I can’t believe it but it’s already week 12 of my blog!  This will be the last one for awhile.  I've enjoyed sharing my thoughts and experiences with all of you.  

It’s back to the waiting game for me- the interview last week with the Rehabilitation Services Commission (RSC) went well but I won’t know anything about whether or not I’m a newly employed man until after September 17th.  Again, waiting is hard but I’m not sitting still- I’m continuing to look for other opportunities and applying for anything I’m remotely qualified for.  

The interview with RSC was actually kind of uncomfortable because the two interviewers spent the majority of the time writing information down, as opposed to making eye contact. Therefore, I couldn’t gauge their reactions to my answers. This is mainly because they are going to send the notes they took down during the interview to Columbus, where someone there will make the final decision. Essentially, the people I interviewed with were merely a proxy to the actual decision maker at the state level. 

I was intimidated when I walked into the interview environment because an older woman was just leaving the interview room and there was an older man who was to interview after me.  I thought that perhaps this would mean they were more experienced and that I was less likely to be able to compete with them for the job.  It’s discouraging when you read the ads for employment opportunities and it always says a minimum of 1-2 years experience-it’s that recent college grad dilemma again! Competing with older, apparently more experienced people always makes me nervous. However, I realize that, in today’s job market, this is something I will likely see more often than not, so I have to be prepared to be as competitive as possible. 

Interestingly, however, in my job club, the dynamic is the exact opposite. Most of the participants are much older than me and they are out of work because they have been laid off but are ‘too experienced’ to find another job.

 Wait…how can someone be too experienced, you may ask? 

Well, in today’s market, companies are looking for the cheapest experienced labor possible. A lot of people in the job club have worked in generally the same position for 20 to 30 years and therefore, could use that experience to ask for a higher starting salary at a new company. This makes them an unattractive candidate to a perspective employer, when the employer could just as easily hire someone just out of college for the same job and just train them and hope for the best.  This job club experience has shown me both sides of being unemployed and helped me put my own job seeking into perspective.

My previous blogs have all tried to encourage parents of children with disabilities, as well as other people in the disabled community, to advocate for their needs and be mindful of what you’re entitled to in order to facilitate a smooth integration into the professional community. With the help of agencies like The Achievement Centers for Children, families can learn how to effectively express their opinions and how to seek the resources that their children need in order to succeed later in life.  Anyone can become an advocate in their own life and can help bring awareness and change into the lives of others. 

Remember, all you have to do is tell your story. It is what I have I have tried to do here these past 12 weeks, and by doing so, hopefully, I have helped educate you about the value of expressing your unique perspective. 

In the end, you never know who is listening. 

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. 

Hello everyone!

This week I continued my (what feels like never-ending) job search. My Resume Specialist, Martin Jaffe, suggested that I trim my resume down to one page. He told me that employers usually have multiple, if not upwards of hundreds, of resumes to read from qualified candidates every day. This is why he suggested that my resume be short and to the point, as this makes sure that the employers don't get impatient or bored while reading mine. 

For me that was a real challenge because I do not have a lot of work experience. Most of my resume was volunteer experience or awards and commendations and this format did not provide me the space to list all of these accomplishments that can make up for my lack of experience in the professional workplace. Luckily, my job counselor finally allowed me to expand my resume to two pages.

Now that my resume was complete, I continued working on the process of looking for a job. I used a search engine called “Indeed.com” that gathers all the job listings from across the web into one concise search. Most of the jobs I found using that search engine were jobs requiring "experience" or a Masters degree and I don't have either. This really concerns me because how am I supposed to get any experience in the first place if all the jobs require that I have experience to begin with? Because of my disability I have mostly had volunteer experience in my life and have not had the opportunity to do an auxiliary job such as become a secretary at a child welfare agency. 

In order to accentuate my positive attributes my counselors suggested a "functional resume". 

A functional resume lists three words that describe you on the left side, while on the right side you describe examples of those three words. For example my resume read:

Experience Summary

Client Advocacy Participates in LEAP Youth Advocacy group

This could be a good way for you to demonstrate your talents that may not be accentuated otherwise. 

Today was a busy day for me. First I went to my very first Job Club meeting where we talked about the myths about networking in the job seeking process. One thing I found interesting was that many of the other clients in the group were older than I were but were having a hard time finding work because they were over qualified or did not have enough experience with the Microsoft Office program suite. 

