Grads with disabilities find rewarding tech careers

“We are very capable of excelling in the workforce if given the chance”
– Emanuel Lin, Cisco

“Every person has limitations. It’s up to the individual to maximize his/her
own talent” – Donna Walters Kozberg, Lift, Inc

By Angela M. Hutchinson
Contributing Editor

Employment statistics for engineering and IT pros with disabilities have gotten better over the years, but there is still room for improvement. According to Donna Walters Kozberg, president and CEO of Lift, Inc, “Some corporations remain reluctant to hire people who have disabilities.” That is why it is so critical for organizations like Lift to stay involved in recruitment, hiring, training and placement of recent grads with physical disabilities.

Lift has worked with disabled engineering and IT professionals since 1975. The organization boasts a 95 percent success rate in matching employers with highly qualified technical professionals. Lift corporate clients include IBM, Verizon Wireless, New York Life Insurance and Johnson & Johnson.

Technological enhancements at educational institutions are making education more accessible. “Advances in classroom services and technology are indeed helping today’s students,” says T. Alan Hurwitz, CEO of the National Technical Institute for the Deaf (NTID, Rochester, NY) and vice president and dean of Rochester Institute of Technology (RIT, Rochester, NY). NTID is the world’s first and largest technological college for deaf and hard-of-hearing students. Engineering students spend their first two years at NTID with other deaf and hard-of-hearing students, then transfer to RIT to complete their degrees.

“As more employers discover that hiring people with disabilities may not involve many accommodations, employment rates should increase,” Hurwitz notes.

Brighter future for techies with disabilities
To compete in today’s job market, it is crucial for new college grads with disabilities to stay abreast of technologies and access services that can maximize their career potential. It is equally critical for recent graduates to have a thorough understanding of or, if possible, an expertise in using older technologies.

Lift trains people with disabilities in both older and newer software and technologies. “As experts retire there will be a void in the industry if new hires aren’t familiar with older programs,” says Walters Kozberg.

With the help of organizations like Lift, more companies are hiring trained technical professionals with disabilities. “It is important for all employers to appreciate the benefits a diverse workforce can bring,” says Hurwitz. “People with disabilities have often lived their lives finding alternative ways to accomplish things. Who knows? Perhaps the next great invention will be created by a person with a disability who simply wanted a device to make his or her life easier.”

Featured here are new technical professionals who have achieved success in the workforce. While they may have physical limitations, they also have perseverance, passion and commitment to excel.

Thomas Marmon: in R&D for the Navy

Since June 2006 Thomas Marmon has been a mechanical engineer for the Naval Surface Warfare Center (NSWC) in Dahlgren, VA. He is responsible for research, development, testing and evaluation of mechanical systems for guided and precision munitions. The work includes research and development of laminate composites, preparation, operation and observation of material characterization tests, properties data analysis, and modeling and utilizing data from materials testing.

“My current project involves materials characterization and modeling and simulation of composites to replace conventional metals for specific components of guidance integrated fuzes,” he explains. “One aspect of my job that I really enjoy is the range of work. It allows me to put my qualifications and skills to full use while leaving room for growth and development.” Marmon is hard of hearing, but “My family has always provided me with a strong support system, always making the message clear that I could go far and do anything that I wanted to despite my hearing loss,” he says.

He has lived with hearing loss since birth. “My deafness is a result of hair cells in the cochlea not functioning. The cochlea is a tiny organ located in the inner ear that converts sound waves into neural signals. Normally the hair cells vibrate when sound enters the cochlea, and trigger an electrochemical response that sends a message through the auditory nerve to the brain. When one’s hair cells cannot function or are damaged, hearing is lost. The amount of hearing loss varies. In my case it’s severe and requires me to use hearing aids.”

Marmon attended Rochester Institute of Technology (Rochester, NY) and earned his BSME in 2006. As part of his program’s requirements he had to complete a series of ten-week co-ops in ME. He worked first in the automotive manufacturing industry and then for a global manufacturing and engineering company. He finished at the NSWC’s Dahlgren division and then landed a full-time engineering job there.

His co-ops were challenging but rewarding. He says, “I had the opportunity to develop social and working skills through my co-ops, and I was introduced to both positive and negative experiences working as an individual with hearing loss.”

