Disability Inclusion In The Workplace: Joshua Fields Of The Next Step Programs On How Businesses Make Accommodations For Customers and Employees Who Have a Disability
An Interview With Eric Pines
Believing in yourself is half the battle. Far too often, people doubt themselves and their own abilities. It is so important to trust yourself and have confidence in the actions you make. This will take you so much further in life than doubting yourself will.
As we all know, over the past several years there has been a great deal of discussion about inclusion and diversity in the workplace. One aspect of inclusion that is not discussed enough, is how businesses can be inclusive of people with disabilities. We know that the Americans With Disabilities Act (ADA) requires businesses to make reasonable accommodations for people with disabilities. What exactly does this look like in practice? What exactly are reasonable accommodations? Aside from what is legally required, what are some best practices that can make a business place feel more welcoming and inclusive of people with disabilities? To address these questions, we are talking to successful business leaders who can share stories and insights from their experience about the “How Businesses Make Accommodations For Customers and Employees Who Are Disabled “.
As a part of this series, we had the pleasure of interviewing Joshua Fields.
Joshua Fields is the co-founder and CEO of The Next Steps Programs (TNS), a non-profit that aims to break down the barriers that prevent people with disabilities from finding educational and employment opportunities after high school. He co-founded TNS at 16 years old and has been involved in the disability rights movement since.
Thank you so much for joining us in this interview series! Before we dive in, our readers would love to “get to know you” a bit better. Can you tell us a bit about your ‘backstory’ and how you ended up where you are?
My ‘backstory’ begins in middle school. As a student, I always felt that all people deserved an opportunity to fit in or be a part of something bigger than themselves. I always aspired to be an entrepreneur and leader, but at an early age, I lacked a lot of the qualities and experiences to lead. In school, I tried to be friends with everyone. Through this experience, I met some friends who had Down syndrome, autism, and other disabilities that forever changed my perspective on life and my future. My friends with disabilities were truly the most genuine people I had in my life. In 2015, as a junior in high school, my friends with and without disabilities began to chat about our futures. I quickly uncovered that while I was given a path forward after high school, my friends with disabilities did not have those same opportunities. SO, in March of 2015, with Richard Price, MA MS (an older peer that I met through Camp PALS Princeton, a camp for young adults with Down syndrome and their peers), we co-founded The Next Step Programs to create opportunities for our friends with disabilities as they left high school. At the time, I was 16 and Ricky was 23.
Over the next 7-ish years- TNS began to grow. We focused on listening to the needs of our families, and working with community partners to establish a presence in our community. At the beginning of the pandemic, our organization was still developing resources and creating a vision.
A group of families approached TNS, and asked us how we were going to support them and their families. We jumped into action and began a social group that worked on skills for employment and independence. It met once a week at a Church we were renting. Originally, this group of 11 young adults and a handful of volunteers worked on building a sense of community during a time where social isolation was at its high (masked and socially distanced).
Now, two years later, this one group has turned into multiple programs that take place throughout the week. Our programs focus on self advocacy, independent living, social skills, fitness / healthy living, career explorations and more. A group that began as 11 young adults and a handful of volunteers is now a group of over 60 young adults in the Greater Philadelphia area , dozens of dedicated volunteers and an experienced staff team leading the way.
You are a successful leader. Which three character traits do you think were most instrumental to your success? Can you please share a story or example for each?
There are many character traits that can make a great leader. The three traits that I feel I channel the most include being: compassionate, direct, and confident. Many people would probably cite strength, courage and fortitude, but I feel in my particular case I needed to hone in on other abilities in order to set myself apart from those who may be older than me with more experiences (and opportunities). I will briefly touch on what I mean by each of these traits, and include a backstory.
Compassionate
- Compassion is key to being a successful leader. Leaders should want their team to believe in them and be eager to follow their vision. This is impossible if we do not develop relationships and trust with members on our team. A compassionate leader builds trust, commitment and pride within the organization. As a leader within our organization, I have worked to lead with compassion by building relationships with all members of my team by showing them I care about their futures, and goals within TNS and beyond. This is not always an easy feat, as sometimes as a leader you have to make decisions that others do not understand or like. Early on in my term as CEO, I had transitioned from being a peer leader to the CEO of the organization, responsible for our growth and direction. During this time, there were challenges when trying to direct changes with long time staff and volunteers. These valid concerns by veteran leaders within the organization were met with listening ears and healthy internal debate. At first, this back and forth over what felt like small decisions frustrated me. I have the authority to make the final call, can’t I just lead? Of course that would be the easy short term solution. Over time, I have learned that the internal debate and questioning of decisions only makes us as a team more strong, and the organization even stronger. Leading with compassion means empowering others to have a voice, and taking the time to listen.
