I’ve been with DRC for 2 years and 4 months.

I do reasonable accommodations, accessibility testing, leave of absences, benefits, and other HR functions that I feel like I could do, but my main role is reasonable accommodations. 

I see it as a privilege because I’m able to help employees, candidates, and even board members so that regardless of their disability, they could participate in the application process as prospective candidates, or do the essential functions of their job that may be difficult because of their disability. 

Even accessing Benefits, sometimes we don’t think about reasonable accommodations to access benefits, but reasonable accommodations can encompass that. Reasonable accommodations provides a full and equitable employee experience.

Yes, I was born with a disability. I have Cerebral Palsy. My disability journey has been interesting.  I didn’t really embrace my it until I was in my 20s. I was just trying to not talk about it much, but it wasn’t until I discovered and joined an independent living center (ILC) that I embraced my disability identity.

Actually, ILC found me. I was working at Sears at the time and helped a lady named Paula who waslooking for assistance (buying a BBQ), and as a great salesperson, I sold her a futon and patio set. As I was communicating with her, she heard my speech and said, “I like him, he has a disability.”  So I sold her furniture, and she sold me a job. 

I did some research and found out what they were about, and I ended up applying, and if it wasn’t for that connection, I don’t think I would have gotten hired because my knowledge of disability wasn’t there, so she really took a shot on me, and once I got there, it was life-changing. My first day was amazing, it opened me to a part of my identity I hadn’t yet embraced and it was exactly what I was missing.

Trust your knowledge and be confident in what you’re saying; they are looking at you as the expert. Make them feel comfortable and identify the reason why they are there. If they are experiencing a problem, explain how this product will resolve it and make their life easier.

I like watching sports, Soccer, Football and I really enjoy UFC, it motivates me to work out. Shows I’ve been watching S.W.A.T. and Mobland on Paramount. For books, I listen mainly to audiobooks. This year I’ve read the memoir by Judy Heumann and Sitting Pretty. Right now, since my wife and I are having a baby, I'm reading baby books to help me get prepared.

The openness of the people here, the flexibility, and the culture. It’s a space where people could show up as their authentic self and they're going to be embraced, and I feel like that's just something very unique.

Invest in Crypto early haha. I would tell myself to be proud and trust who you are. Embrace your disability, and don’t worry about the unknown. I would tell myself to be comfortable in my own body, trust my personality, and trust my knowledge. Everything is going to be okay.

Becoming certified as an Assistive Technology professional (ATP) or meeting Paula, my former boss. Becoming certified as an ATP confirmed that this is my field, and I want to be working with my peers, people with disabilities.

Joining DRC, I love the job that I do. I get to do something I like, I get to help people, I get to problem-solve. Many people don’t have the opportunity to do things that they enjoy, for me I get to figure out ways of making work more equitable for employees with disabilities. I see it as a real blessing.

I don’t think I have one. I’ll go with the Nike motto, “just do it.” Sometimes our own thoughts are the ones that hold us back. So like Nike said, just do it.

Easy going, funny, dependable.

I spend my time with my wife and dog, hanging out with my friends and family, working out, and watching soccer or UFC. I also like to go out and eat at different places and try different coffee shops. I usually drink black coffee during the week, but on weekends, I like seasonal coffee drinks or matcha. I also enjoy cooking steaks.

I also spend time on the computer learning. I really like technology; I’ve taken some coding courses because I wanted to see what it takes to make something accessible. I like following the stock market.

To me, it means empowerment and awareness, but also how much more we have to go to close the employment gap for people with disabilities. I feel like outside of our community, we don’t speak about disability enough, and this creates this unknown that about what we can and can’t do. NDEAM raises awareness that as people with disabilities we're here to be part of society, we're here to work, and that we should be given opportunities just like everyone else.