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April 24, 2007
Mainstream: What Do We Do With That Word?
During a webcast of the 2007 United Cerebral Palsy (UCP) Annual Conference opening plenary on April 12, Bob Johansen, Ph.D., Distingushed Fellow, Institute for the Future, highlighted some of the waves of change which will likely shape the lives of people with disabilities over the next decade.
Dr. Johansen's session was part of UCP's Big Sky initiative, which is looking at where people with disabilities are today and how they can re-imagine the future -- a future where they are fully integrated in society.
Imagine a world where "can't" does not exist, where you can go wherever your dreams take you, a world where disability is a characteristic (instead of a definition of who you are).
Imagining a fuiture without limitations for people with disabilities, Dr. Johnansen says, is the first step in turning a present dilemma (problem that seemingly can't be solved) into a positive outcome because we've taken the needed time to gain perception and insight about that tough barrier and develop a strategy to solve it.
Dr. Johansen believes the next decade is going to bring further volatility, uncertainty, complexity and ambiguity in how our world works. He notes that people with disabilities generally have experience in navigating such a world, and that should be one of our selling points in entering the workplace, which increasingly puts a premium on the ability to find win-win solutions to problems.
In such a world, clarity will carry you, Dr. Johansen maintains. So, he urges, "be clear about where you want to go (your vision) but be flexible about how to get there. Learn to be comfortable with uncomfortableness."
For me, that's how education served me best. In grade school, I knew I wanted to build a career in writing but had no idea at the time how I would make that dream come true. I gradually learned that I needed to pursue all sorts of avenues in the writing field. Many did not work out, but a couple did.
I learned to let go of those perceived opportunities which were not working and work intensely on those which held more promise.
Dr. Johansen sees a couple of trends working in favor of those of us with disabilities: the power of networking over traditional heirachy; the promise of smaller, lighter and smarter components for a lightweight infrastructure; and a group economy (a new layer between institutions and individuals) that favors diversity and responsiveness.
At the UCP conference, he put those trends into context by citing seven fictional stories which illustrate how people with disabilities during the next decade will find meaning in their work. I'll cite three of them here:
First, "Gaurav works in Bangalore, India, wears a Skype headset, takes orders for auto parts from all over North America. That's his night job. By day, he uses the same tools to help others like himself, with limited mobility, dexterity and resources. He taps into craigslist, looking for wheelchairs, hands-free phones, a pair of glasses. When he's not looking for equipment, he's looking for jobs for his buddies."
Second, Moira "didn't get around too much. Then she got her videophone and, with her friend, Ruth, she developed a new mission in life: to hook people up with her simple tool, to share the world as they see it. Ruth turned them into the Rainbow Videographers Union and showed them how to tell their stories over video and how to be friends by phone. Now Moira has daily excursions with her friends via digital video. She's even been on the local YouTube community programming channel."
Third, Sandra is a "career policymaker in disabilities. She sees the bigger picture such as global shifts that could take everyone into a harsher realm and trends that threaten to turn the human species into a sick herd -- that could rapidly increase the number of people with disabilities. She looks beyond the individual solution to the community solution, the environmental intervention."
If the next decade is going to bring further volatility, uncertainty, complexity and ambiguity in how our world works, what attributes do individuals need to resist these negative forces and turn barriers into positive outcomes?
Dr. Johansen urges people with disabilities to highlight their vision, understanding, clarity and agility in the job market.
He notes that baby boomers consider death as an option and will soon redefine or replace the word, "retirement." Possible replacements: "redirection," "regeneration," "refirement."
I believe it's also time for those of us with disabilities to start knocking no-longer-useful words out of our every-day language. It's one small step in helping to create our preferred future.
For instance, consider the word "mainstream" -- such as "mainstream job market." Doesn't that denote there's a separation in job opportunities between abled and disabled job seekers? The word may have been useful in a school setting 50 years ago, but why are we using it today to describe the job market?
Using your vision, understanding and agility, how would you resolve this problem with the word, "mainstream?"
Add your comments to this posting
Posted by Jim at April 24, 2007 02:35 PM
Comments
Just eliminate it and call it work or a job , not a mainstream job , just a job, employment, work.
You have to eliminate it from all the rehab counsellors, vocational counsellors, special education teachers vocabulary, policy makers vocabularies and media vocabulary. But then again many people are still using the term handicapped as opposed to disabled. You handicap horses, you have a handicap in golf, but people are not handicapped, people are people with disabilities.
Posted by: Liz S at April 25, 2007 10:27 PM
Eliminating words does not go far enough quick enough. 17 years after the ADA was passed we are still looking at abyssmal employment opportunities for people with disabilities.
It is time for all employers not just those who claim to be enlightened or forward thinking to have a conversation with the 50 million people with disabilities about what it takes to be employed and how they can make their own niche in the globally competitive world of today.
When I say all I do mean all, small, medium and large. It is time to cut the rhetoric and ACT.
There is such a bureaucracy surrounding disability that prevents progress it is frightening. If you think I am kidding go to the national organizations and see what you get.
Why is the Federal Government one of the few organizations that actively recruits and accomodates people with disabilities?
With all of the enlightened human resource professionals out there you would think things would be better but are they really?
I have asked this question and will continue to ask: why 17 years after the passage of the ADA is the unemployment rate for people with disabilities nearly the same as it was before the ADA was passed? For a tidal wave of change those of us with disabilities must stand up, take action, be vocal and be actively engaged with our communities, our legislatures and our world. We have a place in this world, we have lives to live and there is no better time to live than right here and right NOW.
This is more than a revolution, it is more than looking for a quick fix and it needs to be about more than just me or you. The system that provides services for people with disabilities is dysfunctional.
Do I have the answers? I am working on them but I know that what we have now is not working and all of the committees, non profits and everyone who claims to be concerned need to focus on 3 priorities: employment, affordable housing and transportation.
Thank you for this opportunity.
Posted by: bmayse at April 26, 2007 09:28 AM
On the topic of mainstreaming as it relates to jobs, I prefer to use the words equal opportunity; the word mainstreaming has outlived its usefulness.
Posted by: Alinda at April 27, 2007 03:23 PM
I have not thought of myself as "mainstreamed" in the job market...for me, that's more like flowing upstream than working my way toward employment and the big ocean of opportunity with everyone else! I'm a person seeking work and feeling as if the current is against me...at least the current of state services. I've been denied service in my state, which is difficult since I re-located just six months ago. My answer is, "No I'm not in the system." I'm on my own in a new city, new neighborhood, new home, etc. sometimes wishing I hadn't been mainstreamed in school. But I am proud, deep down inside, that I was in public schools before the M word was ever used. Mainstream is too crowded, too standard, too non-unique, too much like being swept along instead of finding one's own channel for stability and success because I am qualified for a position rather than quantified as part of a caseload.
Posted by: Jo Taliaferro at April 30, 2007 12:32 PM
I think that we can replace most of the "politically correct" words with the basic words. Instead of "mainstream", consider the word "employment" or "education" and avoid trying to be p.c.
Posted by: Daniel at May 14, 2007 11:31 AM