(dis)abilities

one of the great programs that my team runs is to facilitate employment opportunities for people with disabilities...who represent about 14.5% of the Brazilian population...

unfortunately my role does not involve working directly with these employees but my colleagues´efforts and the presence of my disabled colleagues is quite an eye opener...as i mentioned earlier, i got a new sense of perspective on my language barriers when i considered my deaf and mute colleagues and how much courage and perseverance they must have to overcome their communication barriers everyday...

and about once a week i pass a guy on the street begging for money...he always pulls down his shirt sleeve to expose the place where his arm used to be....highlighting his disability to help get more money begging on the street....(i have even heard stories of children being deliberately maimed for the same purpose)....and it makes me think of other people who desperately try to hide their disabilities in order to get jobs and income...and now due to the employment quotas in brasil people with disabilities are in more demand in medium-big workplaces...of course needing medical certificates to prove their "status"...

i also had a meeting during the week which showed different way banks can deal with disabled clients....there is another bank which offers special rates for people with disabilities..but they have to come to the bank, prove their disabilities and dependencies....but then there is the approach of our bank which provides more dignity to people with disabilities and their families and offers credit packages to purchase items that improve people´s mobility (EX wheelchairs, braille programmes etc)....items that people with disabilities and their families need without having to keep reminding and reinforcing their disability

every day i am truly inspired my colleague, who walks with a lot of difficulty because of his degenerative condition and uses a wheelchair for medium and long distances...yet he works full time and studies at night...he never makes a fuss when he accidentally falls to the floor because his body is too tired...and his eyes are always sparkling, especially when he shares with me his goal for the future of being a psychology lecturer at university and meeting a woman who respects others and diversity with her small actions, makes him laugh and can deal with changes

i often reflect that we all have different abilities and disabilities that we bring to the workplace...the challenge is always to see our common humanity with "the other"...recognising how your own habits, behaviours, paradigms act as disabilities for you to work better....and recognising the talents and contributions of others with more obvious physical disabilities.