Marmon says that NSWC provides a comfortable work environment along with a positive atmosphere for disabled individuals. He has access to a sign language interpreter; an online federal relay service that enables him to make phone calls via the Internet; a CapTel phone which has a small screen that displays his caller’s words; and entry into the Department of Defense CAP (Computer/electronic Accommodations Program), which is a website where Marmon can access services and products for federal government employees with disabilities. “I’ve found this to be one of the best tools for my disability,” he says.

Marmon says that since deafness is an invisible disability, most people are not aware of it until they interact with him. “It can be difficult at times because people don’t ‘see’ the disability. As a result, more effort is put on me to accommodate my hearing loss. To remove any obstacles that might arise because of my deafness, I’ve had to show my co-workers how to communicate with me effectively. For example, to communicate with me in person, I ask my co-workers to face me while talking, since I rely extensively on lip-reading.”

Elizabeth Carter: an industrial engineer at Raytheon

Industrial engineer Elizabeth Carter is a new employee of Raytheon Missile Systems in Tucson, AZ. She currently works with a team on lean manufacturing, helping to analyze the time required for each step of an assembly process

“I really enjoy being on the lean manufacturing project team, because it gives me an opportunity to help solve problems.”

Originally from Phoenix, Carter started at Arizona State University (Tempe, AZ). Then she transferred to Rochester Institute of Technology (Rochester, NY), where she earned her bachelors in industrial and operations engineering in 2004 and went on to complete her masters in engineering management in 2006. She is now working on her MBA in business administration from Keller Graduate School of Management (www.devry.edu/keller/).

Carter, who is deaf, grew up in a close-knit family that maintained a very positive attitude. “My deafness has challenged me to become equal with hearing people,” she declares. She is the first in her family to earn a masters.

Carter likes working for Raytheon, which provides her with full-time interpreters, TTY calling and Lotus Sametime Connect messaging. Carter has worked with a speech therapist on her speaking skills and learned to lip-read. She’s fluent in spoken and written English and American Sign Language. She advises new hires with disabilities to educate their managers about special accommodations and to be open with co-workers.

Carter was selected to do a photo shoot for a Raytheon diversity advertising campaign. “It was such an honor for me,” says Carter. “There are currently six or seven employees with hearing loss who work for Raytheon Missile Systems here in Tucson, and there are others across the company. Raytheon is hoping to recruit more people with disabilities and to increase diversity awareness.”

IBM’s Toan Nhu Nguyen provides tech support

Toan Nhu Nguyen has worked in the software group for IBM (Armonk, NY) since 2006. Based in Durham, NC, he assists customers in resolving critical problems and also educates them in how to use IBM products more effectively. “As a level 2 support specialist I review problems and do problem determination by researching our problem record database.”

Nguyen is Vietnamese and trilingual in English, French and Vietnamese. He earned a bachelors degree in electrical and computer science from the University of California-Berkeley in 2004. Prior to moving to the States he received a bachelors in business administration from the University of Economics in Vietnam in 1996, and an MBA from the School of Management CFVG Euro-Asia (Chamber of Commerce and Industry of Paris, France) in 1999.

Nguyen had polio when he was six months old; he walks with crutches and wears braces. But he has not allowed his disability to hinder his educational pursuits and accomplishments. “My disability does not interfere with my job,” Nguyen says. “The building where I work is handicapped accessible and it has an elevator.”

Nguyen found his job at IBM through his participation in Lift. He is proud to work for IBM because of its principles on diversity, and he loves his job because he gets to problem solve, work with people and help customers. He says, “My job also allows me to learn new developments in the software field.”

Susan Jolly manages EIT development for T-Mobile

Susan Jolly has been with T-Mobile USA (Bellevue, WA) since 1999. For the first two and a half years she was a consultant; since 2003 she’s been an employee. In her current role as manager of enterprise information technology development, she oversees a team of about twenty developers who provide integration services for applications across T-Mobile.

“Applications need to communicate with each other through our enterprise service bus, which translates and transforms messages as appropriate for the different applications,” Jolly says. “Much of my time involves balancing resources, coaching and mentoring, budgeting and doing strategic planning along with system design and deployment planning.”

Jolly juggles multiple projects. Currently she’s working on an enhanced version of T-Mobile’s My Faves service and its Flexpay product. She says, “My main role as manager is to remove any barriers that prevent developers from delivering on time with quality.”

Raised in the suburbs of Louisville, KY, Jolly was exposed to a community with integrity and loyalty to family and friends. “My parents instilled in me the values of working hard and always doing your best,” she says. “My background has helped me to tackle the challenges needed for a fast-paced, results-driven environment.”

