Because We Are EQUAL
to the Task
NATIONAL DISABILITY EMPLOYMENT
AWARENESS MONTH 2013
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National Disability Employment
Awareness Month
“Because We Are EQUAL to the Task” is
the 2013 theme for National Disability
Employment Awareness Month.
The U.S. Department of Labor's Office of
Disability Employment Policy theme
reflects the reality that people with
disabilities have the education, training,
experience, and desire to be successful in
the workplace.
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National Disability Employment
Awareness Month
The Rehabilitation Act of 1973 was the first
major legislative effort to secure an equal
playing field for individuals with disabilities.
This legislation provided a wide range of
services for persons with physical and
cognitive disabilities.
Disabilities can create significant barriers to
full and continued employment, the pursuit of
independent living, self-determination, and
inclusion in American society.
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National Disability Employment
Awareness Month
President George H.W. Bush
signed the Americans with
Disabilities Act (ADA) into
law in 1990.
The law guaranteed equal opportunity for
people with disabilities in public
accommodations, commercial facilities,
employment, transportation, state and local
government services, and telecommunications.
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National Disability Employment
Awareness Month
When many doubted that people with
disabilities could participate in society,
contribute to the economy, or support their
families, the ADA asserted that they could.
Under this law, America declared equality for
citizens with disabilities, an accomplishment
that continues to help all citizens pursue their
aspirations.
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National Disability Employment
Awareness Month
People with disabilities are a diverse group,
crossing lines of age, ethnicity, gender, race,
sexual orientation, and socioeconomic status.
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National Disability Employment
Awareness Month
It is the only group anyone can become a
member of at any time. Almost all of us will
have a disability at some point in our lives.
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National Disability Employment
Awareness Month
Through amazing determination, these
extraordinary individuals have made a
difference in our lives, continue to uplift
others with their stories, and affirm they
were, indeed, EQUAL TO THE TASK.
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National Disability Employment
Awareness Month
Alan B. Shepard, Jr.
Astronaut
Photo courtesy of NASA
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National Disability Employment
Awareness Month
Alan Shepard was the first American in space and
the fifth person to walk on the moon. Shepard’s
competitive nature made him successful throughout
his career, and is what he relied on in the 1960’s
when he was grounded after developing a disabling
medical condition, Ménière’s disease.
In early 1964, Shepard experienced recurring bouts
of disorientation, dizziness, vomiting, and ringing in
his ears. Shepard knew something was dangerously
wrong.
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National Disability Employment
Awareness Month
The disease causes pressure to build up in the inner
ear, creating a severe vestibular disorientation and
extreme vertigo.
A panel of NASA medics pulled him from the flight
rotation and grounded him. The Navy forbade him
from flying for fear of the condition emerging in
flight.
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National Disability Employment
Awareness Month
He decided to stay in NASA and took on a lesser role
as Chief of the Astronaut Office.
Neal Thompson, author of the only Shepard
biography said, “It had to be really demoralizing for
him to be the first American in space and then not be
able to fly at all and to be stuck watching the other
astronauts fly ahead of him. But it was always
impressive to me that he did stick with it, he got his
inner ear disorder cured, and fought his way back into
the flight rotation and then was assigned to Apollo
14.”
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National Disability Employment
Awareness Month
In 1969, Shepard was restored to full flight status.
At the age of 47, he was the oldest astronaut in the
program when he commanded Apollo 14.
As he planted his feet on
the lunar surface he
declared, “Al is on the
surface, and it's been a
long way, but we're here.”
Photo courtesy of NASA
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National Disability Employment
Awareness Month
Dorothea Lange
Photographer
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National Disability Employment
Awareness Month
Dorothea Lange was an influential documentary
photographer and photojournalist, best known for
her Depression-era work for the Farm Security
Administration. She dared to challenge the cultural
norms against working women and the disabled
during the early 1900’s.
Photos courtesy of the Library of Congress
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National Disability Employment
Awareness Month
When she was seven years old she was stricken with
polio, leaving her with a weakened right leg and
permanent limp. Children taunted her. Her mother
would tell her to try to straighten up when walking,
as her impairment was a source of embarrassment.
Lange later stated that having polio was the most
important thing that happened in her life.
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National Disability Employment
Awareness Month
Dorothea Lange
1965
Despite the teasing from her peers
and her mother's shame, she said
of her disability, "I think it was
perhaps the most important thing
that happened to me. It formed me,
guided me, instructed me, helped
me, humiliated me, all those things
at once. I've never gotten over it,
and I am aware of the force and
power of it.”
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National Disability Employment
Awareness Month
As a young woman, Lange’s ability to work well
with people led to her success as a portrait
photographer. After the stock market crash of
1929, the country plunged into the Great
Depression. Severe drought in the 1930s
ravaged millions of acres of farmland and
brought on the Dust Bowl, prompting hundreds
of thousands to flee the damaged prairie states
for California, where they hoped for a better
life.
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National Disability Employment
