Running Head: Accessible Chinatown- Hiring people with Disabilities

Accessible Chinatown: Softening the Market Towards Hiring People with Disabilities William McKeever University of Illinois at Chicago Spring 2012

Accessible Chinatown: Hiring People with Disabilities Accessible Chinatown: Softening the Asian Market Towards Hiring People with Disabilities Abstract The stigma associated with disability can hinder the employment of a disabled individual in ways that are often completely irrelevant to the disability itself. The stigma may be magnified in some collectivistic Asian cultures that are vulnerable to being societally stigmatized at a family lineage level through their relation to a family member who is disabled. This stigma of association has made attempts to educate Asian American business owners on the benefits of hiring people with disabilities very difficult. A Chinatown task force meeting of the Asians with Disabilities Outreach Project Think-tank (ADOPT) noticed that the Chinatown Chamber of Commerce maps were missing the universal symbols showing customers which shops are accessible for people with disabilities. In fact, it was found that such signs of disability were nowhere to be seen anywhere in Chinatown. This began the Accessible Chinatown Project. In an effort to soften the Chinatown market towards hiring people with disabilities, three trips were made to Chinatown asking Chinese American business owners to hang a sign in their shops welcoming people with disabilities and offering assistance in exchange for free advertising on our web site www.accessiblechinatown.org. An accessibility sign from the American Disabilities Act was translated into Chinese. Special Accessibility Sticks were created to measure the doorways, steps, aisles and table heights of the shops. Those shops deemed accessible and willing to participate were given an accessibility sign to hang in their window. We met with much resistance but in total, 20 signs were successfully hung throughout old and new Chinatown creating images of disability where none previously existed. Our hope is that seeing 20 shops acknowledging people with disabilities as viable customers will open a door to shop owners eventually viewing them as viable employees.

Introduction In the 2007, it was estimated that of working age Asian Americans living in Illinois, approximately 10.3% are living with some form of disability. Asian Americans represent 5.25% of the total U.S. population and 5.8% of them live in Chicago and its neighboring suburbs. Of

Accessible Chinatown: Hiring People with Disabilities these, approximately 15% are living with a disability (US Census, 2010). Gaining employment proves to be very challenging for this marginalized group. Of those living with a disability, it is estimated that 4.1% are of working age; yet only 1.09% are making use of the Vocational Rehabilitation options that are meant to serve them. Part of the difficulty lies with the Vocational Rehabilitation System itself and its shortcomings in meeting the many needs of this community. The other part of the problem lies within the business community, particularly within Asian American businesses. The stigma attached to being disabled has created a cold reception to the idea of hiring a person with disabilities. In fact, if one walks through Chicagos Chinatown district, disability is almost completely absent. There are no symbols for handicap accessibility on the windows of stores. They are even absent from the Chamber of Commerce maps. The Accessible Chinatown Project was designed to initiate the process of warming the market of Asian American business owners to the idea of hiring a person with disabilities by placing images of disability in their store windows in exchange for free advertising on our site accessiblechinatown.org. The process of approaching shop owners in Chinatown revealed much into he deeply rooted cultural stigmas placed upon the concept of disability. Despite this stigma, 20 signs were successfully hung. Today, one cannot walk through any main part of Chinatown without encountering these welcome images of disability. Disability Defined Disability is very broad as it encompasses almost any deviancy from the norm. When one speaks of disability, they could be referencing anything from mental disability (clinical depression, schizophrenia, addictions), to physical disability (loss of limbs, vision, hearing, touch, and nervous disorders such as Tourettes Syndrome), or learning and cognitive disabilities (Henry & Brewer, 2004-2011). The World Health Organization defines disability as any

