There is still time to request an absentee ballot in New Jersey

Do you want to vote in the 2022 midterm elections but are unable to get to your assigned voting place on Nov. 8, 2022? No problem!

By November 1, 2022 you can request a mail-in paper ballot. Start by pressing this link: https://www.state.nj.us/state/elections/vote-by-mail.shtml

Be sure to follow all directions. Don’t forget to return your ballot! It must be put in a drop box, returned to your County Board of Elections or postmarked by Nov 8, 2022, for your vote to be counted. 

You can also go to an in person early voting location from Oct. 26 – Nov. 6. You can find a location in your County and hours here.  

Americans with Disabilities Have a Voice!

There are many realms in our society where Americans with disabilities are consistently fighting to be included and appropriately accommodated. But, when it comes to having a voice where it really counts—at the voting booths—almost 38 million adults (50 and older) with disabilities are “politically active and engaged leading into the upcoming midterm election,” according to a recent national survey conducted by Easterseals, AARP, and Pathfinder Opinion Research.

It should come as no surprise this population of voters care about issues like inflation, Social Security, and Medicare, the August 2022 survey results revealed.

“Further, this group, who relies heavily on early vote methods and other various accommodations to participate in elections, displays broad and bipartisan support for policies that make it easier to vote and are deeply concerned that politicians passing restrictive voting laws are making it more difficult for older Americans and adults with disabilities to participate electorally,” according to the report summary.

Key Points of Note:

• 9 in 10 Americans with disabilities are registered to vote.
• 89% of those registered voters say they will “definitely” or “probably” vote in the 2022 midterm elections.
• However, only 47% of voters with disabilities (and even fewer people over age 50 in the same population—39%) say they plan to vote in person at their respective polling locations on Election Day, Nov. 8, 2022.
• This population uses early voting methods because almost 50% require special accommodations. You can obtain a mail-in ballot here.

“By combining these survey results with Census estimates for this population, we can conclude that there are more than 33 million registered voters with disabilities in America, and nearly 30 million of these voters are likely to turn out in the 2022,” the report said.

Always looking to increase public awareness of the millions of people living with disabilities in the United States, Easterseals was happy to partner with Pathfinder and AARP to uncover the population’s views on this year’s elections. Easterseals maintains that it’s critically important for all Americans to understand their voting rights and to use their voice whenever possible at the polls.

Current laws diminish this voting population’s access to vote because accommodations are not mandated. As such, the survey also revealed “There is strong bipartisan support for reform that would make it easier for voters with disabilities and those 50+ to vote.”

Voters over the age of 50 with disabilities are, indeed, a major voting block in this country. The three entities summarized their efforts with this survey like this: “Together, we want to make certain people with disabilities know their voting rights, including when, where, and how to vote. The disability community is a powerful force that will not be silenced this election.”

You can view the full summary of this study here. 

The post Survey Shows: Americans with Disabilities are a Major Voting Block appeared first on Easterseals New Jersey Blog.

It comes as quite a surprise to many business owners that the provisions detailed in the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) extend to websites. Well, it most certainly does!

People living with disabilities have every right to live, learn, work, and play using the Internet, just like anyone else. They know all too well that many companies aren’t aware of updates made to the original 1990 ADA. Their failure to accommodate people who are blind, deaf, living with mobility issues, etc., has made it difficult for people with disabilities to use the web.

Just as physical accommodations must be included in public and privately owned buildings, like wheelchair ramps, restroom accommodations, braille signage, etc., accommodations must also be added to websites. According to the ADA, websites must be accessible to users of all abilities.

Give it a moment’s thought and you’ll quickly come to the obvious conclusion that making your website accessible to all users is simply good business. Why turn away prospective customers because your site isn’t navigable?

Further, it’s the law. With the enhanced ADA provisions enacted in 2010, all forms of advertising, including websites and social media platforms, are required to be compliant.. failure to comply could result in hefty fines…thousands of dollars!

What Makes a Website ADA Compliant?

Accessibility is the key provision laid out in the ADA guidelines. While we’re most familiar with the physical accommodations mentioned above, there are many modifications that can be made to websites to make them more accessible. Consider the list of Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) first published by the Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI) in 1995.

