In Case of Emergency: And you are disabled?

In my work I am often required to attend meetings in the heart of one of California's earthquake hot-spots; San Francisco. That's my impression at least, and for a person living with a mobility impairment like myself, an earthquake of 7.0 on the Richter's scale would most likely make San Francisco seem like 1906 all over again.

So how does a person living with disability prepare for the inevitable earthquake, hurricane, or tornado? Becoming informed is a great place to start. Here is a good article: Emergency Information for People with Disabilities.

IV. Home and Family Preparedness

SPECIAL NEEDS, BASIC NEEDS

Emergency Information for People with Disabilities
By John Cavanagh and Anne Malia

According to the National Organization on Disability, of the 54 million Americans with disabilities, 61% have not made plans to quickly and safely evacuate their homes, in the event of an emergency. Also, 46% of people with disabilities do not know whom to contact about emergency plans for their community. 53% percent say that they have not made plans to quickly and safely evacuate their home and 32% report that plans have not been made to evacuate them from their workplace in case of a disaster. These statistics illustrate the necessity of continuing to promote the importance of emergency preparedness for those with disabilities....

Read the full article.

Work a Call Center from Home

I have written about this before, technology's power to bring the job to you...or bring you to the job. I monitor news daily for stories that cover telecommuting and employment while living with a disability. Here's an interesting read about how the Purple Heart Service Foundation (PHSF) is helping to put combat-wounded veterans back to work.

The Veteran’s Business Training Center provides online job training and placement to disabled and combat-wounded veterans by using the Internet and web-based technology. In setting up the training center, the PHSF was challenged with finding a new career for these veterans that would allow them to make a good living while working from home. After researching a number of different fields, the Foundation discovered that, in order to ensure they had the best agents, many call centers were hiring at-home agents. Based on this finding, the PHSF decided to develop an intensive call center agent training program, focused on graduating highly-skilled, at-home agents.

Read the full abstract.

CISCO Certification; Is it your cup of tea?

In my reoccurring theme on employment and living with disability, check out this story.

Balboa Project: Enabling Wounded Warriors To Join Workforce

The US Department of Labor, Office of Disability Employment(ODEP), parterning with the Naval Medical Center in San Diego and Cisco has created a Transition Training Academy (TTA). This academy is a pilot project which prepares disabled veterans returning from Afghanistan and Iraq for job opportunities, by helping them to hone their IT skills and providing them with a marketable credential in the employment area and CISCO certification.

Read the full article.