Accessible Chinatown: Hiring People with Disabilities restriction or lack of ability resulting from impairment to perform an activity in the manner, or within the range considered normal for a human being (Daudji et al.). Most of us have things we do well and things we are less capable of doing well. So it is difficult to find the line one must cross in their lack of ability where they may be considered disabled. Concepts such as normal are often in the eyes of the beholder. Asian defined The term Asian is also a very broad term. It encompasses many different countries and languages. For the purposes of this paper, in discussing issues related to Asian Americans, we will use the broader United Nations definition of Asian to include 48 countries and hundreds of languages (Appendix A). The Stigma of Disability The most afflictive issue surrounding living with a disability is often the stigma associated with it. People with disabilities are often ostracized from full participation in lifes chances and rewards despite the many things they may do well. This can be especially difficult when a disabled person seeks employment. While research has shown disability to evoke both negative and positive reactions from potential employers, one thing is clear. It is not the person that is being assessed, but their disability. Depending on the disability in question, employers may assume many different stereotypes. According to an experiment performed by Collela, DeNisi and Varma (1998), in the face of hiring an employee with disability, a manager may be inclined to give the person a chance. This only occurs, however, when no money is at stake. Once a cash reward is at stake, someone in a position to hire changes their assessment to one more dubious of the potential employees capabilities. Suddenly the potential employer cannot see how the person with the

Accessible Chinatown: Hiring People with Disabilities disability could be the right fit for any position, even positions in which the disability would not logically limit the persons ability to perform the task. Collela DeNisi and Varma (1997) reviewed 13 studies regarding the employers assessments of people with disabilities. They found evidence of negative bias in 10 out of the 13 studies. They categorized the stereotypes and beliefs responsible for the bias into 3 different categories. The first category was made up of Disability-job fit stereotypes. Employers harbor strong opinions about what a person with disability can and cannot do. This is rarely based on any formal or personal research. For example, many people think someone with cerebral palsy would be incapable of operating a cash register, but this turns out not to be the case. Such blind assumptions cost the disabled community their rights to meaningful employment. The second category of stereotype was stereotypes associated with disability. Employers make assumptions about a candidates personality based solely upon the disability they carry. One may assume all people in wheelchairs to be humble or have low self-esteem, when this is frequently not the case. They may assume a person with a history of mental disorder to be unstable or even dangerous completely ignoring the fact that there are many different kinds and degrees of mental disorder that may or may not affect job performance. The third category of stereotype is stereotypes related to perceived similarity between rater and ratee. Many people believe that they are living in a just world where success is given to those who deserve it and rewards are removed from people who have done wrong in some way. In this manner they are able to assuage their fears of something going wrong in their own life. An employer who ascribed to the just world viewpoint would therefore be highly motivated to feel a person with a disability was nothing like them because, if they were, that would imply that they are also vulnerable to such

Accessible Chinatown: Hiring People with Disabilities misfortunes. This provides a strong incentive to view the disabled as outsiders and can deter an employee from hiring them. Shier, Graham and Jones (2009) identify discrimination and labeling as the main employment hurdles faced by people with disabilities. Despite the multifarious types and degree of disability an employer may encounter, the disabled community often becomes homogenized. One negative past experience with a disabled employee becomes generalized to all future hires in the mind of the employer. Even more disturbing is the fact that, once a person reveals a disability, it becomes like a master trait having the power to automatically negate every other qualification on their resume. An example is given in their article of a man who successfully managed a company for 15 years. Then one year the company decided to do some basic skills testing and it was discovered that he had a learning disability that made him illiterate. He was fired shortly after. His disability had never been an issue in running the company, but the stigma attached to not being able to read was enough to invalidate 15 years of proof that he could handle the job. Based on this evidence, Shier, Graham and Jones suggest that social policy be directed toward educating employers on the true situations of the disabled community. If public perception is creating a hurdle for employment, then perception must be challenged. According to article by Scheid (2005), one of the most stigmatized category of disabilities is psychiatric disability. According to Scheid, the degree of social acceptance or stigma present in the work environment determines the barrier to employment for a mentally disabled people. Mental disability, like other disabilities tends to override all other credentials and personality traits a disabled employee may have. Based upon his research, Scheid states that exposure to recurrent stigma creates a level of stress in the employee that creates a self-fulfilling prophecy where the employee is set up to fail. Scheid claims that it is the stigma and not the