Simply put, focus on making your website easy to use—for all users.

A reputable web developer should be familiar with the guidelines laid out in the ADA, and should be able to enhance your site to bring it up to compliance.

Don’t be penny wise and pound foolish. In other words, paying a web developer to bring your site up to ADA standards today will cost you a lot less than one non-compliance fine tomorrow.

Benefits of Making your Website ADA Compliant

Aside from the obvious benefit, which is avoiding hefty fines for non-compliance, making your website accessible to all users will benefit your business in many ways.

Consider the following:

• Include people living with disabilities as part of your customer base because they are prospects! Don’t give users a reason to abandon your site because of lack of accessibility.

• Improve brand image so you can gain a positive reputation for being accessible.

• Capture older users; No demographic should be excluded from using your site.

• Enhance your SEO; An ADA-compliant website has a better search presence.

• Increase overall site usability for the benefit of all users, not just those people living with disabilities.

When is a good time to upgrade your website to make it ADA compliant?

Today! Don’t wait another minute. This is a process that will require expertise and care, along with thorough and extensive testing.

Get the ball rolling as soon as possible and you’ll be rewarded with a whole new population of customers!

The post Is Your Business Website ADA Compliant? appeared first on Easterseals New Jersey Blog.

If you are super lucky, you love your work. Getting up every day is a thrill and you can’t wait to see what new information the day will bring. However, if you are, unfortunately, like most, you go to work to earn a paycheck. And, hopefully, you have more good days than bad.

If you find yourself “not fitting in” at work, stop and think. Does your company have a Diversity and Inclusion policy that protects you?

Statistics reveal that companies throughout the United States are placing more and more weight on this issue of diversity. They are creating programs to make everyone feel they are an important and valued member of the team. Recognition programs are on the rise. Many employees are finding homes with employers who value the differences they bring to company culture, rather than focusing on how differences can divisive.

On the other hand, there are no shortage of companies that haven’t zeroed in on a commitment to advancing strategies that foster diversity and inclusion. Even if there is a desire to do so, management hasn’t invested the resources, time and talent, to bringing the programs to life.

At Work, Inclusivity Begins at the Top

The Organization CEO Action for Diversity & Inclusion “aims to rally the business community to advance diversity and inclusion within the workplace. The CEO pledge outlines a specific set of actions the signatory CEOs will take to cultivate a trusting environment where all ideas are welcome, and employees feel comfortable and empowered to have discussions about diversity and inclusion.”

Easterseals New Jersey wholeheartedly supports this effort. We recognize that more than 1,600 Chief Executive Officers have signed this pledge, and more companies than ever before are actively making the topics of diversity and inclusion part of their annual meetings and strategies.

One fact coming from the study is that DEI (Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion) was named a top priority for many of the executives. According to Gartner, the importance of the topic appeared to be “1.8 times higher in 2020 than in 2019.” The same study claims there was about an 800 percent rise in online job postings in that time by recruiters who are committed to diversity.

Another survey reports developing, adopting, and encouraging progress in corporate diversity programs was at the top of corporate 2021 priority lists.

When It Comes to Inclusionary Practices, Does Your Company Make the Grade?

It’s hard to raise your hand and admit your company has shrugged off issues of diversity and inclusion this long. We get that. But today is a great day to get started.  We’ve all heard (and likely experienced) fallout from the Great Resignation. Turning a blind eye to creating a workplace where all employees feel accepted, respected, and valued isn’t going to do your company any favors in getting positions filled with quality talent.

However, it’s not only about hiring people to create the appearance of diversity and inclusion. It’s about both talking the talk and walking the walk. When your team represents all walks of life and truly seeks input from people who help to foster a diverse culture, you will be at the precipice of something truly amazing. Allowing all members of your team to have a voice, especially when it comes to decision-making strategies and program development, does myriad things. It:

1. Invites everyone to have a seat at the table.
2. Shows tangible commitment to fostering diversity and inclusion in the workplace.
3. Produces ideas from many that a few couldn’t have possibly dreamed up by themselves.

