Bringing Disability Acceptance to my Employer
It's been a month?! Well, at least it's been a productive one...
When I logged into my dashboard, I saw that my last post was on June 22, more than one month ago. I looked at it and thought, “I’ve been really lazy. I can’t believe I haven’t posted in a month!” Then, thinking about all I’ve done since the end of June, I realized that I have actually stayed really close to what I wanted to do with this Substack, which was to bring awareness and acceptance of neurodiversity, mental health and disabilities to those around me. I want to bring it to the forefront wherever I can, and maybe make a little difference in the world. It’s the same reason I was a teacher of kids on the spectrum, and I know I made a difference in those students’ lives, as well as indirectly in other people’s lives through my students’ actions. As an example, one of my students started Jason’s Connection to help “…connecting adults with disabilities and others with diverse needs regarding Disability, Mental Health, and Aging.” I am proud to have taught Jason, and am in awe at what he has done in the field.
Now, it’s been a long while since I taught Jason, and I left education employment in 2017, so that I could find a job that I could stay in until I retire while still supporting my family (I’m still there almost 6 years later). I still do teach occasionally, like in my employer’s apprentice program (I taught math for trades apprentices), as well as tutor, but never really feel like I completely fulfilled my potential to make a difference in the world. That is when I learned that my employer supports Employee Resource Groups, and I decided to start one at work for people with disabilities.
Employee Resource Groups are a diversity initiative which is designed to support different groups within an organization (see this article for a good overview). I currently develop classes to train new supervisors and managers on how to “be nice to” their crews, as my employer is a manufacturing company that is hiring thousands of people in the next couple of years, and our product requires people of all types who can think outside that traditional box, in order to create innovations that will make our product better with each one made. As a result, you’d think they would support diversity initiatives, especially in hiring new members of our workforce. However, when I started with them in 2017, the president of the company was focused on cost and schedule, and seemed to view the average employee as expendable. For two years, that was the culture of our organization, just like was common in many companies since the 1980s. However, near the end of 2019, our president unexpectedly announced that he was retiring, and would be replaced by a much younger person who was with a different subsidiary of our parent company.
This retirement might have been unexpected and quick, but most of us weren’t really surprised. In the previous six months, there had been a number of safety issues with our plant that resulted in a few near-fatalities. It was obvious that the outgoing president had sacrificed a lot to try and maximize income at the expense of safety and quality, and the head honchos weren’t too happy with the increased governmental visibility. Soon after the new president came in, he went through all the offices, and was even on the line in the plant, visiting the average workers, and asking what we thought of the company and ideas on how it could be better. This guy was focused on making the company better, which was an amazing thing to see. I knew things were changing and I looked forward to what was to come.
However, the best laid plans often go awry, and CoVID hit a couple of months later, disrupting those changes. At this time, my employer had 3 ERGs (one each for employees who are Veterans, Hispanic, and Black), and they were not well supported. Employees still felt unappreciated and expendable after 9 years under the previous president, and now the new president was going to have a mess on his hands dealing with this pandemic.
However, CoVID became less of an issue, and the new president began his work in earnest. Soon, there were two new ERGs (one for Women, and one for LGBTQIA+ employees), and others were under development. There was a new manager for diversity at the company, and I approached the Diversity group about starting a Disability ERG. In the 3 months since then, our group has gone from just me to having over 20 founding members, and we haven’t even been approved by management yet. I am proud to be involved in starting this group, and I know that we will be a major force in recruiting new employees, as well as supporting those within our company with obtaining accommodations so that our workforce can be as diverse as those that we support with our products.
I will keep writing about my journey with this ERG, and hope that it can promote diversity, not only at my employer, but maybe spread awareness and acceptance across the nation. And, if you are amenable, I would like to have you join me as I navigate through this adventure.
I'm on board! More power to you!
I raised an Aspie (huge anxiety, gifted, severe specific areas of learning disabilities, executive function, dyscalculia, dysgraphia, taste/texture food issues, gentle, sweet, funny, and after a few lost semesters at college, applied on his own to his first choice University and was accepted - on the basis of his steadily improving grades, a delightful interview with a recruiter, and no SATs required - he was a poor tester.)
If you've seen one Aspie, you've only seen one Aspie. But having been involved with his NPS schools since fifth grade thru high school graduation, I was able to observe and interact with the schools, the professionals, the therapists, the parents, and the kids.
So I am so very happy to see your Substack, and I look forward to your future points of view. 😊❤️ I have a feeling of hope towards the future.