Disability Sensitivity

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Disability Sensitivity
SeRonna RodgersOutreach Education
CoordinatorArkansas Protection
AdvocacyDisability Rights Center
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• The greatest barriers individuals with
  disabilities have faced for decades and continue
  to face today are attitudinal barriers.

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Causes of Attitudinal Barriers

• NOMADIC TRIBES
• EARLY CHRISTIANITY
• RENAISSANCE ERA
• HITLERS REGIME

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Causes of Attitudinal Barriers

• MEDIA
• MOVIES
• TELEVISION
• NEWSPAPERS
• RADIO

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Causes of Attitudinal Barriers

• It is better for all the world, if for their
  imbecility, society can prevent those who are
  manifestly unfit from continuing their kind.
• The United States Supreme Court,Justice Oliver
  Wendall Holmes

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Work Trends Survey

• Americans Attitudes About Work,
• Employers and Government
• There are many ways in which barriers due to a
  disability may be accommodated.
• Work Trends, March 2003
• John J. Heldrich Center for Workforce Development
  at Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey
• Restricted Access
• A Survey of Employers About People with
• Disabilities and Lowering Barriers to Work
• http//www.heldrich.rutgers.edu/Resources/Publicat
  ion/89/WorkTrendsXIVRestrictedAccessFinalReport.pd
  f

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Specific Barriers Cited by Employers toTheir
Hiring People with Disabilities
Heldrich Work Trends Survey, v.3.6 winter 03
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Why the Attitude?
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Misperceptions Biases of Persons with
Disabilities

• MYTH People with disabilities have lower job
  performance.
• FACT In 1990, DuPont conducted a survey of 811
  employees with disabilities and found 90 rated
  average or better in job performance compared to
  95 for employees without disabilities. A similar
  1981 DuPont study which involved 2,745 employees
  with disabilities found that 92 of employees
  with disabilities rated average or better in job
  performance compared to 90 of employees without
  disabilities.
• MYTH Employees with disabilities have a higher
  absentee rate than employees without
  disabilities.
• FACT Studies by firms such as DuPont show that
  employees with disabilities are not absent any
  more than employees without disabilities.

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Misperceptions Biases

• MYTH It is too costly to accommodate students
  and employees with disabilities.
• FACT Most workers with disabilities require no
  special accommodations and the cost for those who
  do is minimal or much lower than many employers
  believe. Studies by the President's Committee's
  Job Accommodation Network have shown that 15 of
  accommodations cost nothing, 51 cost between 1
  and 500, 12 cost between 501 and 1,000, and
  22 cost more than 1,000.
• MYTH Certain career choices are more suited to
  persons with disabilities.
• FACT As with all people, certain career choices
  may be better suited to some than to others.
  While there are obvious poor career technical
  training and career choices, there are also many
  ways to accommodate individuals with disabilities
  as well as alternate ways of accomplishing a task.

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Misperceptions Biases

• MYTH Persons with disabilities need to be
  protected from failing.
• FACT Persons with disabilities have a right to
  participate in the full range of human
  experiences including success and failure. Job
  Corps Center staff and employers should have the
  same expectations of, and work requirements for,
  all students/employees.

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Myths about Students with Disabilities

• Students with disabilities cannot be taught a
  vocation.
• This is not true. Each student with a
  disability is an individual with certain
  abilities. The focus should be on what the
  individual can do, not limited by what he/she
  cannot. For instance, a student with a cognitive
  disability may have weaknesses in traditional
  academic areas and may have trouble reading
  however, this student may do well in other areas
  such as carpentry. The key is to provide the
  student with the training he/she needs to match
  both their abilities and interests.
• Students with disabilities cannot make academic
  gains.
• With reasonable accommodation, the student
  may make academic gains in language or math,
  obtain a GED, a HSD, or even go on to college.
• All students with disabilities have low mental
  abilities.
• Every individual with a disability is
  unique just as each individual without a
  disability is unique. Even manifestations of the
  same type of disability may present differently
  in different individuals. Get to know the person
  before making judgments based upon a label.

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• The words you use can create either a positive
  view of people with disabilities or it can
  reinforce common myths.

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• Its not just a matter of semantics or being
  politically correct the language we use
  reflects how we feel about disability.
• http//www.disabilitylearningservices.com/unit03.h
  tm

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Negative Phrases Used to Describe People with
Disabilities

• Retard or retarded
• You must have ridden the short bus
• Crazy, lunatic, schizo, psycho, insane
• Deaf and dumb
• A mute
• Brain-damaged
• Crippled

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Language Use

• Affirmative Phrase
• A person with an intellectual disability
• A person who is blind or who is visually impaired
• A person with a disability
• A person who is deaf or who has a hearing
  impairment
• A person who is deaf
• A person who is hard of hearing
• A person who has multiple sclerosis