That’s the true value of diversity and inclusion: Understanding that everyone has a voice that deserves to be heard. The best ideas come from people who feel valued and encouraged to speak their minds. Creating an inclusionary workplace where no idea is a bad idea, but instead a steppingstone to build on will help to attract the best and brightest talent to your doorstep (or Zoom/Teams screen if you are remote).

Hiring? Find out how you can become a resource for Easterseals New Jersey  and help Easterseals’ clients to prepare for the workforce.

Easterseals New Jersey is a tremendous resource for individuals and families with disabilities and special needs. We offer many programs and services that make a profound difference in lives of individuals and their  families every day. Please contact Easterseals New Jersey to find out how you can get involved and create positive change.

The post Easterseals New Jersey Supports CEOs Who Support Workplace Diversity and Inclusion appeared first on Easterseals New Jersey Blog.

When it comes to hiring in the workplace, diversity is a rather easy area to measure. It’s not difficult to make goals and measure metrics to assure the Human Resources recruiters are hitting various targets.

On the other hand, measuring inclusion is far more difficult. In a sense, the only way to truly measure inclusion is by starting to have conversations with various teams at your company. From management down, ask questions and not only listen to answers, but create strategies to integrate new ideas for inclusionary practices into your company’s culture.

Asking these questions could include personal 1:1 meetings with teams and managers, managers sending out micro surveys to their teams, or by a companywide annual employee survey asking employees to share their opinions anonymously. Yes, you’ll have to ask the hard questions… so be ready to read what could be harsh responses. However, employee feedback is the only way to truly gauge if your company is doing its role to be part of the DEI solution, rather than adding to the problem.

Introducing the Gartner Inclusion Index

In an effort to provide executives with a roadmap for navigating various topics that make up the concept of inclusion, Gartner set up another study; this one tapped almost 10,000 employees working in companies around the world. They asked the respondents to rate 45 work related statements and whittled down the data to seven specific questions the company named the Gartner Inclusion Index.

The seven questions in the index relate to:

1. Who has the decision-making abilities
2. How differences are integrated in the workplace
3. Fair treatment
4. Issues of psychological safety
5. Sense of belonging
6. Trust
7. Perceptions about diversity

No company wants to find out their employees don’t view the workplace in the brightest of spotlights. But to get at the answers, you’ve got to ask the  difficult questions and be willing to hear the true answers so you can plan to do better.

Go Ahead: Ask the People!

Think about it this way. You’ve heard the old cliché, “one rotten apple can spoil the bunch,” right?

The only way to truly achieve a workplace where employees and managers both feel there is a positive focus on Diversity and Inclusion, is the company has to focus on both.

To obtain a level of honesty and facts about employee perception, the population at your company needs to be diverse. That is why diversity has to come first if a company is going to gain any useful information from using a tool like the Gartner Inclusion Index.

Consider this: If a company was not diverse and only hired, let’s say, women, for example, it would be difficult to find out whether the company is inclusive when it comes to the way it treats men. Everyone in the research pool wouldn’t have an honest opinion on the question at hand. The ugly truth here, the almost 800-pound gorilla in every room where diversity and inclusion are discussed goes much deeper than the issue of gender (though gender issues are certainly important).

When you bring race, religion, and age into the mix, you can be assured that the only way to get a real sense of people’s perception of inclusivity is when the room has fair representation of each category.

Gartner research shows that it’s very difficult to focus on one aspect of inclusion. In fact, only by taking a diverse population and getting input on the current level of inclusivity can an effective strategy be put into place to evoke real change. You might find out that the employee pool you are working with isn’t as diverse as you thought, or as it should be. But you can’t find out until you dig in and ask the questions.

And that final point is perhaps the most important. If you are intending on asking questions about inclusion and diversity in your workplace, and really want to make positive changes happen, you have to listen to all the voices and reply with action.

Take Action!

So, first things first, a company or organization needs to do the work and collect information that can be analyzed in helpful ways.

Remember, this isn’t a once and done activity. It’s going to take a long time to get everyone on the same page. It may even take several tries to get people to really speak up in the smaller focus groups. These aren’t easy conversations and, quite often, people don’t want to raise their hand to point out problems at work for fear of retribution.

If you think that could be a problem, then it really is a problem—not only on the surface but with inclusionary practices.

