The previous articles were mainly from local newspaper. This articles are from magazines, and weekly biz magazines. We found those articles and we have retype and put it in a proper format so that it will be easier for the viewwers to read it. Those articles had thought us a lot about dissable employees. We have learnt that one should not look down on them just for the reason they are retarded or not-so-complete. Instead they are very unique people. Even though they might have certain disabilities, but they still have their own talent and skill to contributing in this society. The following are those articles that we have found ;
1)Employee Medical Exams and Disability-Related Inquiries under the ADA: Guidance for Employers Regarding Current Employees
Author(s): Sheila D. Duston
About the author(s): attorney/mediator practicing in the Washington, DC metropolitan area
Overview
When does the ADA impact an employer's ability to require medical exams or make disability-related inquiries?
The Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 (the "ADA") applies to all employers with 15 or more employees. The ADA divides the employment relationship into three distinct phases: pre-offer, post-offer and during employment, and sets forth what an employer can do at each of these stages. The focus of this brochure is on what the employer can do during the employment phase;, that is, after an employee is on board and working.
Can an employer require an employee to have a medical exam or make disability-related inquiries?
An employer may require a medical exam or make a disability-related inquiry of an employee as long as the inquiry or exam is job-related and consistent with business necessity. Any medical information obtained from a disability-related inquiry or exam, as well as any medical information voluntarily disclosed by an employee, must be treated as a confidential medical record.
Do the ADA's provisions on medical exams and disability-related inquiries apply to all employees?
Yes. The ADA's restrictions on inquiries and exams apply to all employees of covered employers, not just those with disabilities. While other ADA protections are limited to those individuals who can show they are qualified individuals with disabilities, the language of the ADA is clear that employers are not permitted to ask questions or conduct medical examinations of any employee unless there is a legitimate purpose for doing so. Based on this language, the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) has taken the position that any employee has the right to challenge a disability-related inquiry or medical exam that is not job-related and consistent with business necessity.
What about temporary employees?
As a general rule, an individual is an employee if an entity controls the means and manner of his/her work performance. Oftentimes, a temporary employee is both an employee of the employment agency and the employer to which s/he is assigned. As employers, the employment agency and the temporary employer could ask disability-related questions and require medical examinations only if they are job-related and consistent with business necessity.
Disability-Related Inquiries and Medical Exams
What exactly is a disability-related inquiry?
A disability-related inquiry is a question (or series of questions) that is likely to elicit information about disability. This would include direct questions about disability, such as whether a person has or has ever had a disability, how they became disabled, or details about the nature or severity of their disability. In addition, questions about genetic information, prior workers' compensation history, past or current prescription medications, or a broad inquiry about medical impairments (e.g., "tell me about every medical problem you have"), would also be restricted because they are likely to yield information about disability. Restrictions on this type of inquiry apply both to questions asked of the person and questions asked of any other third party, such as a co-worker or doctor. Note that questions about illegal drug use or whether someone has been drinking are not disability-related inquiries.
Does this mean I shouldn't even ask "How are you?"
Asking generally about an employee's well being is permitted. For example, it is perfectly fine to ask an employee who looks tired or ill whether s/he is feeling okay or to ask how an employee is doing following a divorce or loss of a loved one. Likewise, it is permissible to ask about nondisability-related impairments (e.g., "how did you break your wrist?"), or to inquire how a pregnant employee is feeling or when her baby is due. It is also okay to simply ask a person if s/he can do the job. Moreover, if the employee raises disability-related issues, it would be acceptable for the employer to discuss the matter with him/her.
When you say "medical exam," does this mean a head-to-toes check-up by the doctor?
A medical exam would include a complete physical; but the term, as used in the ADA, also includes a number of other more limited exams or procedures. In general, a medical exam is a procedure or test that seeks information about an individual's physical or mental health. Various factors can make a test medical, including: whether a medical professional conducts or interprets the test, whether the test is designed to reveal an impairment or physical or mental health generally, whether the test measures the ability to perform a task versus physiological response to performing the task; or whether the test is invasive, uses medical equipment, or is conducted in a medical setting. Sometimes one of these factors is enough to make a procedure medical. Sometimes a combination of factors will be relevant.
In general, medical examinations would include the following:
full or partial (e.g., back only) physical exam by a doctor or other medical professional
vision tests conducted and analyzed by an ophthalmologist or an optometrist
blood, urine, and breath tests to check for alcohol use
blood, urine, saliva, and hair analyses to detect disease or genetic markers
blood pressure and cholesterol screening
nerve conduction tests
range of motion tests that measure muscle strength and function
pulmonary function tests
psychological tests designed to measure a mental disorder or impairment
diagnostic procedures such as x-rays, CAT scans, and MRIs.
What are some common employment tests that are not considered medical exams?
There are a number of tests and procedures given by employers that are not considered medical, including:
tests to determine the illegal use of drugs
physical agility tests, which measure an employee's ability to perform actual or simulated job tasks
physical fitness tests, which measure an employee's performance of physical tasks, such as running or lifting, as long as these tests do not include a medical component such as measuring heart rate or blood pressure
tests that measure an ability to read labels or distinguish objects as part of a demonstration of the ability to do actual job functions
psychological tests that measure personality traits such as honesty, preferences, or habits
polygraph examinations
How should an employer treat an employee who applies for a new job within the company?
The EEOC has taken the position that an employer should treat an employee who applies for a new job just like an outside applicant for the job. This means that the employer cannot ask disability-related questions or require a medical exam before making a conditional offer of the new position. A current supervisor who has medical information about the employee should not disclose that information to the person conducting interviews for the new job or to the new supervisor.
Once a conditional offer is made, the employer may require a medical exam or ask disability-related questions as long as it does so for all entering employees in the same job category. If the job offer is subsequently withdrawn because of medical information, the employer must show that the reason for doing so was job-related and consistent with business necessity.
An individual is not an applicant where s/he is noncompetitively entitled to another position with the same employer (e.g., because of seniority or satisfactory performance in his/her present position). An individual who is temporarily assigned to another position and then returns to his/her regular job is also not an applicant. Since these individuals are considered to be employees, the employer can only ask disability-related questions or require medical exams that are job-related and consistent with business necessity.
Job-Related and Consistent with Business Necessity
What does "job-related and consistent with business necessity" mean?
The EEOC takes the position that a disability-related inquiry or medical exam of an employee may be "job-related and consistent with business necessity" when an employer has a reasonable belief, based on objective evidence, that: (1) an employee's ability to do essential job functions will be impaired by a medical condition; or (2) an employee will pose a direct threat due to a medical condition. This standard may be met if an employer knows about a particular employee's medical condition, has observed performance problems, and can reasonably attribute the problems to the medical condition. The standard may also be met when the employer has been given reliable information by a credible third party that the person has a medical condition or the employer has observed symptoms that indicate the person may have a medical condition that will impair the ability to do essential functions or will pose a direct threat.
Example: A fork lift driver's job is to transport and stack pallets weighing several hundred to a thousand pounds in a storage warehouse with numerous workers on the floor. After an impeccable ten year work record, the fork lift driver crashes into a wall of stacked pallets, narrowly missing a co-worker. The employee explains that he felt dizzy and became disoriented, and that this has happened a few other times, although never at work. The employer believes that the employee may pose a direct threat and sends him for a medical examination to determine if he is fit to perform his job. The employer provides the doctor with a description of the job to help ensure an accurate determination. This examination would be considered job-related and consistent with business necessity.
Example: Several months ago, a supervisor overheard two employees talking about another co-worker, who had told them about having a serious heart condition that necessitates the use of medication and frequent doctor's visits. The individual comes to work every day and successfully performs her duties as a computer programmer. In this case, the employer does not have a reasonable belief that the computer programmer's ability to perform her essential job functions are impaired or that she poses a direct threat due to a medical condition. The employer may not make disability-related inquiries or require a medical examination.
Are disability-related inquiries or medical exams following a request for reasonable accommodation job-related and consistent with business necessity?
When an employee requests reasonable accommodation and the disability or need for accommodation is not obvious, it is job-related and consistent with business necessity for the employer to ask an employee for reasonable documentation about his/her disability and its functional limitations that require reasonable accommodation.
An employer may require an employee to provide documentation that is sufficient to substantiate that s/he has an ADA disability and needs the reasonable accommodation requested. Documentation is sufficient if it (1) describes the nature, severity, and duration of the employee's impairment, the activity or activities that the impairment limits, and the extent to which the impairment limits the employee's ability to perform the activity or activities; and (2) substantiates why the requested accommodation is needed to enable the employee to perform essential job functions.
Note that an employer cannot ask for unrelated documentation. The practical consequence of this is that an employer generally cannot ask for complete medical records because they would contain unrelated information.
