Employing Strategies and Resources: Creating An Accessible Workplace Culture

Introduction

Here it is the end of October, the month that commemorates National Disability Employment Awareness Month (NDEAM).  Each year I feel that it’s important to somehow commemorate the month—I am a person with disabilities, and I do sit on the Presidential Commission of Disability Strategies and Resources (DSR) at Kennesaw State University.  This blog post will need to do the job. What stands out about this commemorative month is the clear focus on bringing awareness of poor employment opportunities for persons with a disability to the nation.  Most of the commemorative months that are celebrated in the United States are dedicated to persons who have minority status and who have had (and who often continue to have) issues with employment.  However, this is the only month where the emphasis is on employment awareness itself.

Poster for NDEAM 2019: The Right Talent, Right Now

October began to earn its status as NDEAM in 1945 as World War II ended, and Americans began to realize that service members disabled during the war needed jobs.  Thus, on August 11, 1945, the “National Employ the Physically Handicapped Week” was born. In 1962 the word “physically” was removed in order to broaden the scope—why not deem all persons with a disability as potential employees? (ADA Timeline)

Ever so slowly legislation concerning architectural barriers, vocational rehabilitation, education, training, transportation, and job accommodations worked their way through Congress. Lawsuits demanding accessibility worked their way through the courts, and protests across the nation brought attention to the issue.  In 1988 President H.W. Bush appointed a committee concerning the employment of the “handicapped,” which resulted in Congress expanding the “National Employ the Handicapped Week” to the entire month of October and changing the name to National Disability Employment Awareness Month. The American Disabilities Act (ADA)—often considered the civil rights act for persons with disabilities—followed in 1990.

In the nearly thirty years since the ADA was enacted into law, two things have happened. 1) in 2008 legislation was passed to provide guidelines on interpreting the ADA to make sure the act is as inclusive as possible, and 2) citizens with disabilities have continued to fight for their rights, using the courts and protests. Perhaps it is this consistent fight for access that has kept the focus on employment instead of broadening it to history, heritage, and culture. Do those of us with disabilities feel as though our largest fight continues to be hired, not fired? Are we still seeking accessible, inclusive, workplace cultures and trying not to flinch too much when companies wonder what type of “skill sets” we can bring to the workplace?

Current unemployment data concerning persons with a disability does show that we are more likely to be unemployed than are persons without a disability. Yes, nearly half of all persons with disabilities are age 65 or over.  Yes, the Office of Disability Employment Policy (ODEP) provides labor statistics that show nearly 80% of persons with a disability are not seeking employment. However, persons with a disability who are seeking a job, did have a more difficult time finding a job than persons without a disability in 2018 (see “Persons with a Disability: Labor Force Characteristics” at “Disability Employment Statistics”).  The 2018 statistics show:

• The jobless rates were higher for persons with a disability than they were for persons without a disability across all educational groups. 8.0% of persons with a disability were unemployed compared to 3.7% of persons without a disability
• Persons with a disability were less likely to have completed a bachelor’s degree or higher than those with no disability
• Persons with a disability who had attained higher levels of education were more likely to be employed than those who had attained less.
• Not surprisingly, persons with a disability were more likely to work in service occupations than those without a disability (19% compared with 17.5%) as well as to work in production, transportation and material moving occupations than those without a disability (13.9% compared with 11.8%).
• Persons with a disability were also more like to be employed part-time (31%) than persons without a disability (17%), and they were more likely to be self-employed.

While I did not find data that contrasts the earnings of persons with disabilities with the earnings of persons with no disabilities, the data above tells us quite a bit:

• in 2018 most persons with a disability were not in the labor force
• They were more likely to be unemployed if in the labor force
• They were less likely to have a bachelor’s degree
• They were more likely to work in service,
• And they were more likely to work part-time.

High salaries simply do not correlate with this data.

