My name is Jeremy with a Beautiful 5 year old girl Emelia that was born 1LB 6OZ. She had a tracheostomy’s and G-Tube for the first few years of her life. When people look at here people think she is a normal 2 year old little girl. She only says a few a words, has very bad sensory issues and is not potty trained, even thought we have tried training many times.
  She is my world but time gets really tough with her conditions, Not knowing what is going to happen next with her. We had to hurry her process to get her G-Tube removed because we where losing Medicaid (even thought she was still very under weight and not eating While foods ona regular bases) and having the hardest time getting another program called Cap-C approved even thought we keep jumping through hoops (Makes me Feel like they don’t really care about the Kid).
  It has been so hard on my me and my wife’s relationship also. Times it feels like why did we get put in this situation. Just wanted a normal life. I work my butt to give my daughter everything she needs and the more I work the more the government assisted programs took away from us. We lost all her special programs like speech, physical therapy and occupation therapy’s which she needs also tons of specialist that would tell us what might be the cause of the delays she has and if their is anything we might be able to do to improve her chances of being a normal kid. I don’t know what to to do. Even thought she is my everything it puts so much pressure on the family. I believe that is why parents with a disability kid is a 80% divorce rate then the standard 40% rate.
   My daughter got punished for me making to much money and not having more kids since it is hard for us to take care of our little girl since she needed a lot of care. Which puts more pressure on my family to offset the cost of losing the government programs that I am putting more money into since I have to make more but she can’t receive any of the benefits.
    I believe the system needs improvement and I hate that I am sure other family’s are going through this same situation. The people that approve and denied these kids don’t actually look at the child. They look at a piece of paper from another person’s quick assignment and not at the child as a whole. Not every kid is the same and ever kids needs are different. Some kids are obvious that has special needs and other you have to spend some time with to see the Underlining symptoms that parents has to go through every day.

I have arthrtis and I am 21, I have had it my whole life. Sometime it requires me to wear braces to help me get through the day and also can limit what i can carry. I work as a direct support proffesional and one of my clients told me that I shouldn't be working in this job due to my dissability. This kind of upset me and I do not know whether I should bring the subject up to my supervisor please help.

There are enough quiz and questions to test your emotional quotient, intellectual quotient and your Leadership qualities. What we are trying to do with this article, is to test your ethical quotient...

Managing a resource with disabilities can be a major challenge- without proper planning and sensitisation. At times, managers are not equipped to handle such resources, on other occasions, companies do not have enabling framework.

Some companies hire PwD to "showcase" inclusion which uplifts their image and enables them, to go around bragging about it, winning awards. In most such cases- the entire exercise is but a PR event, things like Liaison Officer for the Disabled, following Disabled Specific Rules, etc, as directed by the Government are wilfully ignored. Such workplaces, work with a flawed misconception about Equal Opportunity and ignore the principles of positive discrimination.

On the other hand, the well meaning companies, first do the ground work to include the target audience(PwD) in the work place and ensure that their career gets a boost, all with good intent and very silently; after all, somethings should not be done with an intent of- taking credit.

Things like these become even more complicated when one decides to hire someone with an invisible or multiple disabilities. The prejudices multiply because of the appearance deceiving nature of the disabilities. We will go into those details, some other time.

To understand the situation better, may I request you to go through the Article and if possible, be kind enough to answer this "Ethics" Question, inbox me your mail id and get a copy of my next e-book, Blindman on the Bridge, for free. Please read the incident report carefully before answering. 

Before we start, three cheers to all the wonderful companies and top leaders who are spending a lot of their energy and hard-earned money in changing the condition of the marginalised in the society. Can't thank you enough! A good manager and a great thought leader can take persons with disabilities to such heights that one would be proud of and there are many examples of the same. But not everything is great, still.

We really, really, need to talk about that, just so that, we can find solutions to it.

THE PROBLEM STATEMENT:

📷

Mr. X is a person with disabilities, desperately in need of a job for sustenance.