Example: A secretary with no known disability asks for an ergonomic chair because of back pain. The employer may ask the employee to provide documentation from her treating physician that: (1) describes the nature, severity, and duration of the impairment, the activity or activities that the impairment limits, and the extent to which the impairment limits her ability to perform the activity or activities; and (2) substantiates why the ergonomic chair is needed. If the employee fails to provide the documentation, the employer would not be required to provide the chair.
Practical Dos and Don'ts Regarding Disability-Related Inquiries and Medical Examinations
May an employer require an employee to go to a health care professional of the employer's (rather than the employee's) choice when the employee requests a reasonable accommodation?
The EEOC has taken the position that the ADA does not prevent an employer from requiring an employee to go to an appropriate health care professional of the employer's choice if the employee provides insufficient documentation from his/her treating physician (or other medical professional) to substantiate an ADA disability and the need for accommodation. However, the employee should first be given the chance to provide the missing information.
The EEOC's position, which limits when an employer may require an exam by the employer's doctor, could be subject to challenge. While the employee has the initial burden of making a showing to support the request for reasonable accommodation, it could be argued that the employer has fairly broad rights to require a second opinion or seek further information whenever it believes additional inquiry is warranted. However, consistent with its position, the EEOC has specifically noted that as long as the employer's request for additional information or another medical exam is based on a good faith belief that the information it has gotten so far is insufficient, such request would not be considered a form of retaliation and the employer would not be liable for violating the ADA.
The EEOC's recommendation that the employer should also consider getting the employee's permission to consult directly with the employee's doctor before requiring the employee to go to the employer's doctor is a good, cost effective approach. As a practical matter, the employer may want to have its doctor consult directly with the employee's physician.
Any medical examination conducted by the employer's health care professional must be job-related and consistent with business necessity. Specifically it must be limited to determining the existence of an ADA disability and the functional limitations that require a reasonable accommodation.
May an employer require that an employee, who it reasonably believes will pose a direct threat, be examined by an appropriate health care professional of the employer's choice?
Yes. The EEOC has stated that an employer may have an employee, who it believes poses a direct threat, examined by a healthcare professional of its choosing who has expertise in the employee's specific condition and can provide medical information that allows the employer to determine the effects of the condition on the employee's ability to do his job. The exam would be limited to determining whether the employee can perform his job without posing a direct threat, with or without reasonable accommodation. In most circumstances, the employer could not request complete medical records because they would contain unrelated information.
The employer should be very cautious about relying solely on its medical provider's conclusion if it conflicts with the opinion of the employee's treating physician. In evaluating both opinions, the employer may find it helpful to consider: (1) the medical expertise of each health care professional; (2) what kind of information was provided to each medical professional regarding the job's essential functions and the work environment; (3) whether an opinion is based on speculation or current, objectively verifiable information about the risks associated with a particular condition; and (4) whether the medical opinion is contradicted by information known or observed by the employer (e.g., information about the employee's actual experience in the current or previous job(s)). Remember that it is ultimately the employer who is responsible for the final decision, not the doctor.
Who pays when the employee is sent to the employer's health care professional?
The EEOC has taken the position that if an employer requires an employee to go to a health care provider of the employer's choice, the employer must pay all costs associated with the visit(s).
What about requiring all employees to report their prescription medications?
This type of broad inquiry would not generally be permissible. The EEOC has stated that in a few narrow exceptions, such as requiring policemen to report medications that could impact their ability to handle a firearm, or requiring pilots to report medications that would impact on their ability to fly, the inquiry would be job-related and consistent with business necessity.
An argument could also be made that in other jobs where safety is an issue, for example, certain construction, manufacturing, and driving jobs, it may be job-related and consistent with business necessity to require employees to report medications that would impair their performance. Note, however, that this appears to be a broader approach than the EEOC's stated position.
What if the employee refuses to answer a disability-related question or submit to a medical exam?
The action the employer may take depends on its reason for making the inquiry or requiring the exam. If the requested medical exam relates to performance problems on the job, any discipline that the employer decides to impose should focus on the employee's performance problems. Thus, the employer may discipline the employee for past and future performance problems in accordance with a uniformly applied policy.
If the employee refuses to answer a disability-related question or submit to a medical exam after requesting a reasonable accommodation, and the disability and need for an accommodation is not obvious, the employer could refuse to provide the accommodation. If the requested accommodation was leave, the employer could deny the leave and refuse to excuse absences.
Many courts would also construe the employee's failure to cooperate as a failure to engage in the ADA's interactive process to determine an effective reasonable accommodation, and would likely reject any later ADA claim made on this basis.
How can employers make sure that employees can safely perform physical agility or fitness tests?
Employers that require physical agility or physical fitness tests may ask an employee to have a doctor certify that s/he can safely perform the test. The employer would be entitled to a note which simply states that the person can safely perform the test or, alternatively, an explanation of why the person cannot perform the test. An employer could not ask for complete medical records or any other medical information going beyond the individual's ability to safely perform the test.
Leave Issues
The following three questions assume that the employee has used sick, annual, or some other type of leave due to a medical condition, but has not taken leave under the Family and Medical Leave Act of 1994 (FMLA).
What about requiring doctor's notes regarding the use of sick leave?
An employer may ask an employee to justify his/her use of sick leave by providing a doctor's note or other explanation, as long as it has a policy or practice of requiring all employees, with and without disabilities, to do so under similar circumstances.
Can the employer request periodic updates when an employee is on extended leave?
Yes. If the employee's leave request did not specify an exact or reasonably specific return date, or if additional leave is being requested, the employer may require the employee to provide periodic updates on his condition and possible date of return. Note, however, that when the employer has granted a fixed amount of leave and no additional leave has been requested, the EEOC has taken the position that it would not be permissible to ask for periodic updates. An employer may always call an employee on extended leave to express concern for their health or check on their progress.
Are return-to-work releases or exams allowed?
When an employee has been on leave, the employer may request a "return to work" release from the employee's treating physician or may require a "return to work" exam if the employer has a reasonable belief that an employee's present ability to perform essential job functions is impaired by a medical condition or that s/he poses a direct threat due to a medical condition. Usually, only inquiries or medical exams related to the condition for which the person took leave would be warranted.
Example: An attorney breaks his leg skiing and is on leave for four weeks. He returns to work on crutches. The employer does not have a reasonable belief that the attorney will be unable to perform the essential functions of his job or pose a direct threat because of the injury. The employer could not make disability-related inquires or require a medical exam, but could ask the person how they were doing or express concern.
Example: As the result of problems with his medication, an employee with a known psychiatric disability threatens several colleagues and is disciplined. Shortly afterwards, he is hospitalized for six weeks for treatment related to his condition. Two days after his release, he returns to work with a note that states on the "he is cleared to return to work." Because the employer has a reasonable belief, based on objective evidence, that the employee will pose a direct threat due to a medical condition, the employer may ask the employee for additional documentation regarding his medication or treatment or request that he submit to a medical examination.
What about requests for leave under the FMLA?
The FMLA, enforced by the Department of Labor, sets forth its own requirements for employers and employees in regard to leave. The EEOC has stated that when an employee requests leave under the FMLA for a serious health condition, employers will not violate the ADA by asking for the information in the FMLA certification form. The FMLA only requests information relating to the particular serious health condition, as defined in the FMLA, for which the employee is seeking leave. An employer is entitled to know why an employee is requesting time off from work under the FMLA. If inquiries are precisely tailored in this manner, they would be job-related and consistent with business necessity under the ADA.
Periodic Monitoring
May employers require periodic medical examinations of employees in positions affecting public safety?
Yes. In limited circumstances, periodic medical examinations and other monitoring of employees in public safety positions, (e.g., fire fighters and policemen) that are narrowly tailored to address specific job-related concerns may be job-related and consistent with business necessity.
Example: A fire department could require its firefighters (but not the firehouse administrative staff) to have a comprehensive visual exam every two years and have an annual electrocardiogram because it is concerned that certain visual disorders and heart problems will affect their ability to do their job without posing a direct threat.
If an employer decides to terminate or take other adverse action against an employee with a disability based on the results of a medical exam, it must demonstrate that the employee is unable to perform his/her essential functions, or in fact, poses a direct threat that cannot be reduced or eliminated by reasonable accommodation. The employer could conduct additional medical testing after discovering the condition in order to make this determination.
May an employer require an employee, who has been off from work in a alcohol rehabilitation program, to submit to periodic alcohol testing when she returns to work?
