School Days

I vaguely remember our transition to moving between classrooms rather than remaining for the entire school day in a single, drab, 30×30, fading tiled room. Five minutes of scurrying around, flirting with your favored girl or boy, emptying your bookbag, buttoning your tie – in our case the Scots/Irish plaid bow tie with faux pearl snap as dapper today as it was in the ’60s - then the distinctive snap of yardstick on desk calling us to attention for a quick Our Father and Pledge of Allegiance, hands over our hearts and facing our flag, before eight hours of confinement. Twenty boys, twenty girls, no mixing of the two if the good sisters could enforce their iron will – and they generally could – and on with our studies.

Maybe it was 3rd or 4th grade that we transitioned to the homeroom model where we would move between classrooms and teachers to take advantage of the encroaching dawn of specialization.  We traveled en masse – like some lost tribe exiled to the narrow, windowless halls, single file, eyes straight ahead, moving as one organism to the land of the next oracle. But we always returned, day after day, to the familiarity of homeroom, for sustenance mid-day and at the end of each day. There was comfort in that return. Like many of us, those earliest relationships made some of the most indelible impressions on me. Maybe it was the forced closeness, being compelled to engage with a group of others not of your choosing. Maybe it was the sense of comraderie that developed in that closed society – and they were societies – with hierarchy, leadership, cooperation, treachery and trade.

Valuing, then and now

It’s hard to ignore the onslaught of public offerings and acquisitions of business and social media tools. At closing of its second day being listed on the  New York Stock Exchange, LinkedIn - referred to by Inc.com as a social network for professionals – was valued at nearly $9 billion! Yelp, the review-based site where you can weigh in on everything from restaurants to religion, had its coming out party shortly after.  The lid off, other ether-based offerings like Groupon, Zynga and Angie’s List soon followed suit.

And now we wait for the mother of all – Facebook –  to step on the IPO scale and weigh in. Whether it tips the scales at a “lean” $50-60 billion or a bloated $90-100, it will establish yet another high water mark in favoring these on-line purveyors of personal and professional demographics over not just traditional sectors of industry such as manufacturing…for those of you under thirty here’s a link, but the quickly fading earlier generation high-tech sector. Emblematic of this shift is the recent lackluster offering of Erickson Air-Crane, Inc. of Portland. The first public offering in Oregon in eight years, this helicopter manufacturer’s public debut limped onto the exchange with no more pop than a cracker at a Christmas dinner.  It seems that in the blink of an eye we have migrated from microprocessor, aerospace and telecommunications technology companies like Intel, Northrop-Grumman and Motorola to virtual companies that have, at least on the surface, as modest connection to creating value as Prince had to royalty.

Like most of us, I take advantage of the more ubiquitous tools in the business/social media toolbox by now. Once I post this, I’ll tweet and retweet it, post it to my LinkedIn accounts, etc. I mean I’m not a luddite after all. I know there’s inherent value to the underpinnings of these virtual town halls, coffee shops, front stoops or university student unions. I have the good fortune of  the counsel of a colleague – Todd Nilson of Social Syntax – who is far wiser in the ways of these things than am I – to prevent me from slipping back into the abyss of business before mass virtual connectivity.

Facebook as virtual homeroom

So back to Facebook. What is it that draws hundreds of millions of us there day in and day out? I understand why I tweet, post discussions to LinkedIn, and pay attention to search engines – or I like to think I do. But Facebook is a different animal. It touches us at a more core and personal level. For me it’s often maddening, suggesting I have messages that I can’t seem to find, seemingly denying me the opportunity to comment, and always provoking me to defend or support some position. Facebook seems to hit back more than these other tools. It’s got a heartbeat. We take it personally. Like homeroom, we enter and form alliances, only to break them and form them anew. We whisper among ourselves, pass virtual notes, stomp about and play the class clown. We lead, follow, share, argue, debate. We leave for the day, or perhaps two, but ultimately return. It’s our virtual homeroom. And in the end, like it or not, we just hope to be Liked.

FuelCall updated logo!

I’m republishing this post since we’ve been named a finalist for the ITA Citylights Best Strategic Use of Technology Award!  This collaboration between MPS/nAblement and Microsoft led to the development of the Fuel Call site and the Fuel Call Mobile application  for Windows Phones. Please feel free to review the finalists and consider a vote for us in the Best Strategic Use of Technology category!

