TRANSCRIPT 2021 DISABILITY MATTERS NORTH AMERICA DAY-1 / RECORDING-2 WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:00.000 >> Eugene: I'll jump in first. So it's also an opportunity for me to speak a little bit about our newly-communicated global 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:00.000 DE&I strategy, which -- of which, one of the key pillars of the four pillars is communication. And one of the things that we 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:00.000 learned as we gathered information and development of our strategy, was that we did all these wonderful things and nobody knew 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:00.000 about it. And part of the reason why that was the case is because as a very, very value-based conservative company, we have 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:00.000 always sought to not brag about things. We don't do things because we talk about it. We do it because it's the right thing 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:00.000 to do. And as you know, lack of information for people quickly gets you to an assumption that there is nothing being done. 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:00.000 And so, it's a key component, a key -- one of the four legs of our strategy such that we not only communicating internally 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:00.000 much better, but externally much better through social media, through storytelling. We are not experts at that yet. It's 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:00.000 something we have to develop. But we have a great start. Our new strategy launched in October. And we have already made 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:00.000 huge progress in a lot of ways and a lot of fronts globally. The key for us in terms of communication fringe an overall DE&I 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:00.000 standpoint is being forthright. And not necessarily attempting to be the best at everything or claiming to be the best at 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:00.000 everything. But making progress. And continuous improvement. And the if you're not good at something, be transparent and 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:00.000 talk about next year what progress you made. So I think that that whole ball of communication efforts is going to lead -- one 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:00.000 it has already led to a better blaze our employees. Our employees are proud when they hear this stuff. And they don't have 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:00.000 to go look for it. We need to bring it to them. There was a big hard pull in all the periodicals about this but a lot of our 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:00.000 employees didn't see that. So it's just important for us to communicate internally first. We plan on using the really 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:00.000 important vehicle of storytelling to get that done. 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:00.000 >> Lauren: Thank you. Anyone else want to jump in? 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:00.000 >> George: Sure, I can speak about that too. So at Sephora we believe -- as much as we can, we elevate the stories of our 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:00.000 employees and we do that a lot. And we do also share and promote the stories of our consumers with disabilities so we have -- 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:00.000 if you go on YouTube, we have a program called, we belong to something beautiful, which is basically in reference to our 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:00.000 company manifesto that we created a few years ago, to really articulate Diversity and Inclusion. So I want to just put in the 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:00.000 chat a video that I love so you will be able to look at it. But it is a video of one of our employees in one of our 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:00.000 distribution centers and it is really, really touching and when you hear those stories and when you hear how our work is life 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:00.000 changing, it really gives you the extra energy needed to continue pushing and fighting for the right things. That's the 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:00.000 things we do as I said, our social media, YouTube, we belong to something beautiful stories. I spoke about our equity 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:00.000 conversation where we feature some of our charity Partners. We go beyond that with some of our other Partners helping us 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:00.000 making more progress to make more progress on other dimensions of diversity. And of course we advocate through -- we share 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:00.000 progress as we go with our employees on a regular basis as part of our efforts. We do have a Task Force that is really 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:00.000 focused on disability and this Task Force is led by a business General Manager and it is really amazing to see how do these 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:00.000 Task Forces support the work and also helping shape our efforts in terms of storytelling or more concrete actions to attract 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:00.000 and retain employees with disabilities. In addition to that, we do also have ERG that will be launched this year. But it is 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:00.000 already active. It was an informal ERG so we are trying to formalize that. But that is also sharing more stories and also 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:00.000 foster employee engagement around those topics, which help then with communication because then we have concrete actions to 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:00.000 talk about. 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:00.000 >> Lauren: Absolutely. I love the part about the role around Employee Resource Groups and associate to tell the stories. It 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:00.000 shows how embedded it is in the culture of the organization. With less than 10 minutes left, we have some really great 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:00.000 questions for the audience that I would love to highlight. Eugene there is a question for you. If not able to treat someone 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:00.000 with a disability, dentists are required to locate a dentist that can. This isn't working very well, especially for adults 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:00.000 with disabilities. Is Colgate University of Pennsylvania getting involved with this at all? 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:00.000 >> Eugene: I have to be 100% honest. I can't answer that question that the point. My guess is we are gettings up and 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:00.000 running. And it is something that I have written down as to take back. If there is a vehicle, I'm sure Nadine has a vehicle 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:00.000 for me to answer that. But I want to make sure that I'm being corrected in my statements. 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:00.000 >> Lauren: Great. And I think the center that you're building should be a huge part of that solution in terms of bringing 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:00.000 additional capabilities to the table. Another question for you, Colgate has done an incredible job to help out. Love hearing 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:00.000 the story. Has Colgate considered reaching out to similar setups with their Best Practices, hairstylists or et cetera? 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:00.000 >> Eugene: I can't say I believe we have in terms of other industries. But I love their question. I will follow-up on that 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:00.000 but I would probably say not at this point have we reached to other industries. 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:00.000 >> Lauren: I mean I think that is opportunity for like minds who are listening here to amplify some of the work that they are 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:00.000 hearing through their industries also. So thank you for the question, Katie. 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:00.000 >> Age age thank you, Katie. 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:00.000 >> Lauren: Dana, a question for you. Another activity for toddler or young child shoes is price. So on top of braces, 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:00.000 medical bills, therapies and adaptive equipment, they also have to invest in a specialty shoe. Secures if you're thinking 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:00.000 about -- so curious if you're thinking about pricing strategies relative to single shoes and then also interested in joint 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:00.000 Best Practice between Sephora and Zappos. Katie is connecting dots here. But the question for you is really around pricing 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:00.000 strategy. 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:00.000 >> Dana: That is a great question. And our goal is really to offer an assortment at all price levels. Just like any other 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:00.000 product. I do want to say we do work with the medical community as well to better understand what the needs are around shoes 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:00.000 that would be able to house a brace or an AFO. 