Like so many who fight for the rights of those with food allergies and food-related disease, Mary C. Vargas found her calling when her youngest son was diagnosed with food allergies and celiac disease. Unlike most of us, Mary also is a founding partner with Stein & Vargas LLP, a civil rights law firm committed to the principle that all people have full and equal access to all parts of American society.
Many individuals with disabilities use service dog to help with daily living activities like pulling a wheelchair, pushing elevator buttons, retrieving medication or phones and detecting the presence of an allergen. Understand what you need to know about accommodating service animals at events.
Some attendees may need to bring another person — Personal Care Assistant — with them to your events to help them participate fully — do you have a policy for that?
Sugar, like caffeine, is a go-to picker-upper for most meeting attendees. Hang around the edges of any meeting break buffet table and I guarantee that, sooner or later, you’ll hear someone half-jokingly talk about learning how to ride the caffeine and sugar highs just right to avoid jitters on one end, and the inevitable crash on the other. But it’s no joke for attendees who live with diabetes, for whom soaring or guttering blood sugar levels can be potentially life threatening.
October is Disability Employment Awareness Month – a time where we recognize the contributions of people with disabilities in our workforce. It’s also the opportune time to educate ourselves on how to be more accommodating for our colleagues and coworkers who may have a disability. It’s been 10 years since the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) was amended in 2008, but educating employers and employees alike about the changes has proven to be a long and difficult process. Whether a CEO, an HR professional, an event professional or a manager, you should know that individuals with food allergies, celiac disease…
How does the ADA and Food & Beverage Intersect? In the August 2018 issue of The Meeting Professional, Tracy discusses ADA and food. Since the Americans with Disabilities Act was amended in 2008, individuals with food allergies, celiac disease and other medical conditions that require them to eat a specific way, are now provided civil rights protections under the disabilities law. The Amendment added such words as eating, breathing, cardiovascular system, immune system to the list of major life activities that, if affected in any way, requires a person to alter “normal” activities — like eating peanuts, gluten or grapefruit…
We know what disabilities are, and I discussed invisible disabilities in, “Thrive! With Invisible Disabilities, Part One.” In part two, I want to chat about some of the behaviors and concepts that will help illustrate dietary restrictions and invisible disabilities. As a reminder, invisible disabilities are also called hidden disabilities because they are restrictions that aren’t clearly visible or apparent. Food allergies and intolerances are included when we talk about invisible disabilities because, just like asthma, arthritis, and other conditions, diseases, and dysfunctions, we can’t see the challenges those with invisible disabilities may be experiencing. The Americans with Disabilities Act…
As my clients, colleagues and followers know, my main focus as a meeting and event planner is ensuring the food is safe, healthy, delicious and inclusive. But for employees of a company, the food and beverage they are fed at conferences, special events and retreats is just a fraction of what they will consume while on the job. And it is the role of human resources professionals to ensure that all employees can eat safely. That’s why I’m devoting a series of blog posts to educating HR departments about what they can—and must—do when feeding employees. I say “must” because…
My good friend Dr. Tyra Hilliard, PhD, JD, CMP, is a meetings industry attorney, college professor, speaker and writer. In her latest article for Plan Your Meetings, “Food Allergies and the ADA,” she explains how and why the Americans with Disabilities Act was amended in 2008 to be more inclusive and broader in scope than the original and now incorporates eating and breathing as major life activities. She and I will be talking about this together next week at IMEX America on Tuesday, October 15 at 3:00 p.m. in our session “Food, Risk & Liability: More Than Menu Planning.”
