Saturday, June 27, 2009
Ability not Disability
One of the responsibilities of my professional life is working with other businesses who have the understanding to recognize the valued added employee who has a disability.
It is not always easy for a business to overlook the disability and see a liability because of pre-conceived perception.Yet, without a doubt I have discovered so many compassionate demonstrations of ethical businesses who look beyond the disability and recognize the "ability" of the employee with a disability.
They work with me and others to overcome barriers to the workplace, to integrate the workplace, and to prepare co-workers to become natural supports when needed.Some come to the workplace with obvious physical or cognitive disabilities; while others have issues of autism, ADD/ADHD, or cerebral palsy, etc which hide the high cognition of the person but affects distract from the actual high level of skills and intellect.
Among my richest experiences was discovering a man with Asberger's Syndrome who displayed unusal affects and the system tended to believe his job placement would be janitorial. As I worked with this young man I discovered his love for books, his skills at the computer, and by developing a trusting relationship I discovered an intelligence at high level once skills of communication between us were developed. This young man's IQ is 134.
When I first met him, he responded in "yups & nopes", and heavy blinking of his eyes when nervous. We worked on his affects and practiced interview skills. He could never get through a job interview up to that time.
Finally, he was able to interview effectively and got a job with a computer software/web design company, and today he is going through the Self-Employment program I lead. Not only that, but he attended a conference with me two years ago and sat on the platform with myself and others to tell his story.
As I write this story, I realize that with his consent and willingness to accompany me on this journey with him, we did NOT compromise on his ability, but we were determined to have others recognize his ability!
Sometimes compromise can be negated with determination to overcome!
It is not always easy for a business to overlook the disability and see a liability because of pre-conceived perception.Yet, without a doubt I have discovered so many compassionate demonstrations of ethical businesses who look beyond the disability and recognize the "ability" of the employee with a disability.
They work with me and others to overcome barriers to the workplace, to integrate the workplace, and to prepare co-workers to become natural supports when needed.Some come to the workplace with obvious physical or cognitive disabilities; while others have issues of autism, ADD/ADHD, or cerebral palsy, etc which hide the high cognition of the person but affects distract from the actual high level of skills and intellect.
Among my richest experiences was discovering a man with Asberger's Syndrome who displayed unusal affects and the system tended to believe his job placement would be janitorial. As I worked with this young man I discovered his love for books, his skills at the computer, and by developing a trusting relationship I discovered an intelligence at high level once skills of communication between us were developed. This young man's IQ is 134.
When I first met him, he responded in "yups & nopes", and heavy blinking of his eyes when nervous. We worked on his affects and practiced interview skills. He could never get through a job interview up to that time.
Finally, he was able to interview effectively and got a job with a computer software/web design company, and today he is going through the Self-Employment program I lead. Not only that, but he attended a conference with me two years ago and sat on the platform with myself and others to tell his story.
As I write this story, I realize that with his consent and willingness to accompany me on this journey with him, we did NOT compromise on his ability, but we were determined to have others recognize his ability!
Sometimes compromise can be negated with determination to overcome!
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