FEBRUARY 21, 2006
VCU
WEBCAST
    
Captioning Provided By:  Caption First, Inc.
    
   
                                *****

>> PEGGY ANDERSON:  Hi, everybody.  I appreciate you taking time 
out of your busy schedule today to join us for what is a pretty 
darn important topic.  When we are [assisting] people with 
disabilities get their independence through employment.  Today we 
are going to look at the issue of disclosure [as it relates to people 
with disabilities]. 
      
They each have a little different spin.  We are going to give 
you an opportunity to hear what those different spins are.  We 
have a primary goal of helping you make decisions, and take some 
actions on those decisions with the consumers that you represent, 
when you visit with business and industry on behalf of [people with 
disabilities] seeking employment.  There are going to be six things 
we want to look at today.
 
We are going to start by looking at our topic, which is 
disclosure and discussion of disability with a sub heading, that 
is twofold.  The first is a legally appropriate way to address 
disability and employment.  The second is an effective way to 
disclose disability in job seeking activities.  A little different 
spin on each.

The six things we want to focus on as we go through this 
presentation would be first, to help you make the decision about 
whether or not you should disclose or advise your consumer to 
disclose. [* note – Providers should always leave disclosure decisions 
to the consumer.]

The second is to decide if there are needs that need to be 
disclosed, how would you go about doing that?  Particularly what 
would be some techniques for that dialogue?  And what would be 
issues related to language and labels?  We will look at that.

The third area is folding the issue of disclosure related to 
accommodations into your dialogue when accommodations might be 
necessary.  

The fourth, what to do after there is disclosure.  The 
fifth, preparing consumers for disclosure, if they will be 
handling that themselves.  And finally we will give you 
suggestions about how to apply what you have learned as a result 
of this broadcast. 

With that said, let's look at our slides and see what we have to 
offer today.
 
We are first looking at disclosure of disability in 
consideration of the Americans with Disabilities Act.  The reason 
we are doing that is, as you know, many business have constraints 
now as to what they can ask when it relates to recruiting, hiring, 
retaining and promoting people with disabilities.  In light of 
those mandates for business, that will flavor what you can and 
cannot disclose to them or what your consumers [should] discuss.

First and foremost, is the issue of consumer confidentiality.  
Seeking permission from the candidate to disclose if you are 
representing them to a business is of utmost importance. 
      
On the issue of getting permission, I recommend that you 
certainly get it in writing, because sometimes people forget what 
they share with you, and second, it requires a little advance 
preparation on your part, because what you disclose will depend on 
the different work settings, and the different scenarios and 
abilities of your consumers.
 
It's important to remember to only disclose what is needed, that 
will reflect the three bullets on the slide here.  Whether or not 
your candidate for employment is qualified, or able to perform the 
essential functions of the job, according to the standards.  Also, 
whether or not they would need accommodations, and what the 
justification for those needs might be.  The third is safety in 
the workplace, particularly as it spins off of needs for 
disability.
 
I would also add to this the ability to comply with policies, 
because sometimes the accommodations are needed.  Remember that 
you don't need to tell everything about your consumer or you need 
to advise your consumers they don't need to tell everything. 

You must know the KSAs, knowledge, skills and abilities of the 
job or essential functions before you begin making decisions about 
disclosure.
 
You must also know a little more about the job setting to take a 
look at the work environment, the entrance to and from the job, 
and so forth.  Because again, you will be selecting pieces of 
information to share, based on that. 

You should know company policies that would be expected to be 
followed by your job candidate if they were hired in case 
accommodations are needed for those company policies. 

Here is an interesting thing.  What you disclose may vary from 
job to job.  If you think about why, it's because the tasks, the 
settings, or the policies will also vary. 
      
Also in consideration of disclosure of disability under the ADA, 
we would like to remind you that the employer must keep disability 
information that you share or that your job candidate shares, they 
must keep it confidential.  They can only disclose to those 
members of the work force who need to know.  They must also keep 
any paperwork related to disclosure filed separately. 
      
We are going to look at two things in relation to that today.  
The first is, we are going to give you suggestions on deciding 
whether or not to disclose disability specific information, and 
then second, we are going to be looking at effective techniques 
and disclosure for you as rehab professionals to consider when you 
represent these candidates with disabilities to potential 
employers.  It's a recap of our opening.

With that said, let's take a look now at when or when it might 
be appropriate to disclose or discuss disability.  I don't mean 
timing as to when.  I mean what situations would it be necessary?  
We have three common driving factors that relate to when to 
disclose.

