We recently spoke with Ability Options Administration Assistant Renell, who has a hearing impairment and mild cerebral palsy. She highlighted her future aspirations, personal growth, challenges, strengths, unique perspectives, and the future of people with disability.
Q: Are you able to share a little about your experience with disability in your life or with your family and friends?
A: Having a disability has affected my life when dealing with a hearing world. Changing countries and going to high school and having to learn how to use Auslan to communicate with my friends.
Getting a job can be difficult because when employers looked at my resume and said “Wow, she has a lot of qualifications and experiences”. They asked me to come in for a job interview and when I got there, their body language changed when they saw my hearing aids, so they quickly interviewed me, and I never heard from them again.
Q: How do you feel people in your community understand or support individuals with disabilities?
A: A lot of people don’t understand what it means to have a disability and don’t know how to deal with it. They think they should ignore you or they don’t interact with you or look you in the eye.
Q: What are some common challenges you or your loved ones face regarding disability?
A: It can be challenging in lots of ways. For example, during COVID when everyone was wearing a mask. I sometimes asked people to pull their mask down because I am deaf and need to lipread. Some people refused to take their mask off or to pull it down and got angry.
Q: What strengths or positive qualities have you observed in yourself or in others in the community of people with disabilities?
A: I have learned to observe other people and see what their needs are from their behaviour. I have also learned not to give up and not to get depressed over disappointment.
Q: What support has been most helpful to you in your role at work?
A: The support that has been most helpful for me is that I have a left-hand numbered keyboard because I have mild cerebral palsy in my right hand. I have captions on teams. I am very lucky to have a wonderful supportive boss and my team leader and colleagues.
Q: What do you enjoy most about your work, and how has it benefited you?
A: Navigating working in a corporate role as a person with disability was difficult at first because people were unsure how to deal with a deaf person, and were sometimes uncomfortable with me. It took a little while, but people got used to me and started to see that I was there to do a good job. I really enjoy data entry and processing and learning new systems which increases my skills. I’d describe my experience at Ability Options as a very positive one. I am fortunate to have supportive people at Ability Options who were willing to give me a job and who would let me prove that I could be successful.
Renell is a dedicated colleague who embodies Ability Options Mission, Vision and Values. Having been with Ability Options for more than six and a half years, she knows what it takes to support people to achieve their aspirations.