The Collaboration

As I was on a break while attending the Healthcare Summit for Workers with Disabilities at Access Living in Mid-May, 2011 my phone rang. Patrick Hughes, Owner of Inclusion Solutions, a forward-thinking developer of human interface technologies to enable PWD to better access key services and opportunities such as voting booths, inaccessible storefronts, drive-thru restaurants and gas pumps at service stations, had called me with one question. “Hi Pat. Patrick Hughes here. Do you know anyone at Google?”  Common to many entrepreneurs from my experience, Pat can make you feel as though you’ve come into the middle of a conversation that he’s been having with himself. I probed a bit and he made it clear that he really wanted to investigate getting a web site and mobile application developed for his FuelCall™ system.

As we have very strong relationships with Microsoft through both our ITKAN networking group as well as  MPS Partners, I quickly turned the conversation to engaging them to make this happen. With the support of both Microsoft and MPS,  the project quickly took shape. Bill Topel, Founder and Owner of MPS,  pulled some Microsoft executives from the Chicago regional headquarters into the conversation and we had the support we needed to begin the development. That was the good news. The more challenging requirement was that the application needed to be developed on a fast track to align with Microsoft’s end of fiscal year.

A Real Solution for a Real Need

The project was launched and MPS Partners developer Corey Miller was assigned to work with the Inclusion Solutions team to create the site . Over the course of the summer the site took shape.  A short sidebar note. I have a very personal stake in the development of this application, not specific to Inclusion Solutions’ success – though I certainly support that – but to expose what has been a 30-year challenge for me, and a challenge that I share with millions of other drivers with disabilities in our nation. Specifically, managing the process of getting in and out of your vehicle with the wheelchair, accessing the pump - which may vary in height, screen visibility, access to credit card slot, etc. , being aware of the movement of other vehicles while exiting and reentering your vehicle, managing a lift if you’re driving a van with a lift (true story – I had a car run over my lift at the gas station when I drove a van years ago), and on and on.

Without a solution like FuelCall in place at a station, drivers with a genuine need for assistance at the pump are left to either manage on their own, try to gain the attention, understanding and support of a station employee – and think about the frenetic nature of service stations at this stage, as well as the disinclination to “serve” - or not drive.  Many stations have legal language accompanied by the universal disability icon suggesting that they comply to the law, but the reality for drivers with disabilities is not so clear. After 30 years of this challenge, what it clear to me is that most stations aren’t in the least concerned about serving their customers with disabilities. The last option that I referenced, not driving,  is not an option. Drivers with disabilities value the independence, pleasure, need and right to operate their personal vehicles just as all other drivers. The ability to drive can often mean landing a job or not, engaging more actively in your community and the broader community, helping to support a family structure, and so much more.

This challenge is emblematic of the ongoing us vs. them relationship between the community of people with disabilities and the general population. In the evolved service station business model, the fuel purchase is the low margin sale that, hopefully, encourages customers to enter the “mart” and buy higher margin consumables like drinks, chips, candy, etc. For what it’s worth, the FuelCall model encourages station attendants to offer the driver with a disability the opportunity to order products from the store while their fuel is being pumped. I’m not endorsing or discounting this model, but I certainly understand why Inclusion Solutions presents this model to station owners. It’s encouragement to do what they are obligated to do under an element of Title III of the ADA. Fine by me. Whatever it takes to get this industry’s attention to accede to the law.

Check out the new Fuel Call site, http://www.fuelcall.net/ ,find those stations that have acquired the Fuel Call system, and plan that end of summer vacation, interview, family get-together, ballgame, or just follow the open road. Sign up for their newsletter to learn of  stations near you that have acquired Fuel Call.  Now you won’t be left wondering where you can fill up! Thanks to our partners at Microsoft and MPS  for helping to support the complete integration of people with disabilities into society through the development of The Fuel Call web site. Windows 7 Phone users, you can now download the elegant Fuel Call Mobile application and give yourself the assurance of Fuel Call service on the road!

 ITKAN – Our networking and professional growth group that meets at the Microsoft Technology Center monthly - has been named a Computerworld Honores Laureate program in the Collaboration category! It’s the perfect honor for us, focused as we are on providing a setting for knowledge transfer, expanding your career network and driving opportunity within the technology field. Founded in early 2008, ITKAN is rooted in the core philosophy of the Illinois Technology Association and its sister organization, the Illinois Technology Foundation - supporting passion for technology in students and developing professionals, and keeping that talent right here in our world-class city and region.

