Tag: Diversity

“Look at My Feet While I’m Talking to You”:

Paul Wagenaar

“Look at my feet while I’m talking to you.”
That sounds wrong. Disrespectful, even. It goes against what most of us have been taught about attention, engagement, and respect.
But what if it’s not wrong?
What if it’s not a correction of the person, but of the standard we’re using to judge them?
Most of the conflict we experience with people living with autism isn’t about effort.
It’s about misinterpretation.
We don’t just see behavior, we assign meaning to it.
And too often, we’re wrong.

WINS, LOSES, TIES, and other ways to find VICTORY – Part 1

Paul Wagenaar

Have you ever tried to get into a building but couldn’t open the door? Have you ever needed immediate assistance only to be told you will have to go on a waiting list for six months or more? Have you ever wanted a job but didn’t get it knowing that you were not considered, not because you couldn’t do the job, but because of someone’s bias you weren’t given a chance?

In Canada everyone has the right to employment, but it is far from a “level playing field;” people who live with barriers, including disabilities have to work harder to achieve their wins, they often lose, occasionally tie, and have to find ways to make progress and achieve a measure of victory.

In this, part 1 or 2, I hope to illuminate some of the barriers, the challenges, and to help dispel the myths and biases to help people who live with barriers and disabilities to achieve their employment goals.

We need your awareness and your commitment to diversity, equity, and inclusiveness.

“Yes” and so do many other hiring “practices.”

Paul Wagenaar

Have you ever considered how biased our hiring practices are toward people who do not experience barriers to employment. How difficult it is for people who are from outside the “colonial bubble” most of us never even notice?

When you start to see and think about those barriers you can see the intrinsic discrimination that happens every day.