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:00.000 That is the most common thing that we hear. Mostly in children but sometimes in adults, that the braces are made such that 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:00.000 any typical shoe will not fit. So we are working with brands right now looking at launching extra wide shoes with easy entry 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:00.000 that you would be able to get an AFO or brace, somebody that is wearing a brace, to come into the shoe from the top because of 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:00.000 the lack of mobility. So we are looking at all of those things and we will continue working with brands. I don't know if I 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:00.000 said this earlier, but I feel like we are just at the -- just scratching the surface. There is so much opportunity and we are 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:00.000 again working with the disability community, medical community, to better understand what those needs are so we can 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:00.000 communicate and bridge the gap between the brands and what products are needed out there. 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:00.000 >> Lauren: Amazing. Well said. Any other questions from the audience? I'll give you a moment. Katie, what else you got? 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:00.000 Just kidding. You have done provided us with thought-provoking questions. 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:00.000 So if there are no other questions from the audience, we'll close with this question for each of you if you don't mind 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:00.000 speaking to this high level. I think there has been -- this year has been ripe with challenges and there has been a lot of 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:00.000 noise for many of us within our scope looking at Diversity Equity and Inclusion more holistically against racial justice 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:00.000 challenges. But even with that focus, I would say more broadly you each have brought to life in the past year really 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:00.000 incredible programs that have been much-needed for the disability community. Just curious how do you have conversations and 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:00.000 bring the right disability and prioritization around resources to these strategies more holistically? And George maybe I'll 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:00.000 start with you as you talk about the Task Force that is in place that is really driving discipline against this element of 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:00.000 your diversity strategy, specifically. 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:00.000 specifically. 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:00.000 >> George: So the working not be done by just myself. We believe that everyone has a part to play so that is why as we launch 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:00.000 our holistic DE&I strategy, our goal was to make sure that everyone in the business was involved. So we created huge Task 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:00.000 Force across the business tackling topics such as we spoke about disability but also equitable rewards, compensation and also 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:00.000 our in-store experience because we want to foster inclusive in-store experiences for shoppers and clients with disability. We 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:00.000 are looking at that in a holistic way and definitely having a strong governance was key so we have those Task Forces governing 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:00.000 over 100 employees across our distribution centers, offices and stores at all levels because we want a representation of 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:00.000 the -- and in addition to that I believe that having a strong governance is really key. Our CEO is 1000% behind this effort. 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:00.000 I spoke about the business case for D&I and disability. I did not have to have a business case to convince him because he was 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:00.000 already convinced so that is very refreshing to see him and his direct Leadership Team supporting this work. So that helps. 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:00.000 I would say that also to drive or to have more resources I would say that having a reporting system is very key. I'm very 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:00.000 metrics driven because I believe that what gets measured gets done. And so I spend time with the team to make sure that each 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:00.000 Task Force has a set of metrics and we really floater a very consistent way on our progress because as the Leadership will see 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:00.000 the importance of this, then you know it is a case for more resources and even more support. So that's the way we do it at 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:00.000 Sephora and of course as I said earlier, it's a journey. 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:00.000 >> Lauren: Absolutely. Thank you very much. And we only have two minutes left. Eugene ordaina anything to add? 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:00.000 >> Eugene: Quickly, it's a journey. It's something that we have just embarked on holistically around the globe. We are going 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:00.000 around the globe and we are looking at the issues around DE&I and what they mean in the different parts of the world and we 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:00.000 are imploring Leadership teams to tell us what their top priorities are and then we are going to help them execute the 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:00.000 resources will be local. We and global where necessary and we'll have a measure to kind of standardize what we are looking at 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:00.000 against their priorities and the progress. And then after that, we will determine globally, what additional resources we need 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:00.000 to plan for. 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:00.000 >> Lauren: That was super concise. Dane, anything you want to close with? 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:00.000 >> Dana: Yes, so I think, like Eugene said, we are really just embracing the DEI within the company right now and because 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:00.000 Zappos adaptive has been around for four years now it's easier to start having discussions around Disability Inclusion within 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:00.000 the company and just -- I'm open to having discussions and helping in any way I can further our mission around that. So 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:00.000 really excited to see what the next few years are and everything that we are all able to accomplish. But the key is, 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:00.000 accomplish it together. And that is -- I think somebody said that, if not all of us. That is what it will take. 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:00.000 >> Lauren: Absolutely. Thank you very much to all three Panelists. You all were incredible. Thank you for the wonderful 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:00.000 conversation to our audience for your provocative questions and also thank you very much. And with that, I will turn it back 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:00.000 to the Springboard team. 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:00.000 >> Eugene: We have to make sure we get Katie her answers. 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:00.000 >> George: I have one thing to say so we should not forget. Autism Awareness Month this month. So and we celebrate also at 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:00.000 Sephora. So I put in the chat the link for all insideners this room we can donate to Best Buddies because as we said, we do 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:00.000 great work collectively. So thank you in advance. 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:00.000 >> Lauren: Thank you. Great way to close. Thank you for your attendance. 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:00.000 >> Ivette: Thank you Marketplace Panel. Lauren, thank you and amazing initiatives. So thank you to all. Now we are moving 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:00.000 into the next panel. This is health care professionals with disabilities. To the stage our Moderator, Vice President, Chief 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:00.000 Diversity Officer, proceedert and Medical College of Wisconsin, Andres Gonzalez. And Panelists that will be joining him. 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:00.000 First occupational and environmental medicine resident physician at Johns Hopkins, Dr. Sarah Diekman. And Director of 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:00.000 the Adult outpatient division, Marley Doyle. Our nurse is a heave heave and then we have Associate Professor of 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:00.000 Anesthesiology Wake Forest School of Medicine, Nichole Taylor, and Letty Tomaszewski is our medical student. Welcome to the 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:00.000 stage! Do we have everybody? If you could unmute yourself so we can do a sound check. 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:00.000 [ Sound checks ] 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:00.000 Perfect. I have my whole team except Andre. 