Abilities at Work: WBRC Connecting Causes: National Disability Employment Awareness Month: Lakeshore скачать в хорошем качестве

Abilities at Work: WBRC Connecting Causes: National Disability Employment Awareness Month: Lakeshore

Lakeshore Foundation is one of the most beautiful gyms in the country. There is no other place like Lakeshore, home to three Paralympic teams and national teams. So a lot of people are aware of Lakeshore Foundation, but they don't always know everything that we do here. First of all, we are an employer and we hire a lot of people with disabilities. We probably have 25 to 30% of our workforce would be people with a disability. Second part is we love the idea that sport is a great part of the continuum of life, and it follows right along with employment. It prepares people very well to be great employees. We are disciplined. We figured out how to get around a lot of stuff work arounds and do well. And we also happen to be better educated than we have ever been in our lives. And we're at this point in time where we keep getting educated, but there are no jobs on the other side. And it's very frustrating to a lot of us with disabilities who don't get jobs to have believed that we should get an education, and then we don't get a job. So, we can do better. We can do much better in Alabama and across the United States in helping people with disabilities start their careers. And through, a new program that we're going to start very shortly, Lakeshore Consulting Services, we're going to be able to assist employers with all of the issues about how to become accessible, not just physically accessible, but digitally accessible. Lakeshore is prepared to offer assistance and guidance to anybody who needs that type of support. You should be accommodating every one of your employees, whether they have a disability or not. People come in and say, I need better lighting. I need a different chair. I need a lumbar support pillow, run out and get one. We'll pay for it. Great. So we do it all the time for non-disabled people, the whole issue of accommodations has been over litigated, and it's gotten to to scare away employers. That's not the way it is, and that's not the way it should be. And I think a lot of disabled people are there waiting to be picked. If they're properly placed, people with disabilities can do just about any job out there. When I came to Lakeshore, I had a book in my head, on how to get people with disabilities into the workplace. Disability Friendly, a blueprint for how employers can employ people with disabilities and how they have to fire them sometimes if they're not doing their job. There are some things that this person might not be able to do, but there are a whole lot of other tasks that they could do. We deal with a lot of barriers that a lot of people don't even realize are barriers. So we're pretty innovative in the way we go about the workarounds. And that's what you want as an employer in any employee, you want someone who's flexible, resilient, clever, but you don't lower the standards ever for anybody, whether they have a disability or not. As soon as you lower the job standards and expectations for a disabled employee, you have now lowered them for all the other employees. You don't want to do that. Always hold people with disabilities as accountable as you would for anybody else there are also a lot of good resource is in Alabama. Department of Vocational rehabilitation is excellent. Disability rights and resources. United ability a lot of great places in Birmingham and in the state. Who can help a lot in how accommodations are made, how assistive technologies can be enhancing the productivity of people. So it applies to not only the disabled person, but it should be good for everybody. To learn more about Lakeshore Foundation go to www.lakeshore.org SUBSCRIBE AND TURN ON NOTIFICATIONS    / wbrc6newsonyourside   CONNECT WITH US ON SOCIAL MEDIA! Like WBRC 6 News on Facebook: https://bit.ly/3s1fN64 Follow WBRC 6 News on Instagram: https://bit.ly/3sUha5s Follow WBRC 6 News on Twitter: https://bit.ly/3I1LwJZ Follow WBRC 6 News on LinkedIn: https://bit.ly/3h2ogzi Follow WBRC 6 News on TikTok: https://bit.ly/42flTi6