Some years back, Mr. X got an opportunity to work for a multi-national company Y. He was hired as a person with disability into the company.

Due to the nature of the job entrusted on Mr. X, he suffered further loss to his already depleted physical condition. But with an intent to act in a constructive way, Mr. X proposed for a change in job, instead of pressing charges for provable physical pain. When there was no response for months on the job change request, so he had to excuse himself from reporting to that job, on the grounds of physical pain. His Manager, however, was forcing him to continue being productive as he was taking home a salary without being productive. I do not know if it can be termed a sensible thing to do during a time of distress.

Meanwhile, due to desperate need for physical readjustment and the pain, as well as to move on with life, Mr. X demanded "Disability Leaves", which were denied; thus compelling him to take personal leaves to tend to a difficult situation, Things had turned into mental torture already by this time.

But Company Y did not stop at it. As Mr. X persisted on the job change request, his Manager created a case- not of "inability to contribute on the grounds of disabilities", but that of a "productivity issue"- which is basically an outright complaint against the individual, suggesting termination from job. Thereafter, as a consorted effort, disregarding the troubles of Mr. X, his/her Manager and the HR/ER Team started framing a case of un-productivity and disobedience- with a clear intent to fire him from the job at any cost, which Mr. X opposed strongly. The proceedings were clearly against all the ethical norms and legal protections granted to the Divyaangs in India. It was in plain and simple term- prejudice!

No Liaison Officer for the Disabled, (as desired by RPWD Act) was involved in any level, despite requests for the same. Likewise, no grievance redressal system was given to the victim, following the Labour Laws of the country. Ideally, ethics would have it, that when one gives a physical trouble "distress call", you should create a job for such individual if one is not available just so that the situation affected by a tragic disability does not escalate into harassment incident. Also, to be noted is the fact that, in Company Y, there were accessible jobs that Mr. X could do without affecting his physical condition, to which he expressed his interest but despite being both qualified and prepared for the job-role, he was rejected on the grounds of job-skill mismatch. As rightly said, you do not want to be an added disability for the person who has got a lion share of disability beforehand.

Almost, at this point, it came to light- that the manager was not very happy with the attention that Mr. X was getting for his achievements as a person with disabilities working in the industry. Jealousy, thus may be one of the driving factors for such prejudice. Pay attention to what happened next.

Frustrated by the wrongs done to him, Mr. X expressed a fundamental protest against working on an inaccessible job (in a place where accessible jobs were available in plenty,) and persisted on a suitable job instead. His disability was questioned. And this action of protest, was termed disobedience and a false chargesheet was filed against him, by the same antagonistic individuals in the company, against whom Mr. X had filed complaint with the Vice President who also was the top leader of the MNC in Mr. X's country. With the VP, HR team and Manager involved, it was not any more- some individuals against a disabled person, it was the company against one disabled person.

When Mr. X put his statements in defence of the charges, the company rejected all the defences he provided against the vague charges(which didn't have dates and incidents) in the charge sheets and decided to take a decision using the same set of contested representatives.

To add insults to injury, the VP in context, who was kept in the loop, sanctioned the disputed officials(against whom Mr. X had complained to the VP)- to conducted the enquiry, calling it a transparent process. As expected, the said disputed officials decided to rule in their own favour and as a result executed an enquiry process to fire Mr. X on the grounds of misconduct. What was shocking, that no neutral officials were involved and the final decision was taken by one individual whose unwarranted involvement and credibility had been questioned by Mr. X before as well.

Misconduct for a job change request! First of its kind? Regular practice in some places- to fire difficult cases like disabled and pregnant women? There are so many scenario where power can be misused. A word about what- Misconduct means- it means, that you are blacklisted, it is like an IT Industry CIBIL Data- there are chances, that you will not get another job elsewhere in the industry. Misconduct also means, you will be treated like an offender and such things leave a lasting psychological trauma for the victim. It did for Mr. X too.

