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The Disability Dilemma -- Improving Employment

December, 2004

From the Kansas City Star

THE DISABILITY DILEMMA
Kansas City businesses, advocates trying to improve hiring situation

By DIANE STAFFORD
The Kansas City Star

Elizabeth Reinert with the Missouri Governor's Council on Disability tries to make job matches between persons with disabilities and employers.

It's not easy.

"Fourteen years after the American with Disabilities Act was passed, there are still a tremendous number of qualified workers who are not in the job force, mostly because of ignorance or lack of awareness by employers," Reinert said.

More aggressive efforts are under way among Kansas City area businesses and advocates for persons with disabilities to improve that situation.

The 2000 Census counted about 30 million persons in the 21 to 64 age group the prime working years who said they had disabilities. Among them, 13.3 million about four out of 10 told Census takers they were unemployed.

A supplementary 2001 survey for the Kansas City metropolitan area similarly found 45.7 percent of working- age adults who said they were employed.

Those are figures that surprise advocates for hiring persons with disabilities. Conventional wisdom has long said that seven out of 10 persons with disabilities are unemployed. A recent Harris poll, for example, found that about two-thirds of people age 18-64 with disabilities were not working.

The statistical discrepancies could reflect differences in what people consider disabilities and how they answer Census and survey questions. But whatever the exact number, it's clear that joblessness among those with disabilities who want to work far exceeds the unemployment rate among persons who don't have disabilities.

Statistics also don't reveal those who hold "subsistence" positions that are beneath their abilities. Neither do they reveal the long-term emotional drain on persons with disabilities who remain on public support when they'd rather be working.

Caprice Banks-Carlson, a Kansas City, Kan., resident legally blind since birth, had been successfully employed at the now-closed TeleTech call center in the Indian Springs Shopping Center, but has been out of work since July 2001.

"I'm willing to work, I have Internet capability, I have computer skills, I have experience, and I've had some interviews that seemed to go well, but when we get to the accommodations standpoint, it's fallen apart," Banks- Carlson said.

She's working with vocational rehabilitation specialists and several agencies and keeps hoping for a change in employment status soon.

Hiring efforts

"We need better communication, a comfort level among employers, and getting applicants up to the plate so they can take a swing at jobs that they can do," Reinert said.

This fall, Reinert helped coordinate the third annual Disability Mentoring Day luncheon, held at the University of Missouri-Kansas City. The event attracted representatives from 75 area companies who are involved in or are beginning to investigate disability-related mentoring, job shadowing or career exploration.

The mentoring program is affiliated with the Business Partnership Initiative of Kansas City, a year-old network of employers that shares resources and education about hiring persons with disabilities.

"We need business education and sensitivity training," said Claudia Wilson, a human resources professional and a leader in the new organization's efforts to increase hiring opportunities for persons with disabilities.

"The biggest obstacle is ignorance, and that's not said in a derogatory way," said Wilson, who leads diversity hiring efforts at Citi Cards' customer-service facility in Kansas City. "The ADA and tort law have scared some employers. They're afraid of getting sued if a hiring doesn't work out. In reality, that's not that common."

One of the attendees at this year's disability mentoring luncheon was Roberta Earll, a human resources officer at Topeka-based Capitol Federal Savings, which is a member of the Business Partnership Initiative.

"I'm fairly new at this," Earll said, "but I'm learning how a mentoring process will make supervisors more aware of how easily they can make accommodations when hiring persons with disabilities and how to take into consideration which kinds of positions are appropriate."

Dan Simmons, who heads Employ Resources in Kansas City, Kan., a contractor with the Kansas Department of Social and Rehabilitation Services, works with Business Partnership Initiative members and others to place persons with disabilities in jobs.

"Capitol Federal did groundbreaking work," Simmons said, when it hired one of his clients, a man with autism who balances the savings bank's ATM deposits.

"We had a willing employer who was willing to listen how a person with autism could do this," Simmons said. "Often, what happens is that employers look at the limitations of the person instead of the whole package."

Paul, the man with autism, said it felt great to have a job. Earll said Capitol Federal was pleased with the experience.

"With this being something new, there were some fears, but our supervisors were very open to trying this, and it's been very successful," Earll said. "We're working now on getting more supervisors to be mentors to people with disabilities who may come in for a day, see what the job is like, and see if it's something they could do."