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:00.000 >> Nadine: While we are waiting, we will just get -- 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:00.000 >> GRETCHEN: She is here. 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:00.000 >> Ivette: I think this is a fantastic panel here. 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:00.000 >> Nadine: Where is he? I heard a voice saying he is here. 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:00.000 >> GRETCHEN: He just joined 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:00.000 >> ANDREW: Second year in a row my technology fails me and I'm in the office! Good afternoon everyone and apologies to 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:00.000 everyone and certainly to my esteemed Panelist here this afternoon. It seems that this has become my trend of having some 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:00.000 technological issues for the Disability Matters. But nonetheless, happy to be here. Let me actually, before we introduce our 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:00.000 esteemed Panelists here and I will be asking each one of them to introduce themselves. I just want to say a few comments that 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:00.000 I think are going to ground our discussion. And this is actually based on what Froedtert Health, as an integrated Health 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:00.000 Network, my employer, has found but probably more importantly, backed by research that has been conducted by an organization 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:00.000 that I'm part of, the Institute for Corporate productivity. This is an organization that conducts research across-the-board 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:00.000 on a myriad of topics that have to deal with or at the intersection of workforce, workplace, marketplace and community. And 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:00.000 this particular study goes back to a few years ago when Best Buddies, actually an organization that provides services to 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:00.000 people with disabilities, conducted this research with the organization w us. And here is what they found. As they did -- 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:00.000 there were a couple of key takeaways. And I want to talk about those key findings because this is exactly what our Panelists 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:00.000 will be addressing this afternoon. Companies are employers that hire people with disabilities not only do it for the business 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:00.000 reasons, but they are rewarded with business benefits. And some of those have to do with highly motivated employees who 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:00.000 demonstrate inclusive and diverse cultures that are attractive to critical talent pools and improving certainly customer 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:00.000 satisfaction. The profile of a worker with disability reads like that of an ideal employee. Extremely dependable, engaged, 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:00.000 motivated, have great attendance -- greater attendance is what we found than our staff members that don't have a disability or 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:00.000 at least have not disclosed, that they have a disability. Attention to the work, quality and high productivity. They are 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:00.000 also positive reactions for many employees abound and that is something that we found. We have found correlation that where 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:00.000 we have individuals with disabilities, especially through our Project SEARCH program, it tends to actually increase the staff 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:00.000 engagement. We see higher productivity rates. Out of those teams and higher believe it or not, for those of you who are 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:00.000 probably taking copious notes here, customer satisfaction, in our case patient satisfaction scores. And the last one I wanted 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:00.000 to share here is that challenges are fewer than expected and resources are greater than anticipated. So I'm going to leave it 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:00.000 at that. I don't want to steal the thunder of our esteemed Panelists this afternoon. So with that, I want to turn it over to 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:00.000 our panelists and I'm going to start with marly, Dr. Marly Doyle. Marly, can you provide -- and this is the same question for 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:00.000 everyone here. If you can provide again a little bit about your background, why you're here, and certainly if you can also -- 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:00.000 if you're comfortable, sharing the organization as well as the disability that you also have that would be very helpful here. 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:00.000 And then we'll go into our first deep dive discussion here. 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:00.000 >> Marl marl thank you. I'm really thrilled to be here. 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:00.000 >> Marley: I'm excited to have the opportunity to share because we are an under represented voice when we have discussions 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:00.000 about diversity. So I'm marly Doyle. I'm an adult psychiatrist at the University of Nebraska Medical Center and I have a 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:00.000 visual impairment that is progressive and so I have had vision issues looking back, probably my whole life. I have been in 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:00.000 glasses or some sort of corrective eyewear since the age of four. And it progressively got worse. I stopped driving at the 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:00.000 age of 22 and didn't quite know exactly the diagnosis, didn't really know how bad it would get. And so, for better or for 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:00.000 worse, I didn't think about it too much and kind of pursued what I wanted to do and didn't really think too much about being 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:00.000 limited. Which was good and bad. That maybe helped me get through medical school. So when I started medical school, I did 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:00.000 disclose my vision condition. At the time, I wasn't legally blind but pretty close. And I didn't get offered accommodations 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:00.000 and I didn't even know what an accommodation was. It never occurred to me to even ask for one. I didn't know what was 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:00.000 available to me and really medicine has this, what we refer to is a culture of strength. So implicitly or explicitly you're 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:00.000 told to blend in. Don't stick out for the wrong reasons and do your job. So I did. And got through it. Entered residency 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:00.000 and I did disclose my impairment at the application period and it never really came up at all during the interviews. Which I 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:00.000 thought was interesting but again I thought that was kind of the message I shouldn't talk about it so I didn't. And again 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:00.000 didn't really wasn't offered accommodations or didn't know what they were. And it was finally on my last year of residency 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:00.000 that my Program Director even mentioned the word accommodation and I didn't even know what she was meaning. So that was a 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:00.000 very positive experience and it really allowed me to realize that it wasn't something I necessarily needed to hide and that it 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:00.000 was my right to have accommodations to get me through and I could actually be a role model to people who also were struggling 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:00.000 with disabilities, which is actually a lot of people. And so that kind of shifted my approach a little bit and then I have 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:00.000 been able to kind of request accommodations at the start of each job that I had thereafter. So I mean I have a lot more I 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:00.000 could say but I guess that is my brief journey and I'm very interested in a lot of different things but I think pertaining to 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:00.000 this topic, including workforce in the discussion of disability and how do we recruit a more diverse workforce. 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:00.000 >> ANDRES: Thank you. Thank you for opening up with your comments. So I'm going to go next to Dr. Nicole Taylor. 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:00.000 >> Nichole: I'm an Associate Professor of Anesthesiology at Wake Forest Baptist Health in North Carolina. 