In the case of ITKAN our focus is in supporting that passion among students and professionals with disabilities. The Computerworld Honors Laureate distinction recognizes our efforts to use technology to better society. Through our collaboration with industry partners like the MTC, ITA/ITF, SPR and i.c. stars we aspire to the motto on our newly launched web site, Exploring a Passion for Technology without Limits. Join us!

George Flores and the Healing Harp

September 11th is a date with a global imprint, but for George Flores its burden is heavier than for most of us. On 9/11/04 George was returning from a concert on his motorcycle.  He’d been there as a promise to a friend who was managing the band. It was more of a commitment than a night out for George who’d already lived his dream to be on stage as lead singer for Nocturnal, part of the Chicago heavy metal scene from the late ’80s through the early ’90s. He was being courted to join the band, go on tour, and reenter the scene that he’d moved on from years before.

He’d knocked around since that time, doing skilled factory work, taking other odd jobs. More significantly, he’d invested himself, his passion and his skills to become a respected harp technician. An odd juxtaposition for a guy from Nocturnal, but George’s life hasn’t exactly been a straight line.  He’s always been good with his hands and machinery, growing up in Chicago with a single mom, being called on by her to fix appliances as a necessity. When George speaks of his mom there’s no resentment, just the love and respect of a son who grew up quicker than most, accepting his role to help keep the wheels on the cart. His independent spirit and stubborn pride would be qualities that would serve him in ways he could never have anticipated growing up in Chicago.

Life in an Instant

After the concert on that late summer evening, he told his friend that he was flattered the band wanted him to join them on the road, but he’d left that life and needed to turn the page. He got on his chopped bike to head home. He emphasizes that he wasn’t under the influence, resolute not to feed a public perception of a typical young guy being irresponsible after a late night. George is anything but typical. His next memory was lying in profound pain in a field of deep grass off of the highway and struggling to survive for the next twelve hours. His salvation would be in the form of two young guys scouring for scrap metal who spied his bike and then spied George, broken, bleeding, but hanging on. It seems fitting that these guys found George, knowing what it meant to struggle for survival by scouring the highways for enough scrap metal to make a few bucks for another meal or essential.

The next couple of years were more of a nightmare for George than that evening, lacking health insurance and now being strapped with a severely disabling spinal cord injury. He fought skin ulcers, infections and the emotional burden of reenvisioning his life post-injury. His pride and dogged determination, as well as a life-long friend who’d by that time made a name for himself in the music and recording industry, would prove to be the tethering cords for a future.

After he’d moved off stage as a performer, George began developing his skills as a harp technician, a field that would expose him to an entirely new level of performer and feed his need for recognition and respect. That door seemed to have slammed with the onset of the spinal cord injury. An orchestral harp is an intimidating instrument, six feet of  highly crafted woodwork, 47 strings of nylon, gut, wire or silk, and requiring a skilled technician to navigate all of it to properly feel the instrument’s nature, tighten and tune. How would he achieve that when his permanent point of view was now three feet lower?

The Real Promise of Technology – Community

After a tough conversation with his old friend, now in LA with his career, George’s luck would change. His friend got on a plane and headed to Chicago. He presented George with a laptop computer and encouraged him to begin exploring resources while he was recovering. George reached out to the National Spinal Cord Injury Association (NSCIA) and, through their support, was able to secure a standing wheelchair to enable him to again pursue his career as a harp technician. This singular recognition by his friend that a piece of technology, coupled with access to a much broader community of support through the internet, could help restore passion and a belief in success, is repeated thousands of times over in our world.

Once George was equipped with a standing chair there was little standing in his way. He and Eric Larson, then the Executive Director of NSCIA, laid designs for George to help build and tune a custom, world-class Grand Orchestral harp that would be donated by Venus Harps of Chicago to NSCIA in order to raise money for their programs and to raise awareness by the public of the challenges and promise of living with spinal cord injury. The effort was labor-intensive, with George continuing to be burdened with ongoing health challenges associated with the SCI. This labor of love, guts and determination has culminated in the Healing Harp auction which commences today and runs for ten days on Ebay. Check it out, read George’s story, and consider how the support of  two technologies – one ancient, the other modern - a good friend and the right community helped to restore a career for one and hope for many.