Accessible Chinatown: Hiring People with Disabilities psychiatric condition that is responsible for the negative outcomes on the job. While it is true that psychiatric disorders may impair job performance, it is also known that work improves many psychiatric conditions through fostering self-esteem, and lightening financial stress. The intense stigma associated with mental disabilities puts potential employees in a difficult position. If they reveal their metal disorder, they will be defined by it and stigmatized. If they do not reveal their disorder, they do not benefit from the governmental protections against discrimination that have been put in place (Scheid, 2005). According to Schneid and Anderson (1995), many employees with psychiatric disorders are able to work even when they are in emotional distress providing they are working in a supportive environment under a boss that understands their condition and makes allowances to accommodate them. Disability and Stigma in the Asian American Community The stigma associated with disability is often magnified in Asian cultures. Confucian viewpoints prominent in traditional Chinese culture place a strong emphasis being in harmony with nature and the environment. It seems there is no place for people with disabilities in this view of life. People with disabilities are viewed as aberrations of nature, out of sync with natural life (J.E. Larson et al, 2009). In this paradigm, the disabled person becomes a source of imbalance, a blight upon society. According to Miles, (1981) stigma may be defined as a societal reaction which singles out certain attributes, evaluates them as undesirable, and devalues the person who possesses them. The disabled person living in a collectivistic Asian culture carries not only the weight of their personal stigma, but the guilt of their condition bringing down the reputation of their entire family. In Chinese culture, a disability not only shames the afflicted person, but their entire family lineage extending to the distant past and future (Larson et al., 2009). It implies some great failure or inferiority on the part of the parents and ancestors.

Accessible Chinatown: Hiring People with Disabilities This leads many Asian families to conceal their disabled relatives. This is unfortunate as contact with people is not only important to the self esteem of the disabled, but also one of the most effective ways to dispel myths about disability. In fact, employment has been found to be the best predictor of recovery and social integration for people with mental disabilities. Also, because families feel the need to hide their disabled, they lose their voice in society. This negatively affects their ability to influence social policy and improve their condition (Tsang, Tam, Chan & Chung). The taboo nature of disability in China has led to a tremendous degree of societal ignorance and a deep lack of compassion regarding the circumstances surrounding disability. For example, Tsang et al. surveyed Hong Kong schools to discover their understanding on disability. They found that 12% of students believed that childrens mental illness was caused by parental misbehavior; 21.2% were undecided. 30% were unaware that it was possible to have parents who were mentally disabled and not become disabled yourself. In fact, 44.2% believed that if a parent was mentally disabled, their children should never be allowed to hold a job where they carry a gun. Just a little less than half believed that elderly homes should not accept people who have a history of mental disorders. 21.8% would not grant a job interview to someone with a history of mental disability. While 83.3% admitted to understanding the adverse effects associated with alienating and isolating people with mental disabilities, only 60% considered such alienation unacceptable. Perhaps most shocking was that only one fourth of participants said they would be willing to help a person with mental disabilities adapt to the workplace. More than a quarter of respondents listed that they felt mentally disabled people were dangerous no matter what. With such a negative view of disability and collectivistic ideologies in place, many Asians are often hesitant to even admit a connection of any kind to a person with a disability. It

Accessible Chinatown: Hiring People with Disabilities has been found that employers who admit to having experiences to a specific type of disability are less likely to discriminate against that specific disability. It is also known that the degree of experience they are willing to admit to (familial, acquaintance, or none at all) informs the level of discrimination exhibited by an employer. J.E. Larson et al. (2009) interviewed employers from the United States, Hong Kong, and Beijing to test the difference between the level of experience disability employers were willing to admit to in an interview. In the United States many employers admitted to having disabled family members. In Beijing, they would only admit to having acquaintances, and in Hong Kong no one would admit to having any experience with people with disabilities. This study confirms the magnified stigma associated with disability in some Asian cultures. Despite many changes made to help improve the conditions of those living with disabilities, employment continues to be a problem. In the 1980s, Canada made a major shift in its view on disability. Up until then, they had held a very individualistic view on the matter; focused on providing translational tools and assistive technology to help the disabled fend for themselves. This model switched to a more socio-political model that worked with adjusting the external societal factors that they felt were inhibiting the success of the disabled community. They made adjustments to their transportation system as well as recreation and shelter facilities, but in regard to employment, things remained very individualistic. The Canada Human Rights Commision is responsible for ensuring compliance with the Employment Equity Act. In 2005, 50% of the discrimination complaints they received were based on disability (Shier, Graham, & Jones, 2009). The Americans with Disabilities Act