Yes, but only if the employer has a reasonable belief, based on objective evidence, that the employee will pose a direct threat in the absence of periodic testing. This would require an individualized assessment and could not be based on general assumptions. The employer would need to consider the safety risks associated with the position, the consequences of the employee's inability or impaired ability to perform job functions, and how recently the event(s) occurred that cause the employer to believe that the employee would pose a direct threat. At some point, when the employee has repeatedly tested negative for alcohol, continued testing may not be job-related and consistent with business necessity because the employer no longer has a reasonable belief that the employee will pose a direct threat.
Example: A bus driver informs his supervisor that he has a history of alcoholism and after many years of sobriety has started drinking a couple of glasses of wine at night to deal with family stress. He requests and is granted leave to enter a rehabilitation program. After four months, he is cleared to return to work. Given the safety risks associated with his position, his short period of employment, and his recent completion of rehab, the employer can show that it would be job-related and consistent with business necessity to subject the driver to frequent periodic alcohol tests following his return to work.
Employers may also conduct periodic alcohol testing based on a "last chance" agreement related to disciplinary actions involving employee use of alcohol. This type of agreement typically provides that, as a condition of continued employment, employees must enter into a rehabilitation program and submit to periodic alcohol testing.
Other Acceptable Disability-Related Inquiries and Medical Examinations of Employees
What may an EAP counselor ask?
An Employee Assistance Program (EAP) counselor may ask an employee seeking help for personal problems about their medical conditions as long as s/he does not act on behalf of the employer, is obligated to shield the information from decisionmakers, and has no power to affect employment decisions. Many employers contract with outside EAP contractors so that employees are not concerned about confidentiality.
May an employer make disability-related inquiries that are required by another federal law?
Yes. An employer may make disability-related inquiries or require medical exams that are mandated or necessitated by another federal law or regulation. For example, federal safety regulations require interstate truck drivers to undergo medical examinations at least once every two years. Pilots and flight attendants must also meet federal medical requirements. Other federal laws requiring medical exams include the Occupational Safety and Health Act (OSHA), the Federal Mine Health and Safety Act and other federal statutes requiring the periodic monitoring of employees exposed to toxic or hazardous substances.
May an employer make disability-related inquiries or conduct medical examinations that are part of a voluntary wellness program?
Yes. The ADA allows employers to conduct voluntary medical examinations and activities, including voluntary medical histories that are part of an employee health program, without having to show that they are job-related and consistent with business necessity, as long as these medical records are kept confidential and separate from personnel records. These programs often include blood pressure screening, cholesterol testing, glaucoma testing, and cancer detection screening. A voluntary wellness program is voluntary as long as an employer neither requires participation nor penalizes employees who do not participate.
What about exams related to workers' compensation injuries?
State workers' compensation statutes typically allow employers to investigate and contest employees' claims for work-related injuries. The EEOC has stated that the ADA does not prohibit an employer or its agent (for example, workers' compensation carriers) from asking disability-related questions or requiring medical exams that are necessary to determine the extent of its workers' compensation liability. However, such inquiries or exams must be limited in scope to the occupational injury and its impact on the individual, and may not be required more often than is necessary to determine the person's initial or continued eligibility for workers' compensation benefits.
May an employer ask employees to voluntarily self-identify as persons with disabilities for affirmative action purposes?
Yes. An employer may ask employees to voluntarily self-identify as individuals with disabilities when the employer is:
undertaking affirmative action because of a federal, state or local law (including a veteran's preference law) that requires affirmative action for individuals with disabilities; or
voluntarily using the information to benefit individuals with disabilities.
The EEOC Enforcement Guidance on Disability-Related Inquiries and Medical Examinations sets forth some other detailed requirements for employers who invite employees to self-identify in either of these situations.
2)Targeted Recruiting: People With DisabilitiesBy Rob McInnes
(The following article was written to help employers be more effective at recruiting individuals with disabilities. Feel free to reproduce it with appropriate credit and reference.)
Overview Getting Your Bearings External Resources Proactive Projects Public Profile Dismantling Attitudinal Barriers Last Word
Overview
American companies are short of workers. There are 9.6 million unemployed, working-age people with disabilities who would prefer to be working. You are probably reading this because, like most other companies in America, your company can't afford to ignore a poorly-tapped labor pool of 9.6 million willing workers.
The good news is that there really are 9.6 million unemployed Americans who want jobs. The bad news is that recruiting them isn't all that easy ? particularly finding the ones with the right skills for your job openings.
Companies that are proactive about recruiting people with disabilities, companies that proactively do targeted?recruiting, find that this minority group is quite different from others that they have targeted in the past.
Unlike racial and ethnic minorities, people with disabilities are more difficult to target. They do not as readily congregate in groups. With few exceptions, you are unlikely to find high concentrations of people with disabilities in particular neighborhoods, churches, cultural organizations, etc. Similarly, particularly on a local level, there are few media sources (magazines, TV programs, radio shows, etc.) that effectively reach a broad audience within the disability community.
Given that, how can your company develop a strategic recruiting program that will enable you to successfully attract applicants with disabilities?
A truly successful recruiting program is going to be a multi-faceted one. While there isn't a proscribed recipe for success? there are many ingredients that are typically a part of successful programs ?and we will describe them here. Which ones you choose to use (and what proportions you choose to use them in) will be determined by your own resources, commitment and creative planning!
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Getting Your Bearings
Particularly if you are new to the whole area of recruiting people with disabilities, you are going to want to learn both about the issues that people with disabilities face in the labor market, and the strategies that other employers have used to successfully recruit them.
Peer Learning ?Don't overlook opportunities to tap into the experiences and knowledge of other companies. Many companies are more than willing to share the strategies that have helped them to successfully recruit people with disabilities. Find out what local companies have been recognized for their success and then find out what works for them.
In some locales, groups already exist to encourage this kind of exchange between employers. Business Leadership Networks exist in over 30 states and are intended to be employer-to-employer forums on disability-related issues. (See: www.usbln.com) You might also find this kind of dialogue by affiliating with local Industry Liaison Groups (See: http://www.nilg.org) or the Diversity-related activities of the Society for Human Resources Management (See: www.shrm.org)
Volunteering - In order to gain more insight and strategic positioning for your company, you may also find it useful for you or others in your company to volunteer some time with a Community Based Organization (CBO). Most CBOs readily welcome interest and involvement from employers ?as Members of their Board of Directors, participants on Advisory Boards, and or as program-related volunteers. Some CBOs follow the projects with Industry?model. Their key programmatic strategy is Business Advisory Committees??representatives from local business and industry that help them determine the nature and focus of their services. There are over 100 Projects With Industry throughout the country and most of them belong to INABIR - the InterNational Association of Business Industry and Rehabilitation (See: Inter-National Association of Business, Industry & Rehabilitation)
Personal Study ?There are a variety of useful resources available for your personal study. Several of our favorites are listed here:
Publications Working with People With Disabilities by Richard Pimentel (http://www.diversityshop.com/store/working.html)Succeeding Together: People With Disabilities in the Workplace(http://www.csun.edu/~sp20558/dis/em.html)Employer Resource Kit (http://www.abletrust.org/resources/resource-kit.pdf)
VideoThe Ten Commandments of Communicating with People With Disabilities(http://www.diversityshop.com/store/10comvid.html)
WebsitesCalifornia Business Leadership Network (www.cabln.org)RecruitABILITY (www.recruitability.org)
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External Resources
In general, people with disabilities have historically faced a variety of barriers to employment. Because of this, many organizations and services have been established to help individuals surmount those barriers. In your efforts to successfully recruit people with disabilities, it is in your interest to take advantage of these resources.
Community Based Organizations (CBOs) - CBOs are organizations that provide employment and/or training to people with disabilities. They come in all shapes and sizes and they will have varying capacities to meet your workforce needs. Generally, CBOs also have limited penetration within their disability communities. (Less than 20% of employees with disabilities attribute their recruitment to the services of a CBO). However, they do provide some of the highest concentrations of disabled job seekers that you are likely to find and they can often provide you with other related services and supports.
It goes without saying that you should develop solid contacts with disability-focused organizations within your recruiting territory ?particularly those CBOs that provide training/education/employment services to individuals with disabilities.
As a first step, you should develop an inventory of CBOs in your recruiting territory. You might consider a standardized format for this data that would include:
?span style="font-style:normal; font-variant:normal; font-weight:normal"> How many people with disabilities do they place annually?
?span style="font-style:normal; font-variant:normal; font-weight:normal"> What percentage of those have the kinds of skill sets that you are seeking?
?span style="font-style:normal; font-variant:normal; font-weight:normal"> How do they screen assess their clients?
?span style="font-style:normal; font-variant:normal; font-weight:normal"> What other services will they provide you with? (i.e. Some CBOs can also provide you with job accommodation support, in-house disability-related staff training, etc.)