We are all enriched when we are pushed outside of our comfort zone or envelope of security. At least most of us would agree with that statement –  I think. I work with colleagues who push me on many levels, and I’m confident that my professional growth at this stage of my career has been greatly enhanced by their drive and dedication to life learning.

Recently my colleague Todd Nilson of Social Syntax, JobCamp, talentline411 to name a few of his career brands, sent me a brief email with a link to an essay in The New Atlantis. As “A Journal of Technology and Society”, the Atlantis has a big playing field on which to explore many complex, and often controversial, topics that previous generations of even the most forward-looking members of our race couldn’t have hoped to scratch. The essay, The Case for Enhancing People, authored by Ronald Bailey and drawn from a recent symposium – Science, Virtue and the Future of Humanity, certainly challenged me with its equal measures of philosophy, bioethics and rapid technology advances, leaving me both enthralled with man’s progress and a bit queezy at some of the prospective determinations portended by the same. Unforced images of 1984, Hitler Youth rallies and a dash of Minority Report for good measure rattled in my head as I tried to weigh the arguments and counter-arguments pitting the absolute value of all progress against the seemingly outarmed cry for tbe beauty and uniqueness of the individual, warts and all. And of course, the historic and evolving discussions related to the presence, complexity and experience of disability were a constant stream in my head as I read. 

The essay is really a point-counterpoint that references some of the common arguments for and against prospective advances in fields like bioengineering, nanotechnology and DNA screening – advances that are already beginning to have an impact for some on extending life, restoring strength and, yes, in some cases enhancing the traditional human condition beyond what was possible even a decade or two ago. The author makes some compelling arguments for advances, current and future, by noting that our lot is certainly in a much more enviable position today than we were  just a century ago - owing in large part to the unceasing march of technological advance and its influence on critical fields such as medicine, agriculture, commerce and education.

I would be one of the last to argue that overriding point, having personally benefited from advances in spinal surgery, the evolution in wheelchair design that has taken advantage of the availability and integrity of advanced materials like carbon fiber and titanium, and the life-saving skills of advanced care teams in medicine. Further, like many of us around the world, I benefit daily through access to the internet and endless opportunities to gain knowledge that just a few short years ago would have required sitting in a classroom, or dozens of classrooms - and for next to no cost! It is truly astounding to ponder how different our world is from that of our parents, let alone our grandparents or great-grandparents. And it would be pointless to argue against the indelible influence of technological advance that has bestowed these fundamentally life-changing products, processes and systems on our culture.

So why did I experience such discomfort in reading The Case for Enhancing People? Without overanalyzing my emotional response to it, I think my reservations are less around encouraging – indeed lauding – the ongoing advances in all of these complex fields of inquiry, and more around two fundamental concerns. The first is socio-economic in nature, the other very human.

Accessing Advances in Evolving Technologies

The author dismisses arguments that, should we prove able to extend lifespan well beyond a century, we may experience a lack of drive or meaning for our existence at some point in our longer lives, with so much more time on our hands. Opponents of this march toward near immortality argue that the historic sense of mid-life and end of life might be rendered effectively meaningless, leaving many in a long-term malaise, or worse, a hedonistic drive virtually unimpeded by reflections of death and legacy. Bailey makes arguments implying that former generations were seemingly no more virtuous than current notwithstanding their modest lifespans.

The greater concern for me would be access to such evolving technologies. Whatever the core reasons behind the disparity in access to quality healthcare services and technologically advanced care, the fact remains that there are health care deserts – just as there are nutrition deserts - both in our nation and globally, and if the aspiration of enhancing the human condition collectively is at the heart of futurists’ drive, our systems and resources associated with the application of such developments will be at the heart of their successful integration. Try as I might to shake it, I can’t help but envision a world where these evolutionary technologies are applied to a very distinct segment of the human population in a highly discriminatory fashion.

In a World without flaws…

Of equal concern for me is the discussion of what makes us human. Myriad great advances or works in art, science, literature, architecture, social sciences, and even technology itself through the ages have been discovered, created, advanced or augmented by “unenhanced” humans. In fact, many of the great minds through the ages, upon critique, would be characterized as living with a disability – learning, physical, behavioral or other. For an interesting peek at the famous, and infamous, humans with disabilities through the ages visit Disabled World. Is it not possible that there’s some deeper significance to the complex variety of brain chemistry, behavioral distinctions, physical or sensory heterogeneity and, yes, longevity that continues to inform and advance our society generation to generation? Should we not at least harness and value these even as we aspire to improve and “better” ourselves?

