Forward Movements

All good things must come to an end.  In this case to make room for more good things!  The contract with the Yukon Disability Employment Strategy that Dale and I were hired for ends in a couple of days.  As a result of this Work Experience Program, Dale and I have both secured permanent employment and have loaded our tool belts with new transferable skills and know-how.  Our vacancies leave room for two more candidates to benefit from this Return to Work program.  We are eager to meet these new YDES troopers and see what fresh new ideas and visions they bring to the table.  

Thanks Yukon, it’s been a slice!

The Secret of his Success!!

I met with Sheldon Pahl at the Java Connection in Whitehorse where we talked over some piping hot chocolate and whipped cream. His disABILITY success story begins in 2009 when Sheldon was working as a Journeyman Carpenter.  One day, part way through a job he was completing in Porter Creek, Sheldon slipped and fell from a rooftop deck. Lying on the ground waiting for the ambulance to arrive he remembers thinking “I guess it’s time to spend more time with the family.” That reaction sums up Sheldon’s outlook on life.  

It is what you make of it.

Following his initial surgery, Sheldon spent 10 months in a wheelchair.  He underwent more surgery and then spent 10 months on crutches. He was off work for 20 months and during that time dedicated 4 hours every day to physiotherapy. Despite all of his hard work Sheldon’s surgeon said that, with the extent of his injuries, it was not possible to do construction anymore. Although this prognosis didn’t deter Sheldon from building his own family a home just six months after he could walk, he knew that he needed a new long term plan.

If he could no longer do what he loved, what would he do now? And could he be satisfied and fulfilled with something other than what he loved most? Sheldon admits that this decision was the most difficult part of the process for him. His struggle began to wane when the results from aptitude testing with Worker’s Compensation Board indicated that he would be a very suitable candidate for becoming an Occupational Health and Safety Officer. He would be in a position to prevent accidents and injuries, such as the ones he had sustained on the job, for other workers.  

Sheldon reflects that he never, in a million years, saw his life where it is now. He is working towards a diploma and, once he has graduated, will have the professional designation of 'Canadian Registered Safety Professional'.  He will be responsible for enforcing Occupational Health and Safety Law. The profession is based on The Internal Responsibility System; an Act which states that as an employer you have a responsibility to ensure that your workers remain safe. Sheldon's new long term plan is to advance and eventually retire as Director or Assistant Deputy Minister.

When I ask Sheldon why he thinks his potential tragedy turned into a success story he gives me three words:  Attitude.  Dedication. Tenacity.  If he approaches a task that is affected by his physical limitations, he contemplates how to accomplish it a little bit more. Nothing stops him. According to his doctor he really shouldn’t be able to do what he can do. Ralph Waldo Emerson said "Make the most of yourself, for that is all there is of you”.  Sheldon is a shining example of that philosophy. The definition of “yourself” changed for him and he embraced the change and persevered.  
Thanks for the inspiration Sheldon!

Wheeling into Water

Sue Austin is a multimedia, performance and installation artist who is causing a stir in the disABILITY community.  She challenges society’s commitment to define someone in a wheelchair as a person who has "lost" something.  Her experience has been very different.  Obtaining her power wheelchair 16 years ago she felt a euphoric sense of freedom as the world opened up to her in a myriad of ways.

Please enjoy watching her piece on TED Talks where she speaks to this exhilarating freedom and shares footage of her exploring the deep blue sea with her underwater wheelchair.

Looking North

Dawson City here we come!  The Yukon Council on Disability has hired someone in Dawson City and as a result we now have rural implementation for the Yukon Disability Employment Strategy. This is an exciting step forward and we are eager to hear more from the people of Dawson about how they see the YDES working for them.

Stay tuned for both urban and rural upcoming events!

In Another World...

This is a poignant French advertisement for Disability Awareness that I came across on You Tube.  It gives the viewer an opportunity to turn the tables and experience the world from a different perspective. 

Hello Yukon!

This is Dale and Jennifer introducing ourselves!  We are so excited to be part of such a progressive and collaborative initiative that affects us both on a profound personal level.  As persons with disabilities we have both experienced challenges in the labour force largely stemming from a lack of understanding and access to comprehensible resources like “Where Disability Works”.   We are two very capable women who have had limited opportunity to share our skills and talents and are enthusiastic about the opportunity to do so.  We are persons with MANY Abilities!

