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Tag: disability employment

  • 4 Mindsets To Help You Rise to Leadership Working with a Disability

    4 Mindsets To Help You Rise to Leadership Working with a Disability

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    Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.

    There’s no question: More of us are working with a disability or a limiting condition for a longer period than ever before. This means we must change our perspective on our own productivity and be willing to see ourselves leading with a limitation. Disabled people must be ready to reach for the brass ring as they make up more of the executive team.

    In the era of the “big quit,” employers are more willing than ever to hire diverse candidates with exceptional needs and limitations. The reason? Many people with disabilities have already proven they can go above and beyond expectations in their personal lives — and on the job.

    But are you ready to take the next big step and leverage your strengths gained through adversity to aim for a leadership role? Here are four mindsets you need to take the leap of faith and expand your vision beyond the invisible barriers holding you back.

    Related: How Physical Disability Helped Me Become a VC-Backed Tech Founder

    1. Get creative

    There’s no greater opportunity to demonstrate your creativity than the journey through progressive visual impairment, multiple sclerosis or autism spectrum disorder. Whatever your limitation, finding creative solutions is the key to every closed door, every blocked opportunity and every unaccommodating venue.

    Many disabled people get up much earlier than workers without limitations; for a person with multiple sclerosis, getting dressed can take more than twice the time most people would need. A legally blind manager must listen to emails read through speech recognition technology, whereas most people would visually scan the most important messages and easily toss out the rest.

    Since you’ve found creative solutions to navigate obstacles in your personal journey, you can take this creativity to the next level. If you’ve been considering competing for a leadership role, use your creative side to uncover new methods and embrace innovation. Your adaptability and willingness to explore new technology will propel you to a new level of efficiency. You can be a beacon for others who want more from their careers. You’re a hurricane of inspiration; you’ve learned to meet change with confidence rather than fear.

    Related: How to Be More Creative in Your Business

    2. Bring your perspective

    Now that you’ve proven that your limitation doesn’t define you, it’s time to capitalize on the level of mindfulness you have gained through your journey. Your natural mindset is an awareness of staff members’ stress as they go about their day. There will be decisions as to how work will be done. Accessibility and accommodation are already part of your wheelhouse. You will come into a leadership position with an edge. Look around your workplace and see what needs redefining. Can small changes make a big difference in how team members work together?

    Perhaps living with a disability has taught you how to leverage strengths and weaknesses for maximum output. You can spot hidden potential and get the most productivity out of others because you have overcome the obstacles in your own life. You have learned to complement your team members’ traits, learning to demand more of yourself while stepping back to let others shine when the time is right. This is the essence of leading with empathy, guiding people toward accepting one another’s gifts and working with each other’s shortcomings. You will be the first to admit that we are all a blend of both. Other executives will want to study your leadership style when you take the next step.

    3. Speak for yourself

    Part of living with a limiting condition is learning to advocate for yourself and discovering strength in your vulnerability. You will excel in negotiations and motivating people because you can relate and empathize with those struggling and celebrating their victories.

    You may think sharing your journey through disability or chronic illness might bring unwanted attention or put you in a weakened position in the eyes of others. If you’re aiming for a leadership role, you may fear that telling your story could risk everything you’re working for. What is intriguing is how often a person’s journey weighs heavily in hiring decisions. The ability to move people with your struggle and connect authentically with others who have walked through adverse circumstances is often the deciding factor when company executives are looking to fill leadership roles. Most important, you will be a source of inspiration for people of all levels in the company. Finding your voice is vital to relate to employees and help them feel a part of the corporate community.

    For you, “speaking up” could be asking for the role you want or advocating for your ideas. Learn to talk your worth and make your mark on the team. Finding your voice is the best way to position yourself for opportunity. You should be able to explain why you should get the job, why your idea will succeed, and why your story is important.

    Related: Need to Negotiate? Here’s the Best Way to Advocate for Yourself for Maximum Impact.

    4. Measure your impact

    What is your legacy in your workplace? Are you known as an overcomer, an advocate, or a leader with a fresh perspective? You can gauge your worth to your workplace by taking stock of the impact, the “footprint” you have made in your company, no matter how large or small the business may be. It’s never too late to change your legacy. Perhaps, in the beginning, you were getting your feet under you, discovering your resourcefulness. Now, it’s time to expand your vision and think about how you can leave your mark in business and life. This is a chance to live what you have learned and be mindful of the legacy you leave for the future.

    Think about how you can make a difference and become a force for good when you finally land in an expanded role. It’s good practice to mentally prepare to step into leadership. You’ve served and observed, taking notes and promising yourself that if you ever rose to a powerful position, you would advocate for those who needed it. Your tendency to recognize others’ strengths despite their vulnerabilities will allow you to comfortably take charge with a heart of compassion toward those who may also wish to rise above their circumstances and see their dreams come true.