?span style="font-style:normal; font-variant:normal; font-weight:normal"> What post-placement support do they offer you and/or the employee? (i.e. Many CBOs provide post-placement retention-focused support.)
?span style="font-style:normal; font-variant:normal; font-weight:normal"> What mechanisms does the CBO have to be kept alerted to your recruiting needs and to keep you alerted to prospective applicants?
?span style="font-style:normal; font-variant:normal; font-weight:normal"> What other companies you can contact for references on their services?
You might want to consider using the CBO assessment tool developed by Mainstream Inc. (See: www.mainstreaminc.org/employers.html)
Government Agencies ?Many government agencies, at local, state and federal levels, to provide services that support people with disabilities in their efforts to secure employment. These can vary from state to state and community to community. Some are more strictly focused on job placement than others.
State Vocational Rehabilitation Agencies exist in virtually every State and, among other responsibilities, are charged with securing employment outcomes?for their clients. (For contact information on State Vocational Rehabilitation Agencies, see http://www.jan.wvu.edu/SBSES/VOCREHAB.HTM )
Most States have a Governor's Committee on employment concerns for people with disabilities. These can be an excellent source of referral and information on how to target your recruiting efforts. For a listing of Governor's Committees, see State Liaisons)
The Employer Assistance Referral Network (EARN) assists employers to locate and recruit qualified workers with disabilities. Through a single national toll free number, 1-866-327-6669, well-informed technical assistance specialists will take employers job orders, seek out qualified local candidates, and return this information to the employer. (See: http://www.earnworks.com/ )
Each year, the Workforce Recruitment Program for College Students with Disabilities (WRP) offers employers a free data base over 1000 pre-screened graduating students with disabilities. These students are from across the Country and represent a broad spectrum of educational pursuits. (See: http://www.wrpjobs.com )
Educational Institutions - Every year, a talented new drop?of students with disabilities graduate from high schools, colleges and universities. Don't overlook this great source of emerging talent.
In a very proactive move, some larger companies have begun to use employees with disabilities to take the lead role in recruiting disabled students.
Virtually every educational institution now has a special Needs Office?that provides supports to students with disabilities. That is a great place to start. Contact someone there and discuss how your company can best target students with disabilities on their campus. Sometimes you will be directed to the Campus Career Center, sometimes the Special needs office will work with you directly and sometimes, like the University of California Berkeley, there will even be a Career Center just for students and alumni with disabilities.
If you are not sure who to contact on a particular campus, the Association on Higher Education and Disability (AHEAD) may be of help to you. Committed to full participation in higher education for persons with disabilities, most of its Members are in disability-related services on campuses throughout North America. (See: http://www.ahead.org )
In an effort to enhance employment for college graduates with disabilities, the national Disability Career Project has the goal of creating a collation between employers, university career services, and disability services personnel, and disability service organizations. (See: http://www.cosdonline.org)
Generally, students with disabilities aren't as well-organized as those from other minority groups; but a new national alliance is emerging ?The National Disabled Students Union. (See: http://www.disabledstudents.org ) In addition, there is the National Alliance of Blind Students (NABS). (See: http://www.blindstudents.org)
Some Colleges and Universities are aggressive about attracting students with disabilities and have a higher-than average concentration in their student bodies. Two prominent examples are Gallaudet University (http://www.gallaudet.edu ) and the National Technical Institute for the Deaf (http://ntidweb.rit.edu ) ?both of which cater particularly to Deaf students.
In addition to direct recruiting, don't neglect Internship opportunities. Internships have proven to be an excellent way to prospect talent and to groom future employees. Make every effort to include students with disabilities in your Internship program. Be sure to explore internship possibilities with all your recruiting contacts for students with disabilities. For a fee, you can secure some highly-qualified students in technical fields from the Entry Point program of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS). (See: http://www.entrypoint.org )
Job Fairs - In many communities, Job Fairs that target job seekers with disabilities are held annually. These job fairs can give you immediate access to current job seekers. They can give you an opportunity to heighten your profile within the disability community and they give you an opportunity to strengthen your ties to local CBOs. If there isn't such a Job Fair in your community, consider partnering with other companies or CBOs to hold one. A manual for planning and holding disability-focused Job Fairs is available (free) from: Email: dunlap-carol@dol.gov
Online Recruiting - The Internet has opened a new world of recruiting opportunities for companies, large and small. Take full advantage of the opportunities that it affords you to recruit people with disabilities.
Assuming that you have a jobs? careers? and/or uiversity?section on your company's website, make sure that it is disability friendly?in both format and content. Ask your Webmaster to ensure that your website meets at least minimum standards for web accessibility. (If they don't know where to start, point them to lobby?Standards at www.cast.org/bobby/) Whether through pictures or text, communicate your proactive interest in candidates with disabilities.
If you are using online services to post jobs and/or search resumes, determine whether or not those sites are accessible to people with disabilities and what efforts they make to include people with disabilities in their talent pool.
There are a growing number of recruiting sites on the Internet that help employers to target candidates with disabilities. Many of these are listed at http://www.diversityworld.com/Disability/recruit.htm.
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Proactive Projects
One of the most successful approaches that I have seen for recruiting people with disabilities has been the development of what I call proactive Projects? Going beyond general?recruiting strategies of a company, these are specific and deliberate initiatives to bring people with disabilities into their workforces. They are typically done in partnership with a CBO or Educational institution. They have the advantage of concrete and measurable results, they can often be duplicated in other departments/branches of a company, and they tend to quickly heighten the level of disability expertise within a company. Proactive Projects can assume may forms; here are just a few examples:
Contracting - One large company contracted its in-house print shop to a CBO. The CBO ran the print shop and employed people with disabilities to do so. The host company then recruited from that pool of workers for job openings in other parts of their operations. Similarly, another company contracted a heavily clerical part of their operation out to a CBO that already ran a clerical training program ?again directly recruiting employees from that talent pool. (See: State Compensation Insurance Fund State Fund in the Community
Training - A company with a chain of hardware stores collaborated with a CBO and a community college to develop and run a 6-month training program for cashiers and agreed to hire all graduates of the course. The course included classroom instruction and in-store work experience. This model has been used successfully by both individual companies (i.e. a company with a large call center recruited customer service operators this way and a large retail store uses this model as an ongoing recruiting tool) and by collaborating companies within a particular sector (i.e. several banks collaborated to train/recruit bank tellers and 10 hotels banded together to recruit assistant chefs.) A very useful book on this skills Training Partnerships? model is available for $10 from the Canadian Council on Rehabilitation and Work (Email: cmacdiarmid@ccrw.org)
Mentoring - One company set up a Mentoring program with several CBOs. Several times annually, a dozen employees of the company were paired with selected job seekers with disabilities from the CBOs. The company抯 employees served as job-search Mentors for a three-month period. Naturally, the company hired several of the best candidates. (Contact: info@diversityworld.com)
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Public Profile
As I pointed out earlier, people with disabilities are unlikely to be found congregated in a way that makes targeted recruiting as easy as you would like it to be. Any good recruiting strategy, for job seekers with disabilities, will include portraying a disability-friendly profile to the general public.
People with disabilities are spread throughout virtually every level of society ?every age group, every cultural institution, every ethnic/racial group, and every social/economic class. This 揹ispersion?is what makes your general public profile so important! Carefully consider how people with disabilities are portrayed in your advertising, merchandising, and recruiting media. If you are able to portray yourself as a company that values the contribution of people with disabilities, it is likely that job seekers with disabilities will gravitate to you. (Particularly when people with disabilities want to avoid the discrimination and awkwardness that is so prevalent in most of their contact with employers.)
Even small companies can make big statements. I remember, several years ago, walking into a store that had a sign on its door that read: customers and job applicants with disabilities are welcome. Please see customer service if you need any assistance.?I also remember the bank that hired a Deaf Teller ?within weeks, in addition to a significant increase in Deaf customers, they received numerous applications from qualified candidates with a variety of different disabilities.
Not long ago, I remember seeing a recruiting brochure from a major corporation. They had been careful to include photographs of men and women from different racial and ethnic backgrounds. They also included an attractive photo of a young man in a wheelchair. Unfortunately, this picture was not on the pages about career opportunities; but on the community Involvement?page that outlined their various charitable endeavors. What a different message this brochure would have communicated to disabled readers if that photo had been on the careers in Engineering?page!
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Dismantling Attitudinal Barriers
Be mindful of attitudinal barriers in your organization that can scuttle all your best efforts. Disability?is an emotionally-charged, misinformation-prone issue.
22% of employers report co-worker stereotypes and attitudes a major barrier to employment/advancement of people with disabilities[1].
15% of non-disabled people report discomfort at the prospect of working for, or nearby, a person with a disability[2].