Accommodating a person with a disability in the workplace does not have to be costly or complicated.  Very recently I learned, from personal experience, that it can be as simple as providing a place to sit.  I am a person with a physical disability and on some days being on my feet for long hours can be tiring.  My employer and I problem-solved this by putting a simple stool behind the cash register where I could sit from time to time and complete different tasks like pricing and labeling.  By providing me with this easy solution, I felt supported and heard which deepened my loyalty and dedication to the employer and the job.   In addition, my employer felt assured and satisfied that he was creating a productive, positive and inclusive work environment.  It can be that easy! 

Dale will be handling administration and I will be handling media relations although there will undoubtedly be some crossover.  Contact us anytime if you’d like more of the scoop on who we are and how we can support you, your agency or your organization.

Dale's email:   iac.adminassist@gmail.com

Jennifer's email:   iac.mediarelations@gmail.com

We look forward to meeting you!

DAWSON CITY │ Disabilities at High Noon

It is the apex of winter. We are in the Yukon Territory, the north-western most region of Canada to meet with business owners, agency representatives, government officials and people with disabilities to explore issues and ideas regarding disability and employment in this unique part of the world. We are about to drive across the recently opened ice-bridge across the wide, fast flowing Yukon River.

Three weeks ago temperatures dipped below 30C, but even this was not enough to stem the flow of the car-sized chunks of ice streaming past and onwards to the Bering  Sea, another 1000 miles in the journey of this timeless causeway.

Colm, our host and the local expert on learning disabilities, who singlehandedly provides disabilities education support services to an area the size of Wales, calmly suggests we unbuckle our seatbelts, but enjoy the ride as we venture out on this temporarily static ice flow.

This is the first time this season Colm, himself has made the trip across the ice to West Dawson, the other half of Dawson City that lies coldly disconnected from its better half twice a year: once as the residents wait for the ice flow to slow, slow, slow to become safe to cross in all manner of vehicles, as theory that water bears weight and ice is as strong as steel is put to the test once again, and a second time in the spring, as the last brave Dawsonite makes the final journey across the 200 meter bridge before ‘break-up’ and the eventual return of an equally precarious looking ferry. Colm wisely refrained from showing us the newspaper clipping of the front end of the truck firmly gripped in the racing sub-zero water with rest of the vehicle looking rather like a sad version of Titanic in her last moments.

My colleague Rick and I were temporarily warmed by the car heater, working hard against the -38 wind chill – a term that only really begins to make sense from about 20below in what otherwise would be a welcome breeze.

Half way across I found myself feeling a kind of bravery which is closer to bravado and trying to coax Rick to get out of the car with me when we reached the middle…and walk-wheel back. Rick was having none of it. But now, having made the fatal error (from the back seat, nonetheless) of taunting my colleague and companion into the wilds of this frozen flow, I had little choice but to follow-through as Colm pulled up and let me out. Out and alone on the ice in the middle of the Yukon River. Cold. Wind. Snow. Twilight daylight and the quiet as the car pulled away and disappeared behind the river frozen car-sized chunks of ice piled in one long crash.

The sensation of being on the ice, knowing the gazillion litres of water flowing just a few feet below the ice surface had been at pace for 2000 miles with a 1000 more to go before it would be slowed by the sea, made me shiver – or was it the cold. I spotted what appeared to be a path marked out with orange flagging tape, heading away from where I was dropped, but back in the direction to bank from which we’d come. This path seemed even more precarious than the car route that I can only imagine must have been created by some great machine that cleverly transforms icebergs into ice roads.  This narrower, less trampled route weaved around and over (thankfully not under) the ice flow for those who felt a car an unnecessary luxury to traverse the river in arctic temperatures to fetch milk, tea and bread.

At this point I was getting properly cold. I held my hands up over my ears, having foolishly left my hat behind, and turned my whole body – as you do when you are either stressed or half frozen – to see if Colm or Rick were anywhere in sight. They weren’t. So I decided to make a move, and head for the shore.

Now, given that I, myself, have been known to enjoy a laugh at the expense of some poor fool when I witness a bit of bravado-gone-wrong, I know what it looks like when someone is not having a great time when they are ‘having a go’ with a view to appearing adventuresome or undaunted. I can assure you that as I crossed the ice I was the source of much amusement to any onlooker from the offices and residences that overlooked the river that day. Indeed, by the time I reached the bank my face was bright red, my ears nearly white, my eyes squinted to slits and my body shook in my inadequately constructed London pea coat. Thankfully, as I waited, stock-still, showing the beginnings of desperation, Colm and Rick emerged from the river’s edge.

Colm, Rick and I headed back down main street to the hotel where we were to meet with our colleagues from the Yukon Council on Disability to begin our preparations for exploring disabilities and employment issues in this unique ex-goldrush wilderness frontier town.

