Page 74 - An Indispensible Resource for Being a Credible Activist

● Parking and the ADA, Act I at http://www.jan.wvu.edu/corner/vol01iss14.htm
● Parking and the ADA, Act II at http://www.jan.wvu.edu/corner/vol03iss01.htm
● Requesting and Negotiating a Reasonable Accommodation at http://www.jan.wvu.
edu/corner/vol03iss04.htm
● Job Accommodation Network Whitepapers. Universal Design and Assistive Technology
as Workplace Accommodations: An Exploratory White Paper on Implementation and
Outcome at http://www.jan.wvu.edu/research/JANUDATWhitePaper.doc

These resources can also be found in Spanish at http://www.jan.wvu.edu/espanol.
JAN’s resources can easily become the new best friend of the credible activist. Use them
often and publicize their resources to other HR professionals, to the managers with whom
you work, and to employees who may find the information helpful.
Disability can happen to anyone. It can happen to workplace leaders, workplace lawyers,
to HR staff, and to any employee. Additionally, there are now hundreds of thousands of newly
disabled veterans, many of whom are still able to work as long as they have reasonable
accommodations for their disabilities. It’s time to stop thinking about employees as “them”
and as certain management employees as “us.” We are all “us,” and we are all entitled to the
same rights, protections, and accommodations under the laws that govern our workplaces.
An earlier chapter referred to a joke on Seinfeld that only lawyers read the inside top of
the Monopoly box. Although this is a funny joke, it makes an essential point that fuels many
HR credible activists: We’re all playing the same game, and we have all supposedly agreed
to understand and follow all the rules. If there is a small group of people (whether lawyers
or anyone else) who can find loopholes around the rules to which everyone else has agreed
in good faith, what is the point of playing with those people? Why don’t they simply play
by the rules instead of putting so much time, effort, and money into looking for ways that
they can get around those rules? Therefore, information that assists and empowers employ-
ees—whether how to write an accommodation request letter, how to request mediation,
how to file a complaint with an external regulatory agency, or how to maximize use of their
medical benefits—is for everyone in the workplace, and there should be nothing “radical”
about this concept.
We also have a responsibility to assist the entire workplace with becoming more com-
fortable with persons with disabilities by using emotional intelligence-based diversity train-
ings. We’ve all seen a young child of five or six react in horror at seeing a disabled person.
Sometimes, adults have the same reactions, despite knowing better. We can openly explore
the primal brain feelings of fear, anger, and disgust with employees in response to persons
who are different from them, whether disabled or not. This is an excellent way to train all
staff in diversity knowledge that is both experiential and sustainable.
More and more workplaces consider the mediation services provided by the EEOC to
be preferable to lawsuits. For more information on the EEOC’s mediation program, visit:
http://www.eeoc.gov/mediate/index.html. Workplaces that make this kind of information
available to all employees do so because they know their corporate culture demands of them
a level of performance that welcomes employees’ internal feedback, concerns, complaints,
and questions. This kind of open system is the modern healthy workplace system, toward
which all workplaces need to strive. Why? Because it’s healthier for all employees emotion-
ally, psychologically, and physically, and, ultimately, less costly.

CHAPTER 4 • Legal Issues for Credible Activists 57