The most obvious one is, if the disability is visible or 
perceived by the employer.  If they can see that disability, it's 
a good idea to have a little discussion on it, even if there are 
no barriers that are perceived to employment. 

It's kind of like the elephant sitting in the middle of the 
living room.  If we are both sitting in a living room and there is 
an elephant in between us, but we never talk about it, it's a 
little awkward.  This number one, if we bring it up and discuss a 

little, takes away some of that awkwardness.  Number 2, you might 
consider disclosing if the disability limits the individual in the 
performance of the job tasks or essential functions, or if it 
impairs their ability to comply with policies that the company 
has. 

Then the third reason is if the disability appears to limit the 
individual in the performance of those tasks, or in compliance 
with employer policies.  Because remember this:  Perception is 
reality to that employer.  Even though the job candidate may have 
a disability that may not need to be brought up, because of an 
accommodations, it would be nice to bring it up because of 
employer perception or misperceptions.  We will talk about that 
later on. 

A reminder to you, be sure to have permission when you are 
deciding to disclose on these three factors.  Also, be sure in 
advance when you get this permission from your consumer, to share 
with them prior to disclosure what you are going to be sharing 
with that employer so that that candidate knows, when you will be 
sharing it, what kind of setting you will be in, and why.  This is 
a big one, why you will be sharing that information.
 
What this does is enhance the opportunity for informed choice 
for the individuals with disabilities that we work with. 

Okay.  Let's look at when it might not be necessary to disclose 
disability.  There are four reasons.  The first is the opposite of 
what we just looked at.  If the disability is not visible, it may 
not be necessary to disclose. 

And, if the disability does not limit the individual in the 
performance of the essentials tasks that they have to do, or in 
compliance with company policies, that is a good combo.  They 
probably, you probably would not have to disclose.
 
The third reason, if accommodations are not necessary for the 
performance of these essential job tasks, or for meeting job 
standards, or for having access to company benefits.  Then the 
fourth reason is, if there are no safety risks that are related to 
the disability. 

If the employer can't see the disability, if there is no special 
need for accommodations, if that person can do the job tasks 
according to standards and comply with policies, and there are not 
any safety factors, it's probably not necessary for you to have to 
disclose. 

Let me encourage you to be painstakingly thorough as you review 
these in making the decision about disclosure, because you will 
need to know as much as you can about [your consumer or customer] 
before you advise your consumer, and before you talk with the employer,
about disclosure of disability.  Keep in mind one important thing.  
Often times when you are representing a person with a disability to a 
business, the employer is going to be wondering what is wrong with that 
candidate, that they are not either here themselves representing 
themselves, or if they know the name of your organization, and it 
indicates something about the disability, they are going to be 
thinking, what is wrong with that person? 

Many of them will know that is an illegal question, but if the 
question is in their mind, disclosure and discussion become 
paramount to you being successful in referring that candidate. 
      
So, if you decide that disclosure is appropriate either by you 
or the job candidate, we now want to look at how to go about doing 
the disclosure. 

And there are a number of steps that we can recommend that you 
follow.  Let me go through them quickly, and then we will come 
back and recap all six of these. 

First and foremost, it's important to remember to discuss the 
disability or the impairments or factors that require 
accommodations without labels.  And if you are like me, a lot of 
us in rehabilitation use a lot of labels in our brain, our brain 
doesn't know we are doing it half the time.  We almost need a 
censorship between the brain and mouth before some of those labels 
or acronyms come out.  Second, it's important to ask the employer, 
what they know about that particular situation or that particular      
disability.

Third, it's important to clarify any misconceptions or 
misperceptions, or biases that they might have.  Fourth, it's 
important to give some generic facts in a general way about the 
disability. 

Fifth, it's important to give specific facts about your 
candidate, and how that disability is affecting their ability to 
apply for the job, to do the job, to be accommodated in the job or 
comply with policies, and then 6th, it's very important to wrap up 
the referencing to disability by closing with highlights of 
abilities. 

Let's come back and look at this more in detail.  We will give 
you some examples in a moment.  First let's go back through these 
1 through 6 items.
 
Discussing it simply means that we won't use some of the 
language that we will be referencing in a moment.  Using terms 
like TBI, MR, quad, para, are very inappropriate.  And yet, you 
will find that some of those words might pop out of your mouth 
when you have made the decision to disclose, before you even want 
them to.  Once it's out there, you can't take it back.
 