Ethical Question to ponder over: What one wonders is how do you as a top executive a CEO of a small company or a VP of a big one, who has been appraised of the situation not once but several times- justify your job after a disabled person who had brought his concern to your office with a lots of expectations is allowed to be fired on the grounds of misconduct by the same antagonistic representatives he had complained against, under your watch!

Some facts related to the same case: During the wrongful proceedings, which spanned almost 6 months, Mr. X was subjected to psychological torture including the HR questing the veracity of his disabilities, and claims related to it. His salary was termed "as given on the grounds of compassion" and he was asked to take medical tests over and over again- which was a very dangerous situation to put one into. 

Last, the love for timing was such that the misconduct came as a birthday gift for Mr. X.

Worth noting: CII has simplified the Govt of India RPWD Act 2016 and the UN Convention for the Persons with Disabilities, 2008 by making a 10 points standard practices, that Private companies should follow while managing a case related to a person with disabilities in India. The norms were not followed and appraisal to follow the rules were ignored in absurdest of manners. Also, there are some states in India where IT companies are exempt from the Labour Law, encouraging some vindictive companies to disregard the ethics in managing such sensitive matters.

The questions:

Q 01. If a disabled employee comes to you with a request for change in job owing to a physical challenge, what would you do?

1. You would put him/her into a suitable job, help him/her save a career affected by a physical distress.
2. You would fire him on the grounds of misconduct because he/she was not in a physical condition to follow your orders, all- after subjecting him to various kinds of torture to pacify the ego of some Leaders in the company.
3. You would find a common win-win ground or settle the matter, constructively. 
4. You try hiring experts to handle matters of on-boarding of PwD and cases of PwD.

Q 02. Now that Mr. X is wrongfully terminated and would not be able to find another job due the black-mark, or cannot do the job he earlier used to do- due to physical constraints, what should he do?

1. He should file a case of harassment and career derailment against Company Y and seek justice.
2. He should move on and try to do something else beyond the industry where the black listing is not applied; forget about justice
3. He should try to re-negotiate with a hostile company...
4. He should reach out to the public and tell his story to the world

Before you come to a conclusion, give a thought to- how a person with disabilities is treated when he suffered further physical damage and also do consider the mental condition of one such person who was kicked out on the grounds of misconduct, no less, whose life has come to a standstill and who also has no scope of getting another job. This is a real event that has happened to a real person.

Mr. X fought it for as long as he could against an MNC with a lot of muscles and clout. He did not leave, he was fired! And he has lived through a mental health hurricane, trying to recover from it, as we speak. Lastly, when you read Mr. X it is not easy to relate to the entire episode, but let this be assured we are still talking about a person. His story did not need sensationalisation, it was sensational by the virtue of how fast a job request was turned into a case of wrongful termination.

We live in a time where mental health is a hot topic and in a world, where there are companies which violate mental health ethics so mercilessly as in the case of Mr. X.

That is why we are starting a support group.

My next initiative “Blindman on the Bridge” is not a sensational chronicle, but a book about the victories and unspoken troubles of people with invisible disabilities in the private companies where laws, ethics, work environment and regulations are not the same as Government agencies, in some cases, even exempt. The things in the book would be biographical in nature and are representations of real life incidents. I have put almost two years of researches, attended several seminars, impressed beyond word by some marvellous employers and have come across several very heart-warming and wonderful success stories as well as some harrowing harassment incidents that would leave, even the Lawyers in shock.

I hope the book will in future work as a reference point for the Leaders in the Information Technology World where these incidents have occurred, to understand pain-points of persons with disabilities in a controlled work environment as a tech company and how to manage employees with disabilities in a sensible manner to make one's company a Truly Great Place to Work. 

If you do not have an answer, but have a story, I would like you to know that is this is a very important topic and there are some burning problems that needs our attention. Post your views, your stories, your experience from an employer's as well as an employee's perspective and start the much needed conversation. Let us recognise the problems that are there are work on solving them, let us talk about making workplace- great for the disabled people as well! We at least own them that. If none of this makes sense to you, well, thank you for spending time, going through the topic.

