Episode 14: Lydia X.Z. Brown – Envisioning a Future of Disability Inclusion
Let’s Get to Work: Reimagining Disability Inclusive Employment Policy
Release Date: 06/13/2023
Episode 21: Long COVID: An Emerging, Essential Research Area
Let’s Get to Work: Reimagining Disability Inclusive Employment Policy
Tune in for a conversation about research into long COVID with Dr. Vidya Sundar, Associate Professor of Occupational Therapy at the University of New Hampshire, and Debra Brucker, Associate Professor, Institute on Disability, at the University of New Hampshire.
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Episode 20: Long COVID and Disability Employment Policy
Let’s Get to Work: Reimagining Disability Inclusive Employment Policy
This episode features a conversation with Sharon Rennert, Senior Attorney Advisor for EEOC about long COVID and disability employment policy.
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Episode 19: Accommodations in the Era of Long COVID
Let’s Get to Work: Reimagining Disability Inclusive Employment Policy
This episode features a conversation with Yana Rodgers, Professor in the Department of Labor Studies and Employment Relations in the School of Management and Labor Relations at Rutgers University and Jennifer Cohen, Assistant Professor of Global and Intercultural Studies at Miami University about accommodations in the era of long COVID.
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Episode 18: Advocating for Long Haulers
Let’s Get to Work: Reimagining Disability Inclusive Employment Policy
Tune in for a conversation about advocating for COVID long haulers, with Andrew Wylam, President and co-founder of Pandemic Patients.
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Episode 17: Mason Ameri – Disability and Telework: An Encouraging and Concerning Trend
Let’s Get to Work: Reimagining Disability Inclusive Employment Policy
It is safe to say that the shift to remote work during the pandemic has transformed the outlook of disability employment not just for the near future but for years to come. Above all, the emphasis on telework for the general workforce has deconstructed the notions that led many employers to hesitate to provide workers with opportunities to work remotely, Mason Ameri, associate professor at the Rutgers University Business School, said. In this episode, Mason discusses the future of work, particularly relating to telework and what it means for people with disabilities. He reflects on the...
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Episode 16: Nicholas Wyman – Disability Inclusion in Apprenticeship Programs
Let’s Get to Work: Reimagining Disability Inclusive Employment Policy
Disability inclusion in apprenticeships has long been lacking, but in light of the COVID-19 pandemic, Nicholas Wyman, executive director of the Institute for Workforce Skills and Innovation, sees an opportunity to change that. Apprenticeships are grounded in the same experiential learning that many with disabilities benefit from, but have historically excluded disabled people, particularly those with significant disabilities. It is essential to disrupt and reverse this trend, and coming off a pandemic that altered the entire workforce, employers have an opportunity to reevaluate hiring...
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Episode 15: Ari Ne’eman –Unraveling Disability Employment Statistics: Impact of COVID
Let’s Get to Work: Reimagining Disability Inclusive Employment Policy
The numbers demonstrate the extraordinary impact the COVID-19-induced shift to expanded telework had on the employment opportunities for people with disabilities, but even those don’t tell the complete story regarding what remote work means for disability employment. It is a situation reflective of the gains prospective employees with disabilities experienced because of the pandemic and the parallel economic recession, Ari Ne’eman, doctoral candidate in health policy at Harvard University, says in this episode. The overnight shift to remote work for much of the general workforce because of...
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Episode 14: Lydia X.Z. Brown – Envisioning a Future of Disability Inclusion
Let’s Get to Work: Reimagining Disability Inclusive Employment Policy
Lydia X.Z. Brown has seen initiative after initiative and has grown frustrated with the lack of investment in human potential and the emphasis on a social services system that continues to trap many people with disabilities in poverty. Brown, director of public policy at the National Disability Institute, joins the show to discuss the disability benefits system and how to address the socioeconomic issues that most prominently impact disabled people. They discuss how there are reasons that the unemployment rate for disabled people is double than it is for nondisabled people and why there is a...
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Episode 13: Re-Evaluating Support Systems for People with Disabilities
Let’s Get to Work: Reimagining Disability Inclusive Employment Policy
Zach Morris, Assistant Professor, Stony Brook University School of Social Work, calls for a re-evaluation of the systems in place to support people with disabilities. We must recognize that people with disabilities not only earn less than people without disabilities. They also face extra expenditures to cover disability-related out-of-pocket cost.
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Episode 12: Increasing Employment Outcome
Let’s Get to Work: Reimagining Disability Inclusive Employment Policy
Lisa Mills, Owner, Moving to a Different Drum, Disability Policy and Services Consulting, discusses opportunities to increase employment outcomes by braiding and blending resources across funding sources such as vocational rehabilitation, Medicaid, and Ticket to Work.
info_outlineLydia X.Z. Brown has seen initiative after initiative and has grown frustrated with the lack of investment in human potential and the emphasis on a social services system that continues to trap many people with disabilities in poverty.
Brown, director of public policy at the National Disability Institute, joins the show to discuss the disability benefits system and how to address the socioeconomic issues that most prominently impact disabled people. They discuss how there are reasons that the unemployment rate for disabled people is double than it is for nondisabled people and why there is a significantly higher disability poverty rate compared to the rate for people without disabilities, whether it is policies that make it difficult for disabled people to get ahead as nondisabled people do or policies that actively trap disabled people in poverty.
At the same time, more specific measures at individual workplaces are also creating barriers for people with disabilities. In an era where corporations publicly embrace diversity and inclusion, many are also utilizing artificial intelligence in general operations and specifically during the hiring processes. While it is often used for productivity purposes, it can also be discriminatory in how it sorts through applications. Brown fears that the use of artificial intelligence will blur the lines of discrimination even more, since it is difficult to prove that artificial intelligence provokes disability discrimination and employers will never admit it. They believe that artificial intelligence must become a larger discussion of not only corporate and employer responsibility but also regulatory responsibility.
However, policies are only a part of the equation, Brown says. Disabled people face discrimination and bias in individual relationships each day, and it influences nearly everything they set out to do. And in order to even consider policy change, there must be attitude change. They point to the Disability Justice movement, which recognizes that law and policy cannot provide a full transformation of social structures that enable and enforce discriminatory and harmful laws and policies.