11 years ago I was 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:00.000 early in my career. I was a faculty at Wake Forest. And I was diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis, which is a progressive 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:00.000 disabling disease and I have relapsing and remitting. So I'll have relapses and I'll see a sharp decline in my function and 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:00.000 then I'll have a remittence where I'll slowly rereturn to but not quite get to my baseline function with each relapse. It's 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:00.000 significantly affected my ability to perform the tasks of ANNE: Diseasologist with precision and predictability and patient 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:00.000 safety is mostly. -- anesthesiologist. I'm the sole financial and health care insurance provider for my daughters who at 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:00.000 that time diagnosis were only 3 and 5 years old. And my initial concerns were how am I going to provide for my daughters 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:00.000 especially since I was the first-generation physician really had to climb my way up to become a doctor. And also if I lost my 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:00.000 health insurance, how was I going to afford the medications that were so expensive to help slow the progression of this 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:00.000 disease? I was really fortunate to have a great Chair of the Department and Leader who had already recognized my passion for 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:00.000 teaching and my Leadership as I also helped run the residency program. From my hospital bed when I was getting all the bad 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:00.000 news, he reassured me that I could do 100% administration even if I never got back to the operating room. And so this really 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:00.000 allowed me the time and space to carve out what would a fulfilling career be and how could I contribute for 30 years in a 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:00.000 reliable, predictable fashion? So over that time, 12 years ago, I was promoted to associate residency Program Director and I 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:00.000 was running the residency program and I could put all my efforts into recruitment measures and really taking our department to 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:00.000 the next level and we really had been struggling at that point. Four years ago, I was also given the title of the Assistant 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:00.000 Dean. And in this way, I could help advice medical students, some who had disabilities. I was very open about it so a lot 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:00.000 would come to me about disclosure like Dr. Doyle talked about. How do we want to do it? When do we want to do that? And 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:00.000 making sure whatever we were doing in school to make them successful would follow them into residency. So in addition to both 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:00.000 of those roles, I really enjoyed researching and publishing and educating about doctors with disabilities and really helping 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:00.000 to pave the way for those who are coming after me. 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:00.000 >> ANDRES: Thank you for sharing your story. I appreciate it. And again, if anything you're in the audience here you're 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:00.000 starting to pick up some things here so we are going to talk about disclosures in a second. So hold on tightly here. I just 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:00.000 want to give the other three panelists a chance to introduce themselves. So Sarah you're next. Tell us about yourself as 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:00.000 well and your journey. 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:00.000 >> Sarah: Hi, I'm Sarah Diekman, an MDJD resident physician at Johns Hopkins. And I think I represent the retaliation for 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:00.000 asking for accommodations point of view. A lot of times people are curious of why I went to law school and it happened 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:00.000 directly related to my request for accommodations. I experienced extreme retaliation and pretty much the laundry list of 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:00.000 negative consequences that you can experience. Because I suffer from an invisible disability, which is disotognomia and 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:00.000 dyslexia, it's been treated as if I have the option to have these things or not have these things, and my requests for 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:00.000 accommodations was me choosing to have a disability. And along my path I have experienced extreme non sympathy because it's 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:00.000 almost as if I'm choosing to have these things. So I actually went to law school to really understand the law and the extreme 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:00.000 retaliation that I had experienced. I everybodied up getting in a huge fight -- I ended up getting in a huge fight with my 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:00.000 employer. We also called it a lawsuit. It cost them a lot of money. And in the end, as marly was saying, it's this culture 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:00.000 of strength but I think that's really short sighted because if my former employer had saw me as a resource, they would have 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:00.000 been better prepared for this pandemic. Diversity brings strength. The differences of experience are strength. But it is 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:00.000 the short sighted mindset that drives that those things are not assets. And that is incorrect. So thank you for having me. 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:00.000 >> ANDRES: Thank you very much. And you made two really good points there that the diversity brings or equates to strength 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:00.000 and seeing us as a resource is vital. I know we will get to those two points here in a second. But I want to get Leora and 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:00.000 Letty a chance to introduce themselves. Leora and then Letty you'll go last but not least here to introduce yourself as 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:00.000 well. 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:00.000 >> Leora: Hello, everyone. So I was born with congenital cataracts that led to multiple surgeries and eventually also led to 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:00.000 the development of glaucoma that has been led to more multiple surgeries. At one point I counted 20 plus different eye 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:00.000 surgeries, including four corneal transplants now. And so from all of that, I am considered visually impaired. My vision can 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:00.000 fluctuate anywhere from 2040 to 20/100. So and there is no rhyme or reason as to why it fluctuates. Throughout school 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:00.000 always advocated for myself for accommodations. I did let my -- the college I went to, they knew that I had a visual 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:00.000 disability and they were very accommodating towards me and very helpful. I actually would say that because one of my 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:00.000 Professors knew that I had a visual disability, she had a friend in another University putting together a symposium on people 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:00.000 in the health care field with disabilities. And that is how I was then invited to participate there back in 2003. And then 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:00.000 became part of the group that created the organization of national organization of nurses with disabilities. And what we do 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:00.000 is we help to advocate for people who are interested in becoming nurses, are in nursing school, are trying to find employment, 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:00.000 trying to get accommodations, are having pushback with getting accommodations. Every area that someone with any sort of 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:00.000 disability, whether it is someone for example maybe in a wheelchair or someone who has rheumatoid arthritis who needs some 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:00.000 sort of accommodation to be able to function like everyone else. And so we help to advocate for them and push for them as 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:00.000 well. I also have my masters in nursing education and I have had the opportunity with that, with teaching in University to be 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:00.000 able to advocate for my students who had issues with disabilities as well and I'm currently working as a school nurse in 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:00.000 Chicago Public Schools and have had again more opportunities to advocate for my students with disabilities. So advocacy a 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:00.000 huge part of what I do. 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:00.000 >> ANDRES: Thank you. Absolutely. Advocacy is phenomenal. So thank you for the work that you're blazing, trailblazing in 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:00.000 Chicago. Letty tell us about yourself. 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:00.000 >> Letty: Hi everybody involved in this wonderful conference! I'm very excited to be here and I feel very honored to be 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:00.000 Zooming with all of the Panelists here and all of our previous speakers. It's a wonderful day to be a part of this group. 