Accessible Chinatown: Hiring People with Disabilities In 1991 the U.S. Congress passed the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) making it illegal to act with bias against people living with disabilities. According to section 102 of the ADA: No covered organization shall discriminate against a qualified individual with a disability because of the disability of such individual in regard to job application procedures, the hiring advancement, or discharge of employees, employee compensation, job training, and other terms, conditions, and privileges of employment (Colella, DeNisi, & Varma, 1997). For the first time in history, the employers were federally mandated to stop their discrimination against people with disabilities. Any employer with 15 employers or more was expected to make reasonable accommodations as outlined by the ADA so that people with disabilities could both patronize and be employed by their establishments except in cases where doing so would cause undo hardship (Scheid 2005). Unfortunately, the ADA has barely been enforced and many businesses have chosen to ignore it without consequence. In a study by Scheid (2005), 117 businesses in major metropolitan cities were interviewed to determine their compliance with the ADA. It was found that of 117, only 15.4% had a specific policy for hiring people with disabilities. When questioned about what sorts of jobs in which they felt they could place someone with a disability, all the jobs mentioned were low level jobs requiring minimal skill. They were clerical or kitchen jobs, housekeeping or menial labor. Employers said they would avoid placing a disabled person in a job that required high levels of customer interaction or that involved decision-making. They felt that managerial positions were unsuitable for people living with disabilities. Changing the viewpoint of a nation requires more than a change in policy. It requires a hands-on effort to

Accessible Chinatown: Hiring People with Disabilities expose the truth about the needless disparity that exists for people living with disabilities. The Asians with Disabilities Outreach Project Think-tank is one organization attempts to do just that. Asians with Disabilities Outreach Project Think-tank (ADOPT) My work with assisting the community of Asian Americans with disabilities began with the ADOPT project. ADOPT was an 18 month project funded through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act that ended on June 18, 2011. The goals of ADOPT were to create policy change at the Division of Rehabilitation Services (DRS) as well as to help Asian American business owners come to understand the benefits of hiring people with disabilities. ADOPT attempted to address the disparity in service provision at the DRS for Asian Americans with disabilities. They worked to shine a light on the complexity of navigating the DRS system as well as the general lack of capable translators. The Asian community encompasses hundreds of languages. The DRS has one Asian translator who can only speak Mandarin. This leaves Korean, Nepalese, Vietnamese, and hundreds of other nationalities unattended to. The locations of the DRS offices are nowhere near the communities of Chicago where dense populations of Asians live making it difficult and sometimes expensive for them to travel to a DRS office. Once they get there, the process of receiving assistance is either very difficult, or completely unproductive (Hasnain et al., 2011). ADOPT created a toolkit for DRS policy change to help bring these inadequacies to light. ADOPT had a secondary intention of helping businesses come to understand the many benefits of hiring people with disabilities. Considering Asian American-owned businesses would be more likely to speak the various languages of Asian Americans with disabilities, they decided to place their focus showing them why they should consider hiring disabled employees. A list was compiled of Asian American businesses and these businesses were contacted to attend a free

Accessible Chinatown: Hiring People with Disabilities educational seminar on the federal incentives available for hiring a person with disabilities. They met with much resistance from the businesses they contacted and the seminar was only sparsely attended. A task force of the executive directors of some of Chicagos largest Asian human services organizations was meeting regularly to discuss the issue. They were finding that Chinatown business owners were unwilling to hear them out or attend any of their informational sessions. During one of these meetings, one of the members commented that the Chinatown Chamber of Commerce map had no symbols on it designating which shops were accessible for people living with disabilities. As I looked around Chinatown, I became aware that there were no images of disability anywhere. I thought this might be a more appropriate place to begin initiating change and so I created Accessible Chinatown; a project geared towards placing images of disability around Chinatown. The idea was that if businesses saw other businesses slowing beginning to view the disabled population as worthy of their consideration, it would soften the market in a way that might someday make them willing to consider hiring a person with a disability. Accessible Chinatown The goal of the Accessible Chinatown Project was simple; increase the visibility of disability in Chicagos Chinatown. There are two main areas of commerce in Chinatown. One area begins at Cermak and Wentworth Ave and continues several blocks down to the train tracks. This is Old Chinatown. The new Chinatown sits just adjacent to it in a dual level structure called Chinatown Square.

