national disability employment awareness month 2013 because we are equal to the task

NATIONAL DISABILITY EMPLOYMENT AWARENESS MONTH 2013

Because We Are EQUAL to the Task

National Disability Employment Awareness Month

“Because We Are EQUAL to the Task” is the 2013 theme for National Disability Employment Awareness Month.

The U.S. Department of Labor's Office of Disability Employment Policy theme reflects the reality that people with disabilities have the education, training, experience, and desire to be successful in the workplace.

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The Rehabilitation Act of 1973 was the first major legislative effort to secure an equal playing field for individuals with disabilities. This legislation provided a wide range of services for persons with physical and cognitive disabilities.

Disabilities can create significant barriers to full and continued employment, the pursuit of independent living, self-determination, and inclusion in American society.

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President George H.W. Bush signed the Americans withDisabilities Act (ADA) intolaw in 1990.

The law guaranteed equal opportunity for people with disabilities in public accommodations, commercial facilities, employment, transportation, state and local government services, and telecommunications.

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When many doubted that people with disabilities could participate in society, contribute to the economy, or support their families, the ADA asserted that they could.

Under this law, America declared equality for citizens with disabilities, an accomplishment that continues to help all citizens pursue their aspirations.

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People with disabilities are a diverse group, crossing lines of age, ethnicity, gender, race, sexual orientation, and socioeconomic status.

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It is the only group anyone can become a member of at any time. Almost all of us will have a disability at some point in our lives.

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Through amazing determination, these extraordinary individuals have made a difference in our lives, continue to uplift others with their stories, and affirm they were, indeed, EQUAL TO THE TASK.

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Alan B. Shepard, Jr. Astronaut

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Photo courtesy of NASA


Alan Shepard was the first American in space and the fifth person to walk on the moon. Shepard’s competitive nature made him successful throughout his career, and is what he relied on in the 1960’s when he was grounded after developing a disabling medical condition, Ménière’s disease.

In early 1964, Shepard experienced recurring bouts of disorientation, dizziness, vomiting, and ringing in his ears. Shepard knew something was dangerously wrong.

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The disease causes pressure to build up in the inner ear, creating a severe vestibular disorientation and extreme vertigo.

A panel of NASA medics pulled him from the flight rotation and grounded him. The Navy forbade him from flying for fear of the condition emerging in flight.

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He decided to stay in NASA and took on a lesser role as Chief of the Astronaut Office.

Neal Thompson, author of the only Shepard biography said, “It had to be really demoralizing for him to be the first American in space and then not be able to fly at all and to be stuck watching the other astronauts fly ahead of him. But it was always impressive to me that he did stick with it, he got his inner ear disorder cured, and fought his way back into the flight rotation and then was assigned to Apollo 14.”

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In 1969, Shepard was restored to full flight status. At the age of 47, he was the oldest astronaut in the program when he commanded Apollo 14.

As he planted his feet on the lunar surface he declared, “Al is on the surface, and it's been a long way, but we're here.”

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Photo courtesy of NASA


Dorothea Lange Photographer

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Dorothea Lange was an influential documentary photographer and photojournalist, best known for her Depression-era work for the Farm Security Administration. She dared to challenge the cultural norms against working women and the disabled during the early 1900’s.

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Photos courtesy of the Library of Congress


When she was seven years old she was stricken with polio, leaving her with a weakened right leg and permanent limp. Children taunted her. Her mother would tell her to try to straighten up when walking, as her impairment was a source of embarrassment.

Lange later stated that having polio was the most important thing that happened in her life.

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Despite the teasing from her peers and her mother's shame, she said of her disability, "I think it was perhaps the most important thing that happened to me. It formed me, guided me, instructed me, helped me, humiliated me, all those things at once. I've never gotten over it, and I am aware of the force and power of it.”

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Dorothea Lange 1965


As a young woman, Lange’s ability to work well with people led to her success as a portrait photographer. After the stock market crash of 1929, the country plunged into the Great Depression. Severe drought in the 1930s ravaged millions of acres of farmland and brought on the Dust Bowl, prompting hundreds of thousands to flee the damaged prairie states for California, where they hoped for a better life.

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Lange and her husband began to document the plight of California migrant farm workers living in labor camp squalor. Her work earned her a job with Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s Resettlement Administration, later renamed the Farm Security Administration.