Once you have shared generically the situation that your job 
candidate has for impairments that are impacting job performance, 
you then would spend a little bit of time asking the employer 
specifically, do you know much about that situation?  Or maybe 
something like:  Have you ever employed someone who has had to 
deal with this kind of a situation?  It's very informative way to 
open the door to an opportunity to educate that business. 

The reason you ask what's known is because you want to be able 
to answer the misperception, the concern or even the bias.  But 
you want to do it as an educator, not as somebody in a defensive 
mode.  That is when you move to number 3, which is to clarify 
misconception. 

Almost always, if you are new to working with a business, they 
will have misconceptions about certain types of disabilities.  
Number 3 gives you an opportunity to be an educator.  
And this is where you would respond very specifically to the 
misperceptions that you heard or maybe didn't hear but were 
implied, when you have asked what they know about that particular 
disability or limitation.
 
The number 4 item which says, give brief but general facts 
first.  Basically, what that means is that we would like you to be 
generically describing the situation or disability that your person 
is dealing with that will impact job hiring, maybe job 
interviewing, certainly job performance, and compliance with 
policies. 

Being generic really eases your way into describing what you 
need to describe. 
But then you want to move pretty quickly into the specifics of 
Mary's or Tom's situation, because as we know, but 
businesses do not, different situations like, for example, someone 
who has cerebral palsy, they might only have mild impairments that 
spin off of that, or they might have significant speech impairment 
or gait impairment.  If the employer knows a little about the 
disability, but only in one vein, their brain may go right forward 
into thinking, this person's cerebral palsy is going to be severe 
and it puts them in a box that is severe when in fact it might not 
be. 

We want to customize the disclosure specific to the job 
candidate that we are referring to that business. 
     
Almost always, after you have described the situations that 
might need special attention, that relate to the disability, it's 
very important in the same, I guess it would be the same dialogue, 
with almost without taking a breath, to begin to share what the 
abilities of that individual are, so that you are not ending on 
what would be perceived to be a negative note.
 
Let's take a look at some examples of the labels that might be 
used.  One label that is an important one for people who are 
advocates within this group is the label of seriously mentally 
ill.  I know one time I spoke with a group of family members, who 
have individuals in their family who have mental illness.  They 
wanted me to refer to them, when I marketed their family members 
to business, as SMI, or seriously mentally ill, because from their 
perspective, that was very important.  But if you think about how 
that label might bias an employer just by language alone, it's 
important to realize and to help educate family members that this 
is not the best way to go.  We try to lay down a positive note.  
Mentally retarded, learning disabled, all those acronyms that we 
use, TBI, CP, LD, and MS, SCI, you might think, I would never use 
those labels, when I went out to an employer.  But it's amazing 
how our mouth is sometimes too quickly connected to our brain, as 
I said earlier.

Keep in mind also on these labels, that when you go and 
introduce yourself to a business, either in person or on the phone 
or if you even send them literature, there is in a sense, an 
automatic but generic disclosure of disability.  If the title of 
your organization indicates that you have something to do with 
people with disabilities. 

In that sense, there is generic disclosure, it is not specific 
to your job candidate, even before you begin to talk about your 
job candidate.
 
Again, your consumers need to know that, because if you are out 
there representing them to business, there is automatic disclosure 
that they have a disability, just by the nature of your 
business. 

So, let's talk a little about language with business.  We want 
to remember that there shouldn't be any acronyms.  We have 
mentioned that.  We also want to encourage you to talk their talk.  
Remember that labels put people in boxes.  The worst thing we can 
do is to take our job candidate and put them in a box that doesn't 
need to be there.  Let's take a look at a few bad, better, best 
scenarios that might help you in learning how to move there 
disability and related issues without the boxes.

On the issue of disability and labels, let's first look at MR, 
LD, MI, TBI.  That is the bad scenario.  It's acronyms that we use 
internally.  Of course, what would be better is start with the 
person first.  A person who is mentally retarded.  A person who is 
learning disabled.  A person who has traumatic brain injury.  What 
is really best is generically using words that focus on ability, 
and how tasks will be performed, especially if those tasks will be 
done differently. 

Let's take an example.  Let's pick learning disabled.  You can 
say LD, but we know that is not the best way to go.  If you take 
learning disability and use the full term, that is okay, but you 
might think about something different, that would describe 
learning disability. 

