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#NDEAM: Working Outside of Your Home
For most of us with SMA, working from home is probably easier than going to an office. It eliminates a lot of obstacles. For those of you who do work outside the home, how do you do it? What do you do for transportation? How does the workspace provide the necessary accommodations?
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11 Replies
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Although I work strictly from home now, when I was going to the office it was just once a week to pick up and drop off work. Where I live we can call to schedule the public transportation. Expect them to be late, but you have to be on time as they don’t wait. As far as accommodations at work I haven’t had to deal with that since I was at the office for such a brief amount of time. My boss has been great with providing me what I need for my home office.
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Yeah like DeAnn said it’s very doable to work in an office. I work from home, but in college I went to the office when I worked for the student newspaper. At that time I had hired a couple friends to drive me, and they were paid through Independent Living. Their hours worked out to where they could take me to and from the office, which was good because I worked late nights when I was Features Editor. But yeah, public transportation services can take you to work as well.
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I never worked,yes I had opportunity but I always afraid for example if snowing how I get home and will I have on work place bathroom for people with disability.But main reason why I haven t work is because my parents worked,so if I start to work one of them must leave their job,and i decided to not work.But I always say living with SMA is big work.
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Have you tried working from home? Or if you did work, what kind of jobs would you be interested in?
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When I was younger it hasn t some good oportunity to work at home,and now I have some option,so I ll see.I would like any job who is work with laptop .
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Gotcha. Yeah keep following our posts about NDEAM (National Disability Employment Awareness Month). We want to really tackle topics like this.
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Apologies if this ends up being a duplicate. I edited and resubmitted my original response and now it won’t display.
I have worked for the same company for almost 32 years (in November). I was ambulatory without devices (crutches, cane, walker, etc.) at the time I started and declined over the years to where I’m using a power chair full time since 2015. I realize that is a vastly different experience than many here. I worked full time in the office until mid-2006. I then started working two days a week at home and three in the office; a schedule I still maintain. Part of this was possible because I was pursuing my college degree at night while working full time and eventually moving into a department where remote work was an option. I bought a new van in 2015 with a VMI conversion. It was expensive, but it provides me with the freedom I missed for decades as day to day activities became more difficult. I drive that to work. I work for a large company that is very sensitive to ADA compliance and accommodations. Some of it is finding the right company that is open to hiring along with the right type of work – and importantly, the right attitude.
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Sounds like you work for a great company. Also sounds like with you they have a great employee. It isn’t always easy making the adjustments you’ve had to, but it goes to show if there’s a will there’s a way. Agree, the right attitude can make a world of difference.
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Thanks DeAnn. They are a good company, but part of it is their strong social consciousness and footprint, not wanting to be viewed as unfriendly to employees, with or without disabilities. Bottom line is I can do the job and that helps them meet their objectives – and it keeps me off the street and (mostly) out of trouble.
And hey, completely unrelated, but the company is a huge sponsor of the NHL and the Stanley Cup made its way to the office last Thursday (our office is less than 10 miles from where my beloved Caps play). So, that was definitely a great day to be in the office. 🙂 I wish I could figure out how to insert a picture here…
Trying this…
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Awesome pic Mike! Reminded me a few years back when I was in the hospital and the Wild were in the playoffs (that’s as far as we usually get.) I’ve never had more nurses “checking” on me just because I had the hockey game on.
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Hey Mike, hope you had a great thanksgiving!
Just wanted to check in since it’s been a while since you’ve posted. Hope all is well.
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