Category Archives: Accessibility

Special Accommodations for Employees Results in Increased Productivity

Accessibility, Business, , ,

I recently watched a story that aired on the show, CBS Sunday Morning, about BMW in Germany and how they are looking ahead to accommodate the “special needs” of an aging workforce. BMW values their older workers because they have more patience and skills that comes with experience. What they have less of is flexibility, strength and keen eyesight. My ears perked up because I was hearing a similarity between aging workers and common challenges of individuals with disabilities.

BMW created a special project taskforce team of employees with an average of 47 to provide feedback on how BMW can make things better on their production floor.  The responses they received included; use of magnifying glasses, wooden floors, special shoes, computer screens with larger type, seats to sit on, and places to stretch on the work floor. In the end, they made approximately 70 small changes that cost about $50,000.

The surprising part of the project’s results was the impact on profitability. BMW experienced a 7% increase in productivity, a reduction in absenteeism, and a defect rate of zero. With these results, BMW is no longer calling this a project to aid the elderly.  They are calling it their fresh, new plan to increase productivity.

I am impressed with BMW’s willingness to face the reality of an aging workforce that is looming seven years down the road and to admit they didn’t have a solution. Kudos to BMW for seeing and naming the elephant in the room!

I am impressed with BMW’s process of being curious, engaging directly with the workers, and asking them to tell management how to make working conditions better. They went straight to the source!

I am impressed with the simplicity and practicality of these special accommodations.  It took so little for the company to improve the quality of life for their employees, and in turn, for the company to profit on multiple levels. Humanitarian and profitable!

I wonder how many companies avoid proactively hiring workers with disabilities because they don’t know what special accommodations they’ll need? When we don’t know, our imaginations often run wild and we think up all sorts of “what if” scenarios – most of them very expensive. Many times the needed accommodations are actually very simple and practical – if we are just willing to go directly to the source and ask “What do you need to make things better?” The solutions may be surprisingly simple and they may also be beneficial for other employees in the company. It could just be a simple and powerful way to increase employee morale, reduce absenteeism and increase productivity — the dream trifecta for every organization.

My Maiden Wheelchair Adventure

Accessibility, Personal Reflections, , , ,

Monday July 26th was the 20th Anniversary of the ADA and Boston was having a celebration on the Common. I did not participate in any events to honor the signing of the ADA in 1990. This created a stronger desire in me to celebrate the anniversary of this civil rights event that has created freedom and supported the rights of people with disabilities.

I decided to travel into town on the MBTA in my newly purchased wheelchair — my maiden voyage! What a perfect day to do it. My friend Jean and her son joined me. I was very grateful for their wonderful company and for their help if I ran into any unexpected mobility situations.

We got on the T at Wellington Station and my first moment of hesitation was crossing from the platform into the T car – there was a gap of 3 inches, just enough for the small front tire of my chair to fall into and get stuck. I took a deep breath and went fast over the gap, and I made it into the car. Whew!

A friendly MBTA worker was on our car and chatted with us on the ride into Boston. We told her why we were going into Boston. She eagerly told us about many MBTA accessibility services, including a ramp to help wheelchair users get to and from the platform and car. She obviously cared about providing service to T passengers, so I wondered why I had not been offered the ramp when she saw me on the platform.

I decided to ask. Her response surprised me. She told me that she used to be much more proactive about help to people with disabilities, but she got so many dirty looks, was yelled at and received other rude responses that she has become much more hesitant about offering assistance. Who can blame her?

I also get why I and other people with disabilities get angry. We are often invisible and not included in mainstream society and employment, yet we are very visible when it comes to asking us if we need help. We are typically bombarded with offers for assistance. But we are competent, capable individuals who know how to get around and do most things independently.

Personally, I’m angry that my disability makes it hard to do some things. I don’t like that I’m dependent on receiving assistance from others when I’d rather be able to do it myself. Independence and freedom are often hard won battles for people with disabilities. Who can blame us when we get angry because we’re offered assistance for the umpteenth time?

Whether disabled or not, we all are living our lives with the best of intentions, hopes and challenges of daily living. How can we be more fully seen, heard and understood for our true selves? We can start with curiosity and being willing to open our eyes and ears to understand what the other is experiencing and feeling. We can also dare to be real and share more openly about what we’re really experiencing and feeling. In this way, we are able to be more fully true to ourselves and in more real relationship with others.

Greater Mobility with a Disability

Accessibility, Personal Reflections, , ,

After 51 years of walking with crutches because of my disability, Spina Bifida, I decided to order a wheelchair. My ability to walk has not changed, which has made family, friends and colleagues curious about my decision. I’m sure they’re thinking, who’d choose to be in a wheelchair when they don’t have to be? At least that’s how I’ve always felt. I thought of a wheelchair as the “dreaded thing” I’d be stuck in when my health declined and I could no longer walk. I’d be more limited and restricted than I already am walking with crutches. So what changed for me to order a wheelchair?

Most significantly, it was a steady and persistent focus on shifting my relationship with my disability from “my body has betrayed me” to acceptance of my body as it is. This shift allowed me to open my eyes and my heart to seeing others in the Spina Bifida community in a new way. I saw those in wheelchairs going from place to place faster and further than I could walk on crutches. Their world seemed bigger and freer to me, not more limited, as I had always imagined.

With this new perspective, I purchased a wheelchair so I too can go faster and further than I can walk with crutches. What freedom! A whole new world has opened up for me. I am able to go for “strolls” on the local bike path, walk the entire Mall, travel by MBTA into Boston, and explore the main streets and back roads of cities and towns! Using my wheelchair is a joy.

Some may say it’s easy for me to feel joyful about my wheelchair because I’m able to walk with crutches.  I only use my wheelchair when I choose to, not because I have to. This is true and I’m aware of how “needing” to use a wheelchair can make a big difference in how joyful it feels.  Since I’ve “needed” to use crutches my whole life, I reflected on… What is my relationship with my crutches?

As with any relationship, it’s complex and has many dimensions. When I was real little, they were just another part of me — no big deal. When I was seven years old, my family moved from Medford to Winchester. Being the new kid in school is when I saw my crutches through the eyes of the other kids as something that made me different — and not in a good way. My crutches were also the reason why I couldn’t walk fast enough or far enough to keep up with everyone else.

My crutches were blamed as the reason I couldn’t play like all the other kids at recess. The reason why kids in High School didn’t ask me to go with them downtown or to the Mall.  I was convinced that my crutches and disability were the source of all my problems and the reason why I was not included.

As a teen and young adult, I stubbornly used wooden crutches, even though aluminum crutches became available. In my mind, wooden crutches were used more often by people who broke their legs and only needed to use them temporarily. And I wanted people to think my crutches — and disability — were temporary, not permanent. Eventually, I did begin using aluminum crutches, which were much lighter, except they squeaked and rattled — which I hated.

My big crutch breakthrough came when I made the decision to buy a pair of “permanent” titanium custom designed crutches. They’re gray, sleek and awesome! When I bought these obviously “permanent” crutches, something shifted inside of me. I reclaimed the part of myself that needs crutches to walk because I’m disabled.  My crutches became just another part of me again. I still had a long journey to go with accepting all the other aspects of living with a disability, but I was ready to admit to the world that I used permanent crutches because I had a permanent disability.

I can best describe my current relationship with my crutches as — I have great respect and appreciation for them. They enable me to leave the house and walk out into the world — literally. And if I want to go faster or further than I can walk on crutches, I now have my wheelchair.