>> Meet Joe and Sara Zesski.
>> I am a wife and a mother who currently works
as a victim witness advocate
for the Mercer County Prosecutor's Office
in New Jersey.
>> I work for the Northeast ADA Center.
I have been in the disability field for a long time.
>> The Zesskis live full lives,
between juggling busy work schedules,
their family, and other demands.
Another factor is their disabilities.
>> We both struggle with life/work balance,
and both in the same way, because we're both professionals
who put a lot of personal value
on doing a good job as a professional.
And, I think that's part of how we were raised.
It's also part, I think for both of us,
comes from having a disability, and when you're a professional
with a disability, though things are, I think getting much better
in the bigger scheme, there's still a lot of feeling
that you have to prove that you're equal to other people
who don't have disabilities.
>> Disability does impact work/life balance, which figures
in not only work and family, but also self-care and leisure.
For instance, while Joe works remotely from home many days,
when he does go to the office, at the ADA Center's affiliate
in New Jersey, Resources
for Independent Living, it takes a long time.
It can take him two hours just to get to work
because he doesn't drive, compared to 35 minutes
for someone driving door-to-door.
Or, when they were looking for a home,
they needed to not only find a place that was accessible
for Sara, but also
on a paratransportation route for Joe.
>> Some days, I mean, some days we're able to work together
to create that work/life balance, so, you know,
we're on a committee together at church.
So, it's-- and it's an opportunity for us
to be doing something that is service-related.
It's leisure in some way, but we're doing it together
so we have that family connection.
>> One practice that I have is to try
to keep boundaries as much as possible.
With my kind of work, my hours, they vary,
depending on the work load I have at the moment.
And, as much as I possibly can, I try to be mindful of,
you know, at the end of the day, at 5 o'clock, my work needs
to be over for the day, because that starts, really,
my family time that I really need to devote to my family.
>> Everyone has stress in their life.
I think if you show me somebody who doesn't have any kind
of stress in their life, I would say they're not really living.
>> Stress, I try to manage through prayer.
For me, that's sort of the place, when I do that quiet time
for prayer, that I manage stress.
That, and when I take time to, not shut off mentally, but just,
I take that time to read, or just, you know,
watch something silly on TV.
We're people who do enjoy doing things like going to a park.
We have a membership to an organization here
in New Jersey called the Grounds for Sculpture,
that's fairly near to our house.
We enjoy walking those grounds.
>> I can make a plan, and I can have a day of what I want to do.
But, if something happens in one of those areas
that becomes the priority, I can be flexible.
I can change it around.
I can adapt to it.
And, when you grow up with a disability,
that's one of the things you have to learn.
You're either, you know, curled up in a ball, in bed,
giving up on life, or you're adapting.