Navigating Barriers at Work: Exploring the Perceptions of Employees with Disabilities

To maintain successful employment, people with disabilities must often navigate attitudinal barriers that result in bias, conflict, and discriminatory treatment on the part of their supervisors and coworkers. Two studies were designed to investigate the idea that employees’ perceptions of and response to these types of barriers depend, in part, on their beliefs about their own self-competence, ability to cope with problems, and estimations of their relationships with others, particularly supervisors, in the workplace. Two models were developed and tested to assess how employees’ perceived potential at work, as measured by both self-judgment and lifespace data, as well as an ability-based measure of personal intelligence, related to their experience of attitudinal barriers. Survey respondents were 1,631 adults aged 18 to 64 who were currently or recently employed and who experienced one or more disabilities or disabling health conditions. Results showed that occupational self-efficacy, coping style, personal intelligence, and perceptions of person-focused and task-focused supervisor support were all useful in understanding employees’ with disabilities perceived potential at work and its associations with attitudinal barriers, decisions whether or not to disclose disability at work, and subjective work success. Conclusions address issues related to measurement and application to workplace policy and intervention. To maintain successful employment, people with disabilities must often navigate attitudinal barriers that result in bias, conflict, and discriminatory treatment on the part of their supervisors and coworkers. Two studies were designed to investigate the idea that employees’ perceptions of and response to these types of barriers depend, in part, on their beliefs about their own self-competence, ability to cope with problems, and estimations of their relationships with others, particularly supervisors, in the workplace. Two models were developed and tested to assess how employees’ perceived potential at work, as measured by both self-judgment and lifespace data, as well as an ability-based measure of personal intelligence, related to their experience of attitudinal barriers. Survey respondents were 1,631 adults aged 18 to 64 who were currently or recently employed and who experienced one or more disabilities or disabling health conditions. Results showed that occupational self-efficacy, coping style, personal intelligence, and perceptions of person-focused and task-focused supervisor support were all useful in understanding employees’ with disabilities perceived potential at work and its associations with attitudinal barriers, decisions whether or not to disclose disability at work, and subjective work success. Conclusions address issues related to measurement and application to workplace policy and intervention

Getting the message: The adaptive potential of interpersonal judgments

According to the Social Message Model, interpersonal judgments are transactions in which judges convey important social messages to the individuals they evaluate (the targets); targets can then respond to the judgments in more or less adaptive ways. We argue that judges’ opinions emerge from their current concerns, be it to promote their own well-being, or to foster group cohesion. Targets of judgments can best interpret the meaning of a judgment they receive by understanding the judge’s concerns, competence of the judge, and other qualities of the transaction. We suggest that judges and targets who are better able to reason about the judgment process are likely to change their behaviors more adaptively than people less able to reason in this area

New England Regional Health Equity Profile & Call to Action

Good health is a foundation that allows people to participate in the most important aspects of life. The purpose of the New England Regional Health Equity Profile and Call to Action is to identify where differences in good health exist among racial, ethnic, and disability populations in New England as well as foster policy, programmatic, and individual action to combat health disparities and achieve health equity for racial, ethnic, disability and underserved populations in New England. The report was written by the members of the New England Regional Health Equity Council (RHEC), one of ten regional health equity councils formed by the Office of Minority Health at the federal Department of Health and Human Services. The mission of the New England RHEC is to achieve health equity for all through collective action in the New England region. The New England RHEC’s vision is to achieve health equity through cross-sector interaction and collaboration of activities and resources to optimize health for all where they live, learn, work, and play. The New England Regional Health Equity Profile and Call to Action uses a “social determinants of health” approach. A social determinants of health approach focuses on understanding how the intersection of the social and physical environments; individual behaviors; and access to education, income, healthy foods and health care, impacts a wide range of health and quality-of-life outcomes. The report examines the following topics: Socio-Economic Status, Healthy Eating and Physical Activity, Risky Behaviors, Cultural Competency in Health Care, Health Care Access, Health Outcomes, and the Intersection of Race/Ethnicity & Disability. It also includes a description of State Health Equity Activities and a Regional Call to Action

Conditional Myh9 and Myh10 inactivation in adult mouse renal epithelium results in progressive kidney disease

Actin-associated nonmuscle myosin II (NM2) motor proteins play critical roles in a myriad of cellular functions, including endocytosis and organelle transport pathways. Cell type–specific expression and unique subcellular localization of the NM2 proteins, encoded by the Myh9 and Myh10 genes, in the mouse kidney tubules led us to hypothesize that these proteins have specialized functional roles within the renal epithelium. Inducible conditional knockout (cKO) of Myh9 and Myh10 in the renal tubules of adult mice resulted in progressive kidney disease. Prior to overt renal tubular injury, we observed intracellular accumulation of the glycosylphosphatidylinositol-anchored protein uromodulin (UMOD) and gradual loss of Na+ K+ 2Cl– cotransporter from the apical membrane of the thick ascending limb epithelia. The UMOD accumulation coincided with expansion of endoplasmic reticulum (ER) tubules and activation of ER stress and unfolded protein response pathways in Myh9&10-cKO kidneys. We conclude that NM2 proteins are required for localization and transport of UMOD and loss of function results in accumulation of UMOD and ER stress–mediated progressive renal tubulointerstitial disease. These observations establish cell type–specific role(s) for NM2 proteins in regulation of specialized renal epithelial transport pathways and reveal the possibility that human kidney disease associated with MYH9 mutations could be of renal epithelial origin

Tight Junction-Related Barrier Contributes to the Electrophysiological Asymmetry across Vocal Fold Epithelium

Electrophysiological homeostasis is indispensable to vocal fold hydration. We investigate tight junction (TJ)-associated components, occludin and ZO-1, and permeability with or without the challenge of a permeability-augmenting agent, histamine. Freshly excised ovine larynges are obtained from a local abattoir. TJ markers are explored via reverse transcriptase polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR). Paracellular permeabilities are measured in an Ussing system. The gene expression of both TJ markers is detected in native ovine vocal fold epithelium. Luminal histamine treatment significantly decreases transepithelial resistance (TER) (N = 72, p<0.01) and increases penetration of protein tracer (N = 35, p<0.001), respectively, in a time-, and dose-dependent fashion. The present study demonstrates that histamine compromises TJ-related paracellular barrier across vocal fold epithelium. The detection of TJ markers indicates the existence of typical TJ components in non-keratinized, stratified vocal fold epithelium. The responsiveness of paracellular permeabilities to histamine would highlight the functional significance of this TJ-equivalent system to the electrophysiological homeostasis, which, in turn, regulates the vocal fold superficial hydration