Menu:
Who Knows? Accommodation and Attitudes
by Monica A. Ollendorff
If you are disabled and contemplating starting a new library job, you should be the one who knows:
- What accommodation(s) do you need, where can this equipment be found, and what is the cost?
- Who is going to pay for it?
- How willing is your potential employer to help you?
- Does the host institution (e.g., the university or other larger institution) have arrangements in place to facilitate meeting the needs of all disabled employees?
- Is there a department or individual you are to work with or through?
- Do the library director, associate director and the head of the department you are going to be working in have the most current information about the host institutions compliance policies and arrangements?
- What is the library's attitude towards disabled employees (and patrons), and is it in line with that of the larger institution?
At first, I didn't know the answers to any of those questions. So, along the way, I have been confronted with attitudes in spite of laws, having to justify my requests, not receiving the accommodations I needed, and supplying my own equipment.
My Background
I have psoriatic arthritis and degenerative disc disease in my lumbar and cervical spine, along with chronic depression caused by a chemical imbalance. Once I worked in an office area with no windows, although it was well lit. When I asked for full-spectrum lighting for the office, I was asked to do research proving that this would assist me as well as everyone else in the office. The information I found was given to one of the university's engineers, who decided the information I found was not convincing enough for the university to bear the expense of getting the lights and installing them. I settled for getting two tubes for my desk - which I had to pay for and install.
Back in 1992, I walked with a cane when I started that job. That was because my left knee didn't have much cartilage left, and I was "too young" to have knee replacement surgery. I rode the elevator instead of using the stairs, and kept my left leg propped up when I could. After several years, with the pain and instability of my knee increasing, I met with my doctor and it was decided that an arm- crutch (like the doctor in "ER" uses) would be the best for me. When I returned from winter break using it, my supervisor said nothing to me, but reported it to the library director. When my lumbar spine began to deteriorate, I asked for an ergonomic chair.
I was told that that was very expensive, and wasn't there some adaptive device I could put on my chair. I did find something minimally helpful, and it was reluctantly ordered. Never mind that the secretaries and library assistants had been provided with new, very expensive chairs when they asked for them. That was when I contacted the office of disability services on campus to ask if they could help me. Their first reply explained that they did not know that the library had any disabled employees. Apparently there was an accounting of each department and office at the university which indicated if there were any disabled employees in each. The library had decided not to report that they had a disabled employee.
It was not for being left off the list alone that I was miffed: I was told that if a department gave notification of a disabled employee, the university would assume the cost of providing whatever assistive equipment that person needed. After I told the library director about this, I felt the weight of having embarrassed her by announcing my existence as a disabled library employee. I later learned that, in addition to my personnel file, my supervisor kept a separate "medical" file on me. I never said anything about it, largely since I resigned my position to take another job. But if I had remained there, I believe I would have questioned the reason for that file and the legality of it.
Moving On
At another university library, I arrived with my arm-crutch, and was welcomed. I asked for an ergonomic chair, and was told I could have anything I needed to help me do my job. After the chair came an ergonomic computer station. I had to research what I wanted and where to buy it, but I was not denied anything. The attitude appeared to show an understanding of the legal ramifications of the concept of reasonable accommodation. I gave library tours, riding the elevator - and offering it to anyone in the group who needed to use it - sending the remainder of the group up or down the stairs. My supervisor wondered whether that would work, but she soon saw that the students had no problem with it.
Deteriorating Relations
But, as accommodating as the library administration was to me at that time, when I told my supervisor that, as part of my outreach efforts I wanted to give a special orientation session for new disabled students - as I had been requested to do by the Office of Disability Services on campus - I was denied. (I was told that they are not to be singled out. Since they have been mainstreamed into the university, they shouldn't get any special attention from us.) When I passed on a request from a visually-handicapped patron for Opera software to be installed on our reference computers, I was asked to find out exactly how many visually-impaired students there were on campus and how many of them wanted this service. Subsequently, it was put on two computers, but was not formally announced to the reference staff or the office of disability services.
I had to have one finger operated on for a tendon release. After that surgery, one is not supposed to use the hand for anything more than writing or typing a very short while, if you are able to do any writing or typing at all. Around that time, I was on a committee that was planning a move of materials on the first floor of the library. While I was out having hand surgery, the date was set for the actual move, and I returned to work that day. I was soundly reprimanded in writing for my lack of physical work during the move; I was told that even the students complained. When the bulk of the move was finished, I left on a pre-planned two week vacation, partly to rest my hand; I was written up for abandoning my duty. No accommodation was offered for that surgery and the healing process which followed.
I finally had total knee replacement surgery. My recovery was slow, and I did not appreciate my supervisor bugging my doctor weekly asking him to predict when I would be back. As it turned out, I went back a week or two before I really should have, and later learned that my returning date coincided with the date the university would have had to start paying me long term disability. When I returned, no accommodation was made to give me a few days to get up to date and return to my job responsibilities. My supervisor had been teaching my class and turned a few papers over to me and said go meet your students. She failed to tell me that she was not teaching the course as I had it outlined, but was following her ideas and worksheets; even after the students complained to her, she never said a word; but I was marked down in my annual evaluation for my poor instructional service during the spring semester.
When I asked for the library to pay for one night at a motel when I was going to a one-day workshop because I was not able to ride for two hours and then sit all day, I had to bring a note from my doctor. And when I made the same request months later, I was told I had to bring in another note from my doctor to prove I still needed that accommodation. When the deterioration of my cervical spine became increasingly painful, I asked for a wrist support on my chair to support my arm and ease the pressure on my shoulder when I used my mouse and my keyboard. I was denied the most effective device, because I was only going to be there another nine months, and they did not want to pay for something I needed since I was leaving.
Lessons Learned
So now I know that trying to cover up impairments that are not visible in order to try to work in spite of them was not to my benefit. I know that not fully informing my superiors - and the appropriate department of the university - of the details of my disability and how it could affect my work, and immediately of changes in my health that could affect my job performance was a mistake. Most of all, I know that not knowing the answers to all the questions I initially raised in this article before I started my job was quite unwise.
This creative thinker, who is intelligent, people friendly, has a good sense of humor, works well as part of a team or alone, and has top-notch research, communication and computer skills shouldn't be unemployed, but is.
With MLS, MSSW and BSJ degrees, and a total of 36 years experience as a reference & instruction librarian, a social worker, a medical secretary and office manager and a researcher, there must be an employer out there who needs to hire this talented person! Won't you please let me know who you are? MAO@mail2catlver.com.