Later, I participated for my third consecutive year in the Achievement Center for Children’s Blue Chip Blue Tee golf tournament. The past few years my friend Justin and I have helped welcome guests to the outing as well as sell 50/50 raffle tickets. Just like the years before it was a beautiful day for golf and it was really great to spend some time out at Kirtland Country Club with the Achievement Center’s staff and their guests! 

Hi everybody!

This week I met with my Job Developer that I am meeting with through BVR’s partner JFSA, and it was an intriguing but scary process. While it is nice to get the ball rolling finally, it means I have to actually put some effort into trying to find a real job <shudder>. Together we went over the accommodations I am entitled to, such as, the use of Dragon Naturally Speaking™—a speech recognition software from Nuance—as well as an accessible workspace, and other reasonable accommodations specific to the job. 

Honestly, this meeting helped to ease some of my initial fears of this process. Being someone with a disability, I was concerned that things like having to orally dictate all my paperwork would hinder my productivity, and make me less attractive as a potential employee. The Job Developer taught me though that it is important to focus on other attributes such as my ability to learn quickly and integrate that, and other skills, into my resume. 

One of the other things that I learned in my meeting was to not purely focus on my desire to work with people with disabilities so as not to pigeonhole myself into one career or another, with the job market being what it is nowadays. Another interesting opportunity was a job club, which is a group of people who get together and talk about things such as how to properly act when ‘on the job’ and they also bring in local business people as speakers to discuss what it is they are looking for in potential employees. I am looking forward to getting started with this group because it should be a good opportunity to do some networking as well as take advantage of their peer-criticism to enhance my resume.

Anyone under the age of 15 that is reading this is probably saying to themselves “Ok, but what does this have to do with me?” I would say it has A LOT to do with you, actually. Believe it or not, I started this whole process back when I was around 13. Granted, all I did back then was think of what careers suited me and my disability, and it was awhile before BVR and I began to start the actual process, but it is important to have some direction and some interests, and to think about how you can adapt that job to fit your needs with whatever accommodations are, or will eventually be, available. 

This process has made me think about all of the strides that people with disabilities have made in general. Not that long ago, people with a disability did not have as many opportunities as they do now because of the lack of legislation by our government that has changed in the past 20 years with the passage of the American’s with Disabilities Act (ADA).  The anniversary date is next Monday July 26th.  There will be a celebration downtown with Mayor Frank Jackson.  Contact Linking Employment Abilities and Potential (LEAP) at 1-216-696-2716 for more information. This makes processes like the one I am going through much more commonplace and adaptations more available so I can maximize my skills and talents without my disability being a factor.  Hope to see you all at the celebration!

Hello, I know most of you, like me, are sad to see LeBron James go to Miami, and while I could probably rant and sulk about it all day long, I think we all need to just move on and continue to support our Cavs this season.

So, anyway…

I just recently went to the Vans Warped Tour, an all day concert in Cleveland at the Time Warner Cable Amphitheater. This national tour features over 100 bands in one day, and this experience was the best concert I have ever been to, and I was surprised by how helpful the attendees were. 

During my childhood I was always taught that I was not limited by my disability and could do anything any able-bodied person could do. Therefore I have always lived my life according to that principle, and through doing so have learned that people are genuinely decent, and are willing to go the extra mile in order to help accommodate a person with a disability. 

While many new parents of a child with a disability may hear this phrase and not think much of it, focusing more on what they think their child may one day be incapable of, I would encourage them to think of creative ways to adapt their child’s experiences. This way they can learn to manage their own lives, and be confident that if they want to go to big events like the Warped Tour they can, and that their disability will not hold them back. 

Although it might not seem like it, going to an event like the Warped Tour presented an opportunity to exercise all the advocacy skills I was taught as a child by my parents and the Achievement Centers. They showed me important skills like how to communicate my needs to strangers in a polite manner, and how to prepare for situations where I may need assistance.

The day before the concert I went down to the venue and met with an employee to discuss accommodations that would be available during the event, as well as the schedule of bands so that my aide and I were better prepared when we got there the next day. If I hadn’t done this I never would have known that there were actually special sections set up at the main stage for people with disabilities to use to see better, much like other venues I have been to.