    Finally, go with confidence

    If you’re aiming for a position in leadership, let your confidence shine. After all, you’ve gone up against greater foes than unmotivated employees or a sluggish sales report. You’ve battled for your life and come out on the winning side. Go into your new role with the same strength and bold attitude you showed everyone, the positive outlook that helped you stay in the ring, refusing to let pain, anxiety, or frustration take you out. The culture is shifting as businesses learn to celebrate exceptional people while they honor diversity in the workplace. As a disabled worker, you can lead confidently, charting a new course and breaking new ground for all those who dream of overcoming adversity and rising to new horizons in leadership.

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    Nancy Solari

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  • Why Business Executives with Disabilities Must Take Back Their HealthCare Now

    Why Business Executives with Disabilities Must Take Back Their HealthCare Now

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    Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.

    Anything less than full throttle is not an option for any business leader, but when you’re running the company with a disability, it takes something more than overcoming a lack of confidence or changing perceptions in the boardroom.

    It’s already tough to get to the top, let alone run your own business. When you get there, taking a day off is not an option; neither is calling in sick. If you require special accommodations, your biggest fear is that corporate heads will put someone else in your role — someone without the need for doctor’s visits, work accommodations, or even surgeries.

    Leaders with limitations often push themselves to prove to stockholders and CEOs that they can thrive in a stressful environment, outperform others gunning for the top role, and do everything themselves. But this is an unrealistic and dangerous way of thinking; this mindset is often responsible for deteriorating health and well-being as leaders put off important medical visits, forego physical therapy or miss medications.

    There is a way to take control of your health and wellness, but it takes a proactive, intentional approach. You can run your personal healthcare strategy the way you run your company — using the skills that brought you your current success. Here are three ways to take back the reins and manage your health.

    Related: How Hiring People With Disabilities Will Make Your Business Stronger

    1. Seize your day

    You may feel you don’t have time for your condition, but if you intentionally plan your medical visits, you can take control of every facet of your personal health care by choosing when you see health care providers. You can decide the time of day and, most often, the frequency of visits to physicians and therapists.

    Think about which appointments are taxing and which help you and your mindset; in other words, which visits work with your day rather than against it. Some physical therapy sessions, for example, might look like a gym routine; for others, therapy might be more relaxing, such as massage or meditation. Think about where in the day your medical visit would best help your productivity — and plan accordingly.

    If therapy relieves you, schedule it early in the day, perhaps at the beginning. You can choose your medical professional based on availability in the morning. But if you’re going through something that puts you in a negative mental or emotional state, save it for the end of the day or even the weekend.

    Business leaders with limitations often complain that they don’t like leaving work, where they feel most confident and take pride in what they do, to walk into a doctor’s office feeling helpless and out of control. If you’re in corporate leadership, you may feel that the negativity you experience going to the doctor goes against the positive mindset you need to motivate others and run your company effectively. But the skills you employ daily running your business can take you far in planning and managing your healthcare needs.

    Related: Why Leaders with Disabilities Bring a Secret Weapon to the Negotiating Table

    2. Be your own advocate

    As a leader, you’ve been hired to solve the tough problems for your company. You can apply this same know-how to your healthcare by assembling a team of positive, upbeat and effective healthcare providers to help you achieve your wellness goals. So often, we accept assigned healthcare workers or doctors on referral. We don’t look past the general requirements of insurance policies to ask questions that could help us find the right individuals to form a healthcare team to support our needs.

    Find like-minded people to care for you. If you need a physical therapist with a “coach” mindset, do the research, read the reviews and find one. If you need a counselor for talk therapy to help you cope with your condition, keep digging and asking questions until you find the right person.

    Since you’re giving up a large portion of your day to attend to your health needs, use the same mindset you have for hiring people at the workplace. Does each person on your team have a positive mindset? Do you feel uplifted when you leave the clinic, even if all the news isn’t good? Does each member of your healthcare team listen to your needs and help you find solutions? Why would you sacrifice your health by accepting unvetted practitioners if you don’t accept inferior performance at work?

    Don’t accept “No,” for an answer, and don’t listen when someone says that a much-needed treatment is not covered by insurance. Often, a little self-advocating can go a long way. You will eventually find a person willing to help you get answers. Using your leadership skills to advocate for yourself and how you stand in the gap for your company is important.

    Related: Employers Need Workers. Now They’re Realizing The Untapped Talent of These People.

    3. Delegate to create a work-life balance

    If you’re in a leadership role, you may not hire employees directly, but knowing who to trust in your workforce is central to managing your company if you have a disability. You’ll need a “go-to” person to step in for you. Find the person who can keep the home fires burning, take that person under your wing, and bring them up to speed on the specific needs of your role in the company. Share with them how you do things, especially the daily schedule, the “musts” of your job, and where to find important information.

