In recognition of October, National Disability Employment Awareness Month, the Kessler Foundation, headquartered in West Orange, NJ, is encouraging people, particularly those with disabilities, to share the limitations that they have overcome and the new abilities they have developed as a result, on the foundation’s Facebook page.

Roger DeRose, president and CEO of the Kessler Foundation, says, “Everyone has limitations to overcome. To do so, they find new abilities. People with disabilities are no different.” Much of the time, society focuses on disabilities rather than abilities, DeRose adds. To this end, Kessler is offering an inclusive forum where individuals are able to emphasize their own abilities and encourage others to do their same. “The goal is to connect with people—with or without disabilities—to share their common experiences in overcoming limitations,” DeRose says.

The Kessler Foundation encourages people to use the Kessler Foundation Facebook page as a platform to share their stories of empowerment and newly discovered abilities, as well as to learn the stories of others. 

Kessler highlights actor Daryl “Chill” Mitchell as an example of an individual who sought out new abilities rather than focusing on his disabilities. Mitchell was involved in a motorcycle accident that left him paralyzed from the waist down. Mitchell went on to expand his fame in both film and TV, and then he followed both up with stints as a director and producer. Mitchell also went on to win an NCAAP Image Award in 2010 for a starring role on the comedic series Brothers.

According to the Kessler Foundation, Mitchell is a disability advocate that it has come to work closely with in order to heighten awareness of the abilities that people with disabilities can wield. Mitchell also introduced his own organization, the Daryl Mitchell Foundation, designed to assist minority individuals with spinal cord injuries (SCIs).

The Kessler Foundation Research Center works to facilitate care through rehabilitation research about improving function and quality of life in patients with SCIs, brain injury, stroke, multiple sclerosis, and other chronic neurological conditions.

For more information visit [removed]http://www.facebook.com/Kessler Foundation[/removed] or http://www.kesslerfoundation.org.

Source: Kessler Foundation