 It was a good thing I did this because the attendance for this concert was sold out, with approximately 12,000 people there all day. In order to get around the venue I had to politely ask people to make way for my chair, including one time that I had to navigate backwards through a crowd, and if you’re in a wheelchair you know how hard that can be. 

Overall I was pretty impressed with the accessible accommodations and even the bands were excited to have me there. One band, Tomorrow’s Bad Seeds allowed me to hang out with them for about 30 to 40 minutes after their set, where I got a lot of cool swag and discussed their music. The session drummer for The All-American Rejects even went out of his way to get me an autographed drumstick!

Now, while opportunities like this don’t happen at every concert or show that I go to, in fact I would say it happens very rarely at best, I still always have a great time, meet a lot of people who share the same interests as I do, and get yet another opportunity to exercise the advocacy skills instilled in me from a young age. For lack of a less corny phrase, half of the battle is just showing up. 

As long as were on the topic, I am interested to know if anyone reading this blog was at the Warped Tour as well! If you were be sure to leave a comment about your experience there, or even at other concerts or venues and that way we can get a conversation going about accessibility in the Cleveland Area!

That being said, I urge both young people with disabilities and their parents to take this message to heart and to take advantage of every opportunity you can to expand your experiences and to never let someone else tell you “you can’t.” 

Hi everyone, and welcome to week 3!

This week I started preparing for job interviews at my designated job training center that BVR helped me choose. We talked about things such as the importance of appearance when it comes to interviewing, as well as skills and other attributes that employers ask for when they are interviewing an applicant. Right now, I’m taking a week long course which will end with a mock interview- I’m nervous but pumped to get the process started.

When I was going over the information on how importance appearance and eye contact and a firm handshake is in making a good impression, I remembered all of the therapists who told me that the therapy that I really didn’t want to have would some day make a difference in my life. As a child with a disability, I received a lot of different kinds of therapy. Despite how I used to protest because I thought it was boring (and honestly, what 6 year old wouldn’t?), this therapy would eventually unlock many of the skills I can use today to succeed in a job interview. It also helped me learn how to maximize my abilities so that I could have the best possible life.

Therapy cannot only teach movement, it also can give a person with a disability a sense of confidence that they are able to manipulate their body in ways that might not have been possible at other times. Without therapy I couldn’t even imagine doing things I can today like play video games or, more importantly, be able to keep my head upright during conversation so as to maintain eye contact.

I received my very first therapy at The Achievement Centers for Children when I began their Early Intervention program as a little kid. I received occupational and physical therapy, as well as speech therapy. Therapies sometimes, at that young of an age, consisted of things as simple as just trying to move my arms and legs independently by reaching for a toy or bumping a ball with my foot. This may not sound like much, but, in the long run, it definitely helped me learn how to move my body the best that I could. I believe it is important to start learning how to adapt your movement at a young age because when you’re young your brain is still developing and can therefore be impacted in ways that can’t be achieved later in life. There’s a window of opportunity and as much as you might not like going to therapy, you need to put up with it and go, so that you can live up to your potential later in life.

When I got a little bit older, therapy began to involve more complicated tasks, such as tracking a pen where the therapist would move a pen that I would then have to follow with my head- a difficult thing for me to do. Again, while seemingly simplistic, in the long run learning this as a child has given me the ability as an adult to confidently hold my head up and maintain eye contact with a potential employer during a job interview or in class with a professor, which can go a long way in making an impression.

I would encourage any family with a young child who has a disability to seek out some kind of therapy, or, at the least, begin researching what therapeutic approaches would best benefit your child. Remember, we might protest and throw a few tantrums (I know I did) because we don’t like them, but years later we’ll thank you when we’re able to accomplish things no one ever thought we would.

I hope everyone has a safe and happy 4th of July, and I'll see you all next week!