While I believe the drive to continue to further the human condition and experience,  to reduce pain and suffering, and to explore how we can collectively grow in mind, body and spirit is vital to humanity, I fervently hope that we don’t lose that which makes us human in the process.

…”Let me put it this way, Mr. Amor. The 9000 series is the most reliable computer ever made. No 9000 computer has ever made a mistake or distorted information. We are all, by any practical definition of the words, foolproof and incapable of error.” – HAL 9000, 2001, A Space Odyssey

Diversity and Healthy Conflict

As our nation continues to struggle to establish a workforce that more closely mirrors our makeup, the Miami Herald recently tweeted a link to a story on the pervasively higher unemployment among PWD in the labor force. Our rate of unemployment hovers near or above 16% vs. 9% for the general labor force. Not to be confused with the incredibly high overall unemployment rate among PWD that has shifted somewhere between 65-70% for decades, the labor force rate applies to PWD who are capable of and actively searching for work or career opportunities. This is that segment among PWD whom we’d expect to be employed at a similar rate to all others in the labor force, wouldn’t we?

On the heels of the 23rd annual National Disability Employment Awareness Month, which actually has its roots in legislation from 1945, and as we’ve migrated into our third decade post-passage of the ADA, shouldn’t we expect that the most employable among us would be, well, EMPLOYED? The stated intent of NDEAM is to increase public awareness of the contributions and skills of American workers with disabilities. How many years will it take to achieve this goal, 25, 35, 50? Qualified candidates with disabilities long to be part of the equation and debate over diversity and conflict in the workplace.

Diverse Classes and Their Road to Employment

Diverse classes within our workforce didn’t achieve the great strides that they have – and clearly inequities are still pervasive - without broad-based and aggressive support by many companies willing to take an “active” position in seeking out, screening, hiring and supporting the career growth of qualified members of these communities. To hear hiring managers, human resource personnel, and other parties of influence in companies make reference to their open policies and willingness to interview any qualified candidate for a given position dismisses a core truth – all marginilized classes in our nation have required proactive support – not a neutral environment – in order to make inroads into historic employment disparity.

Forward-thinking organizations and their leaders took some perceived risks in bringing women, African-Americans and other culturally diverse candidates,  and other classes of previously marginilized candidates into the workplace. Why any company would perceive that PWD shouldn’t require or deserve like support is illogical. Proactive programs, trainings and cultural support directed at the disability community is the rational  progression of recognizing and exploiting all prospective members of our nation’s labor force. In the case of PWD, employers’ perceived risks come in the form of questions of productivity (unfounded), questions of attrition or lost work days related to the disability or associated illness (again unfounded), concerns over cost of accommodation (yet again unfounded), or fears over the ability to dismiss an underperforming employee (the ADA is not a quota system, nor to my knowledge do any of its titles or any EEOC statute or specific language protect an underperforming employee) and others.

A Maturing Business Case for Diversity and Inclusion (D&I)

Research is growing to support the business case for diversity suggesting that, when managed and implemented effectively by leadership, a more diverse and inclusive culture can benefit the organization.  The research referenced here takes a more complex view of diversity than that which has been traditionally held. Specifically, developing research doesn’t presume the benefit of diverse teams in all instances. Further, it accepts that with diversity comes conflict, and that if that conflict is not recognized and managed effectively, you may end up with a more diverse organization – but not a more productive one. Exploring relationship, task and process conflict within teams, the Wharton School of Business study offers a complex, if not completely supportive evaluation of the functioning of diverse teams within business organizations.

Allowing that we still have a lot to learn about diverse work teams, the conflict that diversity can breed, and how we optimize their performance, until qualified candidates with disabilities are actually in the workplace in higher numbers, they can’t be part of that complex discussion. Here’s hoping that future research on these important issues will engender the disability base along with traditional diversity populations as we look to establish the labor force of tomorrow.

2010 NDEAM Poster

The theme for this year’s National Disability Employment Awareness Month is “Profit by Investing in Workers with Disabilities”. Not necessarily catchy or bleeding edge, but certainly makes its point. On October 1, 2010 President Obama signed a presidential proclamation emphasizing the significance of the  effort in that, the 20th year after the passage of the seminel ADA. In 2009 the slogan was “Expectation + Opportunity = Full Participation”. In 2008 it emphatically exclaimed “America’s People, America’s Talent, America’s Strength!”. And the beat goes on.