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:00.000 Andreas calls me Letty. I'm Letty Tomaszewski. So I go by Letty. I'm currently a fourth-year medical student but my history 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:00.000 with disability is quite long. When I was a child I knew I was different. I knew that I suffered from health conditions. So 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:00.000 I had multiple autoimmune disorders that I have been dealing with. One of which is Lupus and then I have some other 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:00.000 associated health conditions with that as well. In my previous life before I entered health care, it's interesting. As a 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:00.000 child, I actually was an orphan and in foster care and then also to get to college I found myself joining the military. So 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:00.000 I'm also a veteran. So that was my first profession, I would call it. And then throughout college while I was doing my 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:00.000 military duties, I became an architect. I met my husband, we had children and I became an entrepreneur and advocate for 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:00.000 disabilities. And eventually with the pandemic that changed a little bit and I think my story -- I'll save it for the next 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:00.000 section about what happened after that. And so I'm just looking forward to hearing about the panelists and everything they 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:00.000 have to say. So thank you. 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:00.000 >> ANDRES: Thank you. And by the way, I won't be remiss if I didn't thank you for your service as well as a veteran. Thank 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:00.000 you for your service and for serving our freedom here in the U.S. 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:00.000 So let's go there, Letty. I want to start with you. I think many of the activities might be -- more about the pandemic and 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:00.000 the impact. Tell us how the pandemic has really impacted both your personal and professional opportunities. 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:00.000 >> Letty: Absolutely. I think that is maybe the key to all of this for me and maybe why I'm here today. I'm quite sure of 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:00.000 it. Before the pandemic, I was a rising person in the military. Also an architect. I acquired a specialty and nationally I 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:00.000 was working my way up vertically in that field. And then I started to realize that maybe the health conditions I was 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:00.000 suffering from and some of the symptoms I had maybe I needed to learn more about them. To maybe be a better advocate for 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:00.000 myself. But throughout the whole time I was just hiding. I was scared to tell people about my -- some of the things that 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:00.000 were going on in my personal life. I was lucky enough to have two children but most people in my sphere do not. So, I think 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:00.000 things were coming together for me but I was scared it was going to be taken away if someone found out about my disabilities. 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:00.000 And so, I decided to go to medical school and learn a little bit more about what was going on with me. So maybe I could get 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:00.000 better help and maybe function better. But to my dismay when I entered medical school, I realized that maybe not all people 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:00.000 in the medical field thought that what I could bring to the table were strengths. I have got en this overwhelming sense of 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:00.000 there was a lack of safety for me and a lack of awareness about how being a little bit different wasn't a bad thing. So in 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:00.000 general, I kept to the a secret and I was a closet person with disabilities. And then fast forward to 2021, I was near 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:00.000 graduation. Hi two classes left medical school and then the pandemic hit. So my medical school knew about some of my health 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:00.000 issues. I had registered with the office on campus and have received accommodations for some things. Andinal point, it 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:00.000 hadn't been a problem. Unfortunately when I asked for virtual courses through my medical school, it was denied and to this 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:00.000 day, it's been denied. Not able to graduate from medical school. So that just changed my whole world. I decided that to 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:00.000 really help others, not just myself, but to prevent this from happening to someone else or maybe help another institution 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:00.000 educate themselves so maybe that they can help their folks with disabilities, that I should come out and I should maybe be a 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:00.000 little bit more bold and be more brave. So I came out fiercely as someone with disabilities. I changed my signature in my 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:00.000 e-mail, started meeting with people nationally and globally about the challenges I was having. And so from that it's been an 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:00.000 amazing journey. It's a little bit hard to tell you how when one door closes a million more open and through this journey 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:00.000 that I have had, I have been offered some really great opportunities that I never would have had if I didn't speak up. And so 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:00.000 I hope from my story today that all of the folks listening can learn from this and learn that people with disabilities 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:00.000 actually have these abilities that are different. And they can be capitalized on and if you don't capitalize on them, they 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:00.000 can be missed. And the second thing I also wanted the audience to remember is that a lot of us are here already. You don't 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:00.000 have to go looking for us. Some of us are hiding. Some are not. But we are here and if you speak up and you ask and you 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:00.000 look for us, we will help. And we can help make the organization what it wants to be and fulfill dreams and goals that were 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:00.000 otherwise unattainable. So I just wanted to thank everyone for listening and I hope that maybe a little bit more dialogue 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:00.000 comes out from my story. So thank you. 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:00.000 >> ANDRES: Thank you. That is powerful. Sorry to hear. Unfortunately it becomes more of the norm than what we probably tend 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:00.000 to believe or think about once you disclose, that you have a disability. So I want to go there and I want to ask Sarah -- for 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:00.000 everyone to know, we had a phenomenal time as we were doing our pre-planning session. I think we should have recorded that 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:00.000 session by the way. It was very powerful. But one of the topics that we talked about was disclosure and we had this whole 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:00.000 debate about do we disclose or should we at your interview? What are the pros and cons? Should we disclose after we have the 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:00.000 role, the offer? So Sarah, I know you spoke about that and you're going to be our lead but I'm going to ask others to quickly 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:00.000 also chime in based in your own experience. So Sarah tell us a little bit about your thoughts about disclosing before during 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:00.000 or after you're hired. What are your thoughts there? And certainly we value your experience as well. 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:00.000 >> Sarah: So first off, it's a choice. Like legally, you don't have to. But, it is such a complicated question. When people 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:00.000 talk about this, on the one hand if you disclose in a way, maybe you're screening for environments that will be supportive, 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:00.000 but on the other hand maybe you don't have that many options. And so when it comes to our medical system, we have the 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:00.000 residency match, which is extremely competitive. And now we have people who are graduating with 6-figure loans, and I mean 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:00.000 half a million dollars of loans. And how else do you pay back a student loan other than to work in the medical profession or 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:00.000 maybe something adjacent but even when I was in law school, there is a lot being said about the 2013 lawsuit against the 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:00.000 American Bar Association because they were saying that law school graduates weren't getting jobs as attorneys. Which is true, 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:00.000 and there was a whole settlement and everything with that. But I can tell you from experience, as a law school graduate, you 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:00.000 get skills that are extremely versatile going through law school. I could be a realtor. I could be a better grocery store 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:00.000 Manager. There is no job that I have ever encountered on my way that I wouldn't be better at because of a legal education. 