40% of disabled workers report encountering on-the-job discrimination[3].
Recruiters, Hiring Managers, even co-workers with misinformation and/or bad attitudes can effectively block or hinder your best efforts. Be sure that your part of your recruiting strategy is to educate and inform your non-disabled workforce! Wouldn't it be great if applicants with disabilities were swept into your company on a wave of enthusiasm and support!
Training Seminars - Many local CBOs and Departments of Rehabilitation offer free training available to employers in their areas. For a fee, articulate people with disabilities are available in most areas to address topics such as reasonable accommodations, the ADA, disability etiquette, etc.
Several great videos are available. One of the best is the Ten Commandments of Communicating with People With Disabilities. It also comes with handouts and a training module. (See: www.diversityshop.com/store/10comvid.html)
If you want to run your own internal training seminars, rather than develop your own, you might check out the free curriculum offered by California State University Northridge at www.csun.edu/~sp20558/dis/emcurcon.html?113,133) The most widely-used program in North America is the WINDMILLS Attitudinal Training Program. (Contact: info@diversityworld.com Train-the-trainer sessions are available from Milt Wright & Associates www.miltwright.com)
Online Information - A wealth of great informational resources already exist online. Provide your employees with links to some of the best sites that you can find. A good starting place on the Internet is the California Business Leadership Network (See: www.cabln.org) If you have one, your corporate Intranet is an effective place to keep pertinent information for your employees. I worked with one company to compile extensive resources on disability issues ?recruiting, interviewing, accommodating, supervising, developing/promoting, etc. It is an effective way to have critical information at your employees?fingertips.
Personal Interaction - Direct, face-to-face interaction is the most powerful way to break down attitudinal barriers. Take advantage of every opportunity to give your employees direct contact with people with disabilities. This contact will do a lot to overcome any uncertainty discomfort and misinformation that your employees are harboring. I have already suggested getting your employees involved with Mentoring programs, hiring Interns, and inviting guest speakers with disabilities. Here are a few more suggestions:
· Mock and Informational Interviews ?Most CBOs value 揗ock?interviews as a way for their job seekers to hone their interviewing skills. They also value informational?interviews as a way for their job seekers to gain industry-specific information on their career interests. Consider offering such interviews to clients of a local CBO. It is a comfortable way for your employees to increase their own disability competence?
· Internal Training scholarships?/b> ?Some companies, again partnering with CBOs, have made some or all of their internal training courses free to job seekers with disabilities. This is truly a win/win?proposition. For little or no cost to the company, such arrangements enable people with disabilities to gain more marketable skills ?while they give company employees the opportunity to interact directly with people with disabilities and thereby increase their disability comfort/acumen. Also, more than one company has snagged a good employee this way! (For a good model of this, see Project HIRED抯 Corporate Training Partnership Program: www.projecthired.org)
· Job Fairs ? Although they were mentioned earlier, one company used a Job Fair for job seekers with disabilities as a great opportunity staff development. Instead of staffing their booth with 2 or 3 employees for the whole day, they changed shifts every hour ?giving over a dozen employees the opportunity to interact with job seekers and to see the related exhibits on accommodations and access technologies.
· National Disability Mentoring Day ?October 24 is National Disability Mentoring day. It is sponsored by the US Department of Labor, Office on Disability Policy. It is an exceptionally good opportunity to involve your employees in a positive interaction with students with disabilities. (See: www.cabln.org/mentoring_day.htm)
Last Word
According to every study conducted in North American workplaces, people with disabilities have proven themselves to excel in performance and reliability. Companies that have taken the extra effort to dismantle their own internal reticence and to proactively tap into this labor pool have reaped the rewards - and continue to do so.
3)Enriching Our Workplaces
By Rob McInnes
A few years ago I attended a meeting focused on employment and disability issues and led by a well-meaning corporate executive. Early in the meeting, and new to the field of employment and disability issues, he jumped to a white board and wrote down two phrases; business has a shortage of labor?and ?0% unemployment for people with disabilities? He then confidently announced that we had successfully defined the problem and solution, we only needed to identify the strategies to achieve our goals and, within six months, we will have solved the unemployment issue for people with disabilities. Having already spent over 20 years of my life on the problem? I was somewhat less confident than he was.
While much progress has been made in North America over the past four decades or so, there are still major issues to be addressed on the fronts of educational policy, technology, human rights, attitudinal change, social policy, transportation, etc. This has been a long haul and will likely continue to be one.
For those of us who are engaged in the struggle, whether as professionals in the field?or as individual job seekers, it is easy to become weary and disillusioned. Because of this, I think it is important for each of us to consciously hold to some event, experience or vision that can motivate and empower us when we are dispirited.
Most recently, my own motivation has been bolstered by a presentation that I heard at a conference two years ago. A young mother, Terry Boisot, was recounting the years of struggle that it took to have her son Ben accepted into his neighborhood public school ? years of confrontation with authorities?that resisted her desire; because her son's disabilities were too severe?because he wouldn't fit in with the activities of the classroom?because he needed more specialized?education than they could provide?because?because?because. Eventually, Terry's perseverance paid off and her son was able to attend his neighborhood school. But, she said, she was now tired. With tears welling in her eyes, she told the audience how exhausted she was from her battle to win her son a place in his school. She explained that although he was now happy and thriving in school, she was already looking ahead to his graduation ?when he would face the world of employment ?where workplaces are every bit as resistant to people with disabilities as his school had been. Her voice quivering, Terry expressed her fear that she won't have the strength needed to once again overcome the prejudicial attitudes and practices that would militate against Ben finding his place of productivity and belonging ?this time, in the workforce.
Terry's situation, representing that of thousands of other families, has given me a touchstone for my own work in the disability/employment arena ?the conscious awareness that every little advance that we make, today or this week or next, will increase the employment opportunities that Ben (as all other children with disabilities) will have when he graduates.
I remember another meeting that I attended. I had been asked to comment on disability issues as it pertained to diversity in the workplace. The audience was primarily workforce diversity professionals from companies in the Silicon Valley. This was also a few years ago, when high tech companies were really flourishing. I remember the hush that fell over the room as I said that, in my opinion, the workplaces in the Silicon Valley were 搃mpoverished? Impoverished, I explained from their lack of true diversity ?from the lack of vitality and energy from a workforce where employees were invited to bring their unique selves fully into the workplace. Impoverished by workplaces where diversity is politely acknowledged; but differences aren抰 truly valued and where employees still leave their true authenticity at home.
There is a definitely a qualitative difference that true diversity brings to a workplace. Over and over, I hear from employers (who have hired people with disabilities) try to express it; but just can't find the words. I wish it had a name. I wish that it could be quantified; but it remains a mysterious can't put my finger on it; but something has really changed.?
It is strange and sad that, in the early 21st century, most North American workplaces are still highly resistant to the idea of having people with disabilities on their payroll. It is strange and sad that subjective attitudes and erroneous beliefs are still at the root of most of that resistance. At the same time, it is a wondrous experience to occasionally encounter workplaces that have made the transformation ?and to imagine a day when all workplaces will value and cultivate the contribution of employees with disabilities.
Going back to my earlier reference to Terry and Ben, I was thrilled to receive a recent update on Ben's school life. I think it is a great testament to the unexpected experiences that lie in wait on the other side of the barriers of fears and prejudice.
Terry recounts?
Ben has been included in the regular classroom of his neighborhood schools since kindergarten. The neighborhood school didn't want him at first - that was more than 8 years ago. Now they don't know what to do without him. Last Thursday evening Ben participated in a school awards ceremony. He sat in his wheelchair in the front row with 30 other kids on stage for an hour. He couldn't see the audience, but he knew his sister and I were there somewhere. He kept signing Tom,?and when one-handed signing got no action, he signed with both. Every now and then he would throw in a Michelle,?(his sister). His arms were flailing most of the event and the other kids on stage weren't distracted. I was. Near the end of the program, the principal approached the podium and by the 3rd sentence we knew this award was for Ben. He beamed from ear to ear. While it has been the highest form of honor to be Ben's mother, it has also been an honor to know the people who learn to recognize the value of all kids. To witness the transformation of people is extremely moving.?
These were the words of Ben's Principal?
The Principal's Award recognizes a student who has made a difference to our school during their two years at Goleta Valley Junior High. This student caught my attention from the first day. Once in a while, someone crosses your path and, without meaning to, has the most profound effect on your life. This happened to me last year and has continued throughout this year. I have learned about new things to value in my life in ways I never expected or thought possible. He touches my life and the lives of others and makes a difference every single day at Goleta Valley. Wherever he goes and whatever he does, he changes people outlook and makes us evaluate our values and beliefs. He reminds you with his smile and his laugh that he loves being here, loves his classes and teachers, and loves learning. He has so much to offer and I for one have taken advantage of this unique opportunity. His persistence and commitment has been inspiring and we are so lucky that he shares himself with us unconditionally ?a most beautiful and precious gift that I know I will always cherish. There was no doubt in my mind that the Principal Award belongs to him. It is with deep respect and admiration that I give this to him. Please help me recognize BENJAMIN BOISOT.?
