{photo: Tim Finnegan (standing, left), of Wilmette, and Kristyn Smith (seated, left), of Glenview, are members of the Disability Awareness Players and trained employees of Glenview State Bank on Waukegan Road in January. | Photo courtesy of JJ's list}
Similar to secret shoppers, people with disabilities are fanning out across Chicago’s north and northwest suburbs, testing businesses for services to disabled customers.
They arrive unannounced and often write online about their experiences for everyone to read, whether it concerns automatic doors for the disabled or when it’s OK to guide the blind.
The online posts appear on JJ’s List, an Evanston nonprofit that since 2008 has helped businesses and employees accommodate the disabled, as well as improving their economic and social futures.
In a wheelchair, Kristyn Smith, 22, noticed in November the only entrance to Glenview State Bank on Glenview Road was a revolving door.
“I’m a customer there and have been since I was a teenager,” said Smith, a 22-year-old Glenview resident.
“The bank wasn’t aware of the problem, but the door was fixed. A swinging one was put in,” she said.
In January, Glenview State Bank’s main office on Waukegan Road invited the Disability Awareness Players, a group of JJ’s List members, to teach and train employees more about meeting needs of the disabled.
The seminar was Smith’s first session.
“It was interesting and I enjoyed it. I would definitely do it again,” said Smith, who has arthrogryposis, a disorder that causes muscle weakness and joint contractures.
“Some people may not know this, but most people don’t like their wheelchairs moved without asking first. A wheelchair is like a body part and we don’t like it,” Smith said, who works at the Perk Center Café in Glenview as a cashier.
She graduated from Glenbrook South High School in Glenview n 2008.
Terry Schneider is a branch manager and vice president at Glenview State Bank in Northbrook, and she attended the training event.
“What struck me the most was how blind people may need assistance on the street, but did not like just being grabbed and led, especially when stepping off a corner,” said Schneider, of Glenview.
She also learned to communicate directly to people with speaking difficulties.
“A gentleman had a hard time speaking, but he didn’t want us asking someone, ‘What did he say?’ They want to be spoken to and basically treated like everyone else. Look them in the eye,” she said.
Anthony Ortale, a teller supervisor at Glenview State Bank on Golf Road in Glenview, has a disabled cousin and he has been a volunteer for Misericordia/Heart of Mercy.
How to address the disabled was new information for Ortale.
“Person-first language was new to me, meaning the disabled want to referred to as a person or people with disabilities, not just disabled person. They want to be seen as a person, first,” he said.
The Disability Awareness Players also can practice job interviewing skills at the training sessions.
In addition to Glenview State Bank, Siemens Corp., Northern Trust Bank, Whole Foods Market and Deerfield and Highland Park public libraries have participated in the disability awareness programs.
Founder and executive director J.J. Hanley was inspired to start JJ’s List while filming “Refrigerator Mothers,” an award-winning PBS documentary on autism in 2002.
“I started it as a response to the lack of opportunities for individuals with disabilities after graduating from high school, especially in Illinois,” said Hanley, of Wilmette.
Her son, Tim, has autism spectrum disorder and will enter Belmont University in Nashville, Tenn., in fall.
“It’s a vast wasteland out there of few higher learning or work opportunities. Illinois also ranks (last) in the country for providing alternative living opportunities for the disabled.
“Instead, Illinois institutionalizes individuals with disabilities more than any state in the nation,” she said.
When people with disabilities approach businesses lacking in accommodations, often managers readily ask for training, Hanley said.
“Glenview State Bank was not afraid of Kristyn’s review, but saw it as a chance to build relations with customers.
“It takes a savvy, smart business to see this because people with disabilities are living and working individuals getting around in the community,” she said.
JJ’s List has reviewed 198 businesses, such as bookstores, big box retailers, restaurants, snack shops, doctors’ offices and sports/recreation facilities.
Wilmette resident Tim Finnegan, 17, has written business reviews for the list since 2009.
“When I need help in a grocery store and there’s an employee to help me, then they get a positive review,” said Finnegan, who has high-functioning autism.
“I write negative pieces so businesses will call us up and get better with their services for us,” said Finnegan.
He attends the Cove School for children with learning disabilities in Northbrook, and Finnegan has plans to enter Elmhurst College, the University of Iowa or National Lewis University.
# http://wilmette.suntimes.com/news/11561087-418/jjs-list-working-to-improve-access-for-all.html
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