Seattle Now: The disabled community was way ahead on the WFH thing

It took a pandemic, but America finally did what people with disabilities had been asking for for years and shifted to remote work. Now as we’re trying to figure out how remote we’re going to stay, we’ll hear what working remotely has meant for two Seattlelites with disabilities.

SPEAKERS: Kaley Dugger, Jae Kim, Paige Browning

Paige Browning: Hey, good morning. It's Paige Browning in for Patricia Murphy. It's Wednesday. This is Seattle Now. It took a pandemic, but America finally did what people with disabilities had been asking for for years and shifted to remote work.

Kaley Dugger: The transition to being virtual, enabled so many disabled people to access spaces they-- they never used to be able to access.

Paige Browning: Now as we're trying to figure out how remote we're going to stay well here just what it's meant from two Seattleites Jae Kim and Kaley Dugger. But first let's get you caught up.

The excessive heat has been dangerous and now health officials say it's led to drowning deaths. Eight people in the King County area have died from drowning in the past two weeks. This week specifically a woman on Vashon Island and a man in Kirkland died. The exact causes are not known. And heatstroke and other illnesses have sent way more people than normal to the hospital. King County ERs saw 223 people for heat illnesses on Monday before that the daily high was nine people. How to know if someone has heatstroke, throbbing headache, confusion, vomiting, and they might have stopped sweating.

It's grand reopening day in Washington the Coronavirus related restrictions are gone, businesses can go back to full capacity, and people can hold big events just in time for wedding season. It's been a long road here, 15 months since we locked down and we're among the last states in the country to reopen. A couple things are still in place like crowd limits at events above 10,000 unless they're asking for proof of vaccination, and people who are not vaccinated are still urged to mask up indoors.

The Mariners will celebrate the reopening Friday with a fully open ballpark. And speaking of the Ms one of their pitchers is appealing a 10 game suspension after being caught with a foreign substance on his glove. Umpires say Hector Santiago had a sticky substance to help with grip and that's off limits as of this season. Santiago says he didn't use any banned substances, but that call will be made in New York where his glove was sent for inspection. If the suspension stands, the Ms will be down a pitcher until July 9.

Paige Browning: Working from home has been a necessity for most workplaces to hold back the Coronavirus as much as possible. But there's been an argument about its necessity for years before as an option for people with physical and intellectual disabilities. My guest today will give us insight into what this past year has been like from that lens. I'm joined by Kaley Dugger and Jae Kim from The Arc of King County, which serves people with developmental and intellectual disabilities. And a note before we start, Jae speaks through an augmentative and alternative communication device, it synthesizes speech through text, you'll be hearing her through that. Hi, Jae and Kaley.

Jae Kim: Hi.

Kaley Dugger: Hi, thank you so much for having us.

Paige Browning: So let's start here. Have you both been working remotely 100%. During the pandemic?

Jae Kim: I have been fully working from home and it is really accessible to me.

Kaley Dugger: So I've been 100% remote for most of the last year and only recently started going in to the office about one day a week.

Paige Browning: What was it 12...14 months ago when remote work really started happening? What were you thinking when I know that having more accessibility has been something that the disability community has asked for?

Kaley Dugger: I was really nervous at first to even ask my employer, if I could start working from home, I actually was not working for the ark at the time. And I was very anxious about asking. And it was kind of at the very beginning of when things were starting to be shut down. But I just decided that I no longer felt safe. So I did ask and was approved. It seemed like very quickly. That was what everyone was doing. And that felt good. It felt like I'm not just making this too big of a deal. Everyone needs this to stay safe. But I know that it's been extremely difficult for many in our community to feel like as soon as non disabled people need this accommodation and it is an accommodation. I mean switching to virtual learning and virtual work is an accommodation that disabled people have asked for for so long and often, you know lost employment opportunities because of it. And for it to just quickly be granted to everyone is frustrating, but at the same time it's a testament to the fact that accessibility for the disability community is also beneficial for everyone.

Paige Browning: Working remotely online events. It's not a new concept. For .. for any of us, especially members of the disabled community, can you give some examples of the growing pains of all of a sudden going fully remote.

Jae Kim: I have worked from home sometimes before COVID, but we didn't have Zoom meetings. So I needed to get used to typing whole sentences. We never had virtual meetings or training. So I sort of needed to figure out how to communicate effectively figuring out how to notify people when I have something to say, because I can't just notify a person who is next to me. And we never had a virtual support group for people with disabilities. So I needed to figure out how we can make it accessible to everyone. It has been hard because we are limited on how much of stuff we can do over Zoom.

Kaley Dugger: Like Jae said, there's so much to think about with accessibility and at the arc, that's what we're always trying to focus on it with our events and prioritize. So suddenly, there are all these these new issues popping up. And, and it's a real learning process. It's a real learning curve.

Paige Browning: What has been made harder during the pandemic?

Kaley Dugger: For me, what's been the hardest is not being in person with people because being with someone through a screen is just not the same. And even, you know, those sort of small interactions with people small talk in the elevator, whatever those I think are more important than I realized back when we actually had them. I never thought of myself as someone who even liked small talk, but you realize when the only person you speak to in person is the people you live with, and I live with one person. So it started to feel quite isolating to --to not have that,

Paige Browning: How about you Jae?

Jae Kim: I miss going in the office where I talk to my co workers about my nagging mom, of course, they are my co workers and I have a professional balance with them. But talking to them helps me emotionally since they understand me, I tell them almost about anything. Making long term friendships is very challenging because of my disabilities. So I talk a lot when I am in the office, and being in the office allows me to be away from mom, which is what I love.