    You can simplify this for others if you learn to embrace technology. Invest in researching tech that keeps you in the loop, even if you’re in physical therapy or recovering from surgery. Look for training on iPhone or Android technology that can help you see spreadsheets, scan reports, analyze productivity or go over profit and loss figures, all from your phone.

    Thriving at work is essential; however, managing your time is key to taking control of your wholeness. Your well-being is as vital to the company as it is to you and your loved ones. There’s always time to invest in a healthier and more productive future. You can turn the tide on your health needs using the know-how that brought you to lead in the first place.

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    Nancy Solari

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  • LIA event highlights disability employment | Long Island Business News

    LIA event highlights disability employment | Long Island Business News

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    The Long Island Association held a panel discussion Thursday to mark National Disability Employment Awareness Month. 

    Speakers at the event, held at LIA headquarters in Melville, included Chris Rosa, president and CEO of The Viscardi Center; John and Mark Cronin, co-founders of John’s Crazy Socks; and Ines Vanboom, assistant vice president for Workforce Readiness at Northwell Health. 

    “One of the LIA’s top priorities is to cultivate a more diverse, equitable, and inclusive economy because that will support the overall growth and prosperity of our region,” Matt Cohen, president and CEO of the LIA, said in an organization statement. “Businesses on Long Island that have hired people with disabilities have demonstrated you can be both inclusive and profitable.”  

    This year’s theme for National Disability Employment Awareness Month is “Disability: Part of the Equity Equation.” The LIA event was aimed at providing the business community with tools, guidance, and information to support expansion of their talent pool, enable them to foster a more inclusive workplace and understand how it can also lead to company growth. 

    “The Viscardi Center has more than 300 employer partners that provide mentoring, internships, and job shadowing opportunities for participants in our vocational training program so they can enter the workforce,” Rosa said in the statement. “This program allows them to see the real value and talent that people with disabilities bring to their companies.” 

    John’s Crazy Socks has been focused on developing a successful business model as a social enterprise. 

    “Our socks are the physical manifestation of our social mission to support people with differing abilities,” Mark Cronin said in the statement. “Our goal is to spread happiness – through donating 5% of our earnings to the Special Olympics, by making people happy through our socks, and by showing people what’s possible when they have an inclusive workforce.” 

    Vanboom said that Northwell Health, the largest private employer in the state, provides its employees with the tools to be inclusive in their everyday responsibilities through training and mentoring. 

    “We also have a breadth of long-standing programs to hire motivated and skilled individuals with disabilities, which ultimately enhances the patient experience,” Vanboom said. 

    Moderated by Ellen Labita, partner and professional practice leader at Baker Tilly, the event was hosted by the LIA’s Health, Education and Not-for-Profit Committee. The committee is co-chaired by Kimberly Cline, president of Long Island University and Dr. Patrick O’Shaughnessy, president and CEO of Catholic Health. It is co-vice chaired by Labita and Paule Pachter, president and CEO of Long Island Cares. 

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    David Winzelberg

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  • RespectAbility Report: Tenfold Decrease in Job Gains for People With Disabilities

    RespectAbility Report: Tenfold Decrease in Job Gains for People With Disabilities

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    Only 29,893 people with disabilities entered the workforce in 2018, a tenfold decrease compared to 343,000+ new jobs in 2016.

    Press Release
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    updated: Feb 25, 2020


    WASHINGTON, February 25, 2020 (Newswire.com)
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    Job gains among Americans with disabilities have dramatically fallen compared to previous growth. The Disability Statistics Compendium, released earlier this month by the Institute on Disability at the University of New Hampshire, shows the national disability employment rate has only risen to 37.6 percent compared to 37 percent last year.

    Out of more than 20 million working-age (18-64) people with disabilities, only 7.6 million have jobs. A serious gap remains in the Labor Force Participation Rate (LFPR) between people with and without disabilities. In 2018, 37.6 percent of working-age U.S. civilians with disabilities living in the community had a job, compared to 77.2 percent for people without disabilities. There is a stunning 40-point gap in employment outcomes between people with and without disabilities. Even as other minority groups are entering the workforce in larger numbers, people with disabilities are left behind.

    The nonpartisan disability group RespectAbility compared this year’s Compendium to previous years. What they found is, nationwide, there were only 29,893 new jobs for people with disabilities in 2018. This is a precipitous drop from the previous year’s increase of more than 111,000 new jobs and a tenfold decrease compared to the 343,000 new jobs experienced by people with disabilities in 2016.

    While job gains nationwide are down for job seekers with disabilities, some states are succeeding at getting more people with disabilities jobs. More than half of all people with disabilities in North Dakota and South Dakota are employed, compared to only 28 percent of West Virginians with disabilities.