Awareness Month
Lange and her husband began to document the
plight of California migrant farm workers living in
labor camp squalor. Her work earned her a job with
Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s Resettlement
Administration, later renamed the Farm Security
Administration.
While touring the country, Lange came across a
hungry and desperate mother and took several
pictures of her, one of which would become known
as Migrant Mother.
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National Disability Employment
Awareness Month
Migrant Mother is one of a
series of photographs that
Lange made of Florence Owens
Thompson and her children in
1936. The image is one of the
most reproduced photographs
in history, and hangs in the
Library of Congress.
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National Disability Employment
Awareness Month
The impact of Lange's photography comes from its
combination of visual and emotional appeal, but also
from the social information she captured in the
compelling images.
Her photographs humanized the tragic consequences
of the Great Depression and influenced the
development of documentary photography.
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National Disability Employment
Awareness Month
Carl Brashear
Master Chief Boatswain's Mate
U.S. Navy (Retired)
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National Disability Employment
Awareness Month
Carl Brashear was the Navy’s first Black deep-sea
diver and Master Diver. The sixth of nine children,
born to rural Kentucky sharecroppers, he attended
a one-room schoolhouse and only completed the
eighth grade. He later earned a general equivalency
diploma and continued his studies at a community
college.
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National Disability Employment
Awareness Month
Brashear joined the U.S. Navy at the age of 17 in
1948. In 1953, despite repeated attempts by
superiors to dissuade him from pursuing his dream
of becoming a navy diver, Brashear was assigned to
diving school in 1954.
He was constantly harassed by classmates—
sometimes with direct threats on his life. He
graduated as salvage diver the next year, retrieving
sunken planes, ships, and WWII torpedoes.
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National Disability Employment
Awareness Month
In 1966, Brashear supported the retrieval of
atomic bombs from two submerged U.S. Air
Force planes. An accident occurred during the
recovery and Brashear’s leg was crushed.
His leg was amputated, and he began a
grueling physical therapy course.
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National Disability Employment
Awareness Month
In 1967, after recovering from his injuries
he reported to Harbor Clearance Unit Two
Diving School for rehabilitation and
training.
Photo courtesy
of the USN
He made dives wearing a 290-pound dive
rig to depths of 200 feet of seawater. His
prosthetic leg severely abraded the
stump. He tended to the damage himself
to hide the severity of the bleeding.
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National Disability Employment
Awareness Month
“Sometimes I would come back from a
run and my artificial leg would have a
puddle of blood from my stump,” he told
an interviewer from the U.S. Naval
Institute in 1989.
Photo courtesy
of the USN
“I wouldn't go to sick bay. In that year, if
I had gone to sick bay, they would have
written me up. I'd go somewhere and
hide and soak my leg in a bucket of hot
water with salt in it, an old remedy. Then
I'd get up the next morning and run.”
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National Disability Employment
Awareness Month
One year later, he became the first amputee in
naval history to be restored to full active duty.
Four years after the accident, Brashear beat
daunting odds and became the Navy’s first
Black Master Diver.
Brashear declared, “It’s not a sin to get knocked
down. It’s a sin to stay down.”
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National Disability Employment
Awareness Month
His naval career ended with his 1979 retirement.
Brashear served as civilian employee for the U.S.
Navy until 1993.
He earned one of the nation’s highest peacetime
awards, the Navy and Marine Corps Medal, and the
second highest civil service award, the Navy
Meritorious Civilian Service Award.
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National Disability Employment
Awareness Month
James Earl Jones
Actor
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National Disability Employment
Awareness Month
James Earl Jones.
Photo courtesy of the
Academy of Achievement
James Earl Jones was born in
Arkabutla Township, Mississippi.
His parents separated before his
birth and he was raised by his
grandparents. When he was five,
the family moved north to a farm in
rural Michigan. He found the
adjustment so traumatic that he
developed an incapacitating stutter.
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National Disability Employment
Awareness Month
For years he refused to speak more than a few
words at a time, even to his family. In school he
pretended to be mute, and communicated only in
writing. He began to express himself by writing
poetry.
A high school English teacher forced him to read a
poem Jones had written aloud in front of the class.
Jones was shocked to find that, in reciting words he
already knew so well, he was able to speak clearly
and without stammering.
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National Disability Employment
Awareness Month
In his 1994 memoir he explained, “The written word
is safe for the stutterer. The script is a sanctuary.”
Having lost and found his voice, Jones became a
champion public speaker at his high school and
developed a strong interest in performing.
It would take a series of acting and voice lessons
before Jones became a renowned voice actor. Today,
he still continues to struggle with his speech
impediment.
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National Disability Employment
Awareness Month
Jim Eisenreich
Athlete
Picture courtesy of the
Jim Eisenreich Foundation
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National Disability Employment
Awareness Month
Jim Eisenreich retired from baseball in 1998,
capping a career that spanned 15 major-league
seasons and included two World Series appearances.
Still, with all of his successes, Eisenreich may be best
remembered for bringing awareness to Tourette
Syndrome, a neurological disorder that first begins
appearing during childhood and becomes more
severe with time.
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National Disability Employment