Some folks have said, that is a cognitive impairment.  Okay.  
That is a little bit better.  But cognitive impairment is very 
rehabby.  Some folks might say something like this.  Well, my 
candidate is LD in math, or my candidate is learning disabled in 
reading comprehension.  That is a little better.  But, it's still 
not the best way. 

What you might want to consider doing in this scenario is to 
say, I have a person who learns things differently.  The way they 
learn is a little different from the way that you and I learn.  
So, as an example, and I'm still dialoguing with the employer here 
for you, you might say:  This person if they had to read a 
training manual, probably would do better instead of reading that 
manual, if we could put that on an audiocassette.  What you have 
done is never focused on learning disability.  You have focused on 
a special need.  You have focused on a solution for that need.  
That is a good way to think about it.  But it requires practice 
and it requires a little bit of homework on your part. 
Let's take a look at disclosure when it relates to 
accommodations. 

There is a bad, better best scenario.  But there is even better 
than what you can see on your slides.  Some folks in my own agency 
have said, okay, let's talk about compensatory strategies with the 
employer, when we dialogue about disability.  You know what?  I 
think compensatory strategies are really confusing to me.  They 
certainly would be confusing to employers. 

It's probably a good idea not to use that language.  Sometimes 
if you simplify, you might talk about functional limitations, talk 
about special needs, talk about impairments.  But even those 
concepts can be improved upon.  Talking about work site 
accommodations is a good way to go, but there might be a better 
way.  I'm wondering as you are listening to this telecast, if you 
can think of a better way. 

Let's give an example back with learning disability.  The 
example is repeating the one we gave earlier in a sense.  If you 
have a job candidate who [has a learning disability] in the area of 
reading, giving the suggestion that a way to accommodate this 
person in the workplace might be to offer them that manual 
audibly, is really talking about accommodations without using even 
the language, accommodation. 

Again, depending on the disabilities that you work with, it's 
important to pick through them the way we just did, with examples 
for learning disability.
 
Let's look at dialogue or disclosure of disability in another 
way.  Some of the disability factors to consider before an 
interview would be the following:  Number 1, ask how will the 
disability affect the person's ability to do the job?  Remember 
you can't do this unless you have looked at the job, looked at the 
job description, the work environment. 

Another thing to focus on will be this:  Will the individual 
need any accommodations in the application process or even in the 
interviewing process?  Something I'd like to mention here that is 
brand-new thinking in the last maybe two to three years, is even 
the issue of on-line applications, and whether or not the issue of 
disclosure will come up there. 

Keep in mind that employers who are mandated by affirmative 
action to indicate if they are recruiting and hiring people with 
disabilities, at some point in the recruiting process, need to 
inquire or give their candidates an opportunity to disclose 
whether or not they have a disability.  This becomes particularly 
awkward in on-line applications, but I'll give you a tip.  Don't 
leave any answers out on on-line applications.  And don't lie.  If 
the questions relate to disability, keep in mind that they might 
be asking because of affirmative action mandates. 

Another way to look at this, under disability factors, is 
consider will there be a need to review any job modifications or 
accommodations in the interviewing and selection process? 

If the answer is yes to any of those issues, it will probably be 
necessary to disclose the disability related factors, the way we 
have suggested you disclose them.  If possible, it would be really 
nice to have the individual who is applying for the jobs to bring 
up the disability themselves, and then have [the customer explain to]
the employer see how the job will be done.  But let's remember this:  
If that consumer cannot acquire the finesse or skill or have the comfort 
zone that is positive in disclosure of disability, then somebody 
else needs to do that.  My guess is it will probably be you, if 
you are listening to this telecast.
 
After we have done disclosure, there are factors we have to pay 
attention to.  Let's take a look at what happens or what should 
happen after disclosure. 

First and foremost, there should always be follow-up, with that 
business and with the job candidate. The first thing we want to find 
out from the employer, if the participant or job candidate went on 
their own, is how did they come across?  Important feedback for all 
of us, since we are trying to help that person get that job. 

Also, particularly if you are involved in the disclosure, find 
out if the employer has any concerns about the impact of that 
disability.  If the job candidate has gone on their own and 
disclosed and you are making a phone call to the employer to 
follow up, this is an important question to ask them.  That 
employer might feel more comfortable disclosing any misperceptions 
or concerns to you, but not to that candidate who brought up the 
disability. 

