This Year, I Have a Reason to Celebrate National Disability Employment Awareness Month
National Disability Employment Awareness Month has a different feel for me this year because I recently accepted an offer for my first professional job as the new Project Manager for the CareerACCESS Program at the World Institute on Disability (WID). To accept this position means much to me well beyond the actual work I will be responsible for at WID. Gaining employment has marked my ability to freely begin constructing the life I envision for myself.
My new job means that I can finally get off disability benefits, and no longer be restricted by the archaic laws that dictate our earning power and abilities. It is this freedom from the system that I’m most eager to experience. Being on disability has hindered my ability to confidently seek employment. As a physically disabled person, it was not the loss of the monetary income that was the issue; it was the fear of losing healthcare that dominated how I went about my employment journey. I need healthcare coverage to fully take care of my health needs. This is a barrier that prevents many disabled people from taking work opportunities. If we lose our healthcare benefits, then that can severely impact our quality of life, which could literally mean life or death for some of us if we do not have access to proper medical services and resources.
No one should have to choose between working and having health insurance and supports. If we choose to work, then we risk losing healthcare; if we choose not to work, then that means we choose to remain in the deep trenches of poverty (as being on disability causes us to be well below the Federal poverty line). To be forced to make such a choice is dehumanizing because it tells us that our desire to obtain employment is a “luxury.”
For most of my adult life, I have had to choose poverty until attaining viable employment. Though the economy has bounced back from when I graduated with my Bachelor’s degree in 2008 and Master’s degree in Social Work in 2012, it was still a priority for me to find jobs where I could make a decent salary, have healthcare, and be fully independent. For instance, I will finally have the financial means to move out of my state to the Washington, D.C. area, a move that I have wanted to do since visiting D.C. for the first time and feeling at home among disabled advocates. To get out of poverty was a necessity, and my new position gives me the freedom to do so.
“Freedom” is the word I purposefully use to describe the surge of emotions that washed over me when I learned that I had the job – emotions that declared that I was worthy of being employed, would be challenged in new ways, and would be able to continue making an impact in our community within the WID, a well-respected entity.
WID’s CareerACCESS pilot program will allow disabled young adults to gain employment opportunities without risking their disability benefits and healthcare. As a disabled millennial, I know all too well the struggles of seeking employment while on the disability rolls, and it makes me proud to accept a position where I can manage a program that will assist disabled young people across the country in achieving the goals and dreams they have by retaining employment and independence.
National Disability Employment Awareness Month 2016 marks the year where I can join the labor force as a disabled person. I can finally have money to save and no longer stress about being penalized for going over threshold limits, I can travel for pleasure and professional reasons, I can continue building my advocacy platform, and I can do simple things like go to the grocery store and buy what I want without having to stick to a stringent budget. It is these “luxuries” that society and the system have told me, and millions of us, that we cannot have, and with this new job, I can “adult” by my own rules, and take care of myself the way I deem fit. Though this freedom may seem trivial to some, it is extraordinary to me. I cannot wait to experience freedom and new opportunities.
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Hello Vilissa Thompson,
Great job on your post! I realize that I am a very late commentor on this conversation and I do not know if your employment situation has changed at all since you wrote this post. But I wanted to reach out and point out something very important that you mentioned.
Your post emphasizes your happiness at being able to do away with dependence and social assistance programs to achieve success. This is a problem that I feel like is a huge societal one. Our society seems to have moved along, on the surface, from viewing people with disabilities as in need of charity, yet that’s exactly how the current systems are set up.
For example, it is much easier, and that is saying a lot because the application process is anything but easy, but it is easier to get on social assistance programs than it is to get a job, no matter if you want one or not.
The fact that the system is set up that way really doesn’t make sense at all. And the fact that a person with disability has to consider whether accepting a job offer is really worth the trade-off of losing their insurance and needed healthcare services access is beyond the pale. I cannot think of where it is acceptable to ask somebody to consider that in any other area of society – so why is it acceptable to ask that of people with disabilities?
I am very happy for you that you found a job, and especially one that you are so well suited to.
Keep on keeping on!