Day in the Life
October is an important month for me for a variety of reasons but none more important than October being Breast Cancer Awareness Month and National Disability Employment Awareness Month (NDEAM). With both of these causes being close to my heart, it was difficult to decide which to discuss first. However, according to the NDEAM calendar which I have listed down below under links to read, today, Monday, October 9th, 2023, is a day to raise awareness by having a discussion. So, I think it is fitting to raise awareness by sharing information about disabilities. But before I begin, my opinions are my own and not the views of my employer.
Did you know that an estimated 1.3 billion people experience a significant disability. This represents 16% of the worlds population or 1 in 6 of us, per the World Health Organization (WHO). Meanwhile, in the United States, the Pew Research Center did a survey and found that there are about 42.5 million Americans with disabilities making up 13% of the civilian non-institutionalized population. Now there are a couple different ways to categorize disabilities, the most common include, 1) Physical, 2) Intellectual, 3) Cognitive, and 4) Psychiatric.
An example of having a physical disability includes impairment of a person’s body structure or function, such as loss of vision, memory loss, or trouble walking. As for intellectual disabilities, these typically happen before, during, or after birth. These would include: genetic conditions, birth defects, and infections. As for Cognitive disabilities, these are an impairment that affects an individual’s ability to access, process, or remember information. The best example would be learning disabilities. And last but not least, Psychiatric disabilities, are emotional, cognitive, or behavioral dysfunction such as autism, substance abuse, or mental illnesses.
As for the importance of October and disabilities, this month celebrates the contributions of America’s workers with disabilities past and present and showcases supportive, inclusive employment policies and practices that benefit employers and employees (United States Census). Meanwhile, the National Disability Employment Awareness Month has a theme each year. This years theme is “Advancing access and equity”. In particular, this means focusing on underserved communities. It means promoting accessible workplace technology, fostering mental health friendly workplaces, helping youth be prepared to succeed in employment, and advancing competitive integrated employment (NDEAM 2923: Advancing Access and Equity).
If you are wondering what you or your organization can do to spread awareness for the month of October, here are some suggestions from the Office of Disability through the US Department of Labor:
Review policies - to ensure commitment to an inclusive workplace culture
Establish an employees resource group - it offers an opportunity to connect and receive support from others with similar backgrounds or interests
Create a display - By posting positive messages about the company’s commitment to a disability-inclusive workforce
Train Supervisors - to foster an inclusive workplace culture
Educate employees - It’s critical that companies committed to disability inclusion effectively and regularly reinforce commitment to its employees
Publish articles - NDEAM offers timely and fresh content for an employee newsletter or internal website. Articles could address a range of topics, such as general information about the company’s commitment to an inclusive workplace, the process for requesting reasonable accommodations, or perhaps recognizing the contributions of employees with disabilities - either in general or on an individual level.
Feature NDEAM in social media activities - NDEAM provides an interesting hook for social media platforms. Organizations are encouraged to use the hashtag #NDEAM
Issue an NDEAM press release - Issue a press release to their local media to announce involvement in NDEAM
Participate in Disability Mentoring Day - As it promotes career development for youth with disabilities through hands on programs, job shadowing, and ongoing mentoring
All in all, disability awareness is the practice of knowing, acknowledging, and accepting individuals experience as they relate to disability. With that, I want to share a little bit about me and an experience stands out to me. To begin, I was born with a genetic condition and due to that I have a learning disability. However, I am not at a point in my life where I wish to discuss specifics. One day when I do decide to make those details public, it will be right here on this blog.
Anywho, this is an experience I had in college that has stuck with me to this day. But first, I am going to provide some background information for those who did not have the need or for those who did not receive the assistance they needed in school. Specifically, there was an ADA form that needed to be filled out by a physician. It could be filled out by any physician, it did not have to be a doctor that specialized in disabilities. However, I do believe that by receiving care a specialized doctors, it could help to attain further assistance. As for my college’s form, it contained three pages. The first page was a general page containing basic information such as my name, the doctor, the condition, date of examination. The second page was to be filled out for physical conditions containing a checklist of activities and the impact a condition has. And the third page, was exactly the same but for psychiatric conditions. Once I got approval from the American Disability Act (ADA) office at my college, they provided a list of accommodations I would receive. The main three accommodations that I benefited the most from were: 1) extra time on exams (double the amount), 2) quiet testing environment, and 3) another student to take notes for me.
Now it has been a couple years since I have been out of college, so I do not remember if I individually told my professors or if the ADA office sent the paperwork to the professors I had. Either way, I would confirm with my teachers the day before an exam that I would be taking the exam/quiz in the testing center. This way they would not expect to see me in class and they could prepare extra notes, etc.
There was a program at my school that I was really excited about. But in order to begin the program, the general Ed/Introduction class was needed. During this class, my professor who I will not name, had pop quizzes whenever he wanted which is not the issue I am about to discuss. However, when I made an appointment to talk with him after class one day, I mentioned that I have a learning disability and I get double the amount of time that is given to that of other students. So, I made a couple suggestions. I asked if he could have the pop quizzes at end of class and I could stay after to finish or I could complete after class so that I would receive the additional time. But he did not agree. He also would not allow me to have the additional time to take the pop quizzes. This made the class a lot more difficult than it should have been. And because of that, I had to be even more meticulous when studying and preparing for this class. Somehow, I managed to pass the pass but barely. In the end, the experience I had with this professor made me less enthusiastic about my choice of study but it also provided a reality check. I realized that if someone is not able to visibly see your condition, they are less likely to believe that you are telling the truth. And for those of us, who have disabilities that cannot be seen by the naked eye or those who have unseen health illnesses, it can be disheartening and discouraging.
My hope here today is that you learned something new. That you too will spread awareness one day. And that you will have more empathy and understanding towards those who have an unseen conditions. The most empowering act you can do is be supportive and actively listen without judgement. Most importantly, as the National Library of Medicine put it best, “The argument for equal access to social and beneficial medical interventions for persons with disabilities; that persons with disabilities should be seen as different but equal; that their contributions to societal deliberations would enhance the richness of thought, views, narratives, and perspectives”.
For further information on disabilities, here are some following links:
NDEAM October Calendar
https://www.dol.gov/agencies/odep/initiatives/ndeam/ideas
National Disability Employment Awareness Month (NDEAM) “Advancing Access and Equity”
World Health Organization (WHO) Disability Key Facts
Pew Research Center “8 Facts about Americans with Disabilities”
https://www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2023/07/24/8-facts-about-americans-with-disabilities/
National Library of Medicine “The disability-rights perspective within the bioethics agenda”
University of Iowa “Categorizing Disabilities”
Micro assist “Disability Awareness Calendar 2023”
https://www.microassist.com/digital-accessibility/disability-awareness-calendar/
Individuals:
Viktoria Bueno
Molly Burke
https://www.mollyburkeofficial.com/about
As a signature of this blog, I like to end each post with a suggestion to “Pass on kindness”. After all, there is no such time as the present to “Inspire Those Who Inspire You”. Passing on kindness, does need to be this big, elaborate ordeal. You could smile at a stranger, compliment something you love about someone’s outfit or personality, tell someone how proud you are of them or that you thinking of them. Even small acts can have a huge impact on someone.
