A Small Show of Advocacy by Deborah F. Titus
One of my responsibilities as an IEC advocate is to keep my eyes open to how the needs of people with disabilities might be unintenionally overlooked in “mainstream” publications.
For example, I was reviewing the “Job Seeker Survival Guide” published by The Employment Guide, and noticed that no mention was made about how to “survive” a job hunt if you are hearing impaired. What did I do? I wrote them and mentioned their oversight. Their way of handling my input, could have taken any number of forms. However, they responded quite positively, and for that I must give them high regard.I first wrote to the general Manager. He then forwarded my questions to the Marketing Department of their publication. The Director of Marketing thanked me and asked for more specific information, to be used in future publications.
In other words, my initial contact was not ignored, but taken seriously. We have to keep pointing out people’s oversights rather than just assuming someone else would do it…some day.
If you need assistance with an advocacy issue, contact us! We will point you in the right direction!
From Summer 2007 Newsletter
Volume 2, Issue 3
