Working with a Physical Disability and Staying Productive

The thought of going back to work after a severely disabling injury can be frightening and uncomfortable.  I myself remember what it was like to have to adjust to a body that functioned differently from what I was used to.  But I was determined to make it work, and this helped me to overcome most of my discomforts and has helped turn all of my positions of employment into joyful, productive, and rewarding experiences. If you are interested in learning how to get back to work and be productive again, I’d like to share my story with you.

Finding Motivation to return to work as a disabled person

Back in 1987, when I first became paralyzed as a C5/C6 quadriplegic, I could never have imagined that my life would still be as productive and fulfilling as it is now. I was told by nurses in the emergency room that I might never be able to go back to work again, and even just the thought of going back to work in a body that functioned completely differently was very scary. But I was lucky because I had a strong motivating factor pushing me to return to my job. I had recently gotten married, and I had a son who was only two months old. Needless to say, I felt a huge responsibility to support my family, especially given that the alternative was to stay at home, be bored, and live off of the through government assistance, which was not an option to me as I was quite ambitious and adventurous before my accident.

After seven weeks in the hospital and four and a half months in rehab, I became determined to go back to work as soon as possible even though I barely had the strength to sit up in my wheelchair all day long. At that point I knew that if I didn’t return to work I would go nuts and focus on feeling sorry for myself. So one week after I was released from rehab I was back at work trying to adjust to my new conditions. It certainly wasn’t easy – the first weeks were tough and sometimes even embarrassing, and plenty of time was spent figuring out the best way to adjust to my new situation.

My first months back at work were not without setbacks

One of the biggest difficulties I encountered when I started back at work was dealing with what had previously been the simple act of getting to and from work. At first, I didn’t have a van with a lift. Thus, my wife had to drive me to work and transfer me from the passenger seat to my wheelchair using a sliding board in the parking lot, and all the while people would be watching us through the window of my work building. This was also very hard on my wife’s back – me being paralyzed from the neck down and hardly having regained any strength yet, I’m sure that moving my body felt like moving a sack of potatoes.

We also had not learned all the tricks yet for how to best deal with my paralyzed body. For example, because I no longer have any control over my bladder function I have to use an external catheter. But in the beginning I had a leakage almost once a week on average. Luckily, but at the same time also kind of embarrassing, I was able to rely on a few ladies at work who were willing to change my pants and the catheter in the bathroom at work when such disaster happened. Being paralyzed you also find that your bowels function differently. For instance, I no longer had control over when I was able to pass gas and quite often this would happen during a meeting. You can just imagine that caused some uncomfortable situations for everyone involved. But I made the choice to deal with that rather than not work.

Relearning some aspects of how to work were necessary as well. Since I worked on the computer all day as a software developer, I had to train myself to type using a typing stick attached to each one of my hands because I can no longer move my fingers. Hardly being able to balance my upper body in the beginning, typing had become awkward, tiring, and also painful in my shoulders and after a full eight hour day I was usually completely exhausted. Quite often I could see some curious eyes staring at me to see how I was typing, but that didn’t bother me too much. I was actually more concerned that I was no longer able to type as fast as anyone else, thus thinking I was not as productive as my coworkers. Therefore I always took a short lunch and hardly any breaks to get my assignments done.

I also incurred a major setback in my career when I returned to work. Before my accident I was managing a good size team, but on my return I was told I could no longer be a manager given that extensive travel was required. I was also put on an hourly wage because the company wasn’t sure whether I was able to work full 40 hour weeks. One thing you should understand is that the company I worked for was from Belgium and most people there just live off the welfare system for the rest of their lives after an accident like mine. At times I felt like upper management preferred that I not come back to work, but allowed me to do so more out of pity and guilt. And unfortunately, being from Belgium, I wasn’t aware of the ADA laws and how they could have benefited me and my work situation.

As you can see, returning back to work after becoming severely physically disabled can be challenging at first and I can understand that many people with a disability may be scared and because of that choose not to integrate back into the workforce. But things do get better over time if you hang in there!

Turning challenges at work due to a disability into opportunities for improvement

All of the challenges that I faced had the positive impact of encouraging me to work even harder to prove myself. I was angry that I had been demoted, and I used that anger as motivation to work as hard as I possibly could given my condition. That effort paid off! My first major assignment after the accident was the rewrite of a software system. I worked on it completely by myself, finished it on time, and was told the work was of excellent quality. I also received a lot of praise from my peers who then actually had to use and work with the software. At that point, I finally fully realized and believed that I could still be productive despite my disability, and consequently much of my self-confidence was restored. Even though I was typing slower I could be as productive as my peers after only a few months back at the job. I learned that I actually became more efficient in my time management and that I was more focused on my work to compensate for my slower typing. That all told me my brain was, and still is, more important than my physical condition.

Discovering that I could switch jobs, and feeling wanted

It was only a year after returning back to work that an opportunity arose for me to interview with another company. A co-worker had left the company I worked for to take on a position with a competitor firm from Switzerland. Apparently, he was still very confident in my abilities to perform well on a job and he recommended me for an open position. It felt uncomfortable to go on an interview for the first time since my accident – It would have been much more comfortable to stay in my familiar environment where I now felt fairly safe. But the position presented a chance for me to learn, advance, and improve myself – and had better pay! So I summoned my courage, went to the interview, and was offered the job!  Again, it was a tremendous self-esteem boost to me. I now felt like I was working for a company that hired me and wanted me because of the skill that I displayed, and not because of pity or from a sense of obligation. (It may just have been my own, mistaken impression of how I was perceived by my old employer, but nevertheless it felt good to feel like I was truly wanted.) I was proud that I was able to switch jobs just like any able bodied person.