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More on Language Use

• Affirmative Phrase
• A person who has cerebral palsy
• A person who has epilepsy
• A person who uses a wheelchair
• A person who has muscular dystrophy
• A person with a physical disability
• A person with Down syndrome
• A person with a mental health or psychiatric
  disability

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More on Language Use

• Affirmative Phrase
• A person with a physical disability or one who
  has quadriplegia
• A person who is short of stature or who is a
  little person
• A person with a learning disability
• A person without disabilities
• A person with a brain injury
• Accessible Parking

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Handicap vs. Disability

• Handicap or Handicapped
• A legendary origin of the word handicap refers
  to a person with a disability begging with his
  cap in his hand. This is believed to come from
  our war veterans after World War II as a means to
  support themselves.
• -From Kathy Snows, Disability is Natural
  website. www.disabilityisnatural.com

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People First Language

• People First Language puts the person before the
  disability and describes what a person has, not
  who a person is.
• A person with a disability not a
• disabled person

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Why People First?
Group designations such as "the blind," "the
retarded" or "the disabled" are inappropriate
because they do not reflect the individuality,
equality or dignity of people with disabilities.
Further, words like "normal person" imply that
the person with a disability isn't normal,
whereas "person without a disability" is
descriptive but not negative. http//www.dol.gov/
odep/pubs/fact/comucate.htm
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Barrier Removal Reasonable Accommodation
Sometimes our misperceptions and biases about
what a person with a disability can or cannot do
exist because there is not an awareness or
knowledge base of how those barriers might be
alleviated with the use of appropriate reasonable
accommodation.
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How Accommodations Remove Barriers
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• Examples of what some individuals with certain
  types of learning disabilities might see when
  looking at printed material or how they might
  write on paper.

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Overcoming Those Barriers

• There are many ways in which barriers due to a
  disability may be accommodated.
• Examples
• Use of a word processor
• Spell check
• Word prediction
• Use of text to speech software
• Use of voice dictation software

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Suggestions for Effective Communication

• Ask the person with the disability about their
  needs
• Consider the communication situation (e.g.,
  nature, length, and complexity)
• Use a combination of aids and services with
  appropriate communication techniques.  For
  example, speaking clearly in a normal tone of
  voice, writing key words, using short sentences,
  gesturing, signing, looking directly at the
  listener when speaking
• http//www.disabilitylearningservices.com/uni
  t05.htm

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The Ten Commandments of Communicating with People
with Disabilities
The Ten Commandments of Communicating with People
with Disabilities is a video that provide
information on disability etiquette via a series
of humorous vignettes. It also delivers a
compelling portrait of people with disabilities
as competent, contributing, and affable
participants in the workforce.
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Creating Inclusive Environments

• Keep in mind that knowing how to react
  appropriately in every situation requires time
  and practice.
• As with all other etiquette issues, when mistakes
  are made, apologize, correct the problem, learn
  from the mistake, move ondo not be discouraged,
  and above all,
• keep trying. 

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Creating Maintaining an Inclusive Training
Work Environment

• Use posters and other visual displays that are
  inclusive of individuals with disabilities.
• Provide ongoing training to staff, students, and
  prospective employers regarding disability
  related topics.
• Disability Sensitivity/Basic Etiquette
• Common Disabilities
• Reasonable Accommodation
• Types of Barrier Removal
• General Resources
• Education and Training Techniques/Strategies
• Staff modeling of appropriate conduct, attitudes,
  and knowledge.

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Educating the Student

• Assist student in becoming confident and
  comfortable discussing his/her disability by
  providing
• Specific training/literature on
• Disclosure
• Self-Advocacy Self-Determination
• Workplace Rights

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Educating the Employer

• Each October is National Disability Employment
  Awareness Month (NDEAM). NDEAM is a perfect time
  to promote awareness and showcase the abilities
  of students with disabilities within the Job
  Corps environment, within the community-at-large
  and most importantly, with employers. Suggested
  activities include
• Work with local business industry council to set
  up a job fair or open house featuring center
  trades and show types of accommodations and how
  they are used in that particular field.
• Gather information on hiring individuals with
  disabilities and disseminate to employers,
  including development of flyers and newsletter
  perhaps featuring students with disabilities who
  have been successfully placed. Make this a year
  round activity!

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Involving Employers

• Invite employers to participate in the centers
  programs and activities.
• Include disability organization representatives
  on the center community relations and business
  industry councils.

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Poster available at www.disabilityisnatural.com
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Disability Rights Center

• 1-800-482-1174
• www.arkdisabilityrights.org

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Other Resources

• Barbara Grove, National Office, National Nurse
  Consultant
• 202-693-3116 or grove.barbara_at_dol.gov
• Michelle Day, Humanitas, Disability Coordinator
• 301-608-3290, ext. 409 or michelle.day_at_humanitas.
  com
• Debbie Jones, Humanitas, Learning Disabilities
  Specialist
• 804-598-2118, or debbiemjones_at_adelphia.net