If you have disclosed, and you are in with that employer at the 
point of disclosure, this is something you want to ask about while 
you are there disclosing.
 
Then of course, it's very, very, very important to deal directly 
with any misperceptions or concerns that you may find out in this 
follow-up piece whether it's happening in person or after the 
visit or the job interview. 

We are going to give you seven steps to follow in dealing with 
misperceptions that come about because of disclosure of 
disability.  Let me read through the 7 first.  We will come back 
and talk about each one of them separately. 

First and foremost, listen fully to the concern that relates to 
the disability disclosure.  Second, qualify that concern.  Third, 
acknowledge that it's a valid concern.  Fourth, convert that 
concern to a question.  Fifth, give specific facts about the 
disability.  6th, make your point to help with education.  And 
7th, check to see if the employer understands and agrees. 

Let's backtrack.  What does it mean, listen fully to the 
concern? 

What is important here is that you allow the employer to finish 
their thought about the disability.  Many of you may be like me.  
I start to formulate a response when I hear something 
negative.  In that sense I stop listening.  Before you start to 
respond back about something unique to that disability or that the 
employer might misunderstand or be afraid of, let that employer 
finish.  Because sometimes, the real concern may be at the end of 
what they are saying.  Sometimes, the real concern may not be 
voiced.  You may have to ask some other questions to find out what 
the real concern is. 

That moves us to number 2, which is qualify the concern.  When 
you think you have heard what misperception or bias the employer 
has, about the disclosure of disability, you want to repeat it 
back to that employer.  The reason you do that is to see if you 
heard what they said. 

If they say to you, nope, that is not really my concern about 
the disability, then you go back to number 1 and you say, I'm 
sorry I missed your point, please tell me again. 

Okay.  Number 3, which says acknowledge the concern, might be 
really hard for some of you.  Particularly if you are a powerful 
advocate, or passionate advocate for people with disabilities.  
Acknowledging a concern just is basically saying, let the employer 
know that their misperception is valid, and remember that 
perceptions are reality.  That is their reality. 

Let me give you two ways that you might acknowledge a concern.  
You can find your own way or use one of these too.  One of them 
would be to say something like this:  You know, Mr. Employer, I 
have heard that issue about this particular disability 
and I appreciate you sharing it with me. 

Another way you might do it is say something like this.  
Mr. Employer, when I was new to disability about 30 years ago, I 
had that same concern.  I'd like to help give you some information
about that.  And do you see how nicely that segues into number 4? 
Which is to convert the concern that the employer has, to a question. 

Why do you do that?  Why do you think?  Basically, you are 
converting it to a question so that you can answer your own 
question.  That is how we do the education about the disability, 
so that we can move beyond disclosure as a barrier, and turn 
disclosure into an opportunity for education.  Oftentimes you have 
heard it said that lawyers never ask a question in court that they 
can't answer.  It's the same philosophy here. 

Now, once you have converted the concern or misperception to a 
question, you have the opportunity now to give specific facts 
about the disability.  What we would recommend here to you is that 
you start by giving some general information about the person's 
disability that you are representing.  And then bring it down to 
Mary, the person.  Never ending on a negative, always talking 
about what they can do, either with or without accommodations.  
That is how you make your point. 

Then finally, see if the employer understands and agrees with 
what you have said.  By saying, does this sound like we can move 
forward now?  If they say no, do you know what you do?  You go 
right back to listening to their concern, and you move through 
this.  I'll give you a suggestion on the 7 steps.  You can only 
move smoothly through them if you practice them.  I recommend you 
choose someone that's been a part of this webcast and do a little 
role playing to see if you can move through these smoothly. 

The last portion of our overview wants to give you some tips on 
preparing your consumer for disclosure. 

First and foremost it's going to be important that you evaluate 
how the individual comes across when discussing disability.  You 
might want to have them try doing that in the office with you, 
just flat out ask them to do it.  Then you want to determine his 
or her knowledge about any unique needs related to disability.  
This is very important.  I have found over time that some of our 
consumers do not know enough about their own disabling situations 
to be able to disclose them accurately, and then what's worse is that 
they don't know how to share, how to accommodate those 
special needs.

This is a great opportunity to do job readiness or employment 
readiness work with our consumers.  All employment readiness 
activities should include some role playing on discussing 
disability, and also discussing accommodations. 