Hey Everybody,

It’s been a long week for me and having a support group to talk to helped me get through it. Having a disability or living with a person with a disability can be tough because family members and friends might not understand the issues that you are going through on a daily basis. One good way of finding a group of people with similar issues is to join a support group. My family and I use or have used support groups to express our opinions on issues relating to our lives dealing with a person with a disability. My Mom’s first support group was through the Achievement Centers for Children. The support group focused on mothers who have young children with disabilities. This is where she started learning information about different services that were available for me such as BCMH (Bureau for Children with Medical Handicaps). Through this support group she was able to learn how to advocate for our families needs concerning my disability. She was also able to meet parents with similar experiences. As a new parent with a child with a disability you can often feel isolated, that it is just your child or that you did something wrong to cause your child’s disability. Support groups can offer the opportunity to meet other parents dealing with similar issues. The common experience of a support group can help advance the acceptance process of your child’s disability. Support groups, however, are not just good for parent’s experiences. I participate in a “men with disabilities” discussion group at Cleveland State University. In this group we discuss each other’s experiences in a safe environment and try to help each other deal with the issues that we bring to the group. Some of the issues that we talk about are: masculinity and having a disability, sexuality and disability and people’s perceptions of someone with a disability. These are the broad topics that we discuss, which often lead to sharing our own personal experiences or lack of them. Support groups give a person an opportunity to talk about deeper issues that we might not feel comfortable discussing in other forums because, either we are too busy or embarrassed about a certain subject. The support groups, both at the Achievement Centers and Cleveland State, have helped my Mom and me process and deal with disability issues. Although we attended at different times, they both helped us grow and accept the role my disability plays in both of our lives. A support group can be easy to find- check your local independent living center or social service agency for more information. If there isn’t one in your area, ask the center or the agency to help you get one up and running. In my opinion support groups help someone keep their own issues in perspective.

Just wondering if anyone else has been in any kind of support group- I’d like to hear your perspective on this or any topic you want to comment on.

Talk to you next week.

Steve

My name is Steven Kyman and I’m a 23 year old recent graduate from Cleveland State University, graduating with a degree in Social Work.  I have Cerebral Palsy, which is a disability that restricts my ability to perform physical activities such as walking independently, using my hands to dress myself or write for myself, going to the bathroom without assistance, etc. Every recent graduate is concerned about the job market these days because of the current economy, especially in Ohio.   However, a job search for me is even more limited because of my disability.  Fear of failure, like all of my peers, is something that I now have to deal with on a daily basis.  This is a fairly unfamiliar feeling for me because, as I was growing up, school was a place where I could compete with my peers and succeed. I’ve always felt as though the playing field was level for me academically because, as long as I had someone to take notes for me and was provided with time accommodations for my tests because I need a proctor to write for me, I knew that I could succeed and be just like all of the other kids in my class. This allowed me to grow and learn in a friendly environment.   

One of the reasons for this successful experience was because the Achievement Centers for Children helped me and my parents navigate adapting to the school environment when I was little.  Through the technical assistance program, which went to my school and helped explain and educate the faculty and the students about my disability, the school system learned about what I would need in order to succeed in a regular education environment.   This is where I started to build my knowledge of acceptable accommodations and began to learn how to advocate for myself and others.  As I got older, the ACC provided me with the opportunity to go to Camp Cheerful, which is an overnight camp for people with disabilities.  It might seem a little dramatic but this is where I first learned how to negotiate my own care independently.   Before then I relied on my parents to express what my needs were wherever we were at the time. At overnight camp though, I didn’t have the luxury of relying on my parents to express what I needed, so I had to do it for myself.  Those experiences helped me be able to eventually live on my own in a dorm at Wright State University and will help me when I have to advocate for adaptations to a perspective employer or to the Bureau for Vocational Rehabilitation (BVR) which is a governmental organization that attempts to help people with disabilities find jobs.  I am somewhat limited as to the kind of job that I can even interview for, since I cannot just take a job where you have to do perform any physical task.  I do use an adapted computer and a computer program that allows me to type using my voice, which does permit me to do paperwork, email and any other research that might need to be done.  Because of my physical limitations, I will have less to choose from in terms of available jobs but hopefully with the right job coach from BVR and training I will be able to find something in Social Work in one of the non-profit or government agencies in the Cleveland area.             

Despite any physical limitations I have, I am still able to live a healthy and productive life because of various services and adaptations that I have received from a number of organizations, most importantly the ACC.  My journey is far from over but the lessons I learned when I was a child at the Achievement Centers for Children and my experiences at Camp Cheerful has helped me learn how to negotiate the “real” world outside of camp and school.  There aren’t many places that provide children and adults with disabilities the opportunity to do that.  Throughout the next twelve weeks I will be sharing stories with you about my journey into the job search process, the challenges that people with disabilities face doing every day things, and the experiences I have in the “real” world. I know, however, that I am not the only one going through this process, so I welcome anyone reading this to comment and get a dialogue started about the challenges that the disabled community faces and overcomes each day.