Thanks and Regards,

Raja Mishra (Aspiring Disability Rights Activists for the Rights of the Disabled.)

If time permits, please do visit my website to learn what else I do beyond Social Work: https://www.rajamishra.com

P.S: Please note that, the intent of the article is purely to create awareness about persons with disabilities, and their problems while on the job; using sample incidents. If someone or some company is offended by the statement, we are sorry- you felt that way, it was not our intent to hurt the sentiment of any one. We have kept things anonymous just so that, we can discuss a problem statement without hurting any specific person or company.

PwD: People with Disabilities.

I'm trying to relearn proper written grammar and punctuation does anyone know any good apps in the Google play store or Amazon app for this? And please pardon the lack of proper grammar and punctuation.

Missouri became the third state to extend insurance coverage for habilitative therapies (speech, physical therapy, occupational therapy) to all children with developmental and physical disabilities. Currently, 49 states only do this for autism. We are trying to raise awareness that we should be giving coverage based on needs and not diagnosis. Therapy for All! For more info check out our video and links. We'd love to help advocates in others states do the same! Thank you! For more info: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P-IBw8hut9k, moempower.com, and moempowerfoundation.com.

Just a little info. My other half, whom i just found out recently is diagnosed with Borderline Personality Disorder. I have always known he struggled with stuff, and he always says he had ADHD, which in some situations matches his personality, but just as much, he had symptoms of bi-polar, or what seemed to me as such. When i found out that he was offically diagnosed with Borderline Personality Disorder, I was somewhat relieved, as i finally had found something that, after doing a little research on the symptoms and other stuff associated with the diagnosis, I had some more information about what he was dealing with, and how I might be able to help him better be successful in his life, both socially, and otherwise.

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I myself, was diagnosed with having what is now considered to be ASD, or Autism Spectrum Disorder. I have become pretty aware of myself and my characteristics through many official lanes of information as well as some not so "official" lanes of information. (aka shows like "The Good Doctor", "One Mississippi", and a few others. I have recently been dealing with my being different in the scope of the workplace. Mind you I have been working in a "normal" workplace, for 20 plus years, and never really had an issue with me being on the spectrum, either because, others knew I was on it or not, I am not sure, and I don't know if it really makes much difference. I was always willing to learn, and did the best job i could while employed, working at different venues, from a cruise ship in Hawaii, to a small restaurant setting near where I currently live.

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My other half, which somewhat parallels my younger self in a lot of ways, is very creative, and is active in his own artwork hobby. He has created some pieces of small sculptures and I have realized that I don't really know any resources for him to sell his work locally. The only resource I have thought of so far, was from a paper I had received a long time ago about a organization or company that allowed people that were disabled, sell their artwork or creations in a place and make money off of it. I know there doesn't necessarily need to be a separate special place for people with disabilities to sell their creations, as I don't believe in furthering the compartmentalization of people based on labels that society deems worthy of groups of people, but I also find that sometimes, there is a bit of good that can come from those types of programs. ei, the people involved usually are more aware of and have more resources for people that are disabled, and can communicate with people better that are disabled.

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Also, being that I am trying to help him with this, I feel a tad bit like for me, it might be easier to talk to someone in a desired organization that did understand the circumstances already.

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Anywho, enough rambling, if anyone has any info, or resources, or points of interest that I might find some more concrete answers to my current project, please let me know. If this helps, we live in the Puget Sound area of Washington State.

Would love to chat to people who are caring for a parent. Extra points if you dont actually like them 🤣🤣🤣

Been dating 5 years now and I knew he had a Mild Intellectual Disorder with a very mild case of OCD as well (hasn’t had any issues with that in a while so not sure if OCD was misdiagnosed) anyways we recently moved in together and I’m looking for helpful ways to help and support him with everyday/household tasks.

