“Disability inclusion is not about making a certain group stand out, it is about making a workplace comfortable for everyone,” says Allison Chisenhall, chemical process engineer for BAE Systems. “For those with disabilities, both visible and not, every day in the workplace can be a challenge,” she says. “Whether it is a physical disability that challenges your capability to be hands-on in the field, or if it’s a learning disability that might make you feel different than the engineers around you, it can be discouraging to be different and have these setbacks.”
Chisenhall speaks from experience. She was diagnosed with attention deficit hyperactive disorder (ADHD) at a young age. However, she has used her unique vantage as a female engineer with an invisible disability to champion the cause of workplace inclusion. Recently, she was selected for induction into the Susan M. Daniels Disability Mentoring Hall of Fame by the National Disability Mentoring Coalition. The Hall of Fame was created to raise awareness about the importance of mentoring for individuals with disabilities and to honor those mentors.
The fact that Chisenhall received a BS in chemical and biomolecular engineering from Johns Hopkins Univ. speaks to...
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