These statistics may also explain why the focus for this commemorative month remains on employment. This blog post is meant to examine how the Presidential Commission on Disability Strategies and Resources (DSR) has the potential to impact the the number of college students with a disability who can graduation from the college, and how it also has the potential to increase the number of faculty and staff members with disabilities who are hired and who are able to maintain their employment.

Enabling Academe: The Purpose of the DSR

The DSR is run out of KSU’s Office of Diversity and Inclusion by Chief Diversity Officer, Sylvia Carey-Butler. Its primary purpose is to “address issues and challenges faced by persons with disabilities” and to “ensure that persons with disabilities are not confronted with barriers to full participation in all aspects related to university life.”  The goal is to ensure that university “programs and services are inclusive to [KSU] constituents with disabilities.”  What do these statements mean?  For me they mean that the DSR has the potential to address several key issues related to employment:

• It has the potential to examine programs, strategies, initiatives, and resources that are part of recruitment, retention, and career counseling in order to ensure students with disabilities have access to a college education and to the type of advising and counseling that helps them find a job—one that will pay them on an equal scale with person without a disability
• It has the potential to ensure that persons with disabilities are not discriminated against in the hiring process at KSU and that faculty and staff with disabilities are given the resources necessary so that they can fully participate in the essential duties associated with their positions
• Finally, it has the potential to examine the built environment of the campuses in order to eliminate barriers whenever possible, to increase accessibility, and to ensure accommodations are created when necessary so students, staff, and faculty have access to campus life.

The DSR has only the “potential” to make changes.  Its members are volunteers.  Since some of the work is advisory, the DSR often proposes solutions to the Chief Diversity Officer and/or President rather than instituting change itself.

DSR Members Enabling Academe

Currently members of the commission are staff and faculty who are employed by KSU.  It is not surprising that staff from Student Disability Services (SDS) and Counseling and Psychological Services (CPS) are part of the commission.  It is also not surprising that faculty members are part of the DSR.  The job of all universities is to ensure that students accepted to the university are provided with an education, and federal law dictates that students with disabilities are no exception. SDS and CPS take the lead at providing such services.  Of course, it is faculty who ensure that the curriculum is accessible to students with disabilities, both by creating inclusive classes and by ensuring students with a disability receive their accommodations.  Most universities emphasize these faculty duties to students with a disability; however, it is also their obligation to provide equal opportunity benefits for the hiring of faculty and staff with a disability and the ADA accommodations such faculty members can request.

It is also beneficial to have DSR members who are students and who are staff from both campuses that represent KSU’s communication practices, facility management, and event planning. It’s key to have a variety of viewpoints when creating an inclusive campus.

To celebrate NDEAM I interviewed the chair of the DSR commission, Bonna Lenyszyn; the Director of Students Disability Services, Paula Almond; the Assistant Director of Student Disability Services on the Marietta Campus, Katie Fahn; and a faculty member, Laura Ruhala, who is an Associate Professor of Mechanical Engineering.

Building Bridges:  The Story of Bonna Lenyszyn

Bonna Lenyszyn, the DSR Chair

I have always loved listening to stories.  When I was young, my oldest brother and sister would come home from school and tell us what happened that day. I learned to listen for the moment when their voices crested with excitement, and then I knew the best part of the story had arrived.

When I interview someone for a post, I know that there will not necessarily be a climax to the person’s story, but I listen for tones that resonate with emotion.  It was easy to hear these tones in the voice of Bonna Lenyszn, the Chair of the DSR Commission. She is passionate about helping students with a disability forge connections with others.  She wants the gulf between people to narrow through a bridge of communication.

Bonna is Kennesaw State University’s Deaf and Hard of Hearing Services Manager.  Her biography at the Student Disability Services Webpage states that she is a nationally certified Sign Language Interpreter and that she has been a Deaf and Hard of Hearing Services professional since 2002. Among other things, it says that she graduated from the University of Georgia with a degree in Communication Sciences and Disorders in 2000 and that she received a 4.0 grade point average in the Gallaudet ASL summer program in 2000.

