Disability inclusion learning solutions that work.
Don’t you love it when a good thing comes together?
For the past several months, I have been working with an incredible client and team on the development of an online, self-paced, 6-module interactive learning series. We now get to see our creation really come to life — I can’t wait for it to officially launch, and to include it in my portfolio!
“For me, forgiveness and compassion are always linked: How do we hold people accountable for wrongdoing and yet at the same time remain in touch with their humanity enough to believe in their capacity to be transformed?”
― bell hooks
I work at the nexus of inclusion and education. My main area of focus within adult education (AE) is workplace learning – that is, learning related to the notion of employment and, in the broader senses of occupation, vocation, and work. Earlier this week, I came across an organization out of the US whose purpose is to “simplify the path that connects people and work”. In essence, it is a placement agency. While it is not advertised on its web site, this organization vulnerable persons find employment; this includes people with criminal records, and even persons on the US national registry of sex offenders.
Most of my career has been spent facilitating access to work by vulnerable persons, chiefly people with functional impairments (more often referred to as people with disabilities). While much of the learning and teaching in my career has revolved around the How of vocational rehabilitation, over time the Why has increasingly taken centre stage.
This quote from bell hooks, who we lost last month, makes reference to one’s capacity to be transformed. In AE we talk a lot about transformation. The notions of humanity and compassion are also regularly considered within our field. But here, bell hooks’ words also bring in the ideas of holding people accountable for wrongdoing, and forgiveness. Which brings me back to the notion of rehabilitation.
The word rehabilitation has its origins in the Latin for “to make fit again”. It is variously defined as the act of restoring someone either “to health or normal life… after imprisonment, addiction, or illness”, or “to former privileges or reputation after a period of disfavour”. Rehabilitation is said to be accomplished via therapy and/or training.
I find some elements of those definitions to be troubling. For instance, they introduce a binary of normal vs. abnormal, along with notions of favour, reputation, and (bestowed) privileges. I much prefer the definition of rehabilitation as “the process of helping an individual achieve the highest level of function, independence, and quality of life possible”. (By the way, these phrases are taken from page-one Google searches, not academia, hence the lack of citations here.)
I also prefer to go back to word origins for inspiration: If rehabilitation means “to make fit again”, while part of me says “‘fit’ according to whom?”, the other part looks at ‘again’ as a signal that we are all born ‘fit’ – that intrinsically, we are good and deserving of a chance to achieve what Moses Coady called “the good and abundant life”, no matter what choices we make along the way. And, if it is true that rehabilitation is indeed accomplished via therapy and/or training, then there is a colossal role for AE in the realm of rehabilitation.
So, what does this mean for me this year? It means a recommitment to showing compassion for and to vulnerable persons. It means determination to be vocal about the right to access the means to make a living, and a life. And it means accepting all persons as intrinsically valuable, and capable of change, at least to some degree.
You may think me naïve. But if I’m in the same camp as bell hooks, that’s good enough for me.
Since 1988, Canada’s neighbours to the south have observed National Disability Employment Awareness Month (NDEAM), with Canada adopting the practice in more recent years. In a recent Forbes piece, Jonathan Kaufman offers NDEAM as “a bridge to a greater understanding” of the changing world of work, saying “business leaders can look to the disability playbook to ascertain the importance of work [and for] elevating the lived disability experience in the world of work”. The immediate practicality of this approach is made clear as Kaufman explains “the need for disability employment as a vital solution to the great resignation”.
Notions of occupation, vocation, and work have long expanded beyond the narrow confines of paid employment. Work is not just a means of earning income, but a form of expression, a part of identity, and a source of deep purpose. In this way, access to work can be seen as a human right, one for which people with disabilities have long been fighting. It follows, then, that organizations – the formalized spaces of human work – have a role that goes beyond managing resources in a way that fosters profit: They must ensure the workplace supports human expression, and a sense of identity and purpose, with and for its workers.
“Embracing the disability ethos and seeing meaning and purpose as more than just ambiguous ideals … are essential in serving a competitive advantage for the future”.
— J. Kaufman
You can read more at Kaufman, J. (Oct 8, 2021). Mindset Matters: Why Supporting Disability Employment Is Imperative To Solve The Puzzle Of The Great Resignation. Forbes. https://www.forbes.com/sites/jonathankaufman/2021/10/08/mindset-matters-why-supporting-disability-employment-is-imperative-to-solve-the-puzzle-of-the-great-resignation/.
When it’s your turn to present in a virtual meeting, ensure all attendees can contribute and are kept informed on what’s being discussed.
Imagine you’re running a Zoom call. You may tempted to disable the chat feature to discourage “sidebar conversations”. But this can prevent some attendees from being able to participate fully in the call. Not only does the chat feature let people share ideas as they come to them in a way that’s not disruptive, for some it may be the only means to participate. Disabling chat can block accessibility.
At the same time, as presenter, don’t neglect to monitor the chat – its contents should be acknowledged and shared. While some folks rely on the chat feature to participate, others rely on the audio/video function to participate – they are unable to use the chat function. So, sharing what’s going on in the chat helps ensure no one is missing out on ideas being exchanged there. Just as disabling the chat can block accessibility, so can ignoring it.