Both my peers and management were impressed with my work. There was even a joke going around in the office that I was taking my typing sticks off when nobody was watching because I cranked out my deliverables quite fast. I took that as a compliment and started to become more and more ambitious again to move up the career ladder.

Moving to the west coast to take on a new challenge as a disabled person

The new company that I now worked for was very good at keeping up with the latest technologies in software development, which helped me to become quite valuable in the market because of what I had learned. Unfortunately, after only being there for three years, the company was about to close their software development operations in the US and I found myself in need of a new job. I was offered a position as a contractor, but after two months I decided to start looking for other opportunities. At that time, I was in North Carolina and the high-tech job market in the area didn’t have a lot of open opportunities. The best thing that came up was a referral from a friend who had moved to California. I had to make a hard decision, and I moved on to California while my wife and son stayed behind in North Carolina to sell our house. During that time, I lived in an apartment complex. So imagine what it felt like for me – I was in a new place, alone, in a completely new environment, and I was fully reliant on attendant care. Scary indeed, but that’s how determined I was.

It was a lot of fun working for a real high-tech company during the height of the Silicon Valley boom and I felt at home. Unfortunately, the fun didn’t last long because the product I worked on wasn’t doing too well. Apparently, this company named Microsoft came out with a competing product and that made things much, much tougher for us. Even so, I had gained a lot more experience with the latest technologies and decided to jump on another opportunity that came up, and have now been working at that company for 14 years, I enjoy being here, and I am happy in what I have succeeded in doing.

What I discovered about the importance of taking care of my disabled body

Although there are difficulties in returning to work in a body that no longer functions in ways in which it used to, here are a few specific ways in which I have been able to improve my ability to be comfortable and work productively.

First, one of my biggest fears at work has always been the scare of having a bowel accident or passing gas in the middle of a meeting. Those things did happen to me during my first years back at work and they can be quite embarrassing. But I learned over the years that sticking to a healthy diet reduces any bowel discomforts tremendously. And after I switched to a mostly raw vegan diet, these kinds of problems have been pretty much completely eliminated. A healthy diet has also provided me with enough energy to easily work 12 hour days and weekends when needed, which, as a software engineer who often needs to meet critical project deadlines, is crucial.

I also had a few problems with urine leakages when I was first back at work, but I learned from those disasters and discovered better practices to prevent them from happening. Nowadays those only happen once in a blue moon. I now use an automatic leg bag opener, and that piece of equipment has made one of the biggest differences in my life. Because of it, I am able to drink plenty of fluids, which helps to prevent the development of urinary tract infections. Having an automatic leg bag opener also gives me peace of mind knowing that I no longer have to worry about who is going to empty my leg bag when I am at work.

I also began working to strengthen my body by integrating standing into my daily routine. At first, I used a tilt table to stand for periods of time, but now I use a standing wheelchair that gives me the freedom to sit or stand as I please. Using a standing wheelchair has provided me many health benefits, and by being able to stand and take my weight off of my backside, it helps in the prevention of pressure sores.

Having remedied most of the bodily issues that can make life in a professional environment unpleasant after a spinal cord injury and being in good health allows me to fully focus on my job. I actually pride myself that I haven’t had the need to take a single sick day for many years now.

Rewards of working despite a severe disability

Even though it was tough and scary in the beginning, going back to work as a disabled person has been a very positive experience to me. It did take some determination and adjustments to overcome all the discomforts and anxieties at first, but it has been very rewarding for me. Just experiencing things like getting a good performance review or an extra bonus for a job well done have become a huge motivation for me. And it also makes me realize what I would have been missing out on in my life had I chosen to stay at home following my injury.

There is a statement one of my managers once made in my performance review that I will never forget. My manager literally wrote: “Luc produces twice as much than anyone else in the department.” That statement really hit the nail on the head for me and made me fully realize that my physical disability did not really have much of an impact on my productivity at work.

Besides the emotional rewards of making the choice to be productive, there are of course monetary rewards. I never would have been able to obtain the reasonably comfortable lifestyle I currently enjoy if I had not persevered in trying to make a living for myself and my family again after my disabling accident. I have been able to climb the corporate technical ladder like any able bodied person from software engineer to software architecture director. That tells me that if you perform well, most companies will treat you the same as they would treat any able bodied person.

I could have made the choice to stay at home after my accident, and even when I first started working again I did not make a whole lot more money compared to what I would have collected on welfare. It would have been easy for me to decide not to go through the trouble and embarrassments I encountered when I first returned to work. But it’s important to keep in mind that at the very least, when you start a job or even when you start volunteering, opportunities for improvement and advancement become open to you. It is possible to have a comfortable lifestyle – as opposed to living through government assistance and doing nothing, which ultimately leads to a life just barely above the poverty line.

I also remarried 10 years ago, and I doubt I would have had that opportunity if I didn’t have a job and couldn’t be a provider. One of the things my wife was attracted to in me was my ability to still be productive despite my quadriplegia. If you remain positive and productive, chances are good things will follow.

With Technology it can be even easier to be disabled and productive

For me, it was very difficult to return to work after being injured, but I managed to be creative and find ways to make it work. These days, with technology, it can be even easier to return to the workforce. Voice recognition programs will take what you say and type it for you (in fact this article was written using a dictation program), remote logins can allow you to work for an employer in the comfort of your own home, and the internet has opened up myriad entrepreneurial opportunities for those with a little bit of time to dedicate to them. These days, it can be much easier to return to work than you may realize. If you have the motivation and if you’re willing to put your brain to good use, you can be as productive and successful as many able bodied people are. I encourage everyone in a physical condition similar to mine to give it a chance.