Today’s technologies have definitely changed the landscape of employment opportunities for persons with a disability. A person with a disability can now be just as productive in several fields of employment as non-disabled persons. In many cases, being disabled has become a non-issue on the job. In fact, in a virtual work environment, you can actually completely hide your disability from your coworkers.  I came to that realization this week during an email conversation with one of my teammates:

We have eight people on our team and we are dispersed across six locations in the US and the UK. Even though I am the only team member in my office location, I still prefer to go into the office almost every day, but occasionally I will telecommute – mainly when it rains heavily because I like to keep my wheelchair dry and I don‘t like the inconvenience of having to deal with a rain coat. I generally try to act like anyone else in the company and I rarely ask for any special treatment due to my C5/C6 quadriplegia. However, I did ask for two laptops – one for my work office and one to keep at home, which goes against company policies. But it is not easy for me to carry a laptop back and forth between work and home in a wheelchair and to plug my laptop into the docking station when I arrive at work.

A few days ago I made a mention of my home laptop and my work laptop in an e-mail to one of my teammates. He replied to me questioning how I managed to get a hold of two laptops while no one else does. I replied back to him that I was able to get two laptops because it wasn’t easy for me to carry a laptop back and forth between work and home in a wheelchair. In his next reply he said: “Amazing, I never knew you were disabled using a wheelchair.  I would never have guessed.”

I was actually amazed myself because I have worked very closely with him for over a year now – we have almost daily meetings on the phone together, often share desktops, present subjects to each other, and e-mail and IM frequently. I was also surprised that no one else on my team who had met me before ever told him that I was confined to a wheelchair. That made me feel really good because that confirmed to me that the people on my team who already knew I was using a wheelchair are not making a big deal out of it and are more interested in what I am able to contribute to the project and the team in general, and treat me like anyone else on my team.

To me this was clear evidence that being disabled can be a complete nonissue as far as job performance goes. To some extent working in a virtual environment provides a person with a disability an air of freedom and dignity. And as more employers are starting to support telecommuting, more doors will be opened for people with a disability to join the workforce because it provides us with the reasonable work accommodations prescribed by the ADA.

Returning to work after an accident can be difficult. You may find that the period of adjustment is long and that you feel uncomfortable at times. Here are some suggestions to help you return to work with confidence and dignity.

#1 Be a role model for the disabled community

When you take a job as a disabled person, you are an ambassador for the entire disabled community. If you make a good impression with your employer, that employer may be more inclined to hire more persons with a disability in the future. On the other hand, if a disabled person does not meet productivity expectations, or if the experience is unpleasant for the employer, the opportunity for other disabled persons to be hired may be diminished. So, give it your best shot not only for yourself but also for others who might follow.

#2 Be assertive, but not demanding

Ask for the disability accommodations you need to be productive at the job, but be reasonable. For example, ask for automating a few doors you pass through frequently at the office, but don’t demand that every door in the building needs to be automated. There is no need to automate a door you only pass through once a year. Asking for unreasonable accommodations or being too demanding in what you ask for may not only damage your good standing with your employer, but it might also result in an employer being turned off towards hiring additional persons with a disability.

#3 Take extra care of your health

People with a disability are often stereotyped as being unhealthy – which is not necessarily true. Some employers may be afraid of hiring persons with a disability because they may have the perception that a person with a disability may need to take more sick days than an able-bodied person. Take extra care of your health and provide yourself with the equipment you need to stay healthy so that you can disabuse employers of the notion that the disabled are unhealthy. I have done a few things that have helped me to stay so fit and well that I haven’t needed to take a single sick day for many years now.

#4 Minimize your dependence on coworkers

It is understandable that you may need some assistance when first returning to work after a disabling accident. Before you become acclimated to your new condition you may need extra support and you will likely find that there are always people willing to help you. However, I recommend that you avoid relying on this extra support for the long term. Your coworkers are busy people and they all have jobs to do. Interrupting them too often can be very annoying, and may cause resentment over time. However, depending your level of disability, several actions can be taken to become more independent on the job. For example, a desk configuration that allows you easy access to all the tools and equipment you use to perform your job will minimize the need for a coworker to provide a helping hand. An assistance dog can be very helpful just by picking up any dropped items off of the floor. If you strive to constantly become more independent on the job, you will be more productive and likely be happier as well.

#5 Dress appropriately

One of the most important things to keep in mind when you start a new job in a business environment is to make sure that you dress appropriately for the job. Some able-bodied persons may have the perception that those with disabilities are different in ways other than their physical capabilities. So it is very important to portray a professional look to dispel any kind of stereotyping that may take place.

#6 Maintain your equipment

As a person with a disability, you may be heavily reliant on adaptive equipment, a wheelchair, or an accessible van to get to work. Any breakdowns may mean time away from your job for repairs. Preventive maintenance and having backup equipment will minimize any downtime and the resulting inability to work.

#7 Keep your wheelchair clean

Just as it is not appropriate to go to work wearing dirty clothes, it is inappropriate to be in a business environment using a dirty wheelchair. It makes you look unprofessional and it may reflect negatively on the image of the disabled community.

#8 Don’t hide – be seen

Interact and socialize with your peers. The better they get to know you, the more comfortable they will feel around your disability. Having a more personal relationship with your peers creates healthy working relationships. By staying in the background and showing limited visibility, you may find yourself left out when it comes to career opportunities. Even though I have the option to telecommute, I still prefer to go into work every day to have some level of personal interaction with my colleagues.

#9 Put in extra effort

Some managers may have lower productivity expectations of a person with a disability. You can easily buck that perception by putting in extra effort, especially when you start a new project or when you get assigned to a new manager. A good first impression will help build trust. I personally have had the experience of being assigned to more interesting tasks at work because of my willingness to give a little extra and make a great first impression. Additionally, by working just a little harder, you are likely to outperform some of your peers, which in turn can make you really feel good about being productive as a person with a disability. Being a positive example will also open the door for other persons with a disability to be hired by your company.

#10 Take pride in working as a person with a disability

You should feel good about working as a person with a disability. Not everyone in the disabled community chooses to make the commitment – you have, and have been able to overcame your fears. Unknowingly, you may be an inspiration to your coworkers who often don’t even realize the challenges you have to deal with in finding a job, and the process you may have to go through to get ready to be at work on time. And you may also be able to inspire other persons with a disability to enter or reenter the workforce. Be proud of what you, as a disabled person, can accomplish!

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

Luc working in his standing wheelchair

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.