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A Place to Know More About Ability
We had held our 4th Ability For Success Online Discussion event on 12th of June, 2016. It is our privilege to have 1 guest from Washington state and 2 guests from Japan. The topic is How to evaluate ability and performance effectively and properly?
Syracuse University where I have been working with since last October is the first college that started Disability Studies in the US. The campus is a very inclusive environment not only for students with disabilities but also for faculties with disabilities. Professor Michael A. Schwartz is a supervising attorney and director at Disability Rights Clinic under Syracuse University College of Law, and teaches disability law. He is Deaf.
Rooted in Rights, an advocate group of human right for people with disability, invited me to feature in their filming projects in February when I was in Washington interviewing Disability Rights Washington. I grabbed the chance and said yes right away! I am very lucky to have this opportunity to talk about the employment-related challenges people with disabilities faced in Japan. Through working with Rooted in Rights, I shared the issues in Japan that I have noticed and my vision to change that.
The film was just released yesterday. You can watch it here!
Through my observation at the warehouse, I found that Costco has created an inclusive working environment where people from different background can work together. In Japan, many positions that require you to serve customers or people from outside of the company in a face-to-face situation are still not open for people with disabilities. I wonder why. Do employers in Japan think that people with disabilities cannot do customer service face-to-face? Or do employers think that it is embarrassing to show employees with disabilities to their customers? Or both? In some business fields such as retail or food industries, the majority of positions would require you to serve customers directly. How can those industries promote hiring people with disabilities?
The last company I visited in Seattle is Costco. The headquarters is located in Issaquah, which is 30-minute drive east from Seattle. I interviewed Brenda Weber, Assistant Vice President of Human Resource. At Costco, the vast majority of employees work at warehouses, which requires more physical movements as an essential function of the job. Those jobs might not link with employment for people with disabilities in Japan. However, Brenda estimates that there would be at least one employee with disabilities at each warehouse of Costco. Unlike Japan, US does not have a quota system for hiring people with disabilities. Then what kind of hiring process does Costco have to hire talented applicants including ones with disabilities?
The last person I visited was John Kelly who is a well known disability advocate in Boston. 32 years ago, he had an accident and became a quadriplegic. He was 25 years old at that time. It was a huge adjustment for him since he lived as an bodied person for a long time.
After I heard his very active history, I asked a question which I have been wondering for a long time. ” Why does US have so many disability advocates?” John shared his theory with me and explained the history and culture that have affected to the US today.
In Seattle, I visited a company which I cannot live without. It is Amazon. There are two big interesting findings at Amazon. First, is the procedure of providing reasonable accommodation, and the second is rich accessibility in internal training programs. At Amazon, I have found that there are various choices and opportunities that all employees can take and expand their possibilities. And of course, employees with disabilities are included.
People tend to worry about the things they cannot see. A lot of people worry about the future that has not come and may never will. Those people includes me and, of course, my mom.
My mom has been very worried about my life with Mizuki, a moon rider (wheelchair user) in a foreign country, which is Japan. I understand that no matter how hard I try to convince her that I am doing just fine she will not listen. Since a picture wins a thousand words, I decided to show her more than just a picture. I brought her to Japan for a short tour.
It was in February 2014, the last 4 days of Chinese New Year vacation, I show her and my brother around Tokyo.
Being a person with disabilities may be a disadvantage in workplace. Being a women also may be too. Professor Lisa Iezzoni, whom I visited in Boston, works for the Massachusetts General Hospital, a major teaching affiliate of Harvard Medical School. She has multiple sclerosis and uses a wheelchair for all mobility needs. She shared her experiences of difficulties to build her career because of her gender and disability, and explained how change of law and education gave an impact to workplace in US.
The hotel I stayed in San Diego in March is “The Sofia Hotel.” I chose this hotel because of its location, walking distance to the conference palace where I attended, also its decent price. As I requested, the hotel assigned me to an ADA room which is wheelchair accessible room, so I’m going to introduce the room’s facilities!