Many presenters who use the current version of Zoom know that when sharing a screen, the chat window is hidden. As a result, the presenter cannot monitor the chat without regularly exiting Share Screen mode. The solution is to plan in advance to ensure the chat is not ignored. For example, someone can be assigned to monitor the chat when a screen is being shared, and to share what’s going on in there in a way that balances “disrupting” the presentation while ensuring folks who cannot access the chat are kept abreast of those conversations, without undue delay.
Just remember: “The chat feature may be needed for some to participate”, and “The chat feature may not be accessible to everyone”. When it comes to accessibility, where technology falls short, the presenter needs to bridge the gap .
I am VERY excited to announce the launch of a brand new e-course from the Work Wellness Institute (WWi), How to Continue to Support Employees who Return to Work after Recovering from Illness/Injury.
This project was a fantastic experience. I am so pleased with the results, and I know you will be, too!
I am VERY excited to announce the launch of a brand new e-course from the Work Wellness Institute, Creating a Supportive Work Environment for Employees who Work from Home and for Remote Workers. This project was a fantastic experience. I am so pleased with the results, and I know you will be, too!
According to the Higher Education Quality Council of Ontario (HEQCO)*, when compared to students without disabilities, students with disabilities do not get the same benefits from postsecondary education (PSE): They are less likely to pursue PSE in the first place. They must transition from a system with built-in supports to one where they must self-identify and register for supports. They are less likely to graduate. And those who do graduate experience worse labour market outcomes from the outset: They are more likely to be unemployed, to be low income, and to work in jobs without benefits.
HEQCO’s recommendations for the PSE sector – aside from better data collection and further research – include incorporating principles of Universal Design in Learning (UDL) into course materials, embedding general principles of accessibility and equity in teaching and learning, and supporting the school-to-work transition for PSE grads with disabilities.
What are your thoughts? Even better, what’s been your experience here?
What do you think?
* Source: K. Chatoor. (02-Jun-2021). Postsecondary Credential Attainment and Labour Market Outcomes for Ontario Students with Disabilities. HEQCO.
A piece in the Financial Post last month provides a glimpse of the impact the ongoing coronavirus pandemic has on disability insurance (Rolfe, K., 17-Aug-2021, ‘A pandemic after the pandemic’: Insurers brace for disability claims ‘deluge’ from mental, physical strain of crisis). In short, disability claims are not only more numerous, they are also prolonged.
Yes, insurers are seeing coronavirus-related claims, including for Long COVID. But to add, the strain placed on hospitals by the pandemic has resulted in delayed access to non-urgent medical treatments for thousands of people off work for disability. This translates to prolonged disability.
And that’s just for non-mental health claims. Claims for mental health supports increased 24% last year, and Sun Life Canada reports that over 30% of its disability claims are for mental health conditions and represent 45% of disability claims costs. What’s more, numerous people disability for non-mental health conditions have been experiencing levels of anxiety and depression, that are prolonging their disability, and thus their return to work.
And let’s not forget that group disability insurance is not the only space affected in this way: These same factors can affect the experience of people having disability claims with workers’ compensation, motor vehicle injuries, CPP disability, Veterans, and disabled persons accessing disability support programs.
Is COVID-19 impacting anyone you know with a disability claim? And in what ways?
What do you think?
Results of a recent survey by Momentive (formerly SurveyMonkey) indicate that while nearly two thirds of employees consider workplace diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) to be an important driver of organizational success, fewer than half of C-level executives agree, “with nearly half considering DEI ‘a distraction from our company’s real work’” (J. Wilson, Are DEI initiatives ‘distracting from real work’? Canadian HR Reporter, 11-Aug-2021). Momentive CEO Zander Lurie says this makes it clear that “many executives are painfully out of touch”. At the same time, over two thirds of employees “find their employer’s DEI work meaningful”.
Given the growing evidence that DEI is not only positive but in fact increasingly necessary for workplaces to survive and thrive, senior leaders who fail to embrace this may find themselves at the helm of a sinking ship.
What influence do you think DEI has on organizational success?
What do you think?
Is addiction a disease? Probably. But according to J. T. Maier (The Disability Model of Addiction, 03-Aug-2021, Psychology Today), it should be seen foremost as a disability. Why is that significant?
While the disability model of addiction does not necessarily reject the view that addiction is a disease, it holds that (1) addiction is not foremost a medical problem, but a disability; and (2) the person is not foremost a patient, but a citizen entitled to reasonable accommodation “to go about their lives and achieve their goals” (Maier, 2021).
In this way, interventions that have benefited addicted people – such as safe injection sites, medication-assisted treatment, and indeed the ‘rehab’ system – should be viewed not as medical treatment of disease, but as reasonable accommodations of a disability.
Society is arranged in ways that favour people who are typical, and as a result, people who are in some ways atypical – including those with addictions – face systemic discrimination. “A just and self-aware society recognizes these forms of disadvantage and does what it can to alleviate them by making accommodations” (Maier, 2021).
What would it mean to look at interventions like those noted above as “accommodations” rather than “treatment”? What do you think?