Awareness Month
Eisenreich always knew he was different. At the age
of six, he developed tics and jerks and couldn’t stop
blinking his eyes. His family accepted this behavior.
However, at school—where the social pressures can
be enormous—he struggled.
Doctors failed to diagnose his condition and his
teachers assumed that he could stop the behaviors.
The reaction of outsiders made him feel that he
must be crazy. He spent a lot of time alone; for him,
it was the only safe place.
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National Disability Employment
Awareness Month
In spite of his highly visible affliction, he was also
well known for his baseball skills. Though teased
often, he was usually the first chosen for pick-up
baseball games. After outstanding athletic
performance in high school and college, the
Minnesota Twins drafted him in 1982.
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National Disability Employment
Awareness Month
Two months into his first pro season, his tics
worsened. Standing in left field of Fenway Park, he
was barraged by the taunts of the Red Sox fans who
chanted “Shake, shake, shake!” A camera briefly
caught Eisenreich fighting back tears. Overcome by
emotion, he quit playing at mid-inning.
In 1984, Eisenreich walked away from baseball.
Magazine articles blared insensitive titles, such as
“When Anxiety Came to Bat,” inferring Eisenreich’s
problems lay with his inability to manage stress.
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National Disability Employment
Awareness Month
A diagnosis proved elusive. Finally, after a lifetime of
testing, he was diagnosed with Tourette Syndrome.
The disorder was brought under control with
medication. In 1986, Eisenreich publically
announced his condition and his desire to return to
baseball. His new understanding of his affliction
gave him newfound confidence. The Kansas City
Royals picked up Eisenreich’s contract for one dollar.
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National Disability Employment
Awareness Month
Eisenreich went on to play in two World Series, first
with the Philadelphia Phillies in 1993 and in 1997
with the Florida Marlins.
These events brought awareness of Eisenreich’s
story and Tourette Syndrome to a national level.
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National Disability Employment
Awareness Month
In 1996, he founded the Jim
Eisenreich Foundation for Children
with Tourette Syndrome, addressing
the needs of families, educators,
peers, and medical professionals to
help children with Tourette
syndrome achieve personal success.
Picture courtesy of
the Jim Eisenreich
Foundation
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National Disability Employment
Awareness Month
Ryan White
HIV Awareness Advocate
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National Disability Employment
Awareness Month
Ryan White and his mother, Jeanne White Ginder,
courageously fought AIDS-related discrimination
and helped educate the nation about the disease. He
gained international attention as a voice of reason
about HIV/AIDS.
He became infected from a contaminated blood
transfusion and was diagnosed with AIDS at age 13.
He was given six months to live.
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National Disability Employment
Awareness Month
Although doctors said he posed no risk to other
students, AIDS was poorly understood at the time.
When White tried to return to school, many parents
and teachers fought against his attending.
A legal battle with the school system ensued, and
media coverage of the case made White a national
spokesman for AIDS research and public education.
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National Disability Employment
Awareness Month
Surprising his doctors, he lived five years longer
than expected. White died in April 1990 at the age of
18, one month before his high school graduation,
and just months before Congress passed the
legislation that bears his name, the Ryan White
Comprehensive AIDS Resources Emergency Act
(CARE ).
Photo courtesy of the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services
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National Disability Employment
Awareness Month
The Ryan White HIV/AIDS Program works with
cities, states, and local community-based
organization to provide HIV-related services to more
than half a million people each year.
The majority of Ryan White funds support primary
medical care and essential support services. A
smaller, but equally critical, portion funds technical
assistance, clinical training, and research on
innovative models of care.
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National Disability Employment
Awareness Month
Some people are born with a disability, others
acquire theirs as a result of an illness or
injury, and some people develop theirs as
they age.
Around the world, 650 million people live
with a disability.
Today, one-in-five people in the United States
has a disability.
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National Disability Employment
Awareness Month
The brave individuals featured here represent
a microcosm of all people who struggle daily
with a vast range of disabling conditions.
Their triumphs over adversity serve as an
example to all of us, and affirm that they
were, indeed,
EQUAL TO THE TASK.
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National Disability Employment
Awareness Month
“Disability will affect
the lives of everyone
at some point in
their life, it is time
society changed to
acknowledge this.”
—Disabled World
Works Cited
50

http://www.ada.gov/cguide.htm

http://www.dol.gov/opa/media/press/odep/ODEP20131020.htm

http://www.history.navy.mil/photos/pers-us/uspers-b/c-brsear.htm

http://www.achievement.org/autodoc/page/jon2bio-

http://www.achievement.org/autodoc/photocredit/achievers/jon2001

http://www.ninds.nih.gov/disorders/tourette/detail_tourette.htm

http://www.tourettes.org/aboutjim.html

http://www.dol.gov/odep/topics/ndeam/resources.htm#Articles

http://hab.hrsa.gov/abouthab/ryanwhite.html

http://www.disabled-world.com/disability/statistics/info.php

http://carlbrashear.org/

http://hab.hrsa.gov/livinghistory/voices/legacy-photography.htm
Prepared by the
Defense Equal Opportunity
Management Institute,
Patrick Air Force Base, Florida
October 2013
All photographs are public domain and are from various sources as
cited.
The findings in this report are not to be construed as an official
DEOMI, U.S. military services, or the Department of Defense
position, unless designated by other authorized documents.
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