Accessible Chinatown: Hiring People with Disabilities

The Accessible Chinatown Project was carried out by entering the various gift shops, restaurants and grocery stores and assessing them for accessibility. Those that were found to be accessible were asked to hang a sign in their window displaying their willingness to welcome and assist customers with disabilities in exchange for free advertising on our web site, AccessibleChinatown.org. The places we visited were given a sheet (Appendix B) letting them know either that they were found to be accessible or what they could do to become accessible. What Constitutes Accessibility? Making a business accessible to customers with special needs is usually easier than one might think. Often it is just a few minor changes to how one is already doing business.

Accessible Chinatown: Hiring People with Disabilities 1. The entrance needs to wheelchair accessible. This means that the entrance to the shop must be at least 32 inches wide and must not have a step up that would deter someone in a wheel chair from entering. Usually, a step up can be resolved by purchasing a portable ramp that can be placed as needed when customers in wheelchairs are present. This option is possible as long as the step up is less than one foot high.

2. People in wheelchairs need to be able to make their way through all the aisles of the business. Therefore all aisles must be no less than 3 feet wide and the floor must be clear of obstructions.

3. Restaurant tables must be between 28-34 inches high to accommodate the general height of wheelchairs. Most restaurants will find they already meet this criterion.

4. Employees must be prepared to accommodate deaf or blind customers by writing down their communications when needed, and assisting these customers in finding the items they have come to purchase. This involves the willingness of an employer to educate their staff on the special needs of these customers

5. Restaurants that make restrooms accessible to their customers must provide an accessible entrance to their bathroom for those in a wheelchair as well. Again, this means the doorway to the restroom must be 32 inches wide and must not involve a step up to enter it.

Accessible Chinatown: Hiring People with Disabilities

These are the basic issues that Accessible Chinatown sought to address in their assessment of the Chinatown shops. There are many more ways to increase a stores ability to assist those living with disabilities but I felt these were the key necessities. The Accessibility Stick Specialized measuring sticks were fashioned out of wood to carry around and measure the height of tables and steps up into the store as well as the width of doors and aisles. The whole stick is three feet long, the amount of width needed between aisles for a wheelchair to comfortably navigate. The area from the bottom of the stick to the red line represents the minimum possible width of the entrance to the building that is still compliant with ADA rules (32 inches). The area from the bottom of the stick up to the first green line represents one foot. Any step up into the store within one foot in height can be accommodated by a portable ramp and still allow a person in a wheelchair to wheel themselves up the ramp unassisted. The broad spread of green at the top of the stick represents the range of heights that a restaurant table may be and still be considered accessible to someone in a wheelchair. The Sign

Accessible Chinatown: Hiring People with Disabilities The Accessibility sign was based off the standard ADA design and translated into Chinese. The phrase we attempted to translate was, If you need assistance, please ask. Based on feedback from Chinese readers, the literal translation of this did not sound right. Therefore, the literal translation of the Chinese on our sign reads, If you need assistance, please inquire the management. Assembling the Team Four students assisted me in my excursions to Chinatown. I found that the people I brought with me were a key factor in determining the kind of reception I received from the shops we visited. Two of the students were culled from a talk I gave at a community engagement task force meeting held by Dr. Rooshey Hasnain. Both were of Asian descent, a Thai woman and a Vietnamese man. Being Caucasian myself, I thought it would be helpful if we brought people with features and cultures more similar to the shop owners we would be visiting. I culled the two other students from a talk I gave with Dr. Hasnain to an advanced university-level Chinese language class. From this I culled two women of Chinese descent who spoke some Mandarin, though they admitted their skill at speaking it was not far advanced. Our First Outing Our first outing to Chinatown sought to cover the shops on Wentworth avenue from Cermak to the start of the highway. This was a densely populated area of approximately four blocks. The team consisted of myself, and a Thai and Vietnamese volunteer from The University of Illinois at Chicagos Community Engagement Project task force. Dr. Rooshey Hasnain, a faculty community engagement mentor, later joined us.

