She welcomes me with a firm handshake and a warm pleasant smile that doesn’t fade throughout the course of our encounter. Marisol Casanova, Coordinator of the Crime Victims and Witnesses Assistance Program of Puerto Rico’s Department of Justice, is one of those people who shines when she speaks. She projects a sincerely positive outlook on life, something that has helped her succeed professionally and academically despite hardships which would defeat and discourage many people.

Acquiring a Disability
Marisol was born in the Bronx, New York, of Puerto Rican parents. At the age of four, her mother relocated to Puerto Rico. Eight years later, Marisol was traveling on a school bus in the town of Rio Grande when the unthinkable happened. The bus, full of school children, went off the road and into a deep cliff.

While in the hospital recovering from the accident, Marisol did not know the full consequences of her injury. No one told her. One day, a doctor left his medical notes within Marisol’s reach, and she read the notes and discovered that the accident had left her totally paralyzed from the waist down.

She believes that due to her youth, the impact of such news was not as shattering as it would have been for an adult. “The sense of responsibility of a minor is not as great as that of an adult. Thus, the impact of a disability is not as great as it would be in an adult who has a spouse, a job or children,” she explains. “It is when you reach adulthood and face the everyday experiences and situations that any adult faces that one truly experiences the impact of a disability. But my disability has not hindered me from living a ‘normal life.’ It was a matter of accepting reality. There was no option other than accepting and adapting to what had happened.”

A Career in Law Enforcement
With a bachelor’s degree in psychology, a master’s degree in public administration, and a solid work history, talking about disability is far less interesting to Marisol than discussing her varied interests. She lives a full life dedicated to her career.

Marisol says she decided to go into law enforcement because she “never liked to see injustice.” She explains that she gets satisfaction out of helping those who really need it.

“This job is a lot of work,” Marisol says. She explains that the crime rate in Puerto Rico is the higher than in other U.S. jurisdictions, and any person or agency working with assistance to crime victims probably has a heavy work load. “In Puerto Rico, the Department of Justice is the main agency which provides services and assistance to crime victims, unlike in the United States, where many of these services are provided by community-based organizations. We have many community-based organizations, but they are mostly directed toward victims of domestic violence. We work and assist all types of crime victims, so a lot of responsibility falls to us to secure the physical safety and emotional protection of the victim.”

Marisol coordinates a program that provides direct services including emotional support, providing escorts for court appearances, community referrals to psychologists, and arranging individuals’ health services and shelter. One of Marisol’s professional goals is to increase and improve victims’ rights. This is something she is positioned to do from her position in the Crime Victims and Witness Assistance program.

Marisol’s Take on Barriers to Employment
Marisol is a focused professional who plays down the barriers related to her disability she has faced in the working world. “Within months of graduating college, I secured a job as employment program coordinator for the Movement to Achieve Independent Living, a program which promotes independent living for persons living with physical and mental disabilities. I can’t honestly say that I faced great difficulties in the area of employment. They’ve mostly been physical barriers, like buildings with no ramps, and people parking their vehicles in the spaces reserved for the disabled. Being unable to move limits someone a lot, but in my lifetime I’ve seen some improvement on physical accessibility in Puerto Rico,” she says. Marisol recently requested an accommodation for the first time in her career – more flexible working hours. Her request was immediately approved.

She recognizes that people with disabilities can also face significant attitudinal barriers when seeking employment. “In my experience as an employment coordinator, it is more difficult for people with developmental disabilities or mental health disabilities to obtain employment than people with physical disabilities. This is simply because there is more stigma and fear about those kinds of disabilities. Recruiters, supervisors or colleagues may not be sure how to interact or behave in certain situations, and feel awkward as a result. Unfortunately, this may be a disincentive to hire people with cognitive or mental health disabilities, instead of educating employees about these kinds of disabilities to reduce fear among staff.”

Her professional advice to others is a message of personal accountability. “What we want to accomplish, regardless of whether you have or don’t have a disability, will be determined by ourselves, not by others. We all have to face and overcome obstacles to achieve things in life. If we allow disability to hold us back, we limit ourselves even more than the limitations we encounter.”

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