The Bureau of Labor Statistics now provides month-to-month analytics for the disability workforce as well as side-by-side comparisons to the general workforce. The most recent numbers available are for March  and would suggest that this theme has certainly not been widely adopted to this point. The percentage of people with disabilities in the workforce was 21 vs nearly 70 for those without disabilities. Further, the unemployment rate for those with disabilities was 15.6% vs. 8.9% for those without disabilities. Both reflect the decades long underrepresentation of PWD in the labor force and the evident challenge that the hiring community has in seeing the profitability of such an investment.

The Time to Act is Today

My fear is that as we continue to inch forward and out of the shadow of the extended recession, this underrecognized and undervalued pool of candidates will sink still further into the abyss of unemployment or underemployment. I don’t think it’s hyperbole to suggest that if there isn’t a collective, protracted effort by both government and private sector employers to actively engage this community, the true spirit of the ADA will fail to be met. Namely, the complete and meaningful integration of  people with disabilities into our nation’s fabric. Distilled to its essence, that means meaningful and life-long employment for millions in this highly diverse, complex and mischaracterized segment of our potential labor force. Gary Karp, a former colleague of mine and respected voice for the evolving nature of disability in our nation emphasizes this collective misunderstanding and its implications in his e-newsletter Modern Disability.

In research that we commissioned to consider some of these prevailing challenges in the hiring community, Professors Fong Chan and David Strauser elicited input in deep focus groups as well as through an in-depth on line survey from hiring managers and IT executives in the Midwest on their perceptions of professionals with evident disabilities (hearing, vision, mobility). Two conclusions were clear; there are persistent perceptions of lower productivity associated with disability and there is clear lack of knowledge of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) and its implications for the hiring and employment process. The abstract and conclusions of the research are noted in the National Library of Medicine online library.

This research bears out an unsubstantiated, yet persistent belief on the part of executives and hiring managers that a candidate with a disability is likely to be less productive than one without a recognized disability. Accounting for similar education, background and other key attributes, candidates with disabilities continue to lag noticeably behind their peers without disabilities in getting the job.

What About an Edgier Theme for NDEAM?

One of the core principles for a strategic effort is an intended outcome. Whether in sales forecasting, event planning, fundraising or any other endeavor of significant effort, if you don’t have a vision of success that can be quantified or made tangible in some clear way, how do you know if you’ve succeeded? I am beginning to feel that way about the yearly National Disability Employment Awareness Month. It’s a great “notion”, a promising vision, but it doesn’t drive change in the way the business and hiring community engages around employing qualified candidates with disabilities. Maybe introducing a target for hiring into the theme, poster, campaign launch, and all of the associated festivities and efforts would make an impact. 

Mayor Daley had it Right

Some years ago I served on a committee as part of  Chicago’s newly retired Mayor Richard M. Daley’s Task Force on the Employment of People with Disabilities. I will never forget the Mayor’s terse and direct comments to the large audience of business executives, service providers, the task force and some media gathered at McCormick Place (as I recall) for a progress report on the task force’s findings. The mayor appeared harried that morning, and after he was introduced he quickly thanked the chair of the task force and one or two others for their efforts and then, while wagging his finger indictingly at one after another audience member, stated very plainly “If you would just hire two of these people this year we’d be over this problem”. One of the things that I’ve always appreciated about Mayor Daley, whether he’s discussing international trade or trash pickup, is his directness. It’s vintage Chicago. While the challenge goes a bit deeper than that, I’d settle for the business community heeding the mayor’s admonishment.  Candidates with disabilities continue to be unemployed at the same or nearly the same sky-high rate as they did 10 and 20 years ago. Maybe I’ll be proven wrong and this year’s NDEAM theme will be the one that our nation’s business community takes to heart and acts upon. As it suggests, they would certainly profit by doing so.

Matt Riebel at work

Some time back I posted a blog related to Matt Riebel, a former nAblement contract consultant who had done some outstanding work for PepsiCo in their data gathering function. He was working with a robust and complex query and reporting application. His managers expressed high praise and appreciation for his work and capacity to learn and master new technical skills. That wasn’t surprising to me, nor I expect would it have been for anyone who’s worked with candidates who have been identified as having Asperger’s or high-functioning Autism.  While Matt engages differently in social or professional environments, his intelligence and focus was capable of trumping much of his idiosyncratic behavior.

