RETURNING TO WORK
How three people with disabilities successfully met the challenge
BY:NANCY HENDERSON
Nancy StarnesVice president and chief of staff
National Organization on Disability
Washington, DC
In 1973, Nancy Starnes boarded a small private plane on her way to a wedding. In an odd twist of fate, a wasps' nest created a vacuum in the fuel tanks and the plane crashed, leaving Starnes paralyzed from the waist down. Unable to get the stockbroker's license she'd been pursuing before the accident-as a wheelchair user long before the passage of the Americans with Disabilities Act, she couldn't get around the building where the exam was given-she stayed on as an administrative assistant at a brokerage firm in Sparta, New Jersey. She later became the town's mayor and began working in the disability field, first as a consultant and then as director of a local disability office.
Out of work: Nine months
Employer resistance: "None whatsoever. I was a known entity, and that's very different from having to go out and do a job search as a candidate with a disability."
Biggest obstacle: "Trying to figure out the day-to-day logistics, and that included being able to get to work on time, concentrating on work and maneuvering around a community that was not really accessible."
Best cheerleader: "Definitely my [ex-] husband Jim and my son, Rob. Jim never said, ‘Are you sure you can do that?' He did not hover. He just stood by and said, ‘If you need me to do anything, just tell me what to do.'"
Don Hunt
Medical-equipment assembler
Chattanooga Group, Inc.,
Chattanooga, Tennessee
It happened Friday the 13th, two weeks before Christmas 2002. After going to bed with a painful migraine, Don Hunt woke with multiple vision. He couldn't walk straight and his speech was garbled. Two days later, while he was in the hospital, a second stroke hit, paralyzing his right side and robbing him of his ability to swallow. Ironically, during the four months of grueling physical rehabilitation that followed, Hunt reaped the benefits of his own company's products, including a balance machine he'd helped design. Back on the job, he first worked two days a week to build stamina, then went fulltime.
Out of work: Eight months
Employer resistance: None, but he was transferred from his previous electronics work and now builds steel traction tables. "In the first few days they told me, ‘Don't try too hard. Just do what you can and we'll work with you on this.'"
Biggest obstacle: "I never worked as hard in all my life" as in rehab. You have to reprogram your brain and do these activities enough times so that things become second nature again. The toughest part-moving my thumb."
Best cheerleader: "Katye, my wife of 28 years. I put her through hell."
Biggest accomplishment: "The fact that I'm able to get up and go to work."
Advice for others: "Before you even think about going back to work, you need to work as hard as you can in rehab. You can't give up."
Eric Remelmeyer
Chief financial officer
Five Acres, a therapeutic treatment center for abused and at-risk children
Altadena, California
Like many people with cystic fibrosis, Eric Remelmeyer's lungs eventually filled with fluid. By 1997, he was faced with a choice: Have a lung transplant or die. After the surgery, he spent six months learning to walk normally and breathe through his nose instead of with an oxygen canister. Impressed with his accounting credentials, one company wanted to hire him but was wary of his health problems. So Remelmeyer made them an offer: He'd work 30 days as comptroller, for free. At the end of that time, he was offered a fulltime job—and an even better one at another non-profit organization.
Out of work: Two years, although he did a few hours of consulting each week before and after the transplant.
Biggest obstacle: "I was worried about what to put on my resumé because I'd been out of work for two years. That's kind of odd for a middle-aged professional. People think, ‘Geez, was the guy an Enron officer or something?' A second issue was my self-confidence. I wasn't sure how strong I was."
Best cheerleader: "My wife, Kimberly. She was pushy, but not too pushy."
Advice for disabled jobseekers: "Find a way to prove yourself. It could be volunteering fulltime. To have to be someplace and to interact with people gets your confidence back."
How he feels today: He still manages his cystic fibrosis but "before the transplant, I was sleeping 20 hours a day. Now I'm working eight hours a day, five days a week, and going to baseball games at night."