Once you gather the information, take action! Many people are used to “the same old way we’ve always done things.” If you are going to make positive changes, start small but initiate your new strategies quickly so people see changes. Only then will they feel that offering their opinions and perceptions on difficult topics can really enact change.

When You Think Diversity & Inclusion, Think Easterseals New Jersey

Easterseals NJ has been around for over 70 years, with various programs aimed at helping people with disabilities and special needs achieve their goals and thrive in their communities.  Easterseals NJ has various employment programs,  helping individuals  train and develop skills to achieve their career goals. . Can your company get involved? Absolutely! Contact us to learn more about partnering with Easterseals New Jersey.

The post How Do You Measure Inclusion in the Workplace? appeared first on Easterseals New Jersey Blog.

Sticks & Stones May Break Your Bones, But WORDS Matter Too

There’s no doubt about it, some people think before speaking; their mind-to-mouth edit filter is in full functioning order, and some who suffer terribly from “open mouth, insert foot” syndrome. When this happens, it’s usually the listener who bears the brunt of the faux pas.

Since July is Disability Pride Month, we thought now would be a great time to look at how people communicate when talking about disabilities. Most people could use a refresher course in inclusionary language.

Words Matter

Perhaps you have heard the old cliché: “It’s not what you say, but how you say it?” That’s not necessarily true when it comes to speaking about disabilities. Making the decision to mind your words in this arena is Inclusion 101.

Research on the topic has shown that more than 90%  of communication is not the actual words spoken, but everything else you convey. Your body language…the look on your face…hand gestures. It all matters.

While the actual words you say make up less than 10% of the information you are communicating, it’s that 10% people hear and remember.

So, words matter—a lot!

You’ll never find a 100% consensus when it comes to which words, descriptions, and phrases are acceptable or which are offensive. And there is a reason!

We are talking about people with varying opinions. There simply isn’t a one-size-fits-all standard on inclusionary language. However, there are some general do’s and don’ts.

Embrace Inclusionary Language

Times have changed. Every generation has their go-to words and euphemisms. When certain words are trending, they may be more accepted than when the time has passed. This is especially true when it comes to language surrounding inclusion.

For example, “handicapped” was a perfectly acceptable term when parking laws were put into place to make sure parking spaces were reserved for those with disabilities.

Today, people with disabilities, nor their allies, would say “handicapped.” It’s very easy to put a modern and appropriate positive spin on this by talking about accessibility instead of disability. For example, saying bathrooms and buildings are accessible for all.

It’s about the person, not the disability. Instead of referring to someone as a “blind woman” or a “deaf man,” focus on the individual when speaking. It is more appropriate to say: “woman who is blind” or “man who is deaf.” This is known as “person first” language as opposed to “identity first” language.

Another way to view this point is this: if you are referring to a person who has been diagnosed with diabetes, would you refer to them as “the diabetic” or “a person with diabetes?” Choose the latter.

Generalities don’t work well, regardless of who you are speaking about. This is especially true when it comes to euphemisms. You may be meaning well, but it might not come across as such. To be safe, avoid terms such as “differently-abled” and “handi-capable.”

Instead, use the specific disability. People who cannot see know they are blind. The only difference between a person who is deaf and one who isn’t is that the deaf person can’t hear. And they know it all too well.

At the end of the day, there is no reason to show discomfort around the topic of disabilities.

If there is no reason to point it out, don’t. When possible, use the person’s name instead of their disability.

Few people want to give others the power to define who they are. As such, if you avoid treating a disability as though it defines a person, you will always be on the side of saying the right thing.

This also refers to another trap some fall into when interacting with people with disabilities; they do not want to be treated as victims nor heroes.

The key word in the phrase, “people with disabilities” is the word PEOPLE. Therefore, if you follow the Golden Rule, you’ll be in good shape. Treat other people as you want to be treated.  It’s up to you to be respectful and think before you speak. And, if you speak out of turn, acknowledge it and learn from your mistake. Do the best you can. No one could ask you to do more.

Learn more about Easterseals New Jersey, our amazing programs and ways you can support our efforts to support people with all types of disabilities in the Garden State.

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