{"id":67668,"date":"2022-12-01T22:28:36","date_gmt":"2022-12-01T22:28:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.commvault.com\/?p=67668"},"modified":"2022-12-02T14:28:47","modified_gmt":"2022-12-02T14:28:47","slug":"international-day-of-persons-with-disabilities","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.commvault.com\/blogs\/international-day-of-persons-with-disabilities","title":{"rendered":"Celebrating International Day of Persons with Disabilities\u00a0"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
I\u2019m proud to be the Executive Sponsor of our CapAbilities ERG, an employee group whose mission is to raise awareness and break down the bias of workplace issues that affect people with disabilities and\/or caregivers of those with a disability. We recently had a Courageous Conversation virtual event, in partnership with our Family Support Network EAG, on managing your career while caring for a loved one with a disability. I was fortunate to be able to share my own story with the support of Commvault. In honor of International Day of Persons with Disabilities on December 3rd<\/sup>, I wanted to share my story here as well.<\/p>\n\n\n\n My daughter Emily, now 18 years old, was born with Goldenhar syndrome, a rare craniofacial condition. She was born missing her entire lower jaw, and her craniofacial problems have required her to have more than 40 surgeries to date. While she\u2019s come such a long way since the day she was born, Goldenhar syndrome is something she will continue to live with throughout her entire life.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I\u2019ve been at Commvault for almost 18 years, so Emily\u2019s journey began within my first year at Commvault. When Emily was born, I basically had to mature overnight. And I have to admit, Emily\u2019s story was not something I shared immediately with my colleagues. There were countless times I took conference calls from hospitals and waiting rooms, and nobody knew. But as I matured professionally and became more comfortable, I went from hiding Emily\u2019s story to advocating for it \u2013 Emily\u2019s story eventually became a part of me at Commvault.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Our job as parents of children with disabilities is to give them the opportunity to have the best life possible, and that\u2019s something my wife, Nancy, and I have always focused on. It\u2019s all about advocacy \u2013 when you start with advocacy, then change will happen. And over the years, as we continued to advocate for Emily, we also instilled within her the importance of advocating for herself. And moreover, to never, ever, stop. Part of Emily\u2019s early advocacy outreach included Bring Your Child to Work Day at our headquarters office multiple times early in her teen years. Emily brought her service dog and shared her story with our Vaulters. She loved doing it, and this opportunity jumpstarted her own advocacy journey, as she began to present at schools and talk to students about her story. Over the years, Emily\u2019s mission has been to spread awareness about kindness and acceptance to kids of all ages by doing presentations live on-site, through video conferences, and on social media. I couldn\u2019t be more proud of her.<\/p>\n\n\n\n