Dawson City, as it would turn out, was a modern, forward-thinking city disguised as the Wild West circa 1898. Disabilities at high noon. Who would be left standing. 

HALF WAY DONE │ YUKON COMMUNITIES WORKING TOGETHER

A summary review of the YDES project so far.

KEY CONCEPTS: unique community and business, triple bottom line, the pragmatics of community living

The Yukon Disability Employment Strategy team put in a huge effort through the late fall and early winter month to visit as many communities as possible, as soon as possible, to ensure we were able to develop a clearer picture of the needs and wants of our communities and their businesses.

As a part of our review work during the month of January 2012, we thought it might be useful to step back from the intensity of the research phase and share some of what we have learned with the world. To this end, we have now had one article accepted for publication in the prominent international disabilities magazine, Disability Now, and have a second article that we are finalizing for an online magazine called Disability Horizons.

Part of our justification for taking the time to focus on sharing some of what we have learned already with the world, is that we felt it important to continue to build upon the foundations established by the Six Steps to Success conference for a regional, national and even international conversation on disability employment issues – as identified here in the Yukon.

We will make sure we post a link to the live articles once they go to print/online. But in the meantime, you can have a sneak preview of the first article below.

We’d like to thank all the community stakeholders we have met so far for your openness and honesty in helping us to identify the priority issues for disabilities employment in Yukon. Great work everyone!

Happy reading!

YUKON’S RUSH FOR HUMAN GOLD!

Imagine an untouched wilderness landscape four times the size of England, dizzyingly high mountain ranges and glacial-fed rivers dappled in gold and underpinned by diamond and silver seams.

Consider 360◦ wilderness vistas, where 17,000 wild grizzly and black bears wander the woods surrounding a handful of picturesque frontier towns tucked away in green valleys.

This is not mythology. It is the Yukon.

The Yukon is a geographically unique and isolated territory in north western Canada, sandwiched between British Columbia and the Arctic Ocean. It has the tallest peaks and coldest temperatures in North America, and is subsumed in Arctic twilight for half the year, contrasted by long summer days and the midnight sun.

The Yukon’s uniqueness ends abruptly, however, when we consider the statistics regarding employment equity for disabled people (or to use the preferred Canadian vernacular, ‘people with disabilities’). In the Yukon, like elsewhere, disabled people remain underrepresented within employment statistics and continue to face significant barriers in the workplace.

With a population of 35,000, an unemployment rate of 5%, a historically strong growth economy and highly educated workforce enjoying an equally high standard of living, the Yukon stands out as a northern oasis, free of the economic ills facing the rest of the western world. It is a refreshingly friendly, familiar place where everyone knows everyone else; where people stop and talk in the streets and welcome newcomers with smiles. What better place to develop a comprehensive disability employment strategy that ensures a barrier-free, progressive work and business environment?

In 2011 the Yukon Council on Disability took a bold step to resolve workplace discrimination across the Yukon, once and for all. They began with aninternational conference on disability employment issues, aiming to lay the foundations for a coordinated, comprehensive approach to firmly establish employment equity for disabled people across this vast and wilderness frontier landscape.

For the first time, business owners and managers across the whole of the Yukon have been asked for their perspective and input about why disabled people continue to face barriers in the workplace.

Now, at the start of 2012, the Yukon Council on Disability is proud to report significant progress is underway – real, measurable progress – grounded in the recognition by businesses across the Yukon that, yes, barriers preventing people from having a full life, including employment, remains a serious problem, and one that can and must be resolved through progressive, coordinated business and community planning.

To be clear, though, Yukon business owners are not discussing workplace accommodations and revising human resources policies and procedures simply out of the goodness of their hearts. Yukon might be a place full of thoughtful, highly educated people, but business is business wherever you go.

Indeed, Yukon employers identified that they are interested in recruiting and retaining disabled people because it makes good business sense. An inclusive, happy, productive workforce = efficient, expanding, successful, sustainable business. And if there is one thing that all successful business leaders agree on, it’s that a business is only as successful as its people. What businesses depend on is access to a highly skilled, experienced and motivated labour market, and that includes disabled people.

It is not our intention to imply that business owners in the Yukon are only interested in the bottom line, with disabled people simply an untapped labour market and instrument to coldly increase productivity. Rather, without necessarily using the terminology, business owners are thinking imaginatively about business in terms of the triple bottom line – people, planet, profit – and the benefits of becoming the employer and provider of choice to an increasingly discerning marketplace.