What it doesn’t say is that she began learning American Sign Language (ASL) in fifth grade and loved the experience almost immediately.  It doesn’t say that she once had a friend who was deaf who always had interpreters with her.  It doesn’t say that simply watching the interpreters help her friend to connect with other people revealed her life passion.

When interviewing Bonna, I realized how attuned she is to the ways in which community matters.  She told me about serving as the Director of Camp Juliena for Deaf and Hard of Hearing Youths and Teens for 11 years.  Bonna pointed out to me that the difference this summer camp made in the lives of the children was dramatic.  Children benefited from its rich language environment as well as from interacting with the volunteer staff members who came from diverse backgrounds. The camp provided children and staff sometimes with their first access to another person who was deaf.

Bonna indicated that too many students who are deaf or who have other disabilities are left at the margins of community. I understand her point quite well.  Since the time when I was diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis in 1999, both my husband and I have lived at the margins of the social groups within which we once fully participated.  We are lucky to have each other.

It is important to Bonna that she teaches KSU’s Deaf and Hard of Hearing students how to advocate for themselves, even as she ensures infrastructure is in place behind the scenes. In many ways the DSR can help to support Bonna in her goal.  It can work to create policy and procedures that ensure KSU video materials contain captions and that interpreters are available for event and classroom needs.  Bonna holds her students accountable and we, too, must hold KSU accountable.

Bonna’s passion for ensuring access and inclusion is what led her to chair the DSR Commission.  Our previous Chair left her job at KSU this past January, and we were lucky that Bonna decided to bridge one more gap. She told me she doesn’t like politics, but she just couldn’t walk away from the position since she knew she could help.

Orchestrating Student Disability Services: Paula Almond Finds her Niche

Paula Almond, the Director of Student Disability Services

Paula Almond, the Director of SDS, speaks more quietly than Bonna and is a bit more measured.  She began her career at Kennesaw State University in 1995 as a counselor providing personal, career, and academic counseling in Counseling and Psychological Services.  As I listened to her story, I had a feeling that she has found her true niche when she took on the role of the Director in November of 2015 soon after KSU merged with Southern Polytechnic State University (SPSU).  Paula’s niche is in budgeting, creating an organizational structure, addressing staffing needs, and finding the best means for accommodating students. How do I know?  She focused on these issues in her interview in much the same way a maestro understands all the ways in which different instruments must pull together to create symphonic sound.

Paula understands that there is no magic bullet for resolving all the needs of the students who come through the Marietta and Kennesaw SDS offices.  She has to ensure access to the built environment and to the curriculum on the two hilly campuses that make up the comprehensive university known as KSU.   Each campus contains both undergraduate and graduate programs, one emphasizing polytechnic programs and the other emphasizing more traditional liberal arts programs.

Paula began the interview by telling me that SDS was not in great shape when she became director.  She needed to pull her budget out of the red, to pay interpreters, to find money for assistive devices, and to fully staff the offices.  Luckily, she received assistance from K.C. White, the Vice President of Student Affairs at KSU from 2015 – October 2019. White determined that SDS needed to be a top priority.

With White’s support and a larger budget, Paula tuned up her orchestra.  She found better space for the KSU office and hired more full-time staff.  These staff members included Bonna as well as other staff members who provide academic coaching, who provide expertise with assistive technology, and who facilitate outreach and transition for students leaving high school and coming to college.

At various points in my life, I have felt that I both know quite a bit about disability needs and very little about them.  My interview with Paula reminded me that while I have dealt with disabilities for 20 years now, I still know very little.  For example, I didn’t know much about the following assistive technology she discussed with me:

• The Sonocent Audio Notetaking Software, which allows students to record lectures on their laptop or mobile device and also allows them to highlight sections of importance or to upload PowerPoint slides from the professor before class starts.
• The Livescribe Smart Pens, which allow students to take handwritten notes and to record lessons at the same time.
• The ClaroRead software which SDS is now testing.  It helps students who have difficulties with reading text to convert text to speech so it can be heard by students as an audio file.  Finally,
• Dragon Speech, which allows persons to speak to their computers and to have text appear without having to type.  This program is now available on six SDS computers.