Let us all be empowered with the belief that the impoverished workplaces of today will one day be likewise enriched by the contribution of Ben and all the other students with disabilities who are presently working their ways through our schools with hope and excitement for their futures.
?Rob McInnes, Diversity World, 2003
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Interviewing Issues
For companies that want to be successful at hiring people with disabilities, interviewing applicants with disabilities is a particularly critical issue to address. Often times interviewers are overly nervous and uncomfortable when interviewing an applicant with a disability. This discomfort is typically based on one or more of the following:
1. Their unfamiliarity with disability-related etiquette and communication issues.2. Their concerns about the legal issues that enforce non-discrimination in the interview process.3. Their lack of experience in interacting with people with disabilities and the fear of uncertainty that arises from this.
Unless an interviewer can find a way to be comfortable in interviewing candidates with disabilities, they are unlikely to be ineffective. Without a level of comfort, they will probably not be able to thoroughly probe the interviewees or resolve any disability-related concerns that they have. Without being able to accomplish this, they will not have complete confidence in the interviewee's ability to do the job - and the interviewee will not be hired.
There are many online resources that provide interviewers with information on the legal guidelines that they need to know - and others that outline the basic etiquette and communication issues that need to be considered. In most communities, government agencies and community organizations can provide employers with additional printed information and/or on-site training on these issues.
Experience, however, is the only cure for lack of experience. Companies should consider providing opportunities for their hiring managers and/or recruiters to interact directly with people with a variety of disabilities. Interestingly, many organizations that provide employment services to people with disabilities are looking for opportunities for their clients to practice and hone their interviewing skills. Scheduling "mock interviews" is an ideal way for businesses and disability-related organizations to partner on a project of mutual benefit.
?Rob McInnes, Diversity World, 2004
4)DoD Honors 16 Employees With Disabilities; Keynoter Calls Attitudes "No. 1 Barrier"
By Rudi WilliamsAmerican Forces Press Service
BETHESDA, Md., Dec. 4, 2002 – When Richard Eddie Espinosa contracted polio at the age of 18 months, his parents were bombarded with advice to get him out of the family's home because he'd only be a vegetable, never live a normal life, never have a girlfriend, wife or children.
Not only that, medical professionals, family members and friends also told them the young polio victim would destroy the family, and his three older siblings would be psychologically traumatized by having him as part of the family.
That's what Espinosa, 44, told more than 400 attendees as the keynote speaker at the 22nd Annual DoD Disability Awards Ceremony and 15th Annual DoD Disability Forum here Dec. 3. The ceremony also recognized 16 DoD employees with disabilities with secretary of defense certificates for their outstanding contributions to the DoD work force.
Three components were presented the 2002 Secretary of Defense Trophies for Employing People with Disabilities. The trophies are brass cups that travel annually from one winner to the next. The trophies stay in place this year because the same three organizations that won last year are this years winners: Department of Air Force for best military department; Defense Logistics Agency for best mid-size component; and Defense Security Service for best small component.
Ceremony host Charles S. Abell, principal deputy undersecretary of defense for personnel and readiness, gave the opening remarks and took part in the award presentations. Other officials at the event included Judith C. Gilliom, manager of DoD's program for people with disabilities; Paul M. Meyer, planning committee chairperson for the annual National Symposium: Perspectives on Employment of People with Disabilities; Jane Burke, principal director, Office of the Acting Deputy Undersecretary of Defense for Equal Opportunity; and Ginger Groeber, deputy undersecretary of defense for civilian personnel policy.
DoD employs more than 47,000 people with disabilities; more than 6,000 have severe disabilities.
Pointing out that U.S. Census Bureau statistics puts the unemployment rate for people with severe disabilities at 75 percent, Espinosa said the No. 1 barrier isn't the need for a curb cut, elevator, sign language interpreter, documents transposed into Braille or "nothing that we have to throw money at. It's just attitudes.
"But those attitudes are a tough nut to crack, and it requires that each and every one of us do a bit of soul-searching. Sometimes, we are forced to see something within ourselves that we really don't want to see," said Espinosa, a world-class athlete who holds national and international records as a wheelchair sprinter and won a silver medal in the 400-meter dash in the 1988 Paralympic Games in Korea.
"We have to get to a point where we see beyond the hearing aid or the white cane or crutches," he said. "We have to get to a point where we see the capabilities of the person who happens to use the hearing aid or the white cane or the crutches."
Espinosa said as the nation fights to rid the world of terrorism, "we have to bring all of our military, financial and human resources to bear in order to triumph over this radical scourge that is threatening our freedom. We can no longer afford to let millions of qualified people with disabilities remain (among) the unemployed. All of the people must be called to active employment duty."
Noting that for many decades, DoD has been recognized as a leader in the employment of people with disabilities, Espinosa said an example of this is the work with the Department of Labor to operate the work force recruitment program, in which he was a 1980 participant.
"It's a wonderful program where DoD, many other federal agencies and the private sector recruit and hire interns with disabilities," Espinosa said.
He said 217 students with disabilities went through the DoD program last summer. That, he said, is an excellent example of DoD's commitment to providing people with disabilities an opportunity to get valuable work experience.
Espinosa said the summer program changed his entire life by making him realize he could make a difference and help the country become a batter place.
"In my 44 years of living, I've seen tremendous change in how our society views disability," Espinosa said. "When I contracted polio more than 40 years ago, it became apparent that I would never walk again. Doctors, nurses, social workers and all the professionals that were supposed to help guide my parents through this issue, and even relatives after a while, told my parents to just send me away, to forget about me."
He said about a year before his father died in May 2000, he "cleansed his soul" by telling him, with tears in his eyes, that he once considered killing his son and then turning the gun on himself.
"He'd reached a breaking point," said Espinosa, who added that he and his wife are expecting a baby girl next March. "He told me that he decided he didn't want his little baby boy to live that miserable life."
But before his father could carry out his tragic plan, Espinosa's mother told him to "Get that thought out of your head, because Ed is going to be fine."
"And with that sentence, my mom saved both of our souls," Espinosa said. "Something in my dad's head clicked. He realized that mom was right. No matter what anyone else said, he and mom did the very best to raise me to be just like any of their other kids."
His father then told him "something that will stick with me until my death. He said they talked about how ironic it was that I accomplished more than any of the other seven children. He said that my achievements in life allowed them to experience more than they could have ever imagined.
"Not too bad for a guy who was originally doomed to a life of misery," said the founder and president of REELife Solutions, a private firm, which offers training and consulting on disability issues. He travels throughout the country providing advice and counsel to businesses and government agencies.
"Given an opportunity, everyone has something to contribute," he noted. "Even someone who has been doomed by almost everybody to a life of misery.
"I know the 16 award recipients being honored here today have made a difference in the lives of others," he added.
The 16 employees with disabilities who received awards for outstanding performance are:
Kathleen S. Baumgartner, Department of the Air Force, Offutt Air Force Base, Neb.
David J. Cruzan, Defense Intelligence Agency, Washington, D.C.
Joseph P. Doyle, Office of the DoD Inspector General, Arlington, Va.
Samuel T. Garcia, National Security Agency, Fort Meade, Md.
George H. Gonzalez, Army and Air Force Exchange Service, Fort Bliss, Texas.
James R. Johnson, Defense Logistics Agency, New Cumberland, Pa.
Felix F. Kalendek III, Defense Security Service, Linthicum, Md.
Margaret E. Mehaffie, Defense Information Systems Agency, Slidell, La.
Debra L. Moose, National Imagery and Mapping Agency, Bethesda, Md.
Deborah A. Mundt, Defense Commissary Agency, Fort Rucker, Ala.
Jay D. Nobles, Department of the Army, Fort Jackson, S.C.
Ruthann D. Pest, Defense Contract Management Agency, Rockford, Ill.
Daniel J. Philbin, Office of the Secretary of the Defense, Alexandria, Va.
Solomon V. Rakhman, Department of the Navy, Philadelphia.
Nashana M. Riley, Defense Threat Reduction Agency, Fort Belvoir, Va.
Bobby F. Vercher, Defense Contract Audit Agency, Pascagoula, Miss
5)The Role of Disability Management Programs in ADA Compliance
Author(s): Bruce G. Flynn
About the author(s): Consultant, Watson Wyatt Worldwide
What is disability management?