Paige Browning: That's awesome. Everyone's really been adjusting to remote work. Can you give some examples of ways that those calls and meetings have been helpful to people in the disability community?

Jae Kim: Now I just yell at my mom when I need help. I don't have to worry about scheduling with my caregiver for transportation. Now I just click a link while sitting at home. I do miss having my coworkers guess what I'm saying? They usually stand there. And guess what I'm saying after I type a few letters on my communication device, it is a lot faster and saves my energy. Nowadays, it makes me practice my spelling skill.

Paige Browning: Hmm, Yep, absolutely, not the maybe shorthand you would do with colleagues before.

Kaley Dugger: For me, it's been helpful to just not have to even leave my house for a lot of events. I in the past year, I think I've attended so many more events, just because they've been online. In the past, if I wanted to go to an event on anything, I would have to plan how to get there and is it accessible? And I would have to worry about so many things. Whereas now it's just as simple as opening my computer and clicking a Zoom link. So it's become a lot easier to even attend these things. At the same time for a lot of people, it's not that accessible. For some people with disabilities, virtual environments are not accessible at all they really need in person supports in order to be included,

Paige Browning: What has been empowering and made easier for you during the pandemic?

Kaley Dugger: There's this this new concept of anonymity for me in that I really have the choice of whether or not I disclose my disability. Some people have invisible disabilities, and some people have visible disabilities. And mine as a wheelchair user has always been very visible in that, you know, people can see my wheelchair and they often feel sort of entitled to ask me questions about it and of course have base impressions of me off of it. So having that choice of of people on the other side of the screen, not necessarily knowing that I'm wheelchair user is kind of beeen- it's been empowering. I mean, I'm pretty open about it. But it's been empowering to know that I have that choice. That and I didn't have it before. For a lot of people, especially people with invisible disabilities. I think it's been quite difficult to -- I mean, it is always difficult for people with --- with invisible disabilities to get accommodations because people often don't believe that they really need the support they claim to need. And I imagine it's even more difficult with a virtual environment because your needs are happening at home rather than in the workplace or at school. I know it is with school, often a barrier where your needs, your accessibility needs are happening at home, but it's during the virtual learning or virtual work environment. So you still need those things. But it's that much harder to convince those in power that you need those things because they're not seeing it.

Paige Browning: Jae, let's bring you in, I'd love to hear from you. What's been easier, what's been harder?

Jae Kim: People usually baby talk to me because they think I'm a child. They see my disability instead of seeing me as a person, or people usually don't talk directly to me. They speak to people around me like my caregiver or coworkers. People don't take time to understand my communication device and just assume I cannot communicate. This makes me feel like I'm an invisible person. It is like I am there, but I'm not. Those things still occur virtually when people realize I have a disability. Now people try to unmute me and ask me to talk. They don't give me time to type my message. And they think I have a technical issue. When I tell them I am nonverbal. They also assume I need an ASL interpreter or caption. People think when you are nonverbal, you also are deaf.

Paige Browning: Um hum, Wow. Yeah. Thank you for that. That's I’m not I’m not sure what to say. Our systems are set up in such a way that any pauses any accommodations have not been built into the systems that we have, and even in the pandemic, I'm learning from you. It's, everything's not fixed. Because we're virtual and not needing to navigate the world. Are there things about the pandemic that you hope will stay in place? Jae,

Jae Kim: I hope to work from home some days, and in the office, some days. My mask keeps falling down. So it's nice to not have to wear it.

Kaley Dugger: I hope to continue to work virtually, at least a couple days a week, because it has simplified so much for me and made my stressors of around accessibility so reduced. And it's just been a lesson and that you don't actually need to go to the office to do your job. We've done so many fantastic events at the ark that have been Smash Hits just sitting in our homes, you know, you don't always need to be in person. But that being said, I appreciate the opportunity to also do in person. I also plan on continuing to wear a mask, especially during cold and flu season. I think that's genius as an immunocompromised person, I have always had to be careful. But I didn't use to wear masks and now it's something I'm going to continue doing and come the winter months, it's going to be a lot less safe for me when it comes to doing, you know, being in indoors. And so I see myself really being careful and having to take precautions for a long time. Just like a lot of people with disabilities have to.

Paige Browning: I've been speaking with Kaley Dugger and Jae Kim who work at The Arc of King County. Thank you both so much for your time.

Kaley Dugger: Thank you so much for having us.

Paige Browning: Here's another question I've got to know. So app leisure is a thing now How has your clothing changed because of remote work?

Kaley Dugger: I haven't even thought about clothing as an accessibility thing. But that's actually a really good point. It can be difficult to get dressed for many disabled people, especially in pants with lots of buttons and things like that. It's been a breeze for me to just wear pajamas and you know, maybe a professional shirt when I have a Zoom call.

Paige Browning: How about you Jae?

Jae Kim: I only change my tops.

Paige Browning: Thanks for listening to Seattle now. Hey, we started using our Instagram account again. You can keep up with us there at Seattle underscore now. Diana Opong produced today's show. Our production team is Caroline Chamberlain Gomez Claire McGrane and Jason piano. Matt Jorgensen does our theme music. I'm Paige Browning, Patricia Murphy will be back tomorrow.

Guests: Kaley Dugger & Jae Kim with The Arc of King County