Paula was pleased to tell me that there are now 24 computers available to students with disabilities on the Kennesaw Campus and 14 computers on the Marietta Campus.  Three computers with magnifiers are available in the testing location. She is interested in various types of apps and software that literally open doors for students with a disability.  This interests me as well.  Too often I have rolled up in my scooter to the entrance of a bathroom only to realize that opening the door from my scooter was too difficult. Luckily, I am able to walk, even when fatigued.  Others are not so lucky.

Finally, Paula talked to me about what she would like to see from the DSR this year.  She indicated that while we did get some good objectives written down last year that we need to be more proactive this year; She wants to see a university-wide service for ensuring that events such as graduation and freshman orientation have a pool of money allocated for ensuring they are accessible.  She also wants to ensure that classrooms are more accessible.  Overcrowded classrooms have especially created detrimental situations for students with disabilities.  I am not surprised at her list.  It shows that this maestro knows both the big picture and the details that need to be worked out to get there.

Full STEAM Ahead: Katie Fahn Designs Success

Katie Fahn, The Assistant Director of Student Disability Services on the Marietta Campus

I’ve known Katie Fahn, the Assistant Director of Student Disability Services who serves on the Marietta Campus, for many years. In fact, I first met her when she was an SPSU student, working in the Advising, Testing, Tutoring, and International Communication (ATTIC) center.  She was then an architecture major.  While working in the ATTIC, she realized that her passion might not be with architecture after all.  The more she worked with students who had disabilities and who were majoring in science, technology, engineering, architecture, and mathematics (STEAM), the more she found that helping this population was her passion.

In the ATTIC Katie saw first-hand the ways in which barriers blocked access and began to consider the means for removing them.  Her architecture background came in handy here. In her architecture thesis, she examined sensory integration in the built environment.  What Katie learned is that subtle temperature and textural cues would help persons with disabilities to navigate their environment.  What is interesting about these cues is that they sometimes were so beneficial to certain populations with disabilities that these populations were able to navigate the built environment better than the abled population could.

The background in architecture has served Katie well. I worked closely with her on a project for the Diversability Expo that the DSR held in October of 2017, and I know what she completed the majority of the project that analyzed the accessibility of the built environment on the Marietta Campus.  The end result was a campus map that outlined accessible areas and areas that needed improvement.  This project highlighted her unique abilities because of her background in architecture and rehabilitation counseling.

Katie will speak rapidly and passionately when she feels the need.  However, she can be as measured as Paula and rather quiet. During our interview, I could hear her passionate interest for working with STEAM students with a disability, especially when she talked about the significant number of students who are on the autism spectrum on the Marietta Campus.  Her hypothesis for this occurrence is that it is created by the campus culture:

• The objective nature of STEAM majors on the campus
• The student-to-faculty ratio created literally by classroom size (fire codes allow only so many students into these small classrooms)
• The availability of professors
• The suburban location near a large city granting access to the downtown
• The clear campus perimeter
• And the fact that KSU as a Research 2 university has full-time faculty often teaching orientation major classes.

Katie has found that it is sometimes difficult to determine exactly which disability benefits will help each student diagnosed on the autism spectrum.  Because no student on the spectrum has needs that are exactly like another student’s, it can be difficult to know what exactly will work for each student.  SDS likes to work with other support communities at KSU to ensure the best outcome. Students on the autism spectrum sometimes benefit more from being mentored and helped with skills such as interpersonal communication than they benefit from tutoring in STEM subjects.  Thus, they may find the Odyssey Peer Mentoring Program more helpful than the Science and Mathematics Academic Resource Tutoring Center (SMART Center).  Students with disabilities who are returning to college or who commute to college may also benefit from the resources at Adult and Commuter Student Affairs.