Accessible Chinatown: Hiring People with Disabilities We began by presenting ourselves to the shop owners as Accessible Chinatown, a group attempting to reward stores for being accessible to people with disabilities by offering free advertising on our web site as well as offering advice on how to make their store more accessible. We met with a great deal of resistance from the shop owners. The first few shops we visited, even the ones that were already completely accessible had no interest in hanging our sign. We received comments such as, But we already get people in wheelchairs. They come into our store, they never buy anything and they break everything. A shop whose aisles were less than three feet wide made this comment. Other shop owners who were already accessible said that the people with disabilities know how to find them and they do not need to invite them in. There seemed to be a common theme that people with disabilities were problematic and that, while they couldnt keep them out of their store, they did not want to invite them in. The first shop that agreed to hang our sign did so after much convincing. This was a gift shop with wide aisles and a very accessible entrance. His concern was that the sign said to ask for assistance and he was worried that this meant he would have to wheel his customers around his shop. There was a common theme among the shops betraying a viewpoint that people with disabilities were somehow without competence. Another shop owner told us that she didnt need a sign. Parents bring their children with disabilities and wheel them around the store. We tried to explain to her that there is a whole world of people with disabilities who can take care of themselves and may have money to spend in her store. It was clear that her only exposure to

Accessible Chinatown: Hiring People with Disabilities disability was one in which people with disabilities were invalids, in need of constant care and societys pity. After much persuasion, she agreed to hang a sign, but the sign was removed from her window the next time we checked. Meeting with such resistance, we decided mid day to alter our approach. Instead of presenting ourselves as an organization, we would simply present ourselves as students making a list of places that are accessible to people with disabilities; a resource so that people with disabilities know where to come shop when they need things. We would then simply ask them if they wanted to be on that list. This changed everything. This seemed to be a much easier yes for most accessible shops. The moment they said yes, we said that all they needed to do was let us hang the sign in their window and we would add them to the list. While I was taking down their shop information for the directory, one of my team members would race to their window and hang the sign. While there was still an air of skepticism throughout most of our interactions, we were able to get 10 signs hung in Old Chinatown down Wentworth Ave. and they were fairly evenly distributed down the street. The Second Outing On our first outing there were several accessible shops that were unable to speak with us either because they were too busy or because the owner was not present. I decided to go by myself to see if I could hang some more signs. The outing was completely unproductive. Not a single sign was successfully hung. In fact the majority of people did not seem to understand what I was asking of them and they appeared very skeptical of me. In every instance they gave an almost immediate no. When I asked them why they were not interested, they just said No again. It seemed that when I was without my teammates of Asian descent, the language barriers were intensified even though neither of them spoke Chinese. At the end of this trip I visited New

Accessible Chinatown: Hiring People with Disabilities Chinatown in the Chinatown Square. I noticed that, while the upper level was not accessible at all, shops on the lower level were almost all completely accessible. I decided not to approach them until I could enter with my team members of Chinese descent. Our Third Outing My third outing took place with two Chinese American students. Between them they spoke some Mandarin and Schezuan. We decided to tackle the lower level of Chinatown Square. I could never have imagined what a difference it would make to have two people of Chinese descent helping me. The resistance to our presence was virtually gone. The places that were willing to hang the sign agreed to it almost immediately and even the places that were unwilling engaged in long comfortable conversations with us revealing much about their reasons for disinterest. The majority of shop owners did not speak Mandarin or Schezuan. They spoke Cantonese, so my teammates ability to communicate was slightly impeded but adequate. The fact that they were Chinese seemed to be the main difference. It removed all suspicion and created an opportunity for open dialogue. Despite the increased willingness to communicate, we did still observed a similar level of stigma towards people with disabilities. One restaurant that was completely accessible spoke with my teammates for about 10 minutes going back and forth on whether they were interested or not. At the end of the conversation, they declined saying that, When we get busy, we really cannot accommodate people with disabilities. And even when were not busy, we dont accommodate them. To observe the interaction, one would think they were having a very pleasant conversation with my teammates. There was no hint of apology or remorse. It was just