Jolly is a wheelchair user. “I was in an automobile accident in 1986, hit by a driver who was on the wrong side of the road,” she explains. “My neck was broken, compressing my spinal cord and leaving me a quadriplegic.”

It took Jolly several years to overcome the physical and psychological effects of the accident. With the support of a close mentor and friends, she decided that she was not going to let her limited mobility keep her from achieving her personal and professional goals. “Life is too short to waste it wondering what my life would be like ‘if.’ Use the life you have and make the most of it.”

Jolly earned her associates degree with honors in business administration from Palm Beach Community College (Lake Worth, FL) in 1992. Six years later she completed her bachelors in computer information systems, magna cum laude. She has more than nine years of development experience with a focus on integration and middleware platforms. She takes pride in on-time delivery with quality and within budget.

Jolly’s office at T-mobile was handicapped accessible from her first day, so the company has not had to make many accommodations. It does arrange special transportation and allows someone to go with her when travel is necessary. “My disability has never kept me from doing what others around me do. To me having an ‘even playing field’ and being treated like everyone else are important,” she says.

Jolly has a good rapport with her colleagues. “I once got a ticket at the office for speeding down the hall in my motorized wheelchair. Everybody called me ‘Speedy’ for a while. “Successful folks with disabilities teach others around them every day about perseverance, determination, how to adapt to change, and what you can do if you put your mind to it,” Jolly says. “Diverse backgrounds and experiences provide insight into different worlds, leading to new ideas, opportunities and products. It’s a win-win situation for all!”

Matt Ventura: a Siemens software engineer

Matt Ventura worked for a year as an intern at the Malvern, PA HQ of Siemens Medical Solutions, USA before becoming a software engineer at the company six months ago. Ventura is responsible for designing and coding software used by hospitals to manage patient transactions, data and healthcare processes. He translates and refines end-user requirements to produce what customers need. He also does unit testing and software check-ins, turns requirements into working code, and does installation and support to get experience in design and implementation.

“Recently I have been working as a scrum server admin. A scrum server hosts each version of the application we are working on. The scrum server is used by all teams to test new features before delivery,” Ventura explains. “As the scrum server admin, I have to troubleshoot and solve the issue if a build breaks. I’m also in charge of keeping a repository updated so team members can get an image of our scrum server environment on their local machines.”

Born and raised in Pennsylvania, Ventura attended the Delaware County campus of Penn State University (State College, PA) as an IT major. After two years he transferred to West Chester University of Pennsylvania (West Chester, PA), where he graduated with a BSCS in 2007.

Ventura, who suffers from chronic stuttering, made the decision not to allow his speech disability to interfere with his college education. “My stuttering was first noticed in preschool by my teacher. She recommended that my parents sign me up for therapy,” he says. “The severity depends on how comfortable I am with my environment.”

On the job Ventura faces daily challenges in communicating with his co-workers. “Every day we have a meeting where we go around within our team and we each report on what we worked on yesterday, what we are going to work on today, and what if any issues are stopping us from completing our tasks. This has been my biggest challenge, especially when I first started and not everyone was aware of my disability.”

Ventura’s managers allow him to use e-mail and instant messaging in lieu of the phone. They also let him decide whether he wants to speak during a presentation. “Since we’re pair-programming most of the time, I have my partner tag along with me to meetings that require us to put in our two cents.”

Ventura is enthusiastic about his work at Siemens. “I enjoy programming and accomplishing specific tasks. I also like problem solving in a team environment and spreading the knowledge I acquired in college among my co-workers.”

He advises others with disabilities to be open. “Stuttering is often an overlooked disability, and I sometimes found it almost impossible to achieve my goals. But once I began being open about my disability, it became easier to communicate with people. I still had days where it was difficult to talk, but for the most part I was able to break that barrier between myself and others. That was a big step in gaining self-esteem,” Ventura says.

Raytheon’s Donald Slate manufactures circuit cards

Donald Slate was born and raised in Massachusetts and joined Raytheon (Waltham, MA) in June 2006. He is a manufacturing engineer in circuit card assembly (CCA). “Within CCA, I work in the wave solder/conformal coat cells area, which could be viewed as a service station,” he says. “All circuit cards assembled in CCA belong to different programs with their own assembly cells. However, most of these circuit cards come through wave solder and/or conformal coat.”