When employees leave work as the result of a disabling injury or illness, it is not simply a matter of adding up the medical bills and income replacement costs to determine the impact of disability on the workplace ¡V knowledge and experience are lost, workplace efficiency decreases, customer relationships suffer, and productivity declines. In fact, the Census Bureau estimates that the total medical, income replacement, and productivity-related costs of disability will top $340 billion in the year 20001, a fact many companies have begun to take very seriously. In times of tight labor markets, no employer can afford to lose even one valued employee due to poorly managed health or disability.
The field of disability management (DM), which was born of employer efforts to control disability costs beginning in the mid-1980¡¦s, has undergone unprecedented change and growth since then due at least in part to the passage of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) in 1990. ¡§Disability management is a workplace prevention and remediation strategy that seeks to prevent disability from occurring or, lacking that, to intervene early following the onset of a disability, using coordinated, cost-conscious, quality case management and rehabilitation services that reflect an organizational commitment to continued employment of those experiencing functional work limitations2. This definition, which first appeared in a 1992 text on disability management, is still applicable today although the scope of services and interventions that can help to manage and minimize the impact of disabling injuries and illness on the individual and on the organization has expanded exponentially.
The concept of DM is a simple one ¡V connect all the individual care, benefit, and case management components so they complement each other. In its simplest form, integrated disability management coordinates occupational and non-occupational disability benefits and absence and paid leave programs with a focus on early return to work. Increasingly, DM programs also coordinate health care, employee assistance (EAP) and behavioral health care, health promotion, disease management, and medical case management services all aimed at improving overall workforce health, easing the administrative burden, and providing a seamless set of benefits for workers with disabling injuries and illnesses.
Integration of DM program functions becomes complex, however, given the scope of programs, policies, and practices to be integrated: data management from multiple internal and external sources; education of health care providers; management of multiple vendors for case management, insurance (or self-insured administration), health care, and rehabilitation services; and, last but not least, training front-line supervisors in the intricacies of managing return to work. Every organization¡¦s situation is different and no single integration model will work well for every company. But all organizations must be mindful of the reasonable accommodation requirements of the ADA in designing and implementing return-to-work policies and programs for their employees with disabilities.
1Friend, D. (2000). HealthCare.com. Bethesda, MD; Watson Wyatt Worldwide, p. 712Akabas, S., Gates, L., and Galvin, D. (1992). Disability Management. New York: AMACOM, p.2.
How have DM programs grown and developed?
Disability management programs have been utilized increasingly over the past decade by businesses seeking to control the cost of workplace disability. The Washington Business Group on Health, in collaboration with human resources consulting firm, Watson Wyatt Worldwide, has surveyed large employers since 1996 regarding their DM program activities and concerns. The most recent survey results indicate that 43% of large corporations have implemented some form of integrated DM program, up from 23% in 19963. As the number of programs has increased, so too have corporate expectations of DM program efforts. In 1996, most companies responding to the ¡§Staying @ Work¡¨ survey indicated that increased frequency of return-to-work outcomes and reduced benefit costs were the primary measures of program success. However, by 1999, businesses reported that improved customer satisfaction, reduced absenteeism, and increased productivity were also being tracked to determine if DM program efforts had a positive impact on overall business success.
This bottom line orientation to measuring DM program effectiveness encompassed ADA compliance once the Title I provisions were implemented in 1992 as many corporations recognized the importance of reasonable accommodation as the key to early return to work as well as reduced liability for discrimination. One large financial institution reorganized its human resources departments in 1993 so that ADA compliance efforts, previously a part of its equal employment opportunity program, became the responsibility of the disability management department, which also coordinated occupational and non-occupational return-to-work efforts.4 Many large companies have recognized that the reasonable accommodation process mandated by the ADA requires essentially the same analysis of work limitations and modified work options as typical transitional return-to-work programs.5 Thus, its DM program is ideally positioned to address both temporary and permanent work return issues.
In addition to addressing return to work following injuries or illnesses, DM programs have also begun to collaborate with corporate health promotion and disease management efforts in order to reduce the incidence of preventable health conditions and intervene early with chronic illnesses and to teach self management skills and reduce acute episodes requiring additional time off work. As the workforce ages, the incidence of disability among the employed population is expected to rise thereby challenging employers to maintain maximum workplace flexibility and to accommodate the needs of older workers by providing, for example, assistive technology, flexible schedules, and telecommuting options.
Employee assistance programs (EAP) have also begun to partner with DM programs to identify employees with mental health problems who can benefit from reasonable accommodation of work limitations associated with these types of disorders. Mental health disorders are typically considered by employers to be the most difficult types of disabilities to accommodate. Recent research indicates that structuring benefit plans to provide more generous behavioral health coverage often saves money by reducing the overall cost associated with lost work days.6 Thus, integrated DM approaches to managing behavioral health problems in the workplace rely on reasonable accommodation efforts to return employees with mental health related disabilities to work in order to demonstrate a return on investment for the cost of more expansive, and more expensive, mental health treatment options. The cost of such treatment is usually more than offset by the gains in workplace productivity by returning employees with psychiatric disabilities to work.
3Staying @ Work: Increasing Shareholder Value through Integrated Disability Management. (1999). Bethesda, MD: Watson Wyatt Worldwide, p.2.4BNA Workers' Compensation Report. (1996). Bank addresses ADA accomodations, comp return to work in same program. Vol. 7, p. 375BNA, p. 37.6Investing in Workplace Productivity: Managing Indirect Mental Health Costs. (1999). Washington, DC: Washington Business Group on Health.
What are the primary DM functions that intersect with ADA compliance?
The primary areas of DM practice that intersect with or bear on ADA compliance include:
1. Benefits access: Many DM programs coordinate access for employees to disability/income replacement benefits. When an employee is injured or becomes ill, he/she is directed to the DM program to determine which of the often multiple disability benefit option offerings (sick leave, salary continuance, workers¡¦ compensation, short term or long term disability, retirement disability, etc.) may be appropriate. A single point of contact (such as ¡§800¡¨ phone lines) often serves to assure that employees working in 24-hour operations or in widely dispersed locations around the country or around the world can quickly access benefits to which they are entitled once they become disabled. On-line enrollment and application processes have also evolved over the past several years to serve the needs of an increasingly computer-dependent and networked workforce. Such operations also serve as data collection points for absence and disability information used by companies to determine if DM efforts have the desired impact, i.e., reduce lost time and improve return-to-work outcomes. Compliance with ADA Titles I and III can be enhanced through centralized benefit and absence management efforts. Employees are assured immediate and seamless access to benefits through personal contact, phone lines, or on-line connections. Plan descriptions and information are also readily available if questions concerning coverage arise. Fast and efficient leave and benefits processing means that return to work and accommodation efforts begin as soon as medically feasible.
2. Identification of essential job functions: The ADA states that an individual with a disability must be qualified to perform the ¡§essential job functions¡¨ of the position which he/she holds or seeks in order to seek reasonable accommodation. The essential job functions of a position are the foundation upon which DM staff evaluate the qualifications of employees with disabilities and determine what, if any, reasonable accommodation options exist. An essential job function is a set of tasks that comprises the most important activities of a job ¡V they are not job skills, individual job tasks, or job descriptions. Thus, in making return-to-work recommendations, a DM staff person must determine what the essential job functions are that must be accomplished in order for modified work to be successful and productive.
3. Clarification of work limitations: DM programs serve a critical function linking physicians, employees with disabilities, and the company in developing return-to-work plans. Typically, companies employ nurse/case managers (either internally or externally contracted) to communicate with treating physicians regarding recuperation and return to work for employees with disabilities. Their job is to assure that employees receive appropriate, timely treatment and that any resulting work limitations are stated unambiguously, clearly, and in such a manner as to facilitate the modified work/return-to-work process. Even before issues of permanent accommodation arise, transitional job assignments must take into consideration the nature and extent of limitations experienced by employees recovering from injuries or illnesses. Should limitations persist, employer DM efforts to verify and understand restrictions as they change over time places the company in a stronger position to develop permanent reasonable accommodations under the ADA when and if that becomes necessary.
4. Development of modified job, return-to-work options: The heart of DM is facilitating an employee¡¦s return to work as soon as medically appropriate. Not only does the employer regain the services of a trained employee, but being back in the work environment often further speeds recovery for employees with disabilities. Non-discrimination under the ADA is also achieved by providing reasonable accommodation for disability-related limitations that restrict employees¡¦ ability to work. Most companies develop human resource policies and supervisory training materials to reinforce and support the return-to-work process with guidance from the DM program staff. Return-to-work/accommodation options include transitional work (temporary changes in job duties or techniques during periods of recuperation); modified work (changes in work tasks, schedules, methods, or equipment); or alternate work (reassignment to a different job if accommodations cannot be made in the original position). Typically, DM staff follow the reasonable accommodation process (even if restrictions are expected to be temporary) in order to make appropriate return-to-work decisions. First, DM staff analyze the job and determine the essential job functions. Then, they identify and clarify any disability-related restrictions, and generate a set of return-to-work options that appear to meet the work restriction needs of the employee with a disability. Finally, DM staff select the option that best balances the employee¡¦s needs and the company¡¦s expectations for productive work assignment and their business needs.
