Michigan Rehabilitation Services promotes National Disability Workplace Awareness Month

RUMLEY, Mich. (WLUC) - Michigan Rehabilitation Services is recognizing the contributions employees with disabilities make every day as October is National Disability Workplace Awareness Month.

Dan Bahrman is a farmer in Rumley, Michigan. He suffered from a knee injury during a car accident in 2005.

“Since then, it’s been a life-changing accident and event,” Bahrman said.

Because he was an active farmer at the time, he decided to take part in the AgrAbility Program. Roy Devalle, MRS Marquette District Manager said the program’s goal is to keep Michigan farmers with disabilities farming.

“Recommendations are made in terms of assistive technology or equipment to benefit the farmer and the final step is to work with the farmer to operate it safely and keep the farm operational and productive,” Devalle said.

Bahrman said many changes were made around his farm to help with limited mobility.

“They welded steps on tractors for me, they put cement into a barn for us. They did a lot of things to make things easier and safer for myself as well as the other people who work on the farm,” Bahrman said.

Tasha Weber, MRS Marquette Site Manager, was involved in the process of helping Bahrman. She believes assisting farmers through the program impacts the entire community.

“The sugar beets are used by all the locals and the hay that people are purchasing so it’s not always necessarily what’s in the grocery stores but what our local communities are using for their own properties,” Weber said.

Bahrman urges other farmers who have disabilities to contact MRS.

“They’re kind of a hidden gem because people really don’t know a whole lot about them, and I didn’t. They come up with very creative ways to make things easier for people with disabilities to do things,” Bahrman said.

More information on the AgrAbility Program can be found here.