students with disabilities and few resources. Nurmsen said most of the universities with which she has worked are still figuring out how to increase opportunities for online classes as a disability-related accommodation.

“There is no one-size-fits-all approach to this,” she said. “Every college has students with disabilities. We all need to think about how to support our students with invisible and visible disabilities.”

Zandy Wong, a second-year neuroscience student at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore who also has a hearing impairment, also has struggled to keep up with her classes.

“The pandemic showed me that environments can be made fully accessible in a virtual or hybrid environment with little cost to the school,” Wong said. (Amanda Voisard for The Washington Post)

She requested clear face masks for the discussion section of her calculus II class from her university’s disability services so that she could read the lips of her socially distanced instructor and classmates. But the instructor and the class stopped wearing the clear masks after a week, Wong said, and she was reluctant to self-identify as having a disability at every class meeting to remind everyone to wear them. As a result, she said, she had difficulty keeping up with the course material.

“I worry, with the transition back to in-person learning, that disabled students like me will be left behind once again,” Wong said. “The pandemic showed me that environments can be made fully accessible in a virtual or hybrid environment with little cost to the school.”

A Johns Hopkins representative said that the university has provided more online and hybrid offerings in programs that were primarily in-person before the pandemic, and that the university is considering how to use technology to make classes more inclusive and equitable.

Wong has requested that clear masks be worn in select larger classrooms so that she can read the lips of her classmates and instructors, but she did not request the extra help in this room because of its smaller size. (Amanda Voisard for The Washington Post)

Many universities are figuring out the same, experts said, and finding ways to make learning more equitable, including through simulations for labs, video platforms and hybrid learning tools for asynchronous learning.

“The technology has been fleshed out, and the logistics are now understood,” Lissner said. “And now there is a much larger pool of people who could benefit.” The pandemic, he added, has given students with disabilities leverage to press for more change in the educational system.

But challenges remain. At Stanford, third-year math and computational science student Poojit Hegde said online learning was a benefit for him, drastically boosting his levels of physical and mental energy every day. Hegde has chronic fatigue syndrome and received a diagnosis of postural orthostatic tachycardia syndrome, or POTS, in 2018; POTS limits his mobility and strains his health when his body temperature fluctuates.

While he was attending classes remotely, Hegde could forgo trekking across Stanford’s campus, which covers more than 8,100 acres. But since he has returned to in-person instruction, he said, he has resumed worrying about having the energy to make it to class. Normally, he would use the campus’s golf cart service, which provides transportation between locations on campus for those with disabilities or certain health conditions at the university. But Hegde said he has had a hard time getting to use that facility this year because of increased demand. A Stanford spokesperson said the university increased the staffing of the transportation service at the beginning of the academic year because ridership had climbed from four passengers daily last school year to 50 a day this fall.

In September, one of Hegde’s classes spontaneously decided to meet outside in the early afternoon when it was 80 degrees, and he was not prepared. Normally, he said, he would have brought a cooling vest, a portable fan and water.

“By the end, I really regretted going to class. It impacted the rest of my day and the day after,” Hegde said. “Because my disability is invisible, if I don’t advocate for myself enough, people won’t listen to me.”

“I have to work 10 times harder than my classmates just to be able to succeed, and yet I’m not being supported,” American University student Jessica Chaikof said. (Amanda Voisard for The Washington Post)

Liza Mamedov-Turchinsky, a senior at the University of California at Berkeley who has completed six years for her undergraduate degree, said she had to drop half her courses this year because she did not want to take any in-person classes. Mamedov-Turchinsky, who is studying rhetoric and anthropology, is immunocompromised and has chronic fatigue syndrome, chronic pain disorder, asthma and ADHD.

A Berkeley spokesperson said students with disabilities are allowed to participate remotely if doing so does not fundamentally change the nature of the courses involved. In addition, if remote learning is not an option, the university will work with the students to find appropriate accommodations.

But Mamedov-Turchinsky’s department is small and did not offer many virtual courses, she said, and her request could not be accommodated. As a result, partly to avoid the threat posed by the novel coronavirus, she will have to take another year or possibly two to graduate.

