“The World Opened”: An Introduction to nAblement

Welcome to nAblement.com!

Pat Maher recipient of the 2009 Henry Betts Award at the Rehabilitation Institute of Chicago from SPR Companies on Vimeo.

People should be judged by what they contribute. People with disabilities don’t expect anything more than that and they don’t deserve anything less. Through our nAblement program, The SPR Companies provide career opportunities for professionals who have disabilities and want to work in the Information Technology Industry. We have four critical goals:

1. Awareness – promote the belief that an underutilized segment of the workforce can provide businesses with a competitive edge in hiring skilled, productive employees
2. Recruiting – identify people who have the right abilities to develop as IT professionals and consider technology and processes that will help assure their productivity in the workforce
3. Training –  provide training in technology and life skills necessary to be highly productive professionals
4. Placement – match professionals with employment opportunities in the SPR family of companies or within the industry at large

We’ve been pursuing these goals for more than 5 years and have proven results. As a cornerstone principle for the nAblement practice, we insist that our clients profit from this employment strategy. If in the pursuit of bottom-line results, an employee experiences the glory of self-reliance – bonus!

The Director of nAblement Services for SPR is Patrick Maher. Pat has always been a determined and motivated person. He acquired a spinal cord injury during his college days at the University of Illinois. Following his rehabilitation at the Rehabilitation Institute of Chicago, he returned to Illinois and completed his undergraduate degree in business. He enjoyed competing in wheelchair basketball as well as his exposure to so many successful students with disabilities. Pat pursued a sales career in the medical field and has had many successful and diverse positions that led him to his current role, leading our nAblement initiative since 2004. Most recently, Pat was honored with the 2009 Henry Betts, M.D. Employment Advocacy Award from the Rehabilitation Institute of Chicago. You will enjoy the content of his site as I have enjoyed the content of his character.

— Rob Figliulo, CEO of The SPR Companies

Video Transcription:

Rob Figliulo

As Pat would tell you, he feels very fortunate about his abilities he has as opposed to the disabilities he has when he compares it to other people who have experienced injuries and other people who have grown up with disabilities as opposed to acquiring through his life.  It was very easy for people to get past those questions they did have, like “Is this guy just your buddy?”  “Well no, this guy has got some kind of a career going already that could be very useful to us.”  “Is it because we should be doing the social conscious thing?”  “Well, ok maybe so that’s kind of a side benefit, but that’s not the point.”  So we got past those kinds of questions pretty quick.  We’re in the downtown Chicago area and the idea of accessibility and transportation and all those things, those are basically Pat’s challenges.  We didn’t hear much about those.  He takes care of those himself.

Interviewer:  What does Pat bring to the job?

Well, some of what I talked about of him having as a kid, he still has.  A lot of determination, a lot of insight into what other people need to get their objectives met.  Pat has really good perception to what other people need and what motivates other people.

Steve Luker

I think I was always interested in computers.  I am a web developer meaning that I program websites.  I test code that others have written.  Right now, I am in the process of making a website accessible for individuals who have trouble seeing the website.

Pat Maher

My name is Pat Maher.  I work as the managing director of nAblement, a delivery within SPR Companies, an IT consulting and solutions firm in Chicago, Milwaukee and Indianapolis.  I grew up in the Chicago area.  My wife and I live in the west suburbs of Chicago in Westmont currently.  I am originally from the Chicago area.  I grew up in the south suburbs.  I sustained a spinal cord injury when I was in my second year down at U of I.  I had transferred as a junior to Champaign.  It was in the spring so I was finishing my fourth semester in the college of business.  My injury was the result of a fall.  I’ll just refer to it as a typical college person accident.  Overnight, my life changed dramatically.

Interviewer:  You know, early on in high school, college, even after college, was there any individual or organization that helped encourage you or provide any type of guidance?

When I was injured in 1981, I was a student at the University of Illinois and it’s kind of peculiar because while preceding my injury I don’t believe I had any great appreciation for the high profile and support offered to students with disabilities down at U of I, and successive to my injury and rehabilitation in Chicago at the rehabilitation institute in returning to campus the world opened to me at U of I and my recognition of DRES, the Disability Rehabilitation Education Services, and then I began to understand the U of I was really perhaps one of the most prominent and earliest universities to support the success of its students with disabilities, including being the birth place of the National Wheelchair Basketball Association among other entities,  but more importantly supporting services for students’ academic success who happen to have a disability.  So it was incredibly opportunistic for me to return to Champaign to complete my degree in business, to play wheelchair basketball, to travel that following winter to the White House and to play at Temple University, and to be exposed to other students with disabilities who were studying everything from engineering to biochem to education and to begin to pattern myself after their success and recognize that, notwithstanding how dramatically my life had changed by incurring a spinal cord injury, there was great promise and I needed to drive that success and that promise by first and foremost achieving my degree.

There is a certain truth that a person with a disability in the work force can engender a little more teamwork and a sense of in pride in what others are doing because they may look at that young man or young woman and go “Well you know, Pat’s in here every day,  he’s working hard and driving his objectives.  Why shouldn’t I be doing the same?  Why can’t I be making a little more of an effort?”

I’m one guy who has now had the experience of living with a spinal cord injury for approaching 30 years, 29 years next spring.  That’s all I am, that’s who I am.  My experience is that if you will make the effort, my life experience to date has been, if you make the effort, if you are sincere, if you show the same passion and initiative you would have shown without that disability, that others will reach out and help support your success.

Tagged as: advocacy, henry betts, nAblement, patrick maher, rehabilitation institute of chicago, RIC