He doesn’t have the best personal hygiene (brushing teeth) and I have to constantly remind him to do it. Showering isn’t an issue though. Overall clothing maintenance and body upkeep is also an issue. When he was younger, his mother ignored the problems and left him to his own devices - even if it meant not brushing his teeth for days at a time :|

Household chores as in doing the dishes and wiping out the sink after, generally cleaning up after himself, changing cat litter, sweeping and vacuuming is something he needs reminders about. Again, his family did most things for him so he didn’t do much growing up - chore wise.

I constantly fight with myself on either doing it myself, or “nagging” him to do it. I wish it was as simple as him KNOWING that these simple tasks need to be done but I understand that it’s not simple to him. I’ve tried leaving Chore Boards on the fridge - doesn’t work. Anyone have any helpful tips on guiding my way through this?

I was diagnosed with spondylolisthesis when i was in grade four i am now in grade eight. Also sorry if i didnt spell it right but i cant spell so i have no clue. Anyway, the spinal clinic doctors say i should not be skating but i really love skating so i went against their rules and bought a skateboard... but i just want to know what is too risky and what is easy enough for me not to end up in a wheelchair for the rest of my damn life or should i wait until im sixteen? Cause apparently i can have surgery when im sixteen or over.

Thanks mates.

Or as I have come to know them as "Inhumane Services"

Have been rejected twice, my GP is disgusted with the system. Finally, after nearly 2 years of waiting, have an appointment with Specialist. But have little faith that my claim will be processed with any positive outcome.

I am severely incapacitated with Osteoarthritis and can't manage more than 1 hour outing without ending up a shaking mess, I don't do more than 1 outing (shopping etc) every few days at best.

There is no cure, I feel overwhelmed when dealing with the system and it has severely impacted my mental health.

Went looking for information on filling in forms successfully, even the Drs are constantly guessing when it comes to Disability and "Human Services".

FOUND THIS -

https://www.afdo.org.au

https://www.afdo.org.au/resource-disability-advocacy-organisations/

Haven't rung them yet as I'm not up for another dead end disappointment, but maybe it will help someone here.

The Disability system here (Australia) is demoralizing and degrading, and obviously leads to 'worsening' outcomes!

It’s an odd request but I can’t really figure out where else to go with it. I’m on disability for depression. It’s been about a decade and in that time I’ve improved in some ways (medication, having roommates and having a pet help), unchanged in some (my coping mechanism for being overwhelmed is hiding in the bathroom in the dark in the shower. It’s expensive and the humidity is damaging.) and worsened in others (while I earned a bachelors degree, having a decade gap in employment has made finding a job literally impossible.).

I have created some tasks for myself to keep busy but I keep going back to hiding for hours when my brain just shuts down. Designing a new 3D printer part and can’t get it to fit right? Ask others, do research, hulk out, then hide because I can’t understand what I’m doing anymore. Try to play a video game? Get overwhelmed by it, try not to be hard on myself over a simple game, but eventually hide anyway. Etc.

I’m now trying to learn to code in swift. I find I can grasp certain things easily. Stuff I learned in C++ back in high school over a decade ago I can piece into some things and it helps me understand it. Other things that are very new I can become so excited at when I figure it out. But at some point, I feel my mind reaching for something, and it just can’t grab it.

It’s a recurring problem. I get little pockets of a concept but I can’t seem to link them together into a complex whole. I feel like I’m trying to play chess, see the possible moves my opponent might make, but my brain just gives up one or two moves deep.

No matter how many times I replay a tutorial, reread a chapter, or watch someone do something, my brain will start but it gives up on me quickly. It won’t let me link all the moving parts together.

Sometimes I can just focus and feel great but generally, I feel like I’ve never learned how to turn that part of my brain on.

I shouldn’t have to ask this in my 30s, but how do I focus on something?