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:00.000 But when it comes to medical, it is extremely specific. So when it comes to medical, you have people in Letty's position 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:00.000 trying to graduate. She is trying to get those credentials behind her name and then the next question is, do you match? 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:00.000 Which is this system that is outside of the other Sherman act, antitrust legislation. So it is allowed to have a monopoly. 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:00.000 And disclosure, again I feel very conflicted talking about this. Because I want people to get their needs met. I want our 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:00.000 system to be different than what it is. It is a really loaded question. For me, I disclosed. I asked for accommodations 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:00.000 because there was nothing left. I was literally in life-threatening situations and there was no other choice but to either 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:00.000 fight for myself -- and I know people with my condition who have worked -- continue to work without accommodation and have 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:00.000 gotten hit in a very serious traffic accident because they were doing things they shouldn't have done and they almost died. 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:00.000 And these are the people that lived to tell me their story. Ultimately, I don't think I can actually say, but I know our -- 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:00.000 all of these things are considerations. 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:00.000 >> ANDRES: Thank you. Well stated. Let's talk about accommodations and we can weave in some of this and this goes 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:00.000 hand-in-hand. I know that we also talked about accommodations and one of the things that I think and probably our audience 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:00.000 knows, I'm pretty sure we are preaching to the choir as they say, is that most accommodations cost less than 500 dollars and 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:00.000 yet employers are very hesitant to make those accommodations. So I'm going ask Nicole, tell us about your thoughts about 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:00.000 that. I know we were having some discussions. You talked about that and also in terms of disclosure from the stand pointed 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:00.000 of being a Leader whether you have a little bit more -- maybe you have a little bit more of that support or guidance knowing 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:00.000 that I have already rise as a Leader so I have more latitude to have this crucial conversation within my system to Sarah's 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:00.000 point with someone who might not be a Leader might be much more hesitant because they might not be in a very nurturing 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:00.000 environment. So tell us about Nicole your thoughts about accommodations, maybe your experience asking for those as well. 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:00.000 >> Nichole: I think it's a very important distinction you just made. I think there is a difference about when disability 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:00.000 occurs and I think it is different when you're a faculty, you have already been established, people seen your work and more 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:00.000 willing to get behind you and support you. I work with medical students and I worked with residents like I said for over 12 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:00.000 years and so I had people in residency have disability. I had med students who come into medical school with disabilities or 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:00.000 acquired disabilities. And so disclosure is a hyg piece that we discuss and I want to echo what Sarah says. Majority of 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:00.000 students do not want to disclose and it's their person choice as they enter into the residency matching and interviewing 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:00.000 process. But I will say that they rank places on their list higher and have welcoming and inclusive environments. And then 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:00.000 to segue into accommodations, and the reason they do that is they feel that they are accommodation needs will be heard and 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:00.000 hopefully be implemented. So whatever they were using to be successful in medical school would carry on to residency. And so 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:00.000 that welcoming messaging, if it's accommodation requests prior to the interview during the interview, if it's during any type 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:00.000 of program overview about the culture of the place -- I didn't have the ability to make a conscious decision disclose or not 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:00.000 because I was paralyzed on my left side. People knew there was a change. So it was something I couldn't consider. But for a 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:00.000 lot of the students they do. And one of the beauties of disclosing, it allows for you to ask for accommodations. And like 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:00.000 you said, accommodations do not need to be expensive. Sometimes they are just scheduling changes. Sometimes it's making 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:00.000 things more accessible F it's a virtual lecture at a different pace for the learner to make that more accessible to them. 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:00.000 Other times it's time off for mental health appointments which is really difficult to do in regularsidency when you're talking 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:00.000 about 80-hour work weeks. Just allowing the learner to get what they need to be successful and a lot of times I think people 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:00.000 are afraid of the accommodations because they think that the worst-case scenario, the most expensive implementation. Also 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:00.000 what is important for the audience to think about is like in medicine, I don't think the Department is hiring a person with a 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:00.000 disability should have to like pay for that entire accommodation. It should be shared among the institution as an investment 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:00.000 in an employee and that employee and that investment is going to pay it forward. Because like you mentioned, we tend to work 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:00.000 a lot harder. Pam McElvane Todd about the benefits of having somebody with a disability. We work harder. We will point 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:00.000 out barriers that you didn't see. And we can improve the environment and the culture. 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:00.000 >> ANDRES: Thank you, Nicole. I want to stay in terms of workforce workplace here for a second and I'm going to invite marly 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:00.000 to tell us B. I know you led and oversee a number of efforts in Workforce Development standpoint and employee engagement 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:00.000 opportunities. Tell us about your -- through your lense what are your thoughts about that? As an employer, and certainly in 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:00.000 the health care field and space that's going to be important for all of us as we continue forward and try to develop a much 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:00.000 more robust Disability Inclusion strategy in our own workplaces. 