Windmills Training Program
“Changing The Perception Of Abilities”
What Is The Windmills Training Program?
Windmills is a highly interactive disability inclusion training that empowers and equips employment professionals to understand the business community and help businesses to become more inclusive of individuals.
This program is based on the concept that attitudes about persons with disabilities are instrumental in forming behaviors toward individuals with disabilities.
If supervisors change the attitudes they have about persons with disabilities, they will be more open to changing their own behaviors. The Windmills program will promote the employment and advancement of persons with disabilities for a more supportive and equitable environment.
UPCOMING TRAIN-THE-TRAINER:
September 15, 17, 22, 24, 25, 2026, Registration is Open! Now five days with added Practicum!
Five-day interactive training with breaks, 9:30am-2pm Pacific Time, 12:30pm-5pm Eastern Time
Interested in a future cohort? Join the waitlist here and be the first to know.
2026-2027 Windmills Trainer Cohorts
January 2027 - January 19, 21, 26, 28, 29
May 2027 - May 4, 6, 11, 13, 14
September 2027- September 14, 16, 21, 23, 24
An invitation to the disability conversation
The Windmills program was created by Dr. Richard Pimentel, renowned disability advocate and the subject of the 2007 biopic Music Within. The name "Windmills" is drawn from a famous passage in Don Quixote:
“Those that you see over there, with the long arms, are not giants, but windmills.”
This metaphor challenges us to reflect: how often do we misjudge what we fear or don’t understand? In the same way Don Quixote mistakes windmills for giants, we often perceive disability through a distorted lens—shaped by uncertainty, stereotypes, and fear.
Windmills training offers a powerful mindset shift:
We are not facing giants—we are meeting people.
This program equips trainers to help others:
Replace fear with curiosity
See through assumptions
Recognize strength in every body and mind
It’s not about what someone can’t do.
It’s about seeing their full humanity—and making room for their brilliance to thrive.
Who Is It For?
Human Resources Professionals
Disability Inclusion Professionals
VOC REHAB counselors
VOC REHAB Business Specialists
Rehabilitation Administrators
Job Developers and Counselors
Community-based organizations serving individuals with disabilities
Employers committed to disability inclusion
As a disability inclusion program, offering the Windmills training program continues to effectively shift perspectives for the following groups:
Business Community
Rehabilitation Administrators
Job Developers and Counselors
Community-based organizations serving individuals with disabilities
Government agencies at the local, state, and national levels
Advocacy groups
Academic institutions from elementary through post-secondary
Why Attend?
Become certified to deliver the Windmills program
Learn how to deliver Windmills virtually or in person
Reduce employer fears, biases and stereotypes
Increase employers’ confidence in hiring, supervising and promoting persons with disabilities
Help employers see the strengths of people with ALL abilities
Help employers understand how their own attitudinal barriers keep them from recognizing the benefits of diverse experiences and abilities
Develop an action plan to implement Windmills to employers in your community
What people are saying
How Can “Windmills” Help My Organization?
Many organizations would like to employ persons with disabilities but find that fears, biases and myths create barriers in the hiring process. The training focuses on attitudes and human factors, while addressing concerns including legal requirements and accommodation. The modules primarily consist of exercises relevant to the everyday world of work to which participants can relate and then remember on the job. The Windmills program also incorporates language and requirements of the Americans with Disabilities Act Amendment Act ADAAA.
The 12 Modules.
This training is delivered over 12 modules that use participation and discovery as learning vehicles.
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Ice breaker exercise that allows participants to realize that they have all had experiences with disabilities or persons with disabilities and can identify with the importance of disability inclusion.
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Examine stereotypes associated with common disabilities and illustrates participants’ emotional reactions to specific disabilities. Helps participants understand how an individual’s prior perception of a disability can keep successful applicants with disabilities from being hired.
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Examine how stereotyping of persons with disabilities may impact employment decisions and teaches participants to evaluate on a case-by-case basis each person with a disability.
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In this interactive exercise participants are asked to evaluate the potential needs of persons with disabilities and to formulate possible creative solutions. Participants learn the interactive communication process to develop reasonable accommodations.
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This diversity disability inclusion module is an exercise wherein participants complete a questionnaire and review their knowledge about disabilities. The goal is to become more comfortable and effective in our workplace interactions with people with disabilities. Participants become aware of respectful etiquette and language for creating a comfortable work environment and they learn the basics of disability employment law.
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This exercise introduces the concept that persons with emotional disabilities are also able to perform on the job as effectively as persons without emotional disabilities. Participants learn to objectively consider reasonable accommodations for persons with emotional disabilities.
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This exercise gives participants a chance to formulate better ways to utilize employees with disabilities. The activity includes interactions between four departments within the same company needing to resolve a schedule problem while examining the dynamics of the groups’ interactions with their new employees with disabilities.
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This module will introduce participants to practical information about traumatic brain injury (TBI) as well as participants’ assumptions and beliefs about how traumatic brain injuries affect job performance. Participants identify effective ways to accommodate employees with traumatic brain injuries.
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This interactive session will help participants feel more confident and relaxed in dealing with disabilities. Participants are able to ask questions to a panel of people with disabilities in a safe, information-sharing environment. This exercise may be combined with Module 12 - Ask It Basket.
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A successful diversity program is reflected in a company’s hiring practices, and is embedded in the company’s culture. The hiring and promotion of persons with disabilities relies on an integrated working relationship among many levels of management and staff. Participants will hear examples of how “miscommunications” can impact the workplace. Participants will then determine where miscommunication occurred and brainstorm strategies that might have prevented the miscommunication.
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This exercise is designed to illustrate how rumors and inaccurate information can affect the employment and return to work of people with disabilities. It offers practical suggestions for avoiding rumor problems that can arise when employing people with disabilities.
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This exercise is designed to reduce inherent fears about asking questions regarding disabilities or persons with disabilities. Participants will learn simple and easy ways to get answers to any future questions they or their co-workers might have about disabilities.
How To Experience Windmills?
In-Person | Email or call for more information
On Your Own | Purchase the curriculum without the training
Want to offer this training in your organization or community?
UPCOMING TRAIN-THE-TRAINER: September 15, 17, 22, 24, 25, 2026
Email maliawright@miltwright.com or call (818)399-2255 to see if this training is right for you.