Direct
I think most business and nonprofit leaders would agree with the fact that strong communication is key to a successful organization. Without clear communication, the pieces of the puzzle will never fit. I pride myself on being a direct communicator. I say it as it is, and try to call the shots as objective as possible. While this certainly can be a negative at times (if used without care or prior thought), I believe that building a team that trusts one another and communicates directly has contributed immensely to our success as an organization. Direct communication with our families and program participants has set us apart from other organizations. We believe in listening to their voices, and ensuring all programs and efforts of TNS reflect that. This dedication to communicating with the community that we serve paves the way for us to create more and more opportunities for young adults with disabilities.
Confident
This one comes and goes with the stages of life… but I have found that confidence is key to success. I cannot begin to count the numbers of times I have been told I wouldn’t be able to do something or that I needed more experience simply because of my age. To be fair, I began working professionally at the age of 16 when we co-founded TNS. But over the years, at almost every stage of my early career, folks have tried to stifle my confidence in my abilities to create change and an impact on this world. As I have gotten older, and gained experience, I do see both perspectives. We all must work to get to the place we want to be at. But, without confidence in yourself and your abilities, it is very hard to succeed. I have found that when I am confident in the areas I excel in while also believing in my abilities to learn new skills, that I have gone much further than when I have doubted myself. As a young leader, I have learned that there will always be people who will doubt you. Let them doubt you. Channel that energy into the very greatness they seem to want to suppress. Being confident in who you are and the skills you have positions you to be a leader who walks the walk.
Can you share a story about one of your greatest work related struggles? Can you share what you did to overcome it?
One of my greatest work related struggles was becoming a leader within an organization at a young age. My age has always been a barrier for me and leadership. People question my experience and what I can and can not do and for a long time I really resented this. There is no way for people to know at first glance or meeting what someone has been through, or the level of experiences and knowledge they have in a specific area. So over the years, one of the ways I have overcome this is by simply not acknowledging it. I am where I am for many reasons and I have put a lot of thought and vision into the work that we do. Every single organization that I have worked at where age was a barrier, I tried to use it to inspire and empower people and show them what is possible regardless of age. I think this has taught me a lot about people in general and that everyone has different skill sets that they bring and it is our job as people to not judge by what we see but what we know and we do that by getting to know people and building relationships and investing in the long term.
What are some of the most interesting or exciting projects you are working on now?
I am so excited about all the TNS is working on! TNS is an innovative organization that is constantly coming up with new programs that not only benefit people with disabilities but the general community as well. One of the most exciting projects we are working on today is called Explore Bucks County. Explore Bucks County is a day program for young adults with intellectual disabilities to get to know their community. We spent the week exploring different work sites, different recreational opportunities, restaurants within the community and places of recreation and fitness. The goal was to teach our young adults that there is so much that their communities have to offer and that building opportunities starts with building relationships.
This program has really given our young adults the opportunity to be directly in the community and given the community a chance to see all the young adults have to offer. The explore program that was piloted this summer was meant to be only five weeks but because of all the positive feedback and success we have had with it we are bringing it back for the fall and winter.
Another exciting thing we are working on is called Community and Social Learning groups. These are evening programs that work for 90 minutes throughout the week and we focus on building skills, self advocacy, independent living, social skills, career exploration, entrepreneurism, fitness, healthy living and a variety of other things. These 90 minute classes give young adults with disabilities and their peers without disabilities an opportunity to socialize, build relationships and also give them skills that are necessary for them to transition out of high school. At the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic we launched this program and it was serving only 11 adults in the greater Philadelphia area, now this program has grown to serve over 70 adults beyond Bucks country and across the state including in areas like Cumberland County and Pittsburgh
Fantastic. Let’s now shift to our discussion about inclusion. Can you tell our readers a bit about your experience working with initiatives to promote Diversity and Inclusion? Can you share a story with us?
Diversity equity and inclusion is the root of everything that TNS stands for. We believe that all people belong and that all people have the opportunity to meaningfully engage with their community and that starts with equity and creating a system that values the needs and wants of all people and not just a certain group of people.