Wilson said the Capitol Federal success mirrored experiences at Citi Card.

"It's not just a matter of hiring someone, it's that companies need sensitivity training on the job to help not make blunders that are avoidable" in dealing with persons with disabilities, Wilson said. "It's also a matter of knowing where to find the right resources to help the person do the job.

"In my six years of hiring persons with disabilities, the only one who didn't work out was my fault because I didn't research the available software well enough ahead of time, and the systems we used couldn't be adapted properly. We had to terminate the person, but I think that person left understanding we'd done everything we could in the way of accommodations. But it was a mistake that can be avoided."

Resource matching

Jay Robertson, a vocational rehabilitation specialist who works for the state of Missouri in Lee's Summit, said the failure of employers and persons with disabilities to match up was a continuing source of frustration.

"There is money available from the state to help buy assistive technology," Robertson said. "We have counselors who work with individuals. We have resources for both job hunters and employers. We deal every day with the rehabilitation agencies that provide services. We're here to make the matches, but we don't have the advertising dollars to get the word out."

To improve awareness, Robertson has helped coordinate a Disability Resource Expo in the Kansas City area. The event, which has been held twice and is expected to become an annual event, brings rehabilitation agencies, schools, providers of medical equipment and technology that assists person with disabilities, health organizations, state disability offices and employers under one roof.

The purpose, Robertson said, is to make them aware of each other and expose the public to job opportunities and assistive technology.

"We are making tax dollars stretch to serve our clients," Robertson said. "That's our responsibility to direct people to resources they need."

Reinert couldn't be happier with the growth of interest in the Business Partnership Initiative and events like the Disability Resource Expo.

"Many people with disabilities have gone through vocational rehab and have done everything they can to get off SSI" (supplementary benefits), she said, "but they can't get a job because the playing field is not yet level. They can't get beyond employers' fears."

Her impressions are backed up by national surveys.

The John J. Heldrich Center for Workforce Development at Rutgers University in New Jersey last year surveyed employers about their views on people with disabilities in the workplace. It found, as area advocates suspected, much inexperience.

Twenty-five percent of the employers said they employed at least one person with a known physical or mental disability.

Forty percent of employers said they trained their employees about working with or providing accommodations to people with disabilities.

Most were surprised at how little accommodations cost: 61 percent said their average cost was $500 or less, and 29 percent said it was less than $100.

Carl Van Horn, director of the workforce development center, said in releasing the report:

"Employers who seek to compete for the long term must be bold and thoughtful in recruiting and cultivating talent for every level of the workforce. Hiring workers with disabilities with the drive to do the job may be a social good, but it is an economic imperative."

Wilson, the Citi Card human resource official, is well aware of the lackluster job market that has characterized the Kansas City metropolitan area in recent years. It hasn't been a good time for job hunters in general, much less for persons with disabilities.

But, Wilson said, "the job market is improving, and demographics are changing, and employers will need to do more to find and recruit diverse workers, including those with disabilities."

To reach Diane Stafford, call (816) 234-4359 or send email.
What is the ADA?

Are changes on the horizon?

The Americans with Disabilities Act, enacted July 26, 1990, prohibits discrimination and ensures equal opportunity for persons with disabilities in employment, state and local government services, public accommodations, commercial facilities and transportation. It also mandates the establishment of TDD/telephone relay services.

The law requires that companies provide "reasonable accommodation" to help workers with disabilities handle the basic functions of the job.

The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission has enforced the act since July 1992. Fiscal year 1993 was the first full year of enforcement.

The National Council on Disability, an independent agency that advises the president and Congress, is calling for revisions to the disabilities act. In a report released last week, the agency said a series of U.S. Supreme Court decisions had weakened the intent of the act.

Some of the proposed changes may look like word play, but they're important nuances to persons involved in workplace advocacy for persons with disabilities.

Current wording prohibits discrimination "against an individual with a disability." The agency wants the words changed to bar discrimination "on the basis of disability."

According to the disability council, the current wording has been narrowly construed by the courts, allowing judges to determine that some disabilities are not life-altering or do not impair a major life activity and thus are not protected by the act.

Diane Stafford/The Star
Employer costs

Common accommodations to help workers with disabilities:

Source: Suzie Wiley, occupational therapist, the Rehabilitation Institute of Kansas City