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:00.000 >> Marley: So one of the roles I have, the Director of the Behavioral Health Education Center of Nebraska which we refer to as 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:00.000 BECON, the state Behavioral Health Workforce Development center. We think a lot about workforce and how do we recruit and 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:00.000 retain. And one of the things that comes up is that you want the workforce to represent the population you're serving. And 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:00.000 that really made me think about my own journey and how difficult it was to be a student with a disability and have no 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:00.000 mentorship or no role models to look up to. And I think that is very damaging because if you don't see anybody that has a 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:00.000 similar experience to yours, I think you're going to set your bar a little lower. Because you don't see what the 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:00.000 possibilities are. Because really when you look at an org chart or any kind of hierarchal strategy and you don't see anybody 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:00.000 else that represents what you represent, then you just don't think it's possible. And that is very damaging to people with 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:00.000 disabilities. And everybody, not just people with disabilities. I know. There are lots of conversations we could have about 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:00.000 this. So I really do feel like we need people to feel comfortable being open about having a disability because you don't know 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:00.000 what downstream effects that can have. Because you can really influence a student or maybe even somebody that is thinking 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:00.000 about medical school, for example, and doesn't each apply because they don't think it is possible for them. Like how sad is 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:00.000 that? We are missing out on potentially somebody that could add a lot of value. So one of the things that we need to improve 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:00.000 is visibility of people with disabilities in the health care field. I think that could go a long way. The other thing that 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:00.000 we need to do, there are lots of things but I think for starters, we could go a long way with taking the owner us off the 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:00.000 person with the disability. -- own us. So many times in my experience, I stressed and felt anxious about disclosing or not 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:00.000 and it's very stressful as anybody on this panel could attest to. But what if it doesn't have to be that way? And I had this 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:00.000 happen one time in my entire journey when I was registering for a conference. There is a little bit of improvement in the 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:00.000 last couple of years but where they said, do you have a disability that requires accommodations? I am much more likely to 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:00.000 disclose. I just check,eis I do and here is what I need. But I don't do that unless I'm asked. So how hard is it for the 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:00.000 employer to ask in an interview e-mail for example, do you need any accommodations? It's not hard. And it doesn't require 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:00.000 any extra work. But what it does it sets up the message that it's an inclusive enough environment you're welcomed and it also 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:00.000 takes the stress out of disclosing way down. And of course you still might not disclose for all the reasons that people have 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:00.000 mentioned here. But man does it make it a lot easier and sends a strong message about your workplace. So those are just a 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:00.000 couple things that we can do better. And I would be interested to kind of see what the other Panelists thought about what 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:00.000 made them feel more included in their own workplaces. Because I think a lot of times we focus on the negative because there 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:00.000 is a lot of examples. But one positive example that I have is, when I told my Chair that I was getting a guide dog and he 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:00.000 said, that's great. I'm so excited for you. I know that was a hard decision to make. Let's just make sure that we have what 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:00.000 we need and make sure your office is big enough we can accommodate the dog. It was a positive response. So I do think that 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:00.000 there are examples and we need to learn from those as well as the examples of when things don't go right. Both are valuable. 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:00.000 >> ANDRES: Thank you very much. 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:00.000 That's a great segue. I'm going to be mindful of time. Unfortunately in a few minutes to our end of this Panel Discussion. 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:00.000 We probably -- I'm going to say to Nadine, we probably should have spent about an hour-and-a-half or two hours of time with 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:00.000 this panel. As you can see, well-versed, providing a lot of key nuggets for all of us. I think you made a point about when 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:00.000 employers get it right or whether they are able to leverage, and really provide that voice or give a voice to our employees 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:00.000 and/or to Partners that can help us to really formulate those strategies, cocreate those strategies with us. So to that 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:00.000 point, Leora, you have an interesting background and story. You talked about starting and founding an organization. Tell us 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:00.000 a little bit about the nurses with disabilities and/or any other organization that you have been able to work with. What are 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:00.000 some of the benefit? I'm an employer or may be at the genesis of my Disability Inclusion strategy and how do I tackle this? 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:00.000 Where do I start? Tell us where you would help us to start our own journey and get us in the right direction. 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:00.000 >> Leora: Sure. So one of the great things about being a part of an organization that is dedicated to helping people with 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:00.000 disabilities to be able to succeed is that you get people from all areas of the country, of the world, who may have come 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:00.000 across something that you may not have ever heard of. And yes, there were certain accommodations and I myself used, but I 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:00.000 wouldn't know necessarily if something new came out because I'm using what I'm comfortable with using. So being a part of a 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:00.000 community like that, you get to be aware of things that are out there that you may not otherwise know about. And also then 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:00.000 you have the support of yes, this has worked for other people with this type of a disability. You can get product 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:00.000 information. You can get including cost. You can get -- we even have lawyers who work for us who help with fighting with the 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:00.000 employers to be able to implement certain accommodations and so, it really broadens the advocacy for the person with the 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:00.000 disability because it's no longer just me against an organization. It's me and another organization working for me to help me 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:00.000 to succeed. And I think that is a huge thing and having a place for people with disabilities to be able to go and to know 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:00.000 that they are not alone, that there are so many people out there that are like that who are doing the career that they want to 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:00.000 do, who are providing the care that they want to provide, is a huge thing. Because they can say to their employer, I may not 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:00.000 be able to hear well. I may not be able to stand and hang an IV because I'm in a wheelchair. But I can do XY. And Z and a 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:00.000 big problem that has happened with nursing getting away from is that nursing originally was very functional. It was about 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:00.000 providing very functional tasks to patients. And it is moving away from that and the actual description of what a nurse is 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:00.000 and what a nurse does is moving away from that kind of functional ability, which is allowing for more people with disabilities 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:00.000 to be able to even enter the profession because it's saying that no, you can be able to function properly as a nurse, as long 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:00.000 as you can be able to assess, observe, evaluate, and create a plan to help your patient. 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:00.000 >> ANDRES: Thank you. We are coming here to an end so I'm going to shift gears and make the executive decision but ask one 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:00.000 question to all of our Panelists here and I think that this is going to be something where you're going to be able to provide 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:00.000 one key take away. What would be the one key takeaway you want our audience to have? It could be a lesson learned, a tip, a 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:00.000 resource, maybe avoiding a pitfalls. What would you say to our audience knowing we have a vast variety of individuals here 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:00.000 with and without disabilities who are representing a number of, a myriad of employers in different fields? So I'm going to 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:00.000 start with Marley and then invite the rest of you to chime in and provide one nugget or key takeaway. 