In many ways, building a successful business is about connecting the dots that comprise the full image of what you are trying to achieve as a business and good corporate citizen. Success, check. Sustainability, yes. Committed labour force, essential. Support of the community, absolutely. A complete, well-rounded happy work environment, yes please. But connecting all these dots is not as simple as it might seem.

Unlike a children’s connect-the-dots activity book, entrepreneurs and business owners are starting with a blank page, having to identify all the dots (read, business planning factors), then mapping these out in a way that forms the shape of their idealised business (products, markets, size, growth, etc.) and finally connecting the dots together in a way that results in a business resembling the intended progressive, friendly corporate citizen. To use a hackneyed example, think Apple Inc and its corporate image: imaginative, barrier-free, shrewd, customer-focussed, creative products for a whole, inclusive community.

Smart business owners recognise they can simultaneously mitigate risk of failure and promote growth simply by taking progressive steps towards considering the needs and desires of their employees and the community in which they operate. But, articulating and persisting with a progressive, strategic business plan is not easy. Managers must resist the everyday temptation of short-term gains through cost-cutting in areas such as workplace innovations inspired by fresh, forward-thinking universal design. Recruiting or retaining a person with a disability and modifying the business to ensure universal accessibility is invariably an investment in the future.

Interestingly, one of the key outcomes of this present initiative is that businesses are coming to terms with the revelation that many of employees they depend on most of all are in fact disabled. This awareness, admission and recognition by business is indeed new. Many businesses might have been employing and accommodating disabilities for years, but by going through this process of questioning, discussing and reflecting, businesses are finally putting words and structures around what they have been doing intuitively. The translation from the intuitive to the explicit is the essential first step to the kind of strategic planning that will enable businesses to expand productivity through targeted workplace modernisations, inclusive of accommodations to the advantage of all employees.  

It’s now January, 2012, and the Yukon Council on Disability is looking ahead to completing the consultation phase of the Yukon Disability Employment Strategy development with business (see the blogs, here and here) and undertaking the difficult task of developing the strategy itself: the set of guidelines, best practices  and resources which will help businesses create successful, inclusive, barrier-free workplaces. With disability as a core component of a whole community, businesses in the Yukon are eager to finally connect all the dots and demonstrate to the world that equity in employment for disabled people is not only possible, but good business.

ROSS RIVER │ JOURNEY TO THE CENTER OF YUKON

The long slow road to Ross River and the anticipation of understanding the disability employment issues of this unique little town in the heart of Yukon

Ross River is a community of approximately 300 year-round residents. It is located in central Yukon, accessible from Watson Lake, 6 hours drive to the south-east up a predominantly single-track gravel road in winter and summer.

The journey time to Whitehorse is a similar distance, but going round the loop and down past Carmacks and on paved roads. There is one other access on a summer road only from Jakes Corner directly south on the Alaska Highway.

Travelling to Ross River in November from Watson Lake was, to say the least, a journey which few have done – particularly at -25C in snow and starting out at 4am! But, alas, no misadventures on the way, and just enough left in the tank as I arrived that there was no need for coasting down the hills over the last few miles as the sun began to lift just over the horizon at 10am.

Six hours after I departed Watson Lake I was in my first meeting of the day, and looking forward to understanding the issues of this historically significant little town tucked away down in the heart of Yukon. 

WATSON LAKE │ THE POSSIBILITY OF A UNIVERSALLY ACCESSIBLE COMMUNITY

Watson Lake has the services, businesses, and political and organizational structures to enable significant change in support of people with disabilities in the workplace.

KEY CONCEPTS: universal design; readiness-to-work; public and private partnerships; project planning

Watson Lake employers identified specific gaps in the readiness-to-work of prospective employees – namely, the lack of education, skills and motivation that are essential to succeed in the labour force.

This so-called gap in readiness-to-work is, in part, a result of disabilities issues: learning disabilities, mental health, and issues arising as a consequence of FASD.

One provider suggested that area educators of school-aged children and youth are reporting that 60% of students in school have a learning disability of some kind or another. This estimate might seem high at first, but when considered within the context of a reported 50%+ occurrence of FASD in rural Yukon communities, a 60% learning disabilities rate seems highly likely.

The high rate of learning disabilities is itself only a problem for employers and employment when it prevents individuals from being able to achieve career and life goals. Aside from the absolute necessity to reduce the risk factors for learning disabilities, notably alcohol and drug use during pregnancy and alcohol and drug abuse at points throughout life, there is an immediate need to coordinate efforts to ensure people with disabilities are able to access the education and training needed in order improve readiness-to-work and associated career and life choices.

The agencies and service providers in the Watson Lake suggested ways of addressing this problem, breaking the cycle through improved access to learning and supports.

