Dorothee volunteered for many years at Swedish Hospital.   She did not find the work fulfilling and wanted to do something more meaningful. Dorothee always made it clear that she wanted paid employment and, to everyone around her, it was evident that she would not be satisfied with anything less! The C3 project, a cross-county collaborative project (King and Snohomish Counties) with the intent to brainstorm paid jobs around people with the most significant disabilities, started in late 2006. Dorothee was one of the King County participants.

When asked about people who helped her get her job, Dorothee said that Jenn and Amabel from PROVAIL Employment helped her look for available jobs, Gabe and Resa from PROVAIL worked on worksite evaluations and assistive technology modifications, Ray Dimino was her DVR Counselor, and Gina and Kim also from PROVAIL Employment helped.  

Abby Cooper, who provided technical assistance on job development for the C3 project, worked with Dorothee’s team. “The discovery process revealed her strong interest and desire to contribute to a church community. We went to the Executive Pastor Tim Snow, who is very connected with area churches, to initially learn about the religious community and get ideas about job possibilities. He was very interested in learning more about Dorothee and we presented her portfolio. The weird thing, which none of us knew about, was that Dorothee’s parents had been very active in his church when they were alive. He became very committed to hiring her after that.” It took a few months to develop the job, but soon after, Dorothee secured paid employment - four hours a week at ten dollars an hour!

  

“I am new to the community,” says Heather Young, an employee at Microsoft. “I have a nine month old with Down Syndrome, and I immediately reached out to the ARC of King County, the parent coalition, other parents, and the web looking for information.  They have really made a difference as we began our journey over the last few months.  Then a few weeks ago I found information about this year’s World Down Syndrome Day celebration, marking the 50^th anniversary of the discovery of the extra chromosome which causes Down Syndrome. I noticed there were no events scheduled in our area.”  And so, with three weeks notice, she organized a World Down Syndrome Day event at Microsoft on March 30^th.  “If you see a need and have the ability to help, you help,” she says.

“I had worked with the Accessibility Team at Microsoft in the past, and made a couple calls to see what it would take to set something up.  The more calls I made, the more ‘yes’s I got.  Everyone helped.  Soon the event was paid for, people gave their time to coordinate, arrange, and set up the Inclusive Innovation Showroom for the students and make it interesting for them.  In addition to students and parents, we had multiple people from the Arc or King County and several employment vendors join us.  We also had a few other Microsoft team members who volunteered to help during the event as we took people on the tours - their help was vital. We couldn’t have done it without them.” 

“Since these students often hear from parents, teachers, etc., but not from their peers, I reached out to several local adults with Down Syndrome who are working and had them share their experiences with the students – what the transition from school to work was like and what they like about their jobs.  We didn’t over-schedule the event, and left a few open times on the agenda.  The connections and networking that took place during those spaces of time were amazing.  It could not have gone better.  Over 20 students attended - 65 people total.  Some people even drove over from Sequim to attend!”

“We had Richard Haines from the Lake Washington School District’s Transition Academy share some guidance on preparing to transition from school to work, as well as a hands-on tour of the showroom which is the size of a medium-size conference room with three cubicles on one wall.  1/3 of the room is set up like a teenager’s bedroom, and 2/3 like a living room simulating school and home environments. The sample technology is set up for the way that people with low vision, blindness, mobility, and a variety of other access issues would use them.  The technology is not just Microsoft technology, but includes a variety of devices from other manufacturers.  It was set up to show that even the smallest things can make the biggest differences in people’s lives.  For example, there are keyboards with 1x1 inch keys that have high contrast yellow and black lettering to make it easier to see the letters.  There are other keyboards set up not as QWERTY but ABC format.  Other items included trackers which allow people to control the computer with a dot on their forehead, touch screens, a preview of Windows 7 which allows you with a keystroke to magnify the screen and zoom in.  Technology doesn’t have to be expensive to make people more able to work and be independent, and the examples that we shared were things that these students could easily obtain.  Most of the items there were at most $100-200.  We gave the students and parents handouts with lists of the items, manufacturers, and websites for the items they had seen. 

We just wanted to show what is possible and make them VIPs for the day.  At the end of the day we gave the students backpacks and gym bags, copies of Office Pro, and other items.  It went very well, and the students had so much fun,” she says.  “One mom turned to me during the showroom tour and said, ‘Best field trip ever!’”