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Specialist focuses on ability, not disability

  • Published
  • By Delia Hansen
  • Directorate of Personnel, Special Emphasis Program Manager, People with Disabilities
TINKER AIR FORCE BASE, Okla. --  Editor's note: This is the third in a four-part series featuring employees at Tinker Air Force Base with disabilities.

Shelia Jones, a T-56 Engine production management specialist in the 448th Supply Chain Management Wing, celebrates seven years of employment this month. She said she is grateful for the opportunity to serve the warfighter in a civilian capacity as a member of Team Tinker.

Ms. Jones had to have her right leg amputated after she was injured in a car accident in March 2000. In her daily living, she focuses on her abilities, highlighting her many diverse skills, rather than her disability which limits her only in a few areas.

"I prefer to think of myself as abled rather than disabled," she said. "It's a blessing to have an employer who supports the disabled."

Ms. Jones said the thing she loves most about her job is learning about the aircraft engines and how they operate. She works in a large group and gets along very well with her co-workers. As a PMS, Ms. Jones is responsible for providing material to the contractor for engine repair.

For several years, Ms. Jones served at Tinker as a mentor for high school students with disabilities. Under the Tinker Job Shadowing Program, high school students with disabilities were escorted to Tinker once a week and shadowed a Tinker employee. The Tinker employees who served as mentors usually had a disability matching the student's disability. Ms. Jones had the privilege of working with a variety of young people over the course of several years. She said what she liked most about the program was getting to know the students and understanding their disability.

Ms. Jones' advice on how to get along with people with disabilities is to "treat us like you would anyone else, we have value in the work place.

"Get to know us and discover all that we can do, she said. "People with disabilities have a lot to offer."

Ms. Jones grew up in Guthrie and graduated from Guthrie High. She enjoys playing softball, is a member of Langston University Alumni and Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority Inc., and attends church at Mt. Zion Church in Guthrie. She has two children -- Karlton, 24, and Chase, 14. She enjoys spending time in the community helping others. She also enjoys taking her son to his football, basketball, track and baseball games and on weekends, she often accompanies him on out-of-town trips for competitive basketball. When Ms. Jones is not with her son Chase, she likes to take swing-dance classes.