Accessible Chinatown: Hiring People with Disabilities assumed that my teammates would understand their view because their view represented the norm. Unlike the other two outings, many accessible shops expressed pride over being recognized for their accessibility. Some even bragged about it. One shop needed us to leave a sign to being given to the manager upon his return. The following day, he contacted me himself through the web site expressing his willingness to participate. As my teammates told people we were from University of Illinois at Chicago, they seemed to know exactly what that was, whereas on the other outings, it was completely disregarded. Reflections on the Project Accessible Chinatown represents a model that may be duplicated to address accessibility issues in other cultural centers of Chicago. The project has confirmed several points that will inform any future effort we make towards creating a more inclusive experience 1. It is absolutely essential to engage the community with team members from the target community. Accessible Chinatown was able to hang 20 signs in total throughout Old and New Chinatown. Had we started with a team of Chinese students, I have every reason to believe we would have been even more successful. 2. Deeply entrenched culturally specific stigmas exist against people with disabilities and there does not seem to be much guilt over expressing them. These stigmas must be discovered and understood before any real education or change can take place. 3. Language barriers often have more to do with distrust than with a true lack of language proficiency. When the community member feels comfortable with what is happening, their ability to communicate is suddenly present. Future Direction

Accessible Chinatown: Hiring People with Disabilities The view of disability displayed by the Chinese Americans in Chinatown was one of incompetence and uselessness. It is no surprise that they would be disinterested in hiring them. I think a necessary first step in showing them the value of the disabled population as potential employees would be to show them their value as potential customers. Chinatown needs to be exposed to the many competent, self-sufficient people with disabilities. I recommend that the disabled community utilize the compiled directory to reward the shops listed with their business. I recommend that people with disabilities take a few items off their grocery list once per month and make a trip to Chinatown to spend their money there. I would ask them to engage in pleasant conversations with the shop owners and let them get to know them as someone who contributes to the success of their business. We need to show the Chinatown businesses that the disabled community has value for them and I feel this needs to come in the form of showing them they are viable customers. Conclusion Igniting change is a slow process. People first need to recognize that change is necessary and this is a big hurdle. People with disabilities deserve the right equal access to lifes opportunities and to feel the success of forward movement and accomplishment in their lives. Igniting these changes requires a multidisciplinary approach. It requires policy makers to write changes into the laws. It requires grassroots activism to make the problems visible, translators to communicate the needs of those who cannot speak the language, and social service workers to help them find meaningful employment. All change takes time, but these changes are worth any effort. If we can dissolve the stigmas associated with disability, large numbers of people unfairly held back from participation in life will be given a chance to move and grow freely in this world. A person who is disabled in one area of life is not

Accessible Chinatown: Hiring People with Disabilities disabled in all areas of life. They have plenty to offer the workplace and should be valued as such. Disabled should not mean disqualified.

Accessible Chinatown: Hiring People with Disabilities Table of Appendices

Appendix A: The United Kingdoms Definition of Asia and the Associated Languages (Borrowed from the ADOPT Toolkit)

Appendix B: The Assessment Handout

Accessible Chinatown: Hiring People with Disabilities

Appendix A (Borrowed from The Adopt Toolkit, Hasnain et al.) Region Central Asia Country Kazakhstan Kyrgyzstan Tajikistan Turkmenistan Uzbekistan Eastern Asia China China, Hong Kong SAR China, Macao SAR Japan Mongolia Republic of Korea (South) Democratic Peoples Republic of Korea (North) Most Used Languages Kazakh, Russian Kyrgyz, Uzbek, Russian Tajik Turkmen, Russian Uzbek, Russian

Mandarin, Cantonese, English Cantonese, English, Mandarin Cantonese Eastern and Western Japanese Mongolian Korean Korean

Southern Asia

Afghanistan Bangladesh Bhutan India

Dari Persian, Pashto Bangla Dzongkha Hindi, English, Nepali

Accessible Chinatown: Hiring People with Disabilities Islamic Republic of Iran Maldives Nepal Pakistan Sri Lanka South-Eastern Asia Brunei Darussalam Cambodia Indonesia Lao Peoples Republic Malaysia Myanmar Philippines Singapore Thailand Timor-Leste Vietnam Western Asia Armenia Azerbaijan Bahrain Cyprus Georgia Iraq Israel Persian Dhivehi (Mahl) Nepali Urdu, English Sinhala, Tamil Malay Khmer Indonesian, Javanese, English Lao, ASEAN, English Malay Burmese, Jingpho, English Tagalog (Filipino), English, Bikol Malay, Mandarin Chinese, Tamil Thai Tetum, Portuguese, Indonesian, English Vietnam Armenian, Russian Azerbaijani Arabic Greek, Turkish Georgian, Russian Arabic, Kurdish, Syriac Hebrew, Arabic, English