My friend has a 10yr old son who is pretty significantly disabled. He was born without the part of the brain that connects the hemispheres along with some other developmental delays. He can't talk or walk, has low muscle tone and poor fine motor control, and seems to be unable to sense when he needs to use the bathroom or even when he has already gone. He gets around by scooting on his bottom, though as I understand it school is working on getting a specialized wheelchair approved for him but medicaid has denied it several times in the past. He's a super happy kid, no major challenging behaviors. He enjoys playing games on his tablet and can ID all his colors/numbers/letters/animals, can read some words and spell some words when playing games and count to 10, but he does not have the sustained attention to functionally use the communication app he has on a separate tablet. While he has improved significantly since birth in all areas, it's hard to tell how much function he will continue to gain with age. My friend does not have full custody, just every other weekend, and the boy's mother, while very loving, is not much of a self-starter when it comes to seeking out services or pushing for anything extra. He gets therapies in school and does extended school year services, but nothing outside of that.

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Just wondering if there's any advice I can give him to discuss with the boy's mother as far as additional services, things they should be advocating for, etc. as he grows. It just seems like there should be so much more that could be done for him if they knew what/who to ask. Additionally, what can he do at home every other weekend to promote growth and progress that will help despite limited carryover the rest of the time at his mother's?

A little bit of information about me, I'm mentally all there, I wasn't born with palsy but it developed from the nerve damage from the nurses at the hospital I was born at (they strapped me down as I moved alot which forced me into a position that messed with my body physically). A physical therapist pulled my hip when I told her not to due to my bad hip ( I was naive and stubborn and sat W style too much ) and when she did I had to go to the ER, I now have arthritis in my hip and she refuses to take me back as a patient. Now I' almost an adult and I'm begging for help, I want to walk, I'm tired of my disability embarrassing me. So please, does anyone know any exercises I can do that'll help?

Hello. I have epilepsy and am hoping to find any sort of programs available to help people with disabilities to get into a career field. I need to make better money and it's hard because I can't drive. So if anyone knows of any job placement programs that help with training and placement into decent jobs for the disabled, please let me know. I'm in las vegas nv.

Ok my mother has copd, is on oxygen, has severe anxiety and claustrophobia, and is an amputee. due to vascular disease, apx 5 yrs ago her right leg was amputated from the knee down. The issue is that she never learned to wear a prosthetic leg and she gets around with her walker. She NEVER LEAVES THE HOUSE EVER. (Shed have to be deathly ill) She doesnt smell bad that i can tell but she hasn't take a bath or shower in a lo g long time. The last time was when she was in the hospital and they made her. Her sisters talk about how she smelled during that time but she WAS SICK in her defense. She told me that she gets scared when shes in the shower and panics then cant breath. Ive offered to stay in there with her or run her a bath or whatever but she refuses. How can i get her to shower? Shes very depressed and i believe she needs help with her self esteem. Any advice for this?

I was wondering at what age you can have a definite diagnosis of apraxia. The holidays have worn me thin with the constant 2 cents from everyone (that dont even have time to do a quick Google search of what apraxia is). My favorite which was from my mother was "you should let me take him for a few months" because "he would be talking if he were with her".

Anyways, I am at a loss about what I need to do. He attends an early steps program 3 days and sees a speech therapist while there. He is excelling in his course work he just has a lot of trouble with communicating.

Is there anything else I can do for him? Maybe some kind of specialist?

I logged into this account for the first time in years to try and get some information about the lack of accessibility available for people who take vacations. I am a law student working on a journal note (article that can be used in an argument at trial).

My topic is about how people with intellectual or developmental disabilities (such as autism, OCD, ADHD, cerebral palsy, down syndrome, anxiety disorders, sensory disorders, ect.) have a hard time receiving accommodation on vacation despite accommodation being a requirement under Title III of the ADA.

What I am having a hard time with is finding sources that talk about instances where people were refused accommodation. Because it is difficult for people to sue under the existing law, there is not a lot of records of businesses refusing accommodation. What little case law there is talks about wheelchair accommodations and people with physical disabilities.

I have some stories about people being denied the right to board planes because the staff decided they were too disabled to follow the flight instructions despite that not being the case, or people who were ushered out of spaces reserved for disabilities because they "did not look disabled". But if you guys have any similar stories, it would really help me with my research.

Thank you in advance!