Category Archives: Disability

Authors I-Q, Disability

How Employers Support New Hires with Disabilities -by Julie Morris

Leave a comment

Building Opportunity

You might think hiring’s just about resumes and references, but that’s a short-sighted view. Especially when it comes to hiring people with disabilities, the structure around the job can be just as important as the job itself. Too many employers still fumble when it comes to building inclusive environments that actually work. Not performative stuff—real supports, thoughtful incentives, and systems that don’t condescend. You’re hiring talent, not checking a box. So let’s get into what real support looks like when you’re serious about building a team that reflects the full spectrum of human potential.

Continue reading How Employers Support New Hires with Disabilities -by Julie Morris →

Authors I-Q, Disability

Guide for People with Disabilities Entering Politics – by Rose Joneson

Leave a comment

Running on Your Terms

Making the decision to run for office when you live with a disability is not just a bold act of civic engagement—it’s a powerful challenge to the status quo. Politics still doesn’t fully reflect the diversity of lived experiences across the country, and that includes disability. When you decide to throw your hat in the ring, you’re not just advocating for your ideas—you’re advocating for representation itself. But to do this effectively, you’ll need a strategy built around your strengths, needs, values, and vision.

Continue reading Guide for People with Disabilities Entering Politics – by Rose Joneson →

Authors R-Z, Disability

Dismantling DEI and Special Education – by Diane Storman

Leave a comment

How anti-DEI initiatives
may impact students

We typically view Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) programs through the prism of race and culture. However, there is a profound connection between DEI principles and the progress made in Special Education over the past 50 years, especially in the context of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA), passed in 1975, and the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), passed in 1990. Expanding rights and opportunities for students with disabilities is deeply intertwined with broader shifts in thinking about inclusion and access.

Continue reading Dismantling DEI and Special Education – by Diane Storman →

Authors A-H, Disability

Why Workplace Diversity Includes People With Disabilities – by David Grinberg

1 Comment

In case you missed it, October marked National Disability Employment Awareness Month. Here’s why it matters: People with disabilities represent a vast pool of untapped talent in a competitive global labor force, particularly with the domestic unemployment rate at historically low levels.

Nevertheless, too many companies still ignore people with disabilities in the hiring process — despite their proven talent, merit and ability to do the job. Moreover, even some progressive employers which hire persons with disabilities may fail to retain, train and advance this overlooked segment of the workforce due to unlawful discrimination.

Continue reading Why Workplace Diversity Includes People With Disabilities – by David Grinberg →

Disability, Social Issues, Teams & Leaders

Three Ways Technology Can Drive Inclusive Communication – by Kenya McPheeters

3 Comments

The ability to communicate is essential to inclusion in professional, learning, or social settings. A Deaf employee, for example, can’t fully contribute to a business unless they can participate in impromptu meetings or hallway chats with colleagues. If English is a second language for a medical student, they need detailed and accurate notes to retain critical information. For a senior aging into hearing loss, losing the ability to connect with family members by phone can be devastatingly isolating. I know of this situation all too well – In my work as a sign language interpreter I’ve seen how connections can be lost when communication isn’t available or readily accessible

In all of these instances, inclusive communication enhances diversity by facilitating involvement, acceptance, and belonging. Today, innovative technology is creating new opportunities for people of different backgrounds, experiences, and linguistic modes to seamlessly share information, collaborate, and engage. Three examples are outlined below.

Continue reading Three Ways Technology Can Drive Inclusive Communication – by Kenya McPheeters →

Authors R-Z, Disability

Overhauling the Americans with Disabilities Act – by Lionel Wolberger

Leave a comment

There has been a surge in federal civil rights lawsuits regarding the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) over the past decade. Lawsuits involving website accessibility under the ADA are also on the rise, growing 14% year-over-year in 2021. The major complication in all of this is that the ADA, passed by Congress in 1990, predates the earliest websites. Because the law does not explicitly discuss web accessibility, over the past three decades a legal landscape has developed that is both unpredictable and divisive.

For one, rules and regulations for web accessibility are beginning to vary from state to state. Members of Congress are penning letters to the Department of Justice (DOJ) urging them to establish clear accessibility rules for state and local websites. And there are a growing number of inconsistent rulings among that nation’s federal court districts on the subject. This article will explore the urgency of revamping the ADA to account for existing and emerging technology, and how uncertainty continues to grow on how and where the ADA applies.

Continue reading Overhauling the Americans with Disabilities Act – by Lionel Wolberger →

Authors A-H, Disability

What It Means to Make a Mark – by Jody Alyn

Leave a comment

Though she died six weeks ago, Marilyn Golden is with me in her wheelchair at the start of the ADA Accessible Trail in the Nags Head Woods Preserve. An eye-catching sign points the way into the forest. This is her doing. The New York Times described her, in its obituary, as a “lynchpin” in the passage of the Americans with Disabilities Act.

Marilyn and I grew up together in San Antonio. Our birthdays were a month apart. We went to the same synagogue and sometimes sat in our beloved Mrs. Durham’s high school English classes together. We skipped out of other classes to meet friends and expound on the meaning of life, social justice and Grateful Dead lyrics. Marilyn was brilliant. Funny. Tenacious. She dug deeply into any argument and every detail, and never gave up.

Continue reading What It Means to Make a Mark – by Jody Alyn →

ADR Advisors, Authors A-H, Disability

Why Disability Employment is Good Business – By David B. Grinberg

Leave a comment

In case you missed it,  the 30th anniversary of the landmark Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) was not long ago. All employers need to remember that workforce diversity includes people with disabilities.

All savvy employers should know by now that providing equal opportunities to people with disabilities simply makes good business sense. This is especially true in an interconnected, global economy. Unfortunately, not every company has gotten the message.

As the ADA turned 30, there was good and bad news regarding people with disabilities (PWDs). The good news: The disability community can be found in virtually all aspects of modern society.

Continue reading Why Disability Employment is Good Business – By David B. Grinberg →

Authors A-H, Disability, Pandemic

Run Shay, Run – by Terry Howard

Leave a comment

Your phone rang late that evening:
You: Hello my friend. What’s up?
Caller: Wanted to let you know of some bad news.
“So-so” passed away unexpectedly.
You: Oh my! I meant to call him months ago but never got around to it!

With the spread of COVID -19, I suspect that many of you dread getting that phone call that someone you knew came down with the disease. Or worse. And little did we know. In fact, little does anyone always know “why” when tragedy unfold in our lives. But in many ways, we do have control over what can we do now before that inevitable bad news heads our way.
 Continue reading Run Shay, Run – by Terry Howard →

Authors A-H, Disability, Social Issues

Disability Employment Awareness: Five Questions for EEOC – by David B. Grinberg

1 Comment

October is National Disability Employment Awareness Month (NDEAM). The observance, which dates back to 1945, is sponsored annually by the U.S. Department of Labor, Office of Disability Employment Policy.

Did you know? The employment population ratio for people without disabilities (65.7%) was more than triple that of people with disabilities (18.7%) in 2017, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.

Continue reading Disability Employment Awareness: Five Questions for EEOC – by David B. Grinberg →