Here is what some of them had to say.

• The first step in bringing about full and open access for people with disabilities across the wider Watson Lake community, including employment, is for the public sector to model best practice in terms of the necessity and benefits of universal design in progressive modern towns and cities. Some of the exiting public services infrastructure has limited access – including essential public services offices. In order for employers to take an initiative supporting disability employment seriously, the public (government) services must be seen to embrace the principles and apply them to positive effect. This appears to be a key initial step – or at the least, coordinated to roll out in-step with a prospective implementation of a Yukon Disability Employment Strategy in Watson Lake.
• Employers are willing to accept employees with disabilities, but only on the condition that they are able to complete the work as per job specifications. In other words, employers need supports in understanding the services and accommodations that are available in order to adapt a job and the workplace, enabling them to accommodate disabilities with risk of excessive cost to the business. Employers are pragmatic, to be sure. However, there is an opportunity to extend the scope of what is considered good business practice to include proactive responses to disability employment issues – reducing potential human resources problems and concerns in the workplace when employees experience difficulties associated with a disability of one kind or another over the course of their working life.
• The town of Watson Lake would benefit from a community-wide accessibility audit – encompassing the whole of the public and private sector, including services and agencies, businesses, and public infrastructure and conveniences. Undertaking both an annual audit, in addition to ensuring that all town and business project planning applications included an analysis of universal design principles in project and event planning would contribute to developing a culture of inclusiveness and progressive thinking regarding disabilities and the benefits of a fully accessible and equitable community development.
• Education has a significant role to play in supporting labour market development in Watson Lake. Existing services include a full service education system, from primary through tertiary education, and additional services through training providers such as Watson Lake Community Outreach. Providers recognize that a significant barrier to employment equity and workplace accessibility can be overcome by further education and skills development. Job seekers struggle to successfully complete education requirements and applications for employment given the complexity of the training and associated employment bureaucracy. Many job seekers with disabilities have low literacy and numeracy skills making it difficult to retain their employment if the job requires significant amounts of in-service training and independent coursework. Supports for people with learning disabilities and other barriers to learning require a support network of education and training providers to ensure they have the needed support to sustain their education and training requirements and remain in employment.

Service providers in Watson Lake represent an energetic and talented pool of community-minded people, ready and willing to work with the business community and political leaders to affect positive change. A Yukon Disability Employment Strategy needs to become a conduit for supporting networking and communication within communities – enabling grass-roots initiatives to take hold and drive progressive change.

The ideas, interest, and energy needed to increase the representation of people with disabilities in the workplace are already in place in Watson Lake. All that is needed is the means to coordinate positive change. The Yukon Disability Employment Strategy looks forward to returning to Watson Lake in the not too distant future to work towards achieving this goal.

Unit then… 

WATSON LAKE │ A FUTURE MODEL OF UNIVERSAL DESIGN FOR NORTHERN RURAL LIVING?

A northern rural town with the infrastructure and vision and values needed to develop a model of inclusive, equitable, progressive employment practices.

KEY CONCEPTS: essential community infrastructure; vision and values; readiness to change; progressive town planning

Watson Lake is the first port-of-call for travellers arriving in Yukon from British Columbia along the Alaska Highway. It is also the self declared transportation hub for the region, with links to western Yukon, on through Whitehorse and to Alaska, but also north to central Yukon and further to the neighbouring Northwest Territories.

The Watson Lake town website traces the origins of current town site to 1941 and the establishment of the Alaska Highway. The current population estimate is 1200, fluctuating with seasonal labour and peaking during summer months.

Watson is what might be called a full-service town. It has education services from primary through tertiary, with its own Yukon College Campus attached to the High School, a hospital, and full complement of social and public services. A town hall and chamber of commerce are in place to coordinate community economic development planning. The business community is diverse and well developed, with choices for shopping and access to essential items without the need to travel the 5+ hours to Whitehorse – a significant advantage over many Yukon towns.

In short Watson Lake has the essential community infrastructure to be a thriving and progressive model of rural northern living. Certainly the people we met during our discussions regarding the development of the Yukon Disability Employment Strategy were insightful, forward-thinking, and willing to reflect on what it takes to make an inclusive, equitable, and progressive town that supported the accommodation of disabilities with the workplace.

We will explore a number of issues arising from our conversations in the blogs to follow. But for now, consider Watson Lake as an inclusive Yukon town in making. All that is needed is a coordinated strategy to set in motion the vision and values of forward-thinking employers and service providers to make this (not so little) town model of universal design for northern rural living.