While touring the country, Lange came across a hungry and desperate mother and took several pictures of her, one of which would become known as Migrant Mother.

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Migrant Mother is one of a series of photographs that Lange made of Florence Owens Thompson and her children in 1936. The image is one of the most reproduced photographs in history, and hangs in the Library of Congress.


The impact of Lange's photography comes from its combination of visual and emotional appeal, but also from the social information she captured in the compelling images.

Her photographs humanized the tragic consequences of the Great Depression and influenced the development of documentary photography.

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Carl BrashearMaster Chief Boatswain's Mate U.S. Navy (Retired)


Carl Brashear was the Navy’s first Black deep-sea diver and Master Diver. The sixth of nine children, born to rural Kentucky sharecroppers, he attended a one-room schoolhouse and only completed the eighth grade. He later earned a general equivalency diploma and continued his studies at a community college.

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Brashear joined the U.S. Navy at the age of 17 in 1948. In 1953, despite repeated attempts by superiors to dissuade him from pursuing his dream of becoming a navy diver, Brashear was assigned to diving school in 1954.

He was constantly harassed by classmates—sometimes with direct threats on his life. He graduated as salvage diver the next year, retrieving sunken planes, ships, and WWII torpedoes.

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In 1966, Brashear supported the retrieval of atomic bombs from two submerged U.S. Air Force planes. An accident occurred during the recovery and Brashear’s leg was crushed.

His leg was amputated, and he began a grueling physical therapy course.

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In 1967, after recovering from his injuries he reported to Harbor Clearance Unit Two Diving School for rehabilitation and training.

He made dives wearing a 290-pound dive rig to depths of 200 feet of seawater. His prosthetic leg severely abraded the stump. He tended to the damage himself to hide the severity of the bleeding.

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Photo courtesy of the USN


“Sometimes I would come back from a run and my artificial leg would have a puddle of blood from my stump,” he told an interviewer from the U.S. Naval Institute in 1989.

“I wouldn't go to sick bay. In that year, if I had gone to sick bay, they would have written me up. I'd go somewhere and hide and soak my leg in a bucket of hot water with salt in it, an old remedy. Then I'd get up the next morning and run.”

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Photo courtesy of the USN


One year later, he became the first amputee in naval history to be restored to full active duty.

Four years after the accident, Brashear beat daunting odds and became the Navy’s first Black Master Diver.

Brashear declared, “It’s not a sin to get knocked down. It’s a sin to stay down.”

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His naval career ended with his 1979 retirement. Brashear served as civilian employee for the U.S. Navy until 1993.

He earned one of the nation’s highest peacetime awards, the Navy and Marine Corps Medal, and the second highest civil service award, the Navy Meritorious Civilian Service Award.

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James Earl JonesActor


James Earl Jones was born in Arkabutla Township, Mississippi. His parents separated before his birth and he was raised by his grandparents. When he was five, the family moved north to a farm in rural Michigan. He found the adjustment so traumatic that he developed an incapacitating stutter.

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James Earl Jones.Photo courtesy of the

Academy of Achievement


For years he refused to speak more than a few words at a time, even to his family. In school he pretended to be mute, and communicated only in writing. He began to express himself by writing poetry.

A high school English teacher forced him to read a poem Jones had written aloud in front of the class. Jones was shocked to find that, in reciting words he already knew so well, he was able to speak clearly and without stammering.

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In his 1994 memoir he explained, “The written word is safe for the stutterer. The script is a sanctuary.”

Having lost and found his voice, Jones became a champion public speaker at his high school and developed a strong interest in performing.

It would take a series of acting and voice lessons before Jones became a renowned voice actor. Today, he still continues to struggle with his speech impediment.

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Jim Eisenreich Athlete

Picture courtesy of the Jim Eisenreich Foundation


Jim Eisenreich retired from baseball in 1998, capping a career that spanned 15 major-league seasons and included two World Series appearances.

Still, with all of his successes, Eisenreich may be best remembered for bringing awareness to Tourette Syndrome, a neurological disorder that first begins appearing during childhood and becomes more severe with time.

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Eisenreich always knew he was different. At the age of six, he developed tics and jerks and couldn’t stop blinking his eyes. His family accepted this behavior. However, at school—where the social pressures can be enormous—he struggled.

