Working with Disabilities: Stories of Arkansans Who Work
Man’s Voice: Jared Johnson was born with multiple birth defects in a small town in Minnesota. His hometown was not wheelchair accessible at that time. After attending college and playing wheelchair basketball, he was recruited by the Arkansas Rolling Razorbacks, which he now coaches.
Jared also works at the Social Security Administration and knows first hand how a person with disabilities can be employed and not lose his or her benefits.
Mr. Jared Johnson: I think disability is only a barrier when you as an individual that’s disabled let it be a barrier. If you pursue a career or something that physically you’re not going to be able to do, then obviously your chair is going to be a barrier. But if you pursue careers that a person that’s physically disabled can do, then, you know, you just have to be able to prove to yourself and to people that are trying to hire you that you are the best candidate for that position and then when you get that position, you know, do the best you can to pursue your career.
Mr. Eric McKisick: When I look at Jared, he is an employee here at first. He’s a member of this team and he makes our office better. It is not, to look at Jared, as an individual with disability. We just don’t do it that way. When I see him, I see him perfectly capable individual who may have some shortcomings, and that is he can’t reach as far as I can, but he certainly can grasp, fortunately, everything we have thrown out to him throughout his career.
Mr. Jared Johnson: In my life, I’m really in a lucky situation because I’m able and I have the ability to work. With some people, they just can’t work and they don’t have the ability. They can’t either be on their feet or they can’t sit for long periods of time. Some people just don’t have the ability to work.
I really believe that if you have the ability to work and you push yourself in that direction that you want a better life, you want to be socially active, you want to have a career and have the opportunities to increase your financial success, that Social Security and the Department of Human Services has programs to help you and I think that is the part that needs to be sent out.
People with disabilities need to understand that there are programs that can help you. You just have to be willing and work hard enough to get through with the right person, talk to the right representatives, go to the offices and talk to them about what you can do, what you can do to get back on your feet and how they can help you.
Vocational Rehabilitation has excellent services that can train you to work if you’re able to do that. The Department of Human Services had programs that will help you keep your Medicaid, that you don’t have to lose your health insurance. There are programs available. You have to take some initiative in your own life to improve your situation and I think that’s where people with disabilities need to have the understanding. If you want to do it, there are programs out there available that can assist you. You just have to be the one to step up and get it done.
One of the things I try to do as the coach of the Arkansas Rolling Razorbacks is I try to encourage my players to seek out those work incentives, those options, and those things to help them get back on their feet. I always believe… I mean, everyone of my players are ones I recruited; a kid out of Jonesborough, Arkansas and he was got hurt in a car accident coming home from work and he was going to Jonesborough University down at Arkansas in Jonesborough and he said he’s not going back to school and he said I’m done. You know, he got hurt when he fell asleep at night coming home.
I said, “Well, if you want to play basketball, you have to go back to school.” He said, “I’m not going back to school,” and he came down to practice a couple of times. He saw what we do with those people and saw everybody that’s in a chair overcoming, doing things that they need to do and then realized that, you know, this is what I want and I want to have a life. I want to get married. I want to have kids. I want to do these things.
Our organization does that. We really promote within. We get these people on board. We go out and give speeches at the hospitals, but this kid graduated. He graduated from college and his mom called me in December and she said, “You’re not going to believe it, but my boy is graduating today and we owe it to you,” and I said, “Well, you don’t owe it to me. He did it. He did all of the course work and all of that.”
But we pushed him in the right direction and that’s what we try to do. We try to show people that just because you’ve been in it, just because you’ve had an accident or you’re in a chair, it doesn’t mean your life is over, that you can do things. You know, you can have a life. You can have a family. You can have friends, social life, and things like that.
And I think that it means a lot for people to be a part of their own Razorbacks because it’s the people who are already in the chair, they know what it’s like if you have to go on a bathroom rotation. You know, their whole lives are changed and our organization educates them that you can get on a plane, you can get it done.
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