Next you want to find out, and this is extremely important, how 
that individual treats concerns or beliefs that they hear from 
someone else about a disability.  What is their reaction?  Throw a 
few misperceptions at them when you are having them disclose this 
disability.  See how they respond.  Watch the body language.  
Watch the words they use.  Watch their attitudes.  We might need 
to help them with some changes to that. 

If you find that the person takes a sense about misperceptions 
on disability and they can't get over that, it might be important 
for you to be the person who does the disclosure. 

Because that negative reaction, from a person who is disabled, 
hearing what might be perceived to be something negative from a 
business, can be a real show-stopper.  So, to make this as 
effective as possible, with businesses, you are going to want to 
be sure that the disclosure piece is properly handled by your 
consumer or job candidate.  And if you know that they cannot do a 
good job with that, even with practice, then I would recommend 
that you step in as their advocate and as the schmoozer, the peace 
maker. 

Some other tips on preparing for your consumer for disclosure, 
there are good resources out there that can help you.  Use 
existing resources to help that consumer and help yourself become 
more knowledgeable about his or her disability and accommodations 
that offset any barriers that might come about because of that 
disability. 

Some of the best ones or best resources I should say, that I 
have used myself, and with our staff, for our consumers, are 
listed on this slide, the Job Accommodation Network, Cornell 
University, and T-TAP Websites.  They have marvelous information.  
But I know that from Jan and Cornell at least, you can get lost in 
a sea of information. 

On your power points, you have the addresses for all of these 
Websites.  I want to pause and make some remarks about a couple of 
them, and tell you why I like using them. 

At the Job Accommodation Network site, you can spend five or six 
days going through the marvelous materials we have.  But the link 
we give you on the slides takes you directly to a dropdown box 
that will allow you to look at maybe 35 different types of 
disabilities.  When you click on and choose the type of disability 
that you are interested in finding more information about, you get 
a document that might range from three to seven pages long, and it 
has some incredibly good information that will educate you as a 
rehab professional about the disability that you are reading 
about, what it looks like, what it feels like, what it does, and a 
little bit about the varieties of that disability.

Then it starts to give the kinds of questions that might be 
needing to be asked, when you go to a job site to see if your 
candidate cannot just do that job, but it will help you be 
thinking, do I need to be disclosing this disability. 

Then what is even better is that it gives you examples of ways 
to accommodate.  So it basically in one package gives you all the 
information that you need to not just educate your consumer about 
the words that describe their disability, but also gives them educational   
information about how they can be accommodated.  It's a good teaching tool   
and a good marketing tool. 

Businesses love these kinds of fact sheets as well.  We have 
used this a lot with employers we work with. 
 
The Cornell University Website I've used as well.  That is very 
nice, if you go exactly to this very long address that we have 
shared with you and scroll down about halfway on the page.  You 
can print off in  .Pdf format a very nice looking twofold or 
two-page fact sheet, that describes disability, that describes 
common accommodation and that lists other resources. 

Again, a nice information fact sheet for businesses, or for your 
consumers.  I looked at the T-TAP Website recently and saw a nice 
how-to guide, and the kinds of questions you need to be focusing 
on when you discuss disability. 

I wanted to be sure you had those resources, so that you didn't 
have to reinvent the wheel, because they have some pretty darn 
good wheels. 

In our wrap-up, I want to give you a suggestion.  And that 
suggestion is to make this yours, you need to apply it. 
Our last two slides suggest to you that you select a disability 
for the individuals that you work with routinely.  What is a 
common disability that you know you are going to have to be 
describing at some point to a business?  Find a partner who is 
aware of the best practices that we have just shared with you, and 
plan on doing a role play for the disclosure techniques that we 
have taught, for your consumers, with that particular disability 
in mind.  Do them the way we have described.  You have a couple 
nice slides that you can come back to, and use as part of your 
role play. 

I strongly encourage you to do that, not too long after this 
session and the chat room questions that you might be asking. 

Once you have completed that role play, reverse roles.  It's 
interesting to watch how your partner who hopefully has seen this 
telecast will also deal with disclosure issues.  After you have 
both role played, ask each other for feedback.  The feedback is 
what helps the most.  It gives you the opportunity to hear and see 
what you have said, and it also gives you the opportunity to do 
better.  If you are really brave, videotape yourself.  There is 
nothing like seeing the words you choose, the way you disclose, 
and how you might improve that.
 
I hope this information will help you in the future.  As a 
member of the Department of Rehabilitation Services in the state 
of Alabama, I appreciate being invited.  And thank you so much for 
joining us today. 
       
   *****