A concern for Katie is the student who has a disability who does not work with SDS.  She knows that it is difficult to break through the stigma associated with disability; however, all students are dealing with some issue.  Why not use the KSU resources to their full benefit?

I understand Katie’s point quite well.  Because Multiple Sclerosis lesions can occur anywhere in the central nervous system, those of us impacted by MS are as likely to have issues that deal with fatigue, cognition, word retrieval, memory, and emotional change, as we are to have issues related to motor skills such as walking. (MS International’s Emotion and Cognitive Changes). I am constantly trying to examine all the resources that can help me, whether they are linked with KSU’s Human Resources office and provided in compliance with the American Disability Act, or with physical therapy and counseling linked with KSU health benefits, or items I can purchase, such as my Honda CR-V, which has hand controls and a scooter lift.

It is Katie’s hope that the DSR is one more resource for championing the cause of persons with disabilities.  She emphasizes that the commission brings together perspectives from a variety of sources that acknowledge and celebrate diversity.  When these voices pull together as a unified group, they have the power to make great strides for the number one minority group in the United Sates—a group that every citizen can join since disability can occur for anyone of any age, gender, color, or ethnicity.

Roll a Mile on My Scooter:  Laura Ruhala Shares Her Experience With Students

Laura Ruhala, Associate Professor of Mechanical Engineering

My final interview was with Laura Ruhala, an Associate Professor of Mechanical Engineering who has disabilities related to a car crash when she was young.  Professors such as Laura have two foci related to disabilities:  1.  setting up accommodations that will best serve themselves, and 2. Creating inclusive classrooms which accommodate students with a disability.

While there is no good time to become disabled, I benefited from the fact that I was 39 before I was diagnosed, and I had already found a job in academe.  Laura’s voice became emotional when she told me that she was just 17 when her car collided with a shuttle bus in a head-on collision.  The two boys who were in the car with her died.  The accident took a toll on her body. She still has chronic pain, limited reach with her right arm, and difficulty walking distances. The accident also took a toll on her mind.  Depression, anxiety, and Post Traumatic Stress Disorder have followed the accident.

Recent accommodations that have placed her office close to the entry of the Q Building on the Marietta Campus as well as close to her classroom have allowed Laura to be less reliant on her scooter.  She herself has changed her practices so that she can fare better in the classroom.  She uses the document camera instead of the white board.  This allows her to stay in one location and it doesn’t force the use of her right arm as much.  She also has created “fill in the blank” notes for her students.  Students buy the book of notes and fill in the blanks as the class progresses.  This cuts down on the amount that Laura has to write.

Laura told me that in recent years she has become more forthright with students about the anxiety that she faces.  One thing Laura has begun to do is to let students know about her own disabilities on the first day of class.  She has found that doing so has benefited her students.  Around five or six weeks into the semester, students often face their own anxiety and homesickness.  They now are more likely to communicate their issues with Laura since they know they share a bond with her.

This led us to discuss what Laura does to create an inclusive classroom.  She finds that mechanical engineering does tend to attract students on the autism spectrum.  She has found that one of the huge benefits of her accommodation that has set her classroom so near her office is that it has also benefited her students with a disability.  Freshman students especially are likely to go back with Laura to her office in order to discuss any issues they are having.  This year Laura is teaching a student who cannot communicate verbally or in writing.  He instead types in words to a small tablet and the machine speaks for him.  Like other students with a disability, he has benefited from personal time with Laura.

What Laura would like to see the commission accomplish is to find students to serve on it so that faculty, staff, and students can become more aware of issues and the solutions for them.  Laura would like to see the commission work to help faculty with pragmatic issues and policies that will support the entire population of persons with disabilities. Members of the Faculty and Staff sub-committee had begun to examine what it would take to create a center that would serve faculty, staff, and students, and Laura also sees this as an interesting concept.

