The November 2023 Edition of Inside Equal Access featured an infographic “What I Wish My Supervisor Knew.” These responses were compiled from a Kent State Employee Resource Group (ERG) called Access Betters the Lives of Everyone (ABLE). This group held its first meeting on February 16, 2023, via Teams, and has been meeting every other month since.
While the existence of an employee resource group for disabled employees was on the minds of some, it did not come to fruition until Emma Weihe, Access Specialist in Student Accessibility Services, Amanda Feaster, Director of Student Accessibility Services, and Tabitha Messmore, previous director of LaunchNet, took on the task of getting the group officially recognized as an ERG and organized its members.
To date, ABLE has 39 members who participate in meetings and communicate via a dedicated Microsoft Teams channel. Membership includes faculty, staff, and student employees from across the Kent system with a strong representation from the regional campuses. Not all members identify as disabled but rather join to learn more about how to accommodate employees with disabilities and their concerns.
ABLE has many goals. One is to connect people with disabilities across the university system. Some of ABLE’s members come with institutional knowledge that can help others who may not have yet gone through the formal process of securing accommodations for their disability. The group also aims to normalize the vulnerability that comes with living with a disability and to celebrate that disability is an important aspect of diversity.
To learn more about ABLE, including how to join the group, please contact Emma Weihe at eweihe@kent.edu. The next ABLE meeting is in May.