Slate’s responsibilities involve ensuring that all processes are up-to-date, correct and clear for an operator to follow. He says, “I assist in improving the efficiency and quality of work we put out, which includes the upgrading of equipment for cost savings and reduced environmental impact.” Slate was credited with a 67 percent reduction in volatile organic compound emissions for a new coating machine installation.

He is currently finishing the implementation of a new piece of equipment in a rework area for surface-mounted components. “This new machine allows for quicker turnaround in our process by improving the efficiency of our heating cycles. Its accuracy enables us to rework smaller components,” Slate explains. “I have helped to transition the equipment into manufacturing, develop all the necessary thermal profiles that vary from board to board, and design the stencils that we use to prepare the components to be placed onto the board.”

Born deaf due to an Rh incompatibility at birth, Slate attended the Learning Center for Deaf Children (Framingham, MA) through sixth grade. He says the experience there was very valuable, as it gave him a solid foundation for his identity as a deaf person and enabled him to develop social skills.

In seventh grade Slate transferred to a mainstream program in the public school system, which had a sizable deaf population. In high school he began playing soccer as a goalie on his varsity team. Later he had the opportunity to travel to Rome, Italy and Australia to represent the U.S. in the 2001 and 2005 Deaflympics.

He also became involved with the human rights board of Newton, Massachusetts. In 2000, Slate received the City of Newton Human Rights Award for his outreach on the challenges of accepting diversity and differences.

Slate attended Rochester Institute of Technology (Rochester, NY) and received a bachelors in industrial and systems engineering in 2005. In 2006 he earned his masters there in engineering management.

During college he had the opportunity to co-op as an industrial engineer at Walt Disney World (Orlando, FL), a quality engineer at Spaulding Rehabilitation Hospital (Boston, MA), and a process engineer at Axcelis (Beverley, MA). “All of these work experiences helped me better prepare for my current position at Raytheon,” Slate says. “I learned the importance of team work, communication skills, meeting deadlines, and thinking out of the box.

“Raytheon has been wonderful about accepting me as a deaf individual. Within my first two weeks here the company installed a videophone at my desk that allows me to make phone calls using an interpreter who appears on the computer monitor,” Slate says. “There’s also an intranet instant messaging system that everyone has access to, and interpreters are available to me for meetings. Currently there is an initiative to caption live events or webcasts.”

Among Slate’s co-workers, his deafness is really a non-issue. “Initially it was a learning experience, but now they all know to maintain eye contact when speaking to me. And if I miss something, they are always patient in ensuring that I understand what is going on,” he says. “But sometimes other engineers or floor personnel tell me they’ll call and leave me a voicemail. It has become a running joke; all they need is a gentle reminder and they e-mail me instead.”

Slate credits his parents with his career success. “My parents have been there for me every step of the way. They never allowed me to think that my disability was a hindrance or use it as an excuse.”

To disabled engineers interested in pursuing a similar career path, he says, “You have to know who you are. There are some things you can control and some things you can’t. Your disability will always be there; it’s up to you to accept it and deal with it. The more you accept it as part of who you are, the more you can determine how best to succeed in the workplace.”

Emanuel Lin works on router software at Cisco

In September 2007 Emanuel Lin joined Cisco (San Jose, CA) as a software engineer. He works on programs and implementations and develops software-related features for various routers. Lin generally collaborates with co-workers in his group and other groups as well.

Lin was born in Southern California and has cerebral palsy. As a kid he loved electronics. His father worked for an aerospace company and encouraged his interest in all kinds of technology. His mother is a former teacher.

In 2005 he graduated from UCLA with a BSCS. In 2007 he earned a masters, also in CS.

His degrees directly relate to his current job at Cisco, where he benefits from on-the-job accommodations for his disability. “I can use a regular computer or laptop and mouse, but for typing documents I use Dragon Naturally Speaking, which types whatever I dictate.

“Even though I have certain physical limitations, I am able to do the same job that anyone else does. I may need extra time to finish a task, but I always finish it,” Lin says. “Cisco is very understanding of the needs of a disabled individual. My manager and my group are great and we all work well together.”

At a youth leadership forum in Sacramento, Lin learned a lesson about not allowing his disability to hold him back. One of the forum’s speakers told the group, “Whether you have a physical or speech limitation, there are technologies available to you and people out there who are willing to work with you.”

Lin strongly believes that companies should never hold back on hiring people who are disabled. “Cisco is good about considering qualified candidates with disabilities. Many of us are very capable of excelling in the workforce if given the chance.”

D/C

Angela M. Hutchinson is a freelance writer based in Los Angeles.

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