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:00.000 >> Marley: If you're a health care Leader having a provider with a disability is it Gold. Because they have unique 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:00.000 experiences as provider and patient that will help you add value to the health care system and improve patient experience. 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:00.000 And I think that that is really valuable because they see things for both lenses and that is a very unique perspective and I 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:00.000 think something that leaders should listen to attentively because it can make a difference. 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:00.000 >> ANDRES: Thank you very much are for that. Nicole? Your one key takeaway. 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:00.000 >> Nichole: I think it's important to realize that people with disabilities may contribute very uniquely. I'm always a little 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:00.000 nervous about Leadership changes, to be honest because I had sump a great supportive environment but I also encountered times 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:00.000 where people have been less comfortable discussing disability and so I hade made it a point when there is a Leadership change 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:00.000 I will sit down with them and how I uniquely contribute because I understand when they look at me maybe the sheet of income 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:00.000 from a anesthesiologist that I bring in no clinical dollars. So I do often will feel a little bit at risk and that is one way 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:00.000 that I can kind of sell my skill set that it's different. But it's just impactful in another way. 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:00.000 >> ANDRES: Thank you. Wonderful. Sarah. 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:00.000 >> Sarah: So I think of the times that I had patients that have had problematic relationships with other members of the team. 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:00.000 We were on a consult service and I saw them and they refused to see anyone else. And I think even though that my education 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:00.000 would have ranked at the bottom of the hierarchy, I think it's because to have a disability is to really understand the 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:00.000 challenges. I think that each of us is like members of Congress where we have this constituency that we represent. There is 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:00.000 a large amount of heterogeneity when it comes to disabilities. So the more voices you have in your organization, the more you 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:00.000 are going to understand your patients, their needs and you're going to get the things that you want. Like people showing up 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:00.000 to their appointments and all of these things that show up on the balance sheets when it comes to the MBA office. These 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:00.000 things start with your disabled medical providers. 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:00.000 >> ANDRES: Thank you, Sarah. Wonderful. Leora. 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:00.000 >> Leora: Something I have always felt is really important is that I'm never going to put myself in a situation where I'm 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:00.000 going fail at what I'm doing. I really have a good understanding of what my capabilities are and no one wants to fail. And I 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:00.000 think that most people with disabilities, especially if they have been living with them for a while, understand their 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:00.000 disability. They know what they need in order to succeed and they are not going to set themselves up for failure, they are 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:00.000 only going to put themselves in that situation where they will continue to succeed. And to not put restrictions on people and 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:00.000 say no you can't do that because if the person with a disability feels they can do that, then they are going to do everything 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:00.000 in their power to succeed. I feel like people sometimes with disabilities each have a stronger drive, sometimes it's to prove 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:00.000 ourselves as being just as worthy as someone else but I think it works for my benefit because I'm a hard worker. And I always 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:00.000 am going to put myself in a situation for success. Never for failure. 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:00.000 >> ANDRES: Thank you. Wonderful. Well stated. And Letty, what is your one takeaway. 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:00.000 >> Letty: Thank you. I guess what my takeaway is, find that Champion in your enterprise, in your business, in your community. 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:00.000 And find that Champion and they don't have to be someone with a disability. But they can be someone who just opens the 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:00.000 conversation. And makes the space more inviting and safe. I think the opportunities in your businesses and in your 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:00.000 enterprises are there. They are just waiting to be discovered. 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:00.000 >> ANDRES: Thank you very much, Letty. So folks, there you have it. You heard from five esteemed Panelists, content experts, 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:00.000 sharing their own story their own why, and things that certainly would serve as lessons learned leading practicings, maybe 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:00.000 avoiding pitfalls here. So I want to thank our esteemed Panelists. Thank you for your commitment and courage to share your 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:00.000 story and disclose your disability as well here this afternoon. I'm really thankful and appreciative of your willingness to 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:00.000 do that. And so at this time, I'm going to turn it over to Ms. Nadine who is my Queen of disability. As she knows, she 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:00.000 does great work and so Nadine, thank you very much for the opportunity. I was privileged to actually Host this panel and 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:00.000 certainly I have learned so much from the five esteemed Panelists here to ensure that Froedtert Health we have a true 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:00.000 Disability Inclusion strategy in place. So thank you all and Nadine, take it away. 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:00.000 >> Nadine: Absolutely. My gosh! You know, I have spoken to all of you and I -- had an idea what you're going to say but I'm 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:00.000 still blown away again and I know everyone else is as well. So thank you. You really speak from the heart and I think people 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:00.000 are going to walk away with such learning from this. And being impacted in a way they probably hasn't thawed about before. 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:00.000 So what a great way to close out day 1 of Disability Matters. We have -- my gosh, we started with research. We talked about 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:00.000 equity and how we look forward to coming back to the offices and looking at equity in new ways. Invisible disabilities. We 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:00.000 talked about very specific workplace issues, mental health, captioning, David talked about the entertainment industry but 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:00.000 interestingly enough, as all heard, a medical doctor who is someone who uses a wheelchair. So again, I think this brings 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:00.000 everything back to the beginning. We also talked about digital usability. Not just for practical standpoint but from a legal 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:00.000 standpoint. And then the last session before this was around customers with disabilities. From a fashion standpoint, 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:00.000 cosmetics, dental, who would have thunk? These are all really, really important topics. So I want to thank all of you and 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:00.000 all of our presenters today. We will have another action-packed day tomorrow. We will begin at 10 a.m. eastern and Ivette, 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:00.000 anything you would like to add? If not, I'm going to wish everyone a wonderful sneap Ivette: Thank you to everyone. Again 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:00.000 I'd like to repeat you can visit our resources center and complete our survey evaluation forms. That does help us out a lot. 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:00.000 And I'd like to thank everyone for today for attending. Thank you for the 2021 Disability Matters North America Conference 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:00.000 and Awards day 1. Tomorrow 10 a.m. eastern, please check your local time. Don't be late. We have even better content! You 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:00.000 ladies were amazing! Thank you and bravo to all of you!