Hello all-

Last week I told you that I might have some good news for you come this week. Well, I had my first interview on Monday of this week, and it went relatively well until the discussion about entering people’s homes.  In the original job posting it did not list this as a requirement for the job. If it had, I would have never applied because of the general inaccessibility of most people’s homes. 

Some good did come of it though—first of all, I got through my first interview! I was sweating bullets all day up until the interview, but it went well. They told me that with my qualifications I would have gotten hired if it weren’t for the accessibility issues. I am relieved to hear this because of my lack of experience in the field. Secondly, I learned to not always trust what you read in a job posting.  Rather, you should inquire about the specific job itself because the interviewer may not have written the post themselves so there is the potential for miscommunication. Thirdly, even though I did not tell the employer of my disability prior to the interview, they did not seem shocked or put off at all and went through the interview with me professionally. They also gave me the opportunity to determine whether or not I felt I was capable of the job, rather than just assuming I couldn’t do it. 

I have a second interview today with the Rehabilitation Services Commission, but I won’t be able to share any details about that until later because they have a more complex interview process—it is working for the government after all. This job will let me work in the field that most interested me anyways, since I’ve always had a soft-spot in my heart for transition services.  This is because I have had experience in transition myself, and see things that could be improved. While this is only a temporary position for 1,000 hours I feel more comfortable with this job because their expressed goal is to hire someone with a disability for the position in order to increase staff diversity. Essentially this job will allow me to do the same things that my BVR counselors does for me and for other people.

Through my career counseling I have learned about a “Facebook for professionals” called LinkedIn, which I recommend to anybody who is searching for a job. This social network links you to employers and other professionals that have the same interests as you do, or the same goals. If you link to them, much like a friend request, your network increases, allowing their connections to see your profile, thereby expanding your visibility in the job marketplace. Even though it is for professionals and those entering the job market, I highly recommend you getting familiar with it as soon as possible. It’s free to join, so check it out at www.linkedin.com.  

For those of you who may not have been following me from the beginning of The Wheel World, I can’t believe the summer has flown by so quickly, and things may be winding down.  I never realized that this job search could turn out to be a lot like a job all by itself.   It’s certainly been a growth experience and I know, it may be just getting started.  

Editor’s Note: Sorry for the interruption folks, but it has come to my attention that, in trying to make my blog as readily available on the internet as possible via search engines such as Google,  the availability has invited a plethora of site-spamming bots that have begun to leave hundreds of inappropriate comments and advertisements on my earlier blogs. Neither myself nor the Achievement Center’s for Children endorse these ads, so please do not click on them if you can avoid it!

Also, a quick retraction from my last blog; I recently was under the impression that Microsoft’s new motion-controller for the XBOX360 game console would be capable of reading sign-language. Unfortunately my sources were inaccurate in saying so, and I just wanted to clarify any confusion! 

Thanks!

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Hello everybody—welcome to week 10!

This week I am in the process of waiting for a callback from the Rehabilitation Services Commission, where I have submitted an application for a position. My counselor told me I was very qualified for this position and she thought I’d score an interview easily, but then I found out there were 95 other applicants as well, but only 38 positions to give out! I have never really been in this situation before, and let me tell you—the waiting game stinks!

While I am in the middle of the job-seeking process, this experience is kind of strange for me because I am so used to having control over my own life. In school, you are able to complete the assignments you are given and get feedback in a quick and timely fashion. When it comes to job-seeking, however, you do not necessarily know what the employer is looking for from you. All you can do is submit your resume and pray, basically. One variable that, regardless of how well-qualified you are, you cannot account for is how qualified the other applicants may be. Since you don’t necessarily get to meet these people, it adds to the curiosity of the situation.  

One way that I am dealing with the stress of waiting is searching continually for new job opportunities, thus allowing me to focus on possibilities rather than focusing on getting one specific job.  

Here’s one thing I learned this week- being a person with a disability or being an able bodied person is no different when it comes to waiting to find out if you are going to get an interview- it’s hard! Hopefully I’ll have lots of news (good news, fingers crossed) for you all next week…so in the meantime, why don’t you all share with me how you pass the time in situations like this!