I have spent my young career working in the field of diversity and inclusion. When I was in college at The Penn State University I was the Diversity Program Coordinator for the Development and Alumni Relations department. I worked with senior faculty to develop what is called an employee resources group to design options for staff within Penn State to feel like they belonged. These groups were not just for the people in the minorities that they were trying to promote and protect, they were also for the allies in the community and it really created this sense of belonging and community.
When I was out of college I worked for a disability rights organization where I advocated for the rights of all people with disabilities with the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. I learned how inequitable our communities are acrocess our commonwealth. Some communities have a lot of resources and support and others have nothing. And that really taught me that this idea of equity is really important when we are looking at our services and what we offer because we have to make sure we are offering services to everybody, not just a specific group of individuals.
And then right here at my organization The Next Step Programs we practice diversity equity and inclusion every single day. It is our organization’s mission to help businesses see that disabilities belong in inclusion and when they are promoting diversity and inclusion that includes working with young adults with disabilities as well. We are so excited to be working with small businesses and large businesses and helping and supporting them to have an inclusive work culture.
This may be obvious to you, but it will be helpful to spell this out. Can you articulate to our readers a few reasons why it is so important for a business or organization to have an inclusive work culture?
This is very key to the very ethos of our organization. Diversity and inclusion in a business is so important because it creates an environment that allows everyone to want to be part of our organization. It will help you attract customers, new staff, and even business partners. An inclusive work culture is an opportunity for everyone to feel like they have meaningful contributions to make and that they have a piece of the business and that is something that is really important when you are trying to build organizational commitment, retention and all the important things that are necessary for growing a business.
The Americans With Disabilities Act (ADA) requires businesses to make reasonable accommodations for people with disabilities. For the benefit of our readers, can you help explain what this looks like in practice? What exactly are reasonable accommodations? Can you please share a few examples?
The Americans with Disabilities Act just celebrated their 32nd birthday this month which is incredibly exciting and super important. The ADA has created pathways for people with disabilities to be part of businesses across the country. Reasonable accommodations for people with disabilities are like reasonable accommodations for anyone else. A reasonable accommodation does not have to be anything extravagant or fancy. Oftentimes it can be something as simple as adjusting a work schedule, adjusting arrival times or changing the way that instructions are given. Perhaps someone can not read very well so oral instructions are given instead. Accommodations can look very different for different disabilities and different needs. The fact is that most accommodations under the ADA cost a business less than five hundred dollars to implement so for a business not to consider that or what to make these accommodations will only end up harming the business in the future.
A few examples of the ADA accommodations in the workplace could be writing a list out of job tasks. We have some employees with intellectual disabilities in our office staff and this is way that we are able to support them that is not time consuming at all and gives them something to refer back to throughout the day. This makes a huge difference in someone being self motivated and getting the job done. Another example would be someone has a doctor’s appointment perhaps weekly at 4:00 and the work day ends at 4:30 so allowing them to leave early to allow that staff member to go to their appointment. This is an excellent example of how business can model and implement a flexible and inclusive workplace environment.
Aside from what is legally required, what are some best practices that can make a business place feel more welcoming and inclusive of people with disabilities? If you can, please share a few examples.
For me the best practice is to encourage and promote open communication in the workplace. A staff that communicates with one another and a staff that works well together will naturally create an environment where all people are welcomed. This, again, is not something that needs to be fancy or complicated. At the root of it inclusion is culture based, it is how management treats employees, how employees treat each other, how customers and employees interact with each other, and how management and the board interact. It is really about creating this openness in the organization where people have the ability to communicate their thoughts, feelings and expressions. This is something that if you are a good business leader you are doing anyway.
Can you share a few examples of ideas that were implemented at your workplace to help promote disability inclusion? Can you share with us how the work culture was impacted as a result?
For the longest time our organization has been promoting disability inclusion and it has been so important to us that as we promote this that we are not just talking about able-bodied people and those without disabilities. Part of our whole goal and mission is to elevate the voices of the people that we serve and we do that by listening. We do that by making TNS a place where families want to come for support and get resources and a place our young adults want to come to as well.