5. Interactive dialogue: Engaging employees with disabilities in meaningful discussion of their work options is a basic tenet of the ADA. Courts have found in favor of ADA plaintiffs/employees whose employers have attempted to impose accommodation options without having first had an interactive dialogue with them to assure their understanding and gain their agreement with accommodation plans. But beyond simply avoiding lawsuits, engaging employees in the return-to-work process makes good sense. Supervisors must feel comfortable that they understand the nature of an employee¡¦s work limitations. Both ultimately must have a stake in the success of any modified return-to-work plans and the earlier a dialogue between them can begin after an employee¡¦s disability becomes evident, the better. DM program staff provide the link between employees, physicians, and line supervisors to facilitate this discussion and resolve any issues that arise in the course of developing a return-to-work plan.
The following is a table representing how disability management functions contribute to ADA compliance:
DM Program Functions
ADA Compliance Impact
Transitional/modified return to work
Aids reasonable accommodationessential job function analysisidentification of job accommodation optionsidentification of job aids, assistive devices
Benefits coordination, occupational and non-occupational disability
Ensures equal access to benefits (Title III)
Benefits application processing
Ensures equal and timely access to benefits
Case management
Aids reasonable accommodationclarification of work limitationsidentification of job accommodation options
Internal disability management process
Aids reasonable accommodationprovides mechanism for evaluating/funding accommodationspromotes interactive dialog
Independent medical exams
Aids reasonable accommodationclarification of work limitations
Education of supervisors, physicians regarding return-to-work process
Promotes interactive dialog
Safety and illness prevention
Aids reasonable accommodationidentification of job aids, assistive devices (particularly ergonomic)
How can DM programs assure ADA compliance?
A Cornell University survey (conducted with the Washington Business Group on Health, the Society for Human Resources Management, and the Federal government) provides a comprehensive assessment of both private and public sector organizational responses to the provisions of the ADA. Forty-five per cent of private sector employers (and 42% of government agencies) indicated that they have established formal DM/return-to-work programs and another 34% of private sector employers (and 24% of government agencies) stated that they had "informal" programs. An additional set of questions details the intersection between DM programs, among those organizations reporting that they had them, and ADA compliance by asking employers what contribution their DM programs had made to improving ADA compliance. The results:
89% of private sector companies (and 85% of federal sector agencies) said that DM programs reinforced the importance of confidentiality. Given rising concerns about Internet privacy and medical confidentiality, it is an encouraging sign that DM programs help to create an atmosphere that protects employee privacy while at the same time working to accommodate employees with disabilities.
88% of private sector organizations (and 73% of federal government agencies) credit DM programs with raising acceptance of employees with disabilities in the workplace. The full inclusion of people with disabilities is a central theme of the ADA, and DM programs have advanced that aim in the workplace by supporting practices that normalize return to work and embed the reasonable accommodation process in organizational life.
87% of private sector companies (and 75% of federal sector agencies) found that DM programs raised supervisor awareness of the accommodation process. Employers report they have completed staff training on a wide variety of disability and return-to-work related topics most of which involve or are influenced by DM program staff.
79% of public sector employers (and 71% of public sector organizations) create an organizational structure for funding accommodations through their DM programs. Many companies have developed central accommodation funds that pay for worksite modifications above a predetermined ceiling (usually several hundred dollars). This reduces the impact of any expensive accommodations on small department budgets while providing a convenient means to track the provision of accommodation services company-wide.
In order to assure consistent application of reasonable accommodation principles, DM programs have developed organization-wide communications concerning the importance of return to work. Such policies create a "return-to-work culture" that encourages cooperation and flexibility in developing return-to-work options for employees with disabilities and reduces "entitlement mentality," a tendency for employees to feel that disability leave is an entitlement (like paid vacation leave). Before DM programs became widespread, employers were often unwitting "co-malingerers," enabling and even encouraging employees with even minor ailments to stay off work until they were "100% recovered." Now, such behavior is viewed as not only counterproductive (since it runs counter to the early return to work/productivity perspective) but is proscribed by the ADA.
What does the future hold?
Can businesses comply with the ADA and contain disability costs at the same time? In fact, cost containment and compliance go hand-in-hand. "Doing the right thing" also facilitates return to work, which, in turn, is correlated with reduced workplace disability costs. Although recent Supreme Court cases have begun to define the limits of ADA coverage, there are concerns that unreasonable expansion of ADA provisions may undermine the generally positive perception that businesses hold of the law. This need not be the case, however, because businesses have every incentive to continue to expand on DM program successes of the past decade.
As more companies realize the benefits of active return-to-work/DM programs, acceptance of people with disabilities in the workplace will increase. As employers experiment with more expansive employee health benefit programs designed to improve chronic illness management, former Social Security Disability Insurance recipients may find the workplace a more secure and inviting alternative under the Ticket to Work/Work Incentives Improvement Act. DM efforts to improve return-to-work outcomes will ultimately result in greater workplace flexibility and reduced benefit costs, generally, which, in turn, will pave the way for improved employment prospects for people with disabilities. And in the high-need, high tech employment arena, assistive technology will continue to expand employment opportunities for even those with the most severe disabilities.
Thus, DM programs have not only saved benefit dollars and helped employees with disabilities become more productive, they have changed American business culture. DM programs have helped to lay the foundation within corporate America for the full inclusion of people with disabilities.
6)DoD Honors Employees with Disabilities
By K.L. VantranAmerican Forces Press Service
BETHESDA, Md., Dec. 11, 2003 – Paula L. Briscoe, guided by her faithful companion, a 7-year-old golden retriever named Jenny, confidently walked to the front of the Crystal Ballroom at the Hyatt Regency Hotel here Dec. 9. She smiled as she shook hands with Under Secretary of Defense for Personnel and Readiness David S.C. Chu and accepted her award.
Harvey T. Hale, a logistics officer with the Department of the Army, Wilmington, N.C., accepts the secretary of defense certificate for outstanding employees with disabilities from Under Secretary of Defense for Personnel and Readiness David S.C. Chu. Cerebral palsy limits his ability to use the right side of his body, but difficulty walking does not deter him from daily tours of the premises to assure excellent service. The 23rd Annual DoD Disability Awards Ceremony was held Dec. 9 at the Hyatt Regency Hotel in Bethesda, Md. Photo by K.L. Vantran. (Click photo for screen-resolution image);high-resolution image available.
"It's nice to see the Department of Defense recognizing people with disabilities not specifically because they have disabilities, but because of what they contribute," said Briscoe, an intelligence officer with the Defense Intelligence Agency, Washington, D.C. She was one of 17 DoD employees recognized as an outstanding employee with disabilities at the 23rd Annual DoD Disability Awards Ceremony and 16th Annual DoD Disability Forum.
Other awardees are:
Gregory T. Burrell, Defense Logistics Agency, Richmond, Va.
Michael B. Dell Jr., DoD Office of the Inspector General, Cleveland.
Scott M. Deyo, Office of the Secretary of Defense/Washington Headquarters Services, Arlington, Va.
Alice E. Dickerson, Defense Commissary Agency, Fort Lee, Va.
Martha G. Fraier, Defense Security Service, St. Louis.
Harvey T. Hale, Department of the Army, Wilimington, N.C.
Charles A. Hoff, DoD Education Activity, Arlington, Va.
Gerald Mineo Isobe, Defense Finance and Accounting Service, Pearl Harbor, Hawaii.
Raymond Dale Jenks Jr., Department of the Air Force, Lackland Air Force Base, Texas.
Timothy C. Johnson, Army and Air Force Exchange Service, Kirtland Air Force Base, N.M.
Xiu Hua Kwan, Defense Contract Management Agency, Boston.
Patrick J. McNally, Defense Contract Audit Agency, Lowell, Mass.
"Mr. R" (not fully identified because of the nature of his work), National Security Agency, Fort George G. Meade, Md.
Warren W. Russum, Department of the Navy, Stennis Space Center, Miss.
Ronald J. Siudzinski, National Imagery and Mapping Agency, Reston, Va.
Johnathan D. Stone, Defense Threat Reduction Agency, Fort Belvoir, Va.
In 1981, the secretary of defense began an awards program to honor outstanding