LD Resources

© 1995-2006 Dale Susan Brown
dale-brown@mindspring.com

Note: This article makes no mention of my learning disabilities. It is revised from one that I wrote for my college alumni magazine in 1995. It shows a small part of disability history and is offers to readers of this website as an example of my professional life outside of “LD Land.”

I work as a program Manager for the President’s Committee on Employment of People with Disabilities (PCEPD). I was hired in 1979 as a writer/editor and worked my way up. We are a small agency with a big mission: improving employment opportunities for people with disabilities. We will not consider our job done until people with disabilities are employed at the same rate as people without disabilities.

In the late 1980’s and early 1990’s, I was on the road going all over the country, giving speeches on employment of people with disabilities. During this time, I was asked to find a way to produce a videotape on job accommodation for workers with disabilities. The project had been on our workplan for years but no funds were budgeted for this tape. It seemed hopeless.

I scheduled a day to think about it, clearing my desk of all other work. I stared out the window, paced around the office, doodled at my desk, and daydreamed. In the afternoon, I noticed that I was imagining a videotape mentioning IBM. I heard a narrator saying, “And at IBM…” I visualized a large grey building with a sign that said IBM in front of it.

“IBM,” I thought. “Who do I know from IBM?” I called a friend of mine, John Steger.

“John,” I said. “Remember the videotape we discussed at the last meeting? For some reason, I keep on imagining IBM doing it with us.”

After a long pause, he said, “I’m working on a videotape for IBM right now.” He described a tape showing IBM employees with disabilities that would that would be used to train IBM managers. “Maybe we could combine them,” he suggested.

We named the tape “Part of the Team: People with Disabilities in the Workforce.” More than 5,000 copies have been sold. It has aired on numerous TV stations. It was shown at a Congressional reception during the time that the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) was being debated.

Thousands of us worked on making the Americans with Disabilities Act the law of the land. I was involved in the development of the bill, both through the President’s Committee and as a leader of the self-help movement of people with disabilities. Sitting on the White House lawn watching the bill being signed was a profound moment. Never again could someone legally look at me and say, “I will not hire you. You have a disability.”

The Americans with Disabilities Act has changed the country for the better. Have you ever carried heavy packages and been grateful for automatic doors? Some were put in for people with disabilities. Curb cuts in our sidewalks make it easier to cross streets with strollers and suitcases on wheels, although they were made for people in wheelchairs. Quality, innovation and productivity go up when accommodations for people with disabilities are implemented. For example, the typewriter, the telephone, and the Jacuzzi were all invented to accommodate people with disabilitiesóbut they help everyone.

This article was written to help the reader understand the experience of working within the federal bureaucracy and the importance of the Americans with Disabilities Act. Several years ago, I looked out an airplane window over a large grid of office buildings below and could barely pick out my building. I realized that my office was tiny pinprick – a small part of a large system. It made me feel connected to the millions of people who make our federal government operate.