Hi everybody- is it week nine already? Wow.

It certainly doesn’t seem like it, but believe it or not, it is. In my previous blogs, I’ve talked about the ADA and the implementation of it, but this week I found some real life examples of how there might be some room for improvement.

On Saturday, I went to the Cleveland Browns’ Stadium for their annual Family Day and Brown and White Scrimmage game (side note: I think our quarterbacks could use a little more practice before the season starts, guess we’ll see next week in the first preseason game…but I digress).  We had gotten there roughly an hour early and the stadium was starting to be really busy. My family and I went to many of the sections for the disabled community and it was already full-up with families with strollers and lots of children- no wheelchairs or elderly people with walkers in sight.

My point is, when we went to Guest Services, we were told it was a non-ticketed event and that we should have gotten there earlier if we wanted seats. They also said they couldn’t ask anyone to move from the section because there was no telling if they had a disability or not and they weren’t allowed to ask. 

Now, in all fairness, I understand this, but according to the ADA they are required to have sections with available seating for people with disabilities, and while the stadium does comply with this, they need to be more cognizant and inform families with strollers that seating needs to be made available should someone with a disability show up. 

The Guest Services representative sent someone with us to help us find a seat in another section on the other side of the stadium, where they were told there was seating available.  When we finally got there, the Guest Services rep was turned away by a Seating Manager who said we could not sit there, as it was full. This was strange, considering the Guest Services rep outranked the Seating Manager and most of the seats in the section were empty.  They actually were left empty the entire game (we could see them from where we finally ended up), but we didn’t argue and we continued to look until we found seating in the end zone, where, strangely enough, they were other people with disabilities who had the same experience as we did and were told the same thing as we were. 

It was eventually announced that there were approximately 23,000 people who turned out for the scrimmage.  That left approximately 49,000 seats empty.  Unfortunately, none of them were wheelchair accessible but would have been accessible to the families who were seated in the accessible seating areas.   It just so happens that the accessible seating areas are in great viewing spots and have padded seating and they are easy to get to.  In my opinion, the fact that the Browns didn’t enforce the policy of one person with a disability and one companion, as they do for games, is why I had such a difficult time finding a place to sit.  I spoke with several other persons with a disability who had the same thing happen on Sunday- I was not alone in my disappointment with the Browns organization.   This just shows how, even when there are accommodations provided for you, if rules are not enforced by the venues, people with disabilities can be left out of an event by being denied equal access. I know in previous blogs I have discussed the need to educate the community about the need for accommodations and enforcement of the rules and this example gives evidence to that fact. 

This weekend, Sunday specifically, I also went down to the Warehouse District for their Arts Fest. This district, if you’ve never been, contains a lot of nice old buildings that I assume were former warehouses, given the name of the area. One of the downsides of this though is the lack of accessibility it creates. While I know that buildings built prior to the passage of the ADA do not have to adapt their buildings if they choose not to renovate their building, I still think it’s a shame more businesses don’t make the necessary renovations so as to attract the business of the disabled community.

A lot of the apartment buildings that I had looked at while I was there all have ADA compliant accessible renovations, but what they consider accessible, again, is not really accessible. For example they lack roll-in showers, and grab bars in their bathroom.  While I can get in their front door, I can’t necessarily use their bathrooms, if I were to live there.

I don’t want to make this blog seem too upsetting though, so I wanted to end on more of a positive note- something that people created in a thoughtful and inclusive way.  For those of you unfamiliar with the current innovations in the electronic interactive gaming community, Microsoft is currently designing a hands-free video game system known as Kinect. It also features speech recognition and controls, and recently, they announced that it will recognize American Sign Language as well, providing a much needed adaptation for the deaf community! They also claim it will be useable while in a sitting position, which is good news for some of the physically disabled community, but as of yet no games have been previewed for this adaptation. 

Things are so much better for my generation then they were for previous generations and I’m grateful.  However, I just want to make sure that things keep getting better so that next year or ten years from now, some other young person with a disability won’t have to look at 49,000 empty seats and wonder why there isn’t a place for his wheelchair, his blind friend, his grandma with a walker or anyone else who just can’t make it up the stairs to one of the empty seats.