Rounding out the Commission: The Other Members

While I selected the four DSR members above for interviews, there are many others I could have picked.  Experts in Facility Design, Housing, Admissions, Counseling and Psychological Services provide different insight and services, thus, helping the DSR to provide well-rounded strategies.  While it may look like faculty members bring similar skills, even the two English faculty members on the DSR provide very different points of expertise. Leah Benedict’s focus on the medical humanities and 17^th and 18^th century British Literature is quite different from my own focus on culture, disability studies, and pedagogy. Diana Gregory, a professor of Art Education, has a fascinating background that interweaves her background in painting and printmaking with interrelated special education and art education.  The following list of faculty and staff members are part of the DSR.  Because the members are split between the two KSU campuses, I have indicated their home campuses as well.

In alphabetical order the members are as follows:

• Tara Adams, Director of Housing Facilities (Kennesaw Campus)
• Leah Benedict, Assistant Professor of English (Kennesaw Campus)
• Christopher Bruno, Interim Director of Housing Operations and Residence Life (Kennesaw Campus)
• Caroline Edwards, Admissions Recruiter, (Town Point)
• Diana Gregory, Professor of Art Education (Marietta Campus)
• Josh Gunn, Assistant Dean of Student Affairs and Director of Counseling and Psychological Services (Kennesaw Campus)
• Richard Rhodes, Director of Facility Design and Construction Services, (Kennesaw Campus)
• Samuel Robinson, Assistant Dean of Admissions and Student Services and Senior Lecturer of Theater (Town Point)
• Yen Rodriguez Part-Time Instructor of American Studies (Kennesaw Campus)
• Nastassia Sanabria, Assistant Director of Student Disability Services (Kennesaw Campus)
• Whitney Venzant, Disabilities Services Coordinator, Student Disability Services (Kennesaw Campus)

Conclusion

As I interviewed the four DSR members, I kept thinking about two issues:  1) workplace culture and 2) this year’s theme for NDEAM, “The Right Talent, Right Now.”  Workplace culture is the environment that is created within an organization. It includes the organizational structure, artifacts dealing with policy and workplace practices, as well as traditions that become ensconced as part of the culture.  Workplace culture often privileges certain methodology, some of which is key to safety, but some of which is tied to “this is how we have always done it.”

When one ties traditional methodology to the types of skill sets (communication skills, time management, emotional intelligence, problem solving) that employers feel employees should bring to the job, and then one adds that these things have become fixed over time, the culture may privilege persons considered “normal.”

What I enjoyed about the interviews is seeing the creative and thoughtful ways in which narrowly defined ideas about workplace culture can and should be challenged.  Bonna told me about helping a deaf student get a job that depended on his being able to hear the blare of a horn because it stopped the line work in a factory.  The employer could not see how her student could work within this community.  Bonna suggested that all the employer needed to do to change things was to add a flashing light to the blare of the horn for when the line needed to halt.  Not only did this suggestion work, but it also benefited the other workers who did not always hear the horn.  A safer workplace was created in the end.

This leads me to think about the NDEAM theme: “The Right Talent, Right Now.” I think we need to think about the employees with disabilities who positively impact the success of an organization because of what they have learned from their life experience.  For example, think about what Laura is bringing to her students.  She has used creative strategies to ensure she can perform the necessary tasks associated with her position, and she has created tools that help students learn. She has created a compassionate, inclusive environment because of her willingness to share her own vulnerability. Students can easily meet with Laura outside of her class, which is in part related to the ease in which they can moved from her classroom to her office, which is nearby.

In the end, my hope for the DSR is that it can in some way communicate these final thoughts as a means of showing what organizations and corporations may potentially be losing when they do not hire persons with a disability.  In the end the issue may not be with the person with a disability; instead, it may be with the culture of the workplace itself.