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So my worlds collide with the EEOC enforcement of title one of the
ADA and the community a people with disabilities that have
more or less educated me in the last 25 years.
So coming to this ADA Symposium is like an old home week for me.
I know about a hundred people here and have visited on the River Walk and
in nooks and crannies and passed out cards and met many new friends. So it's
a
great networking opportunity
for somebody in my position. It not only reinvigorated
the relationships, but I've gotten three bookings
since I got here Sunday night. The folks who are with DARS,
who were with the DBTACs (ADA Centers)
and then a business owner from Oklahoma who had heard me
at another Symposium and said "Could I get on your calendar to do a webinar?"
Things like this is the best kind of outreach I could do.
So folks who have known that I've been doing this for 15 years here at the
Government,
seven years prior at the DBTAC (ADA Center), and prior to that I was the human resource
director at a state hospital,
those are the networking opportunities that are invaluable
when the community of people with disabilities comes together
like this.
Yes I am (presenting Googling Applicants) It's usually one of the more popular sessions because
the "I didn't know that!" factor will be the light bulbs going on
and the "Can they do that?" or
you know, the notion that at an interview someone says, "Are you involved in
social media?" "Oh, yea I use it all of the time."
"What is your Facebook password?" and then there's the lull in the conversation.
So we like to instill in folks where their rights are and where there are
agreements are,
but also where the lines are in an employment
application process, and like to give them an understanding of their
responsibilities.
Every power point presentation that the outreach people do with the
EEOC, so there are 28 of us who comb the nooks and crannies of the country
doing presentations, for free,
assisting businesses on how to stay out of trouble.
All have two slides in every one of their
diversity powerpoints. One slide is of the ten regional offices of
the DBTACs (ADA Centers)
and how those regional offices service every state in the Union.
And the other slide is, if you've never heard of JAN, Job Accommodation
Network,
here's where to find free information
that will assist you. Why we show (these slides) is that we believe that in the interactive
process between employee and employer
(when) asking for an accommodation the employer now has evidence that they took
a good faith effort
to accommodate the individual with a disability.
So it's a proactive, preventative issue.
If the employees can't do the job, at least they tried
and they went through these avenues to assist for help. So this Network (ADA National Network) is
perfect in the enforcement realm
of the civil rights protection that the title one at the ADA offers.