Richard Pimentel

A Day With Richard Pimentel:
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On Thursday, November 18^th, Shannon Dalton and I had the privilege of spending the day with Dr. Richard Pimentel, a nationally renowned expert on Disability Management, Job Recruitment, Job Retention, Americans with Disabilities Act, and Attitude Change. He was a driving force behind the passing of the ADA, as well as a pioneer in the disability job development field. Dr. Pimentel was brought in to share his life story with the community, as well as to educate us on his job development philosophy.

Richard Pimentel always had the gift of public speaking, but he never had anything worth talking about. That all changed after coming home from Vietnam with hearing loss and tinnitus, a constant ringing in the ears. Instead of helping a Vietnam Veteran achieve his goals at home, the government dismissed his dreams of college and public speaking, claiming that his hearing loss and tinnitus would make him go insane. Richard was not about to accept that fate, and instead chose to use his speaking abilities to advance disability rights.

Richard spent the morning with us as we went out into the community with one of our clients. I am happy to report that with Richard’s help, we secured two interviews with well known businesses. According to Dr. Pimentel, the experience gained during an interview is invaluable, even if it doesn’t result in a job. The hardest part is getting your foot in the door, and an interview does just that.

After our visit to the mall, Richard discussed public perception of persons with disabilities, and the lessons that can be learned. Dr. Pimentel shared a story that took place a year after he started doing job development with persons with disabilities. A job seeker entered his office and handed him a tablet on which was written “I cannot speak. I will have to conduct this interview using this notepad.” Richard wrote back that it would be fine, and then called his receptionist to inform that this interview would take longer than usual and to clear the calendar for the next two hours. During that time, they had an intense interview, writing questions and answers back and forth. Richard knew the kind of work he wanted and was coming up with a list of employers to contact. At the end of the interview, Dr. Pimentel wrote that he knew all he needed to know to start contacting employers on his behalf. The job seeker then wrote back “I am sorry but I cannot work with you.” Richard wrote back asking why, and he replied “If you know so much about me, why have you been writing questions to me for the last two hours? I do not have a problem hearing.” He then went on to write that he could not entrust his job search to a counselor who was dumb enough to assume he was deaf and who was not smart enough to try to test or clarify the assumption (Pimentel 101).

“Never judge a book by its cover.” This is something we all have learned from an early age, but it’s much easier said than done, especially when it applies to our perception of persons with disabilities. As Richard’s story above so clearly illustrates, even those of us working in the disability services field can be guilty of judging someone’s ability before we gather all the facts needed to make an accurate evaluation. A professional evaluation depends on the quality of communication. By lowering the quality of communication, we make it impossible to properly evaluate an individual’s abilities.

For more information on Dr. Pimentel and his life, check out the movie “Music Within” starring Ron Livingston and Michael Sheen. For more information on job development, check out the book Working With People With Disabilities by Dr. Richard Pimentel. 

“There are no good jobs for persons with disabilities. But there are persons with disabilities who are good for jobs.” – Richard Pimentel

Pimentel, Richard. Working With People With Disabilities. Milt Wright & Associates, Inc., 2001

This is part 1 of 6 of Dr. Pimentel's talk. Please check out the other parts here.