Doctors failed to diagnose his condition and his teachers assumed that he could stop the behaviors. The reaction of outsiders made him feel that he must be crazy. He spent a lot of time alone; for him, it was the only safe place.

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In spite of his highly visible affliction, he was also well known for his baseball skills. Though teased often, he was usually the first chosen for pick-up baseball games. After outstanding athletic performance in high school and college, the Minnesota Twins drafted him in 1982.

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Two months into his first pro season, his tics worsened. Standing in left field of Fenway Park, he was barraged by the taunts of the Red Sox fans who chanted “Shake, shake, shake!” A camera briefly caught Eisenreich fighting back tears. Overcome by emotion, he quit playing at mid-inning.

In 1984, Eisenreich walked away from baseball. Magazine articles blared insensitive titles, such as “When Anxiety Came to Bat,” inferring Eisenreich’s problems lay with his inability to manage stress.

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A diagnosis proved elusive. Finally, after a lifetime of testing, he was diagnosed with Tourette Syndrome.

The disorder was brought under control with medication. In 1986, Eisenreich publically announced his condition and his desire to return to baseball. His new understanding of his affliction gave him newfound confidence. The Kansas City Royals picked up Eisenreich’s contract for one dollar.

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Eisenreich went on to play in two World Series, first with the Philadelphia Phillies in 1993 and in 1997 with the Florida Marlins.

These events brought awareness of Eisenreich’s story and Tourette Syndrome to a national level.

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In 1996, he founded the Jim Eisenreich Foundation for Children with Tourette Syndrome, addressing the needs of families, educators, peers, and medical professionals to help children with Tourette syndrome achieve personal success.

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Picture courtesy of the Jim Eisenreich

Foundation


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Ryan WhiteHIV Awareness Advocate


Ryan White and his mother, Jeanne White Ginder, courageously fought AIDS-related discrimination and helped educate the nation about the disease. He gained international attention as a voice of reason about HIV/AIDS.

He became infected from a contaminated blood transfusion and was diagnosed with AIDS at age 13. He was given six months to live.

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Although doctors said he posed no risk to other students, AIDS was poorly understood at the time. When White tried to return to school, many parents and teachers fought against his attending.

A legal battle with the school system ensued, and media coverage of the case made White a national spokesman for AIDS research and public education.

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Surprising his doctors, he lived five years longer than expected. White died in April 1990 at the age of 18, one month before his high school graduation, and just months before Congress passed the legislation that bears his name, the Ryan White Comprehensive AIDS Resources Emergency Act (CARE ).

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Photo courtesy of the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services


The Ryan White HIV/AIDS Program works with cities, states, and local community-based organization to provide HIV-related services to more than half a million people each year.

The majority of Ryan White funds support primary medical care and essential support services. A smaller, but equally critical, portion funds technical assistance, clinical training, and research on innovative models of care.

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Some people are born with a disability, others acquire theirs as a result of an illness or injury, and some people develop theirs as they age.

Around the world, 650 million people live with a disability.

Today, one-in-five people in the United States has a disability.

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The brave individuals featured here represent a microcosm of all people who struggle daily with a vast range of disabling conditions.

Their triumphs over adversity serve as an example to all of us, and affirm that they were, indeed,

EQUAL TO THE TASK.

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“Disability will affect the lives of everyone at some point intheir life, it is time society changed to acknowledge this.”

—Disabled World

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Works Cited http://www.ada.gov/cguide.htm http://www.dol.gov/opa/media/press/odep/ODEP20131020.htm http://www.history.navy.mil/photos/pers-us/uspers-b/c-brsear.htm http://www.achievement.org/autodoc/page/jon2bio- http://www.achievement.org/autodoc/photocredit/achievers/jon2-001 http://www.ninds.nih.gov/disorders/tourette/detail_tourette.htm http://www.tourettes.org/aboutjim.html http://www.dol.gov/odep/topics/ndeam/resources.htm#Articles http://hab.hrsa.gov/abouthab/ryanwhite.html http://www.disabled-world.com/disability/statistics/info.php http://carlbrashear.org/ http://hab.hrsa.gov/livinghistory/voices/legacy-photography.htm

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Prepared by the Defense Equal Opportunity

Management Institute, Patrick Air Force Base, Florida

October 2013

All photographs are public domain and are from various sources as cited.

The findings in this report are not to be construed as an official DEOMI, U.S. military services, or the Department of Defense position, unless designated by other authorized

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