“I can’t choose between my life and my degree. It’s a very difficult position for me to be in,” she said. “What’s been the most painful and heartbreaking about the pandemic is seeing that the world, at the flip of the dime, was able to restructure itself when it came to abled people needing those accommodations. And now it’s become even more difficult to be an equal among my peers.”

Alex Chand, a fifth-year Lawrence University student of physics and English who has autism, said she enjoyed Zoom learning because she felt she could understand social cues better: She did not need to ask others to join their groups because the professor could automate breakout rooms, she could easily leave her hand raised in the queue, and she generally felt less anxious to attend class.

Returning to in-person learning on the campus in Appleton, Wis., has been stressful, Chand said, because she has had to put in far more energy to fight for accommodations. She saw a psychiatrist this fall for medication to help with her anxiety.

“For a while after returning to campus, I was afraid to leave my room,” Chand said. “It’s been really stressful for me, because it’s hard to decode what’s being said in between the lines.”

Barbara Hong, the dean of Texas A&M International University’s University College and a professor in special education, suggested that the difficulties that students are facing could have been avoided if schools considered reopening in smaller phases.

Hong recommended that instructors and administrators take this school year to reconsider how they teach and assess knowledge in the classroom.

“The pandemic has demanded faculty to be more creative and learn how to use new technology,” Hong said, “and none of this goes away.”

Article originally sourced from https://www.washingtonpost.com/education/2021/11/01/colleges-return-students-disabilities/

Return to the workplace highlights accessibility concerns for disabled employees

Posted on by Amber Cecil

Americans with disabilities in the workforce disproportionately affected by COVID-19

By Kiara Alfonseca

As COVID-19 restrictions loosen and the country settles into a new normal, disability advocates have mixed feelings about the future of the workplace and public health in the U.S.

Marcie Roth, executive director and chief executive officer of the World Institute on Disability, hopes the accommodations that have been made for all workers during the pandemic continue as the world goes back to normal.

“For lots of people with disabilities, returning to normal horrifies us,” Roth said. “Returning to normal means exclusion, inaccessibility, rigidity, a lack of imagination. Rather than the notion that we would be building back better … we would really like to be building forward better.”

Some accommodations have become commonplace during the pandemic — like equipment requests, modifications to work environments and new schedules and responsibilities. Advocates are demanding that these adaptations are not only kept in place, but embraced by workplaces across industries.

PHOTO: Charles Catherine works from his home in this undated photo.

Adjusting to a new normal

When the coronavirus pandemic hit, Charles Catherine, who is blind, had to adjust his daily routine to the new safety precautions.

At work, his laptop’s screen reader had helped him read the text displayed on the computer and he had co-workers to help him around the office.

But once the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommended social isolation and Catherine was forced to stay at home, the new computer software for remote work wasn’t immediately compatible with his screen reader.

However, after a few lessons on app workarounds and accessibility updates, Catherine was able to comfortably and efficiently work from home.

“We often talk about how resilient people with disabilities are, that they’re problem solvers,” Catherine said. “The pandemic was a great example of that.”

PHOTO: Charles Catherine runs with a guide in this undated image.

Catherine, the associate director of special projects at the National Organization on Disability, is one of about 61 million disabled Americans who had to adjust to a world with COVID-19, according to numbers from the Department of Labor.

Catherine was lucky enough to have employers who are knowledgeable about accessibility needs, so adjustments were almost immediate.

Now, he hopes all employers can see the value in disabled workers and create safe spaces for them.

A growing disabled workforce

People with disabilities are joining the workforce in increasing numbers — rising above pre-pandemic levels.

The disabled labor force participation rate grew to 35.4% in June, according to a report from the Kessler Foundation, a research group focused on people with disabilities, the highest participation rate for this group since July 2009.

“This has been a bright spot during the Covid-19 pandemic, as people with disabilities, perhaps out of economic necessity, remained engaged in the labor market,” John O’Neill, the Kessler Foundation’s director of the Center for Employment and Disability Research, said in a press release.

Roth said that when the pandemic hit, the requests disabled workers had long been fighting for became a reality once the non-disabled population was also threatened by the virus.

