DLA Aviation advocate highlights employees with disabilities

Courtesy Photo | DLA Aviation chemical engineer Noel Romey, visually impaired since birth, demonstrates the technological equipment that enables him to perform his job at a multicultural event Oct. 4. Photo by Jacqueline Girard  

FORT BELVOIR, VA, UNITED STATES

10.17.2011

Story by Dianne Ryder 

Defense Logistics Agency   

FORT BELVOIR, Va. -- The theme of this year’s National Disability Employment Awareness Month, which takes place in October, is "Profit by Investing in Workers with Disabilities." A Defense Logistics Agency Aviation chemical engineer who has been visually impaired since birth wants to ensure DLA managers heed the theme’s message.

“[Investing in workers with disabilities] helps DLA to achieve their goals. One of [the] biggest goals, or one of the new goals, is to hire more people with disabilities,” Noel Romey said. “Being able to see and know people who are disabled … helps supervisors to understand that hiring somebody with a disability is not a big risk and that it can be successful.”

The ability to remain flexible and adaptable is crucial for supervisors who hire employees with disabilities, Romey said.

“I’m totally blind, and my supervisor has been very flexible,” Romey said. “The biggest thing that DLA Aviation and DLA as a whole have done for me is to be flexible with my accommodations.”

Romey’s supervisors have given him the equipment he needs to perform his job, he said. His laptop has a screen reader that verbally reads what’s on his computer screen to him and also has a Braille display.

“They’re willing to listen to what I might need, give me extra time to get particular assignments done [and] advocate for getting equipment that I need,” he said.

Romey said he also has osteoporosis, so he appreciates that DLA includes telework as an accommodation.

“It means that I don’t have to take as much sick time. It means that I can continue to be productive,” he said. “It’s great for the government, and it’s great for me.”

Romey’s supervisor also allows him time to serve as co-chair on a committee that addresses the needs of employees with disabilities and searches for ways to increase recruitment, he said.

“We try to be an information hub,” he said. “But first and foremost, our main goal is to get the number of [DLA employees] with a targeted disability up to the goal, which is 3 percent.”

A “targeted disability” is one that the government has placed a special emphasis on or considers severe. Examples include deafness, blindness, missing extremities, paralysis, convulsive disorders, mental retardation and mental illness.

Currently, about 1.6 percent of DLA employees have a targeted disability, said Eric Spanbauer, DLA’s disability program manager.

Members of Romey’s committee have visited universities to inform students with disabilities about DLA employment opportunities, Romey said.

“People with disabilities don’t really realize what a great place DLA is to work,” he said. “When people read job descriptions on [the USA Jobs website], they don’t always realize that these are jobs they can apply for.”

People with disabilities can obtain a certification letter that allows them to apply to government positions through noncompetitive appointments under Schedule A hiring authority, Romey said.

“But we’ve still got a long way to go because there are still people who don’t know what Schedule A is,” he said.

Romey has also addressed the DLA Executive Board about technological advances and reasonable accommodations for employees with disabilities.

Romey served as a member of the DLA Reasonable Accommodations/Compliance Workgroup and participated in a briefing to the DLA Alignment Group in which he spoke about 508 Compliance issues.

Section 508 of the Rehabilitation Act requires that federal agencies' electronic and information technology be accessible to people with disabilities.

“Some of the workgroup's recommendations were to create a DLA Disability Advisory Council to talk about DLA disability issues at the enterprise level,” he said. “We also gave some recommendations on how we could improve access to DLA [technological] systems for people with disabilities.”

DLA Director Navy Vice Adm. Alan Thompson approved 18 of the 19 recommendations presented by the workgroup, he said.

Working with headquarters organizations has been helpful, but there’s more to be done, Romey said.

“I would like to continue to dialogue with the people at headquarters and other [DLA] installations so that the people who have disabilities can network and we can make a concerted effort to get change accomplished,” he said.

Romey said he would like all non-disabled employees to join in efforts to raise awareness of employees with disabilities, and he added that employees often receive this message better from those who understand the challenges firsthand.

“When we as employees go out there and try to educate, sometimes they are a little bit more receptive to us,” he said.

• Date Taken: 10.17.2011
• Date Posted: 10.18.2011 10:48
• Story ID: 78663
• Location: FORT BELVOIR, VA, US