I Am Able event

The power of living and working with a disability

Around 50 colleagues gathered in the J&J R-building in Leiden on November 28th, for a live event organized by the Alliance for Diverse Abilities (ADA) Netherlands Chapter. The three external speakers Marianne Nijnuis (‘De Rollende Redenaar’), Martine Baadenhuijsen and Joost van Loon had put together an inspiring and interactive program for us. The program aimed to contribute to ADA’s vision to ‘Inspire and sustain a culture that values mental and physical diversity at J&J’ and based on the feedback from attendees after the event, it surely did!

Keynote speakers

The three speakers started off by sharing their personal stories and anecdotes of how they learnt to deal with their disability, how to deal with prejudice, and – importantly – how to embrace and use the power of their disability.

Marianne

Marianne, also known as ‘The Rolling Speaker’ (‘De Rollende Redenaar’), shared her personal journey becoming chronically ill, then further disabled. But her focus lay on how she still was able to get back up, which lessons can be learnt from that, and why businesses should employ people with disabilities. 

Martine

Martine, an entrepreneur in the field of communication and Founder of ‘All Inclusive At Work’ shared a nice example of this when she described how her visual impairment means her colleagues have to describe to her the pictures they chose when they created certain promotional materials, forcing them to really think well about the reasons they chose them. 

Joost

The attendees were clearly impressed when Joost, HR program manager for inclusive employment at ASML, demonstrated some of the assistive technology solutions he uses on his computer and smartphone, to support him in handling emails or reading news items, for example. His ability to listen to articles read out loud at lightning speed amazed everyone!

Interactive workshop

The second part of the program was a workshop, in which all participants were paired up and tasked to find the person who was ‘their other half’. The added challenge being that 80% of the participants were also assigned to have a visible or invisible disability. The workshop allowed us to experience diversity and what it is like to collaborate in a space where everyone is different, people react differently and how to work together to achieve a common goal. It was a very dynamic and interactive session with great feedback from attendees! 

“The assignment: find your other half!”

We ended with a fun interactive quiz, followed by lunch together to connect and discuss what we had just experienced.

Feedback from attendees

“I appreciated learning that people with disabilities can be even more productive than those without.”


“It opened conversations with management to talk about my disabilities and what I need to do my job, in a normal way without crossing my boundaries.”


“People with physical disabilities are very good at performing higher functions and bring qualities.”

On behalf of the ADA Volunteers who supported the I Am Able 2024 event: Maaike de Gier, David Aparicio, Rachel Kuit, Alice Stam, Loes Evers, Maria Tsitouridou, Maria Bourmpoula, Sara Cruz, Vera Fernandes, Judith Ruijter

“How can we all become more inclusive? Ask the golden question: What do you need?”

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