“We have a saying in the disability community: ‘Nothing about us without us,'” Roth said. “Employers, schools, community leaders, elected officials, can’t be planning for us. We need to be at the table.”

COVID-19 fears remain

As coronavirus cases rise again in the U.S., disability rights activists, like Roth and Charis Hill, are asking employers to understand workers’ fears concerning the ongoing pandemic.

“My life is still threatened, more so now that people are partying and pretending that there’s no danger,” Hill, a writer and advocate, said. “A lot of that has to do with them not even realizing the vaccines are less effective with people like me.”

The delta variant of the novel coronavirus continues to ravage countries across the globe. Last week marked the fourth in a row that the number of new COVID-19 cases increased internationally, according to the World Health Organization.

Activists would like to remind others that the pandemic isn’t over yet, especially for immunocompromised people.

“Everyone now knows what it’s like to live with the threat of severe health issues and we’ve been doing that for our whole lives,” Hill said. “Policywise, as we move forward, having disabled people at every table where public health decisions are made is vital for the health and safety of the world.”

How Remote Work Changed Our Lives — and Our Health

Posted on by Amber Cecil

Mixed up work schedule, missing out on workouts and feeling like it’s all running together? Yeah, you’re not alone.

By Leslie Nemo | April 3, 2021 5:00 PM

Even if people wanted to work entirely from home before the pandemic began, their year of telecommuting probably didn’t start the way they had envisioned it — stripped of child care while avoiding contact with people outside their bubble, all in the effort to dodge a novel coronavirus.

Welcome or not, the remote workforce had to adjust, maybe watch their physical and mental health change in the process, and possibly find themselves in scenarios they would like to keep going long after their office buildings officially reopen.

New Virus, New Schedule

From May to June of 2020, a team of University of California, Los Angeles researchers surveyed nearly 1,000 newly-remote employees about how their days and habits had changed. One of the biggest modifications workers reported dealt with when they sat down to work: Nearly 75 percent of those surveyed had shifted their work hours, while 37 percent had rearranged their schedule to accommodate others in their home. Who people worked alongside changed, too: Nearly half said other people were in their workspace at the same time.

For some employees, a chance to rearrange work schedules and work from home is exactly what they wanted. Disability rights advocates have long been pushing for employees with disabilities to have the freedom to telecommute if that’s what they need. The pandemic has made that scenario a reality for everyone, and is particularly valuable to workers whose disabilities mean they are also more vulnerable to getting COVID-19 and need to socially distance. Though it’s painful to see that remote work was widely acceptable only once people outside the disability community wanted it, “it’s nice to realize that it’s working fine and should have been implemented decades ago,” says Charles Catherine, the associate director at the National Organization on Disability, a nonprofit that advocates for employment of people with disabilities.

Default work from home and remote gatherings have meant that employees who can’t drive have been able to go without time-consuming and expensive alternative transportation options to the office. For Nicole LeBlanc, advisory group coordinator for the National Center on Advancing Person-Centered Practices and Systems and a disability rights activist, perpetual work from home has meant no longer scheduling and paying for a 6 a.m. pick up in time for a 9 a.m. drop off at her office, a commute that takes people in their own cars 40 minutes. “Spending half your paycheck on transit doesn’t make sense,” she says. “Now that it’s virtual, I don’t have that stress.” Employees with disabilities who regularly see doctors now might be in an office culture where there’s less focus on when they have to be in the building and more emphasis on getting tasks done, leaving them the freedom to schedule work around appointments.

Flexibility in someone’s daily work hours accommodates other demands in their life, and some people cope better with a constant back and forth between responsibilities than others. Clear boundaries between work and home help some people create order in their lives, says Tammy Allen, an industrial-organizational psychologist at the University of South Florida. Transitions between the different phases, like when a parent is getting ready for work in the morning but also preparing kids for a day of school, can create conflict and stress. The more moments of overlap, the more anxiety. So instead of undertaking a couple of challenging periods in a day, people working from home during the pandemic might constantly ping-pong between responsibilities, crossing boundaries — and feeling stressed — more often. Or, if they’re trying to parent throughout work, the day could be one big overlap.