In our workplace some of the best ways that we promote inclusion have been to hire people with disabilities. If you take a look at our staff, we don’t just employ one person with a disability, in fact we have several young adults with a disability on our team. We have young adults with disabilities on our board of directors and we have implemented an approach to creating an organization that is run by people with and without disabilities at all levels of leadership. By doing so it has created a culture more inclusive across the board and at every level of the organization. TNS is a place where all people feel comfortable coming to and confident they can gain skills and build relationships here and that is something that is extremely important to us and not something every office or business can say.
This is our signature question that we ask in many of our interviews. What are your “5 Things I Wish Someone Told Me When I First Started My Career”?
- First thing is patience. Everything comes with time. We all want things to happen quickly and with a snap of a finger and that is just not how things work. I found that if you do the hard work, you put in the time and effort that things pay off in the long run.
- The second thing is vision. I don’t think anyone can do anything without a vision of what they are trying to accomplish. Oftentimes you have worker bees and you have visionaries and these two work in tatum to get a job done but I don’t think that is the most successful way to be an employee, and employees must have a vision of their own and they can communicate clearly about what is going on.
- Believing in yourself is half the battle. Far too often, people doubt themselves and their own abilities. It is so important to trust yourself and have confidence in the actions you make. This will take you so much further in life than doubting yourself will.
- Surround yourself with people who are as passionate about the work you are doing, but have different skill sets than you. Teamwork makes the dream work… that is what they say, right? It is important to have a team with diverse backgrounds and skill sets.
- Practicing compassion sets you apart from other leaders. A leader who leads with compassion is a leader that is often respected, and that employees and clients would naturally gravitate to. I genuinely care about all my staff, and the young adults we serve. We make sure to celebrate the birthdays, life milestones, and triumphs together in our community. By leading with compassion, we have also created a strong support network for our employees, members and community at large.
You are a person of enormous influence. If you could inspire a movement that would bring the most amount of good to the most amount of people, what would that be? You never know what your idea can trigger. 🙂
If I could inspire a movement that could bring a great amount of good to a lot of people, it would be a movement towards more accessible and equitable communities. Recently, I have been working with a member from our community who has both intellectual and physical disabilities. It has been eye opening and appalling to learn how inaccessible our communities are for people who utilize wheelchairs, powerchairs, etc.. Businesses and community centers (Malls, shopping centers, bowling alleys, etc) are often not created in an equitable accessible manner. I would love to see this change created in communities all over!
How can our readers further follow your work online?
To follow TNS online, folks can find us on social media / website at
Facebook — @The Next Step Programs
Instagram — @tnsprograms
Website — tnsprograms.org
To join our monthly newsletter, Transition Times email info@tnsprograms.org
This was very inspiring. Thank you so much for the time you spent with this. We wish you continued success and good health!
About the Interviewer: Eric L. Pines is a nationally recognized federal employment lawyer, mediator, and attorney business coach. He represents federal employees and acts as in-house counsel for over fifty thousand federal employees through his work as a federal employee labor union representative. A formal federal employee himself, Mr. Pines began his federal employment law career as in-house counsel for AFGE Local 1923 which is in Social Security Administration’s headquarters and is the largest federal union local in the world. He presently serves as AFGE 1923’s Chief Counsel as well as in-house counsel for all FEMA bargaining unit employees and numerous Department of Defense and Veteran Affairs unions.
While he and his firm specialize in representing federal employees from all federal agencies and in reference to virtually all federal employee matters, his firm has placed special attention on representing Veteran Affairs doctors and nurses hired under the authority of Title. He and his firm have a particular passion in representing disabled federal employees with their requests for medical and religious reasonable accommodations when those accommodations are warranted under the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 (ADA). He also represents them with their requests for Federal Employee Disability Retirement (OPM) when an accommodation would not be possible.
Mr. Pines has also served as a mediator for numerous federal agencies including serving a year as the Library of Congress’ in-house EEO Mediator. He has also served as an expert witness in federal court for federal employee matters. He has also worked as an EEO technical writer drafting hundreds of Final Agency Decisions for the federal sector.
Mr. Pines’ firm is headquartered in Houston, Texas and has offices in Baltimore, Maryland and Atlanta, Georgia. His first passion is his wife and five children. He plays classical and rock guitar and enjoys playing ice hockey, running, and biking. Please visit his websites at www.pinesfederal.com and www.toughinjurylawyers.com. He can also be reached at eric@pinesfederal.com.
Disability Inclusion In The Workplace: Joshua Fields Of The Next Step Programs On How Businesses… was originally published in Authority Magazine on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.