2020 TASH Conference – Lifeworks Presentations

Wednesday, December 2 | 4:25 PM

Lifeworks New Business Development team, Ashley Oolman and Alli Strong-Martin, will present at the 2020 TASH Conference on Wednesday, December 2 from 4:25 PM to 5:25 PM.

About the presentations:

What Are We Afraid Of?

Presenter: Ashley Oolman, Lifeworks Disability Inclusion Consultant

This interactive session will lead participants through a discussion about how bias is a barrier to power for people with disabilities. People with disabilities are underrepresented in workplaces, and an outcome is a lack of leaders who identify as such. Discover more about the relatively recent phenomenon of executives publicly disclosing their disability, and how this among other factors could be the catalyst to help breakdown misconceptions and stigma preventing people with disabilities from making their way to the top.

The topic of this presentation is disability leadership, and an exploration of the lack of people with disabilities in positions of power. Together, we will review workforce demographics data, press coverage of disability disclosure in the news, and best practices to ensure employees with disabilities are included in professional development initiatives at work.

What’s Intersectional Got To Do With It?

Presenter: Alli Strong-Martin, Lifeworks New Business Development Assistant

Disability is a natural reflection of human diversity and variation. Disability is also inherently intersectional, so no two people have the same lived experience of disability. People with disabilities form the most intersectional of all identity groups, and we know that disabled people form the only identity group that any person (regardless of race, sexual orientation, gender identity, age, class, religion, etc.) can join at any time in their life.

In this short session, we will explore disability as a social identity and the ways in which disability interacts with our other identities. The presenter will draw connections to her own personal story of having the privilege of being able to choose whether or not she discloses that she has non-apparent disabilities – while unpacking the ways in which her other identities compound or diminish her overall social privilege. This TASH Talk will conclude by questioning whether or not important concepts such as privilege, oppression, and disability identity are investigated deeply enough by disability organizations and professionals.

Learn more about the conference: https://2020tashconference.sched.com/