Book about developmental disabilities- “Selling” kids with disabilities
While at dinner with a group of friends one evening, enjoying a light and convivial conversation, a buddy of mine began prattling on about how hard his job was as a pharmaceutical salesman for a multibillion dollar global drug company. He described how the cold calling, the rejection, and the competition from other sales reps from rival drug companies made it unbelievably tough for him. I nodded and agreed with him that being in sales was not easy, especially in today’s world when it seems too many people are competing for too few resources.
He looked at me inquisitively and asked me what I knew about sales.
I reminded him that I was also in sales; I “sell” my kids with disabilities to employers who are often afraid to hire them because a high percentage of them consider my students a liability. My friend slightly tilted his head and eyeballed me curiously, saying he thought helping my students find jobs would be easy because of the ‘sympathy factor’ involved.
Sympathy factor?
I asked him when he’d ever seen an employment ad which read:
“WANTED: TEEN WITH A DISABILITY. MUST HAVE ZERO WORK EXPERIENCE. MUST HAVE PHYSICAL, SOCIAL, AND/OR COGNITIVE CHALLENGES. MUST NOT HAVE DRIVER’S LICENSE. NO HIGH SCHOOL DIPLOMA REQUIRED. AUTISTIC, SIGHT-IMPAIRED OR WHEELCHAIR-USING TEEN PREFERRED.”
My friend put his head down and began picking at his meal. Impassioned, I said that in his line of work he at least had a huge pool of customers eagerly awaiting his products, as there appeared to be a new drug store on every block across America because more doctors were prescribing more drugs to more people than ever before in the history of humankind.
Over the last few years, I said, prescription drugs in the U.S. have quadrupled.
Senior citizens were living longer than they had since the beginning of humanity, and all seniors were taking some type of drug. And most everyone in middle age was taking some drug for one reason or another. Even a high percentage of children were prescribed some drug due to ADD/ADHD, depression, bipolar, or behavior or anxiety issues. And if that gigantic pool of consumers wasn’t enough to help sell his product, it seemed every third page in every magazine was advertising some drug and every other TV commercial was advertising some drug. So his sales efforts were backed by billions of dollars of advertising driving public demand, I added.
Head still down, my friend continued picking at his meal. Since he’d struck a nerve, I continued delivering my harangue:
Because our society had become so impersonalized, nearly everyone had to go online to apply for a job nowadays. Gone are the days when jobs could be secured face-to-face with management and/or business owners and with a handshake. My students often needed this personal touch so I could get them hired. Online applications were not only too impersonal, but also too sophisticated to fill out—most especially for someone with intellectual challenges. To add a further degree of difficulty for my students, my students were now competing for jobs with adults—many of whom had college degrees and work histories and had to find any job in order to feed their families.
Yeah, not so easy to get jobs for kids with disabilities, I concluded.
Because we had been friends since the fourth grade, he allowed me to rant. And I appreciated that. Once I was done and settled down, he quickly lifted his head and changed the subject, much to the delight of our other friends seated quietly at the table.
But I wondered how many other people thought the way he did. My guess is many.
To read more stories about kids with disabilities or for more information on SPECIAL STORIES: Short stories on youth with disabilities and my adventures working in the disabilities field, visit www.specialstoriesbook.com.
https://www.specialstoriesbook.com//wp-content/uploads/2017/08/SSFlier.pdf
