In December 2015 our son Trevor, who was diagnosed with autism at age 5, graduated from Arizona State University with a degree in Film and Media Studies. Despite the challenges and all of the change Trevor endured in his college experience, he graduated with a 3.5 GPA with very little assistance. He also experienced living by himself, living with nice and not-so-nice roommates, internships, and a summer job as a photographer at a boys camp in North Carolina. He gained a tremendous amount of life experience and learned a ton about himself as a person. His graduation in December put an exclamation point on a very rich college experience. But college is only one race in the marathon called life; his next race - employment - was yet to start. Read more
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Typically, career choices are made based upon responsibilities, compensation, or prestige where a businessperson makes a change to get a higher salary, more responsibility, or greater prestige. What about the situation, though, where the driver behind a career choice isn’t any of these; where it’s the needs of a child that drive the change? My choice was precisely that.
Trevor was a happy, normal, active baby. He was able to laugh, coo, cry, and do all of the other normal things that his big sister, Briana did at that age. To my wife Patty and me, everything seemed to be just fine. At about age two, we noticed that Trevor was hardly saying any words and was very into his own world with puzzles, coloring, and videos.
15 million working age Americans have a disability. Only 4 million have jobs. Much of today's talk about Diversity, Equality and Inclusion (DEI) leaves out those with disabilities. Did you know 26% of people worldwide have a disability? My passion is to ensure that disability inclusion is front and center whenever someone talks about DEI. When I wrote Behind Gold Doors-Seven Steps to Create a Disability Inclusive Organization, my goal was to not just provide disability awareness but to give seven steps to help an organization become more disability inclusive. The seven steps are as follows:
Are you diving or merely surviving as a leader when it comes to disability inclusion? See what Jade learns about disability inclusion and how she becomes personally committed to DI in Behind Gold Doors-Seven Steps to Create a Disability Inclusive Organization.
Want even more? See what we have to say about autism awareness. Need a primer on disabilities? Check out Disabilities 101.
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April 2024
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