 Matt has relocated to the Baltimore area and taken a position in data mining with the National Security Agency (NSA). He was in town earlier this summer and his former manager at PepsiCo and I shared a nice lunch with him. It was very gratifying to have been invited by Matt to meet with him while he was back in Chicago for a brief window. Over a lingering lunch he shared some of the nature of the work he was performing on behalf of the NSA,  as well as the process through which he and other new hires were being evaluated and developed at this vaunted organization.  Matt also shared some more personal aspects of his transition, living situation, new friends – some with related challenges-  and the growth of his career aspirations. I continue to feel honored to know Matt and to have had any modest impact on his career and his continuing success in life.

Autism Speaks, Autism TV, Autism Project

It’s hard to imagine not being engaged in or overhearing a conversation regarding the growing presence of – or perhaps diagnosis of -  autism in our society. Media has been riddled with accounts of more  kids being identified through testing or other evaluative tools, and there is an overall heightened awareness of  Autism Spectrum Disorder  in our nation.

Autism Speaks is a blog and educational site that is helping lead us to a new and respectful awareness of the reality of living with – and thriving with – Autism and other ASD challenges. Watching some of the videos on the Autism TV site on Wrong Planet, the fun and quirky banter between “Aspergian” hosts Alex Plank and Jack Robison,  and compelling interviews with the likes of Steve Silberman of Wired Magazine (he speaks to his observation of high relative prevalence of Autism in Silicon Valley), I was struck with how far we have come in our journey of exploration around this complicated group of conditions. I’m certain you’ll be as intrigued as I am by the evolving face of this complex challenge, as well as the extraordinary contributions that many of our friends, family and colleagues who have been “labeled” with one of the diagnoses within ASD are making across multiple professional fields.

For another compelling link check out Ali Hossaini’s Autism Project on ArtLab TV and consider a sub-grouping within traditional Diversity and Inclusion, namely “Neurodiversity”. Great brain fodder.

ASD is a highly complex group of disorders that effects not just the person who has been diagnosed, but everyone who interacts with that person. I don’t want to presume to put a generic happy face on this challenging, and often very emotional group of conditions or ignore the other well-documented behavioral complexities of it, but it is encouraging to see the interest and attention that is being accorded to the creative and positive face of this very human condition.

Congratulations to the Forerunners documentary film for winning a 2011 CINE Golden Eagle Award. The CINE Golden Eagle Award acknowledges high quality production in a variety of content categories for professional, independent and student filmmakers. Each year, hundreds of jurors judge nearly 1,000 entries in 32 categories.

Forerunners is an important documentary film that encourages students with disabilities to pursue knowledge in the Science, Technology, Engineering and Math (STEM) disciplines, while emphasizing their inherent strengths related to those disabilities that can translate to valuable skills in the professional workforce. View the Forerunners movie trailer.

Special Event! Join nAblement & ITKAN for a Mobile IT and Apps Event on May 19

Promises and Challenges of Mobile IT and Mobile Applications
Relevant to the Community of People with Disabilities
May 19, 2011
5:00 p.m. – 7:00 p.m.

You are cordially invited to join ITKAN, a not-for-profit network affiliated with the Illinois Technology Foundation (ITF), for an IT industry event on the promises and challenges of mobile IT and mobile applications relevant to the community of people with disabilities. RSVP today to Pat Maher at pmaher@nablement.com. View the event agenda.

When: Thursday, May 19, 2011, 5:00 p.m. – 7:00 p.m.

Where: Microsoft Technology Center
200 E. Randolph Street, 2nd floor
Conference Room: MTC #3
Chicago, IL 60601
Enjoy Microsoft’s introduction video

Who Should Attend: This event is for anyone interested in the revolutionary changes occurring in mobile technology, the accessibility challenges to mobile devices and applications, and how to evolve mobile communications for people with a disability. By attending, you will discover how to harness the power of mobile technology to engage with this market audience.

Whether you are an IT professional (or an aspiring IT professional) with disabilities or are interested in innovating mobile technology and its impact on communications specific to the presence of disability, don’t miss this event.

The event will feature:
- Mobile technology demos
- Subject matter experts on mobile devices and applications
- Open discussion

RSVP by Tuesday, May 17
Email Pat Maher at pmaher@nablement.com to attend.