    Only 26 of 50 states saw more people with disabilities entering the workforce. California is emblematic of the struggle to get more people with disabilities into the workforce. As documented by RespectAbility last year, more than 19,000 Californians with disabilities gained new jobs in 2017. However, those gains have been wiped out with a net loss of more than 21,000 workers with disabilities leaving the workforce and widening the gap in employment rates.

    By contrast, Arizona saw the largest single job gain among people with disabilities in 2018. 17,419 Arizonans with disabilities got jobs in 2018, putting the Grand Canyon State far ahead of the rest of the country on getting people with disabilities into the workforce.

    Clear goals and inter-agency cooperation in Florida resulted in 9,802 new jobs. Florida consistently had some of the biggest job gains among workers with disabilities each year. Florida’s efforts are coordinated by the Florida Agency for People with Disabilities, a major state agency with written agreements and specific goals. 

    RespectAbility CEO Jennifer Laszlo Mizrahi said: “Persistence and accountability are crucial to close the gap in labor force participation rates between people with and without disabilities. Hiring people with disabilities is great for employers too.”​

    Media Contact:
    Lauren Appelbaum
    LaurenA@RespectAbility.org
    202-517-6272

    Source: RespectAbility

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  • Bring on the Light: Rangam’s Employment Training Tool for Uniquely-Abled People

    Bring on the Light: Rangam’s Employment Training Tool for Uniquely-Abled People

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    Press Release
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    updated: Nov 17, 2017


    SOMERSET, N.J., November 17, 2017 (Newswire.com)
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    Having access to gainful and sustainable employment opportunities may not be the final answer to all the life challenges that people with disabilities grapple with every day, but it surely does solve a few of them.​

    “In the post-truth era, dignity and independence have become primal needs for nearly everyone. When people with unique abilities start working, they not only start believing that they can, but also become confident of their ability to independently manage their life and career. These small victories often come and go unheeded for most neuro-typical individuals, but they have significance in the world of a uniquely-abled person,” observes Nish Parikh, CEO of Rangam, who is currently working on a solution that he thinks will help young adults with unique abilities become viable members of the workforce.

    Is our employment system ready to include employees with all abilities? Are we doing enough to listen to the unheard voices of those who do not always fit into the society’s construct of what is normal? Most importantly, are we leveraging assistive technology to utilize the amazing skills of a largely untapped pool of talent?

    Nish Parikh, Rangam CEO

    And there are compelling reasons behind Nish’s optimism.

    Rangam, the company he co-founded in 1995, has been developing innovative programs for disability inclusion, training, and education. Of the many programs that Rangam has developed to date, ColorsKit One has the potential to transform the way employers and special needs support agencies work with uniquely-abled candidates and employees. It is equipped with a job-skills training tool that job coaches, support agencies, and program managers can use to train people on how to carry out tasks in a variety of functional settings and for diverse job roles – whether it be stocking shelves, writing codes, or loading and unloading items under limited to no supervision. A complex task can be broken down into several subtasks to ease learning. The learning management system in ColorsKit One is also useful for periodic skills evaluation.

    The developers of ColorsKit One have gone the extra mile to provide employers access to data on performance of employees. “It is a win-win for all concerned,” Nish affirms.

    Latest figures from the Bureau of Labor Statistics reveal that one in 12 individuals aged 16-64 years is uniquely-abled and two-thirds of those individuals are not part of the labor force.

    Nish and his team at Rangam are now looking for beta testers to validate the program and make further enhancements.

    “Everyone has the right to work and earn. As kids, we are told by our parents to figure out what we love doing the most and then work our way toward building a career around it. But is our employment system ready to include employees with all abilities? Are we doing enough to listen to the unheard voices of those who do not always fit into the society’s construct of what is normal? Most importantly, are we leveraging assistive technology to utilize the amazing skills of a largely untapped pool of talent? Individuals with unique abilities are known to be detail-oriented, methodical, and dependable. With a little bit of personalized training and guidance, they can be nurtured and developed as remarkably efficient employees,” concludes Nish with a resolute determination.

    ColorsKit One is available on the App Store on iTunes and Google Play.

    About Rangam
    Established in 1995, Rangam is a high-performing diverse supplier of enterprise-wide staffing services in IT, Clinical, Scientific, Healthcare, Engineering, Government, Finance, and Administrative sectors. Rangam is a certified WMBE that has consistently grown year over year while establishing a history of providing exceptional service to clients. We pride ourselves for developing a culture of inclusion and collaboration through innovation in education and employment. Be sure to check out our work for individuals with unique abilities and military veterans.

    Rangam improves the quality of life for our candidates while providing exceptional service to our clients. We do this by delivering an integrated recruitment solution that combines technology, training, and education to our candidates while providing our clients with a large, diverse network of qualified personnel options. We adhere to a philosophy of “empathy drives innovation” in everything we do. To learn more, visit https://www.rangam.com.

    Source: Rangam

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