When Allen and her team surveyed people about their work-life balance when first made to work from home, they expected the boundary-lovers to have the hardest time keeping a good mix of work, leisure and family time in their new routines. They were surprised to learn that wasn’t the case. Instead, participants who liked segmentation weren’t any worse off than others who liked more overlap in their day. Allen and her team think that maybe employees had developed coping skills in the pre-COVID era that they were able to carry home with them, or learned new tactics quickly out of a desire to keep the boundaries. For example, “they shut off that computer and they put it away at 5 o’clock,” Allen says, or learn to detach for a while. “Having some period of time where you let work go is beneficial for an individual’s health and well being.”

Where Stress and Parenting Collide

Being able to separate home life from work life can be helpful, as can compartmentalizing the struggles of raising kids. Research has shown that parent and kid stress during the pandemic go hand in hand. In one study, for example, adults who said they were coping with moderate or severe anxiety during the pandemic were more likely to report that their kids had higher anxiety, too. At-home schooling threw another complication into the dynamic. The less capable a parent felt of helping their kid through home school, the more likely that parent was to meet qualifications of moderate or severe depression.

The tight connections between parent and kid well-being made Christine Limbers, a psychologist at Baylor University, wonder what exercise, a well-known stress reliever, could do for mothers during the pandemic. Limbers and her colleagues surveyed moms working from home in the spring of 2020 — when a vast majority of respondents said their kids’ daycare was closed and that they did a majority of the parental work. Moms who regularly fit moderately intense activity into their schedules, they found, were less likely to feel like parenting stress was interfering with the rest of their life.

Of course, multitasking work and childrearing from home during the pandemic can leave families — and moms — without the time for a run or yoga class. Surveys have found that on average, people working from home during the pandemic are exercising less than before, and that even before the global health crisis, working moms often feel guilty for taking time to squeeze in a workout, Limbers says. But her research pointed out that mothers taking time to address their needs could improve every relationship in a household. “This has implications for the whole family,” she says, “and not just the individual who’s engaging in exercise.”

Ideally, the 2020 pivot to work-from-home means remote work will extend beyond the pandemic. Catherine thinks that knowing remote work is possible might encourage more companies to hire people with disabilities — in 2020, the unemployment rate for those with disabilities was 12.6 percent but 7.9 percent for those without disabilities. If any jobs stay entirely remote, some people might have the opportunity to choose not to disclose their disability and relieve themselves of facing workplace or hiring discrimination altogether.

Generally, the employees that Allen surveys want a hybrid office and home model in the future. “People can, perhaps, quickly develop skills or try out a new situation, and that changes their preference,” she says. And if the goal is to have people working in set-ups that fit them best, then maybe remote work will stick around post-pandemic, especially if it comes with the freedom to see friends.

This article was originally published on on discovermagazine.com 

NPR Planet Money Podast Interviews NOD President Carol Glazer: “The Old Rules Were Dumb Anyway”

Posted on by Amber Cecil

August 28, 2020 – When the pandemic hit, the old rules went out the window. What rules will stay broken when things go back to normal? NPR’s Planet Money asked NOD President Carol Glazer to weigh in.

In this podcast, Glazer shares how employees with disabilities were among the first to get laid off when the pandemic hit the U.S. – in fact, more than one million lost their jobs. But, Glazer shares how the wave of companies implementing remote work is dispelling many of the myths that kept those with disabilities out of the workplace.

Listen:

Jump to 17:30 to hear Carol Glazer’s interview

This podcast was originally posted on NPR.org.

Has the Great WFH Experiment Delivered for Workers with Disabilities?

Posted on by Amber Cecil
Coworkers discussing project in architects office
Coworkers discussing project in architects office | Getty Images

August 27, 2020 · Alex Hickey

For many workers with mental or physical disabilities, being “last hired, first fired” is an all-too-familiar story—and that was before the COVID-19 pandemic ushered in the worst unemployment crisis in decades.

But the pandemic also presented a unique opportunity: a tectonic shift to remote work. Have those opportunities been realized for people with disabilities or chronic illnesses?