Accessible Chinatown: Hiring People with Disabilities Jordan Kuwait Lebanon Occupied Palestine Oman Qatar Saudi Arabia Syrian Arab Republic Turkey United Arab Emirates Yemen Arabic Arabic Arabic, French, English Palestinian Arabic Arabic Arabic Arabic Syrian (Arabic) Turkish, English Arabic Arabic

Accessible Chinatown: Hiring People with Disabilities

Appendix B The Assessment Handout

We are Accessible Chinatown

www.AccessibleChinatown.org
Dear Chinatown Business Owner, Accessible Chinatown is an initiative designed to bridge the gap between Chinatown business owners and their potential customers who are living with disabilities. Members of the initiative visit businesses to assess their level of accessibility to customers with special needs. These include customers who may be in wheelchairs, those who are deaf or blind, or any other number of possible disabilities. Businesses that are found to be accessible to customers with disabilities will be given free advertising in the Chinatown Directory on AccessibleChinatown.org and a sign to hang in their window to let customers with disabilities know they are ready to receive their business. Those who are not found to be completely accessible will be offered suggestions on how to become accessible. Often, this is a matter of making just a few small changes. Once these changes are made, these businesses will also receive free advertising for their business on AccessibleChinatown.org and a sign for their window. We have been to your business and we have checked the changes below that we feel you might need to make in order to be fully accessible to meet the needs of customers living with disabilities. Your entrance needs to wheelchair accessible. This means that the entrance to your shop must be at least 32 inches wide and must not have a step up that would deter someone in a wheel chair from entering. Usually, a step up can be accommodated by purchasing a portable ramp that can be brought out as needed when customers in wheelchairs are present. This option is possible as long as the step is less than one foot high. People in wheelchairs need to be able to make their way through all the aisles of your business. Therefore all aisles must be no less than 3 feet wide and the floor must be clear of obstructions. Also, there must be a way for a wheelchair to turn around. Restaurant tables must be between 28-34 inches high to accommodate the general height of wheelchairs.

Accessible Chinatown: Hiring People with Disabilities

Employees must be prepared to accommodate deaf or blind customers by writing down their communications when needed, and assisting people customers in finding the items they have come to purchase. Restaurants that make restrooms accessible to their customers must provide an accessible entrance to their bathroom for those in a wheelchair as well. Again this means the doorway to the restroom must be 32 inches wide. Congratulations! You already meet our criteria for accessibility.

To read a complete Small Business Primer on becoming accessible from The Americans with Disabilities act go to http://www.ada.gov/regs2010/smallbusiness/smallbusprimer2010.htm. Or email us at AccessibleChinatown@yahoo.com

Accessible Chinatown: Hiring People with Disabilities

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Accessible Chinatown: Hiring People with Disabilities Psychiatric Rehabilitation, 12, 317-329. Li, E.P., Tam, A.S., and Man, D.W. (2006). Exploring the self-concepts of persons with intellectual disabilities. Journal of Intellectual Disabilities 10(19), 19-34. Scheid, T.L. (2005). Stigma as a barrier to employment: Mental Disability and the Americans with Disabilities Act. International Journal of Law and Psychiatry, 28, 670-690. Shier, M., Graham, J.R., & Jones, M.E. (2009). Barriers to employment as experienced by disabled people; A qualitative analysis in Calgary and Regina, Canada. Disability & Society, 24(1), 63-75. Tsang, H.W.H., Tam, P.K.C., Chan, F., Cheung, W.M. (2003). Stigmatizing attitudes towards individuals with mental illness in Hong Kong: Implications for their recovery. Journal of Community Psychology, 31(4), 383-396. U.S. Census Bureau. (2010). First U.S. census data for Illinois. Retrieved from American Community Survey Web Site <www2.census.gov/acs2009_5yr/summaryfile/20052009_ACSSF_By_State_All_Tables/>. Westbrook, M.T. & Legge,V. (1993). Health practitioners perceptions of family attitudes toward children with disabilities: A comparison of six communities in a multicultural society. Rehabilitation Psychology, 38(3), 177-185.