Disability Work

From DS:
"Employers Learn To Embrace Disability Hiring"

 

Seyfarth Shaw, one of the city’s largest law firms, occupies nine floors of a skyscraper at 131 S. Dearborn St. Shalonda Sanders is responsible for picking up and delivering packages on each of them, plus keeping certain areas clean. It is a job she cherishes. “I love my co-workers, all of them,” Sanders, 35, said of the 15-member office services team of which she is a part. “Downstairs,” she said, referring to the mail center, “I consider us as one.” Sanders, who suffered brain damage when she was struck by a car as a child, was hired at Seyfarth about a year ago with the help of Best Buddies Illinois, after many years of trying unsuccessfully to gain paid employment. The local chapter of the national nonprofit, best known for fostering one-on-one friendships between people with disabilities and a network of volunteers, had recently launched a jobs program to place people with intellectual and developmental disabilities into competitive jobs. The program, one of many attempting to tackle the massive unemployment rate among those with intellectual disabilities, is part of a movement away from what are known as sheltered programs that keep workers with disabilities apart from the mainstream workforce and often pay less than minimum wage. Its challenge is to show companies that tapping into this underused talent pool isn’t just a good thing to do, but good for the bottom line. “It’s a change of mindset,” said Eileen Murphy, state director of Best Buddies Illinois. The Illinois chapter, one of 12 markets where Best Buddies has a jobs program, so far has placed 14 people into customer-facing jobs at companies including Silicon Valley Bank, The Protein Bar and law firm Holland and Knight. Efforts to recruit more are underway. Late last year, City Club president Jay Doherty, who has an 8-year-old daughter with Down syndrome, hosted a breakfast to find more employers for Best Buddies clients. So far, one company that attended, Norwegian American Hospital, has hired a buddy as a dietary aide in its cafeteria. Though some corporations, such as Walgreens and Fifth Third Bank, have well-regarded programs for employing people with disabilities, the unemployment rate among those with intellectual disabilities remains about twice as high as that of the general population and higher than that of people with physical disabilities. Despite federal investments in transition programs, the situation has not improved. A third of working-age people with intellectual disabilities are employed, compared with three-quarters of adults without disabilities, according to a study released last year by the Center for Social Development and Education at the University of Massachusetts at Boston, conducted by Gallup on behalf of Special Olympics. Just 44 percent are participating in the labor force, which includes those looking for a job, compared with 83 percent of those without disabilities, according to the study, which polled the guardians of some 1,000 people with intellectual disabilities people ages 21 to 64.

Those who are working tend to be part-time employees or underemployed. Less than one-fifth of those with intellectual disabilities were in competitive jobs, the survey found, meaning they are integrated with typically-developing peers and generally paid market-level wages — the favored outcome of many advocates. Thirteen percent are in sheltered programs. Another 3 percent are self-employed. The reasons behind the lack of progress are complex, said Gary Siperstein, director of the center that published the study. Among them: insufficient preparation of young people for the working world, the loss of unskilled and semi-skilled jobs in the U.S. and setbacks from the recession. His research has shown that early job training is key, as most people with intellectual disabilities who are competitively employed had their first job before turning 21. In addition, he said, “I’m not sure we convey to businesses, particularly to small businesses in communities around the country, that it makes good business sense.” Some corporations have been leaders in courting people with disabilities for competitive positions. At Walgreens, more than 12 percent of its distribution center employees have a self-disclosed disability, said Steve Pemberton, Walgreens’ chief diversity officer. That exceeds the federal government’s rule for federal contractors, which stipulates that employees with disabilities represent 7 percent of the workforce. It is not charity, Pemberton said, but a business-driven decision. Many are on the autism spectrum and learn in a mechanized, rote way, which is useful in a distribution environment that is highly mechanized and time-sensitive, he said. Given the efficiency demands of supply chain, there is no room for lower standards. In addition, “When you have a disability, there’s a certain resilience you have to have to navigate the world, you look at challenges from a different perspective,” he said. “Who wouldn’t want to have a problem-solving skill set on their team?” Walgreens’ efforts to hire people with disabilities began in 2007 as an initiative of a now-retired senior vice president who had a son with autism whom he knew wanted to and could work. In 2010 it began a program to employ people with disabilities in its stores, which involves four weeks of job training. Training, and finding the right fit, are instrumental, Pemberton said, as anything but a successful job experience, especially when it is a person’s first opportunity for meaningful employment, can reinforce self-doubts. While opportunities for people with disabilities have improved, more companies need to “expand the definition of who’s capable,” he said.

 

 

^ I have worked with the disabled and they are one of the hardest workers around. Some of that seems to be because they really want to work, some of it because they want to prove something to themselves (and maybe to others as well.)  Regardless of why they want to it seems that the majority of those with disabilities  that want to work can do a great job if given the chance. The hardest part for them is convincing non-disabled that they are worth the chance. ^

http://www.disabilityscoop.com/2015/03/23/employers-embrace-hiring/20151/