A rough few months

In 2019, even with record-low unemployment (3.5%!) that had companies scrambling for talent, disabled workers weren’t making meaningful gains. The employment rate for disabled workers with a college degree was less than half that of adults without a disability who held a high school diploma or less.

And then COVID-19 happened. In the last few months, tens of millions of Americans have been put out of a job, and people with disabilities continue to face higher levels of joblessness.

  • The unemployment rate for workers with a disability peaked in April at 18.9%. It was 14.3% for workers without a disability.
  • By July, unemployment for workers with a disability had fallen to 14.3%, while it hit 10.3% for workers with no disability.

Now, competing for limited open positions, disabled workers have to combat misperceptions that they are higher risk and more expensive.

Can remote work close the gap?

“There’s no question that more people with disabilities will be able to work when telework becomes more routine,” Carol Glazer, president of the National Organization on Disability, told the Brew.

Eighty-three percent of workers with a disability or a chronic illness surveyed by GitLab said remote work allowed them to participate in the workforce. And over half said it gives them an opportunity to contribute to company direction, values, and processes.

Remote reduces or eliminates time spent on commuting, which can take longer and be more logistically challenging for some people with disabilities. In New York City, only 25% of subway stations are accessible for travelers who require mobility devices or service animals. Remote work also gives employees more discretion to set up physical workspaces that suit their needs, avoid workplace stressors or sensory overload, and have extra flexibility to schedule appointments and care as needed with less disruption to their work.

When COVID-19 forced offices to close, many employers extended WFH arrangements, equipment, technology, and other resources to employees. But the nearly overnight spin up of telework exposed a painful double standard for some workers with disabilities.

  • “Many of us have long asked, fought for, and have been denied these reasonable accommodations, and have even lost their job as a result,” journalist Danielle Campoamor writes for Teen Vogue.
  • “It can feel painful to watch policies we’ve been told were impossibilities, unfair work arrangements, or somehow detrimental to the energy of the workplace, be so widely and effortlessly implemented.”

Even in the best of times, remote work is not accessible to all. It’s often extended to workers with more education and in higher-earning roles, Brookings analyst Nicole Bateman told the Brew. BLS data shows workers with disabilities are more likely to be employed in roles like production, transportation, and non-professional services, which typically provide less opportunity for remote work.

Plus, many leading platforms for workplace communication and collaboration aren’t fully equipped with features for visually or hearing-impaired workers.

Employers can also be slow to implement accessibility initiatives. It was an uphill battle getting employers to invest in accessibility programs before the pandemic. During hard economic times, new initiatives for accessibility, training, and recruitment are often not prioritized, Glazer and Bateman said.

  • State and local governments, which often create incentives for firms to make accessibility investments, have seen the pandemic decimate their budgets even as they’re being asked to do more than ever, according to Bateman.

What’s next?

The current national conversation about barriers facing marginalized communities has brought more attention to issues of workplace discrimination, but people with disabilities still face a tougher road to economic recovery even with increased flexible working arrangements.

  • During and after the Great Recession, employment levels for people with a disability recovered more slowly than for workers without a disability, according to Bateman.

What can companies do? The National Organization on Disability created a scorecard to help companies benchmark their inclusion policies. Employers who successfully hire and retain workers with disabilities frequently have policies such as mentorship programs, employee resource groups, clear explanations of accommodations, and training for staff about disability to demystify it, according to Glazer.

Workers with disabilities can help companies rebound. As businesses undergo a period of unprecedented economic and social change, hiring managers would be wise to team up with “people who are much better at dealing with fear and uncertainty. People who are great problem solvers, who are undaunted by challenges,” Glazer said.

This article was originally published on Morning Brew. 

This Year’s ADA Anniversary Marks A Time to Make Certain We Are Not Losing Ground | Blog by Merrill Friedman, Sr. Director, Disability Policy Engagement, Anthem

Posted on by Amber Cecil
Governor Tom Ridge, Merrill Friedman of Anthem, and Carol Glazer of NOD smiling and holding an award
Merrill Friedman receives NOD’s Leading Disability Employer award on behalf of Anthem, with NOD Chairman Governor Tom Ridge and President Carol Glazer

By Merrill Friedman, Sr. Director, Disability Policy Engagement from Anthem, Inc.

This year marks the 30th anniversary of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA).

I had planned to pause in 2020 to honor the ADA, thinking about what it has meant for people with disabilities and, of course, what work needs to be done to continue moving forward. I looked forward to the flurry of events, seeing people from across the country, and setting some expectations for the next 30 years. Then, we saw the onset of a pandemic, COVID-19. While I, and others here at Anthem, will absolutely include activities to mark this milestone, I find myself thinking that instead of so much focus on gaining ground, we need to worry we don’t lose any.

Exposure to COVID-19 for people with disabilities has several implications, including the threat of health care rationing, restrictions on loved ones having advocates to support them in the hospital, their DSPs and PCAs not being considered “essential workers,” or not having equitable access to PPE. This, along with the staggering unemployment rate, means we need to make sure people with disabilities do not lose the progress hard-won since the ADA was passed 30 years ago.

People with disabilities are more than twice as likely as those without disabilities to experience unemployment. And they are often among the first to lose their jobs when the economy sours; as the economy turns around, it is not necessarily those same workers who get hired back.

There are 60 million people with disabilities in the United States, and those numbers will only grow because of COVID-19. Many survivors will have lasting physical and mental health conditions, which means the unemployment figures could rise even further.

What is frustrating is that high joblessness does not have to be part of the story for people with disabilities. Given their life experiences, they can lead the way for all of us on working effectively from home. They have advocated long before the pandemic that given support, flexibility, and access to equipment and broadband, they can thrive like other employees. This has been our experience at Anthem.

We started preparing for COVID-19 early and with great thoughtfulness. By the time the pandemic was overwhelming the public and shelter-in-place orders were rolling out, 99 percent of our employees were in the process of being supported to work remotely with the tools they needed.

We made sure everyone had the resources necessary to be successful. I am very proud of what the company has done and continues to do. If an employee with a disability requires an accommodation while working from home, we provide it as we would if they were in the office. We have also ensured focus and precision in supporting people with disabilities who access their health care through Anthem plans so they can maintain access to critical supports like their providers, food, and other services.

Mental health support during the pandemic is also critical for all of our associates, who in addition to coping with stress and uncertainty in their own lives, internalize the stress and anxiety that our members share when we speak with them. We recognized that our health care services needed to be easily accessible to both associates and members and expanded telehealth and increased the options for physical, mental health, substance use, and social supports through this platform.

During Mental Health Awareness Month in May, we created #MeMinutes, a reminder for employees to think about their own self-care and to take time for themselves for the purpose of individual health and wellbeing and to better support other people. We know that we only move through this challenging time if we work together.

What has been so interesting is that many of the practices we have adopted recently have been recommended by our colleagues with disabilities for years, showing how important it is to listen to the experiences of people with disabilities.

My hope is that we continue to build on the knowledge and practice gained during this time of crisis and consider when recruiting people with disabilities that they know how to adapt to different work environments effectively with the right supports. Let’s not lose what we have learned as we have navigated the pandemic so we can continue to level the playing field toward true inclusive employment, realizing the promise of the ADA. If that happens, we will all have reason to pause and celebrate this year.

Anthem is a longtime member of the NOD Corporate Leadership Council and a sponsor of NOD’s Look Closer awareness campaign. For its exemplary disability employment practices, NOD has recognized Anthem as a Leading Disability Employer Seal every year since the award’s inception in 2016.  

 

 

 

 

Outreach Campaign Encourages People to Overcome Hospital Fears

Posted on by Daniel Golden

Posted on August 5th, 2020 | By Mike Moen

A new study says since the start of the pandemic, 911 calls for emergency medical services in the United States have dropped by 26% compared with the past two years.

RICHMOND, Va. — New coronavirus cases are climbing in states such as Virginia, but concerns persist that people dealing with other health emergencies may be avoiding the hospital out of infection fears. A new awareness campaignaims to ease those concerns, especially for people of color.

An online survey for the American Heart Association found that 55% of Hispanics and 45% of Blacks said they’d be scared to go to a hospital with heart attack or stroke symptoms because of COVID-19 fears.

Dr. Federico Asch at MedStar Washington Hospital Center said the results mirror fewer 911 calls in recent months, but these warning signs shouldn’t be ignored.

“These are situations that can actually kill people, like heart attack or stroke, at a much higher rate than COVID itself,” he said.

Health experts have said COVID-19 cases disproportionately have affected certain ethnic groups, which is likely to be creating these concerns.

The Heart Association is launching a public awareness campaign in English and Spanish. Called “Don’t Die of Doubt,” it reminds people that a hospital is the safest place to go if they’re experiencing symptoms of a heart attack or stroke.

Asch, who also is a regional board president for the Heart Association, said that while it’s reasonable to worry about becoming infected with COVID if you go to the hospital, it isn’t likely to happen.

“They have everything possible in place to prevent you from getting infected by COVID,” he said.

If stroke or heart attack symptoms are ignored, health officials have said, the next round of symptoms could be much more severe.

More details about the “Don’t Die of Doubt” campaign are on the American Heart Association’s website.

Disclosure: American Heart Association Mid Atlantic Affiliate contributes to our fund for reporting on Health Issues, Hunger/Food/Nutrition, Poverty Issues, Smoking Prevention. If you would like to help support news in the public interest, click here.
Mike Moen, Public News Service – VA

AT&T Survey: 70% of Large Businesses Think Remote Working Makes Them More Vulnerable to Cyberattacks

Posted on by Daniel Golden

Posted on August 4th, 2020 | By Mike Robuck

According to new research from AT&T, businesses are understandably skittish in regards to remote workers being exposed to more cyberattacks.

AT&T’s survey found that 70% of the large business felt remote working made them more vulnerable to cyberattacks. AT&T’s study of 800 cybersecurity professionals across the U.K., France and Germany found that more than half (55%) now believe remote working is making their companies more vulnerable to cyberattacks.

With “work from anywhere” policies in place for millions of employees due to Covid-19, the security perimeter has moved out of office spaces, which has provided cybercriminals with new vectors of attack.

AT&T Alien Labs Open Threat Exchange (OTX) is one of the largest intelligence-sharing communities in the world, with more than 140,000 security and IT professionals from 140 countries daily contributing and sharing information. In March, as the coronavirus pandemic became more widespread and organizations around the world started implementing wide-scale remote working policies, OTX experienced a 2,000% month-over-month increase in Covid-related incidents of comprise (IOCs).

Along the same lines, Nokia Deepfield saw a significant increase in Distributed Denial of Service (DDOS) attack volumes during March. That trend continued throughout April and May. In June, the aggregate volume of DDoS traffic was 40% to 50% above the pre-pandemic levels from February.

“Cybercriminals are opportunistic, taking advantage of the fear and uncertainty surrounding issues like the current global health and economic situation as well as sudden shifts and exposures in IT environments to launch attack campaigns,” said John Vladimir Slamecka, AT&T region president, EMEA, in a statement. “It can be a challenge for IT organizations to stay on top of emergent threat activity in the wild.”

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According to AT&T’s survey, employees were the biggest risk identified by the cyber experts. At 31%, AT&T’s research found there was a lack of awareness, apathy or reluctance to embrace new technologies as the biggest challenges for implementing better cybersecurity practices within businesses.

One in three (35%) of the employees utilize the same devices for both work and personal uses while 24% are sharing or storing sensitive information in unsanctioned cloud applications. With work from home employees, 18% of the employees were sharing their devices with another family member.

Somewhat surprisingly, 25% of the businesses haven’t offered additional cybersecurity training for their employees while 24% haven’t created secure gateways to applications hosted in cloud or data centers.

In addition, 22% hadn’t increased endpoint protection for laptops and mobile while 17% hadn’t installed internet browsing protection for web-base threats.

The Covid-19 pandemic has also created fertile ground for phishing and other fraud-related activities. Among the cybersecurity experts’ responses in the survey, 44% cited ransomware and/or malware as their top security concern. Phishing (39%) and external threats such as nation-state attacks or hacking (39%) rounded out their top three concerns.

The coronavirus pandemic has accelerated businesses’ digital transformations. Cybersecurity experts are gearing up for new innovations as a response to business conditions around Covid-19. Almost half (47%) expect more digital transformation of business processes and cloud implementation in the year to come.

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Two in five (40%) believe that their business will adopt new automation and robotic tools. For the largest businesses, those with more than 5,000 employees, nearly half (48%) will be changing their technology partners in the next year.

“While many organizations had already supported some remote workers on a regular basis, the sudden increase has put stress on IT systems, processes, and teams,” said Slamecka.  “Others have had to scramble to quickly roll out solutions focused on keeping their entire workforce connected and productive.

“In either case, sudden and unplanned changes in the way workers connect to the corporate network and access corporate data and applications in the data center and cloud can introduce new cyber risks and vulnerabilities.”

Pandemic May Move Companies to Fix Gender and Other Inequalities, Says PwC

Posted on by Daniel Golden

Report reflects marked gender inequality in corporate sector, with only 6% of listed companies having female CEOs

Posted on August 4th, 2020 | By Ntando Thukwana

The Covid-19 pandemic, which has prompted companies to place greater emphasis on their social responsibilities, may give companies the impetus to address gender and other inequalities, reports advisory firm PwC.

The report issued on Tuesday came as the country observes women’s month honouring women who marched against the pass laws 64 years ago. It paints a picture of pronounced gender inequality in the  corporate sector with only 6% of listed companies having female CEOs.

Advocates Seek Increase to Supplemental Security Income to Benefit People with Disabilities

Posted on by Daniel Golden

People receiving the maximum SSI live on $783 a month. The Chicago Disability Activism Collective is proposing an additional $266 per month.

Posted on August 4th, 2020 | By Clare Proctor

 

With the coronavirus heightening challenges already faced by people with disabilities, activists are calling for an increase monthly Supplemental Security Income.

The SSI Justice Campaign is proposing the state add $266 to people’s monthly SSI, a federal income program designed to help aged and disabled people who have minimal or no income. The current federal monthly maximum is $783.

The Chicago Disability Activism Collective launched the campaign with full support of Cook County Commissioner Alma Anaya, who represents the 7th District on Chicago’s Southwest Side.

Many people with disabilities can’t work and rely solely on SSI to cover rent, food and other basic needs, Anaya said. Coupled with a cost of living in Cook County that’s higher than the national average, Anaya said an increase to Illinois’ SSI is “far overdue.” The increase would also benefit undocumented people with disabilities, Anaya said.

The additional $266 would be funded through a state-level inheritance tax increase, according to the draft resolution. Anaya said the resolution will be introduced in the Illinois General Assembly.

People who rely on SSI have faced challenges long before the coronavirus pandemic, said Monia Taylor, a member of CDAC. When bills roll in and demand payment, Taylor said she can’t wait for another monthly SSI installment to come through.

“The poverty Black people and disabled people face on a daily basis didn’t start with COVID,” Taylor said. “The virus just exacerbated the problem, having to choose between rent and buying food because you don’t have enough money for both.”

Adam Ballard, a housing and transport policy advocate advising the campaign, said high rent forces many people with disabilities to live in congregate settings if they don’t have a housing voucher. Even people who have housing vouchers have to contribute 30% of their SSI to rent, Ballard said, already leaving people “in a pinch.”

Transportation costs can also quickly stack up, even with subsidized taxi rides through the Chicago Taxi Access Program and other services, Ballard said.

The number of Chicago taxi medallions surrendered this year increased from 552 as of March 11 when the pandemic hit the city to 2,501 on June 11, according to data obtained by the Sun-Times through a FOIA request. The decrease leaves 636 licensed taxis in the city.

“We have a system that forces people to make decisions that limit their travel as well,” Ballard said. “Their outcomes limit their freedom.”

People in the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, for example, can’t use the benefits to have groceries delivered. Instead, they must make a trip to the store.

Angela Lacy, president of CDAC, said she’s been living in a “pandemic situation” for a long time, kept from social events and being unable to afford services and goods because of the economic strain of relying on SSI.

“We’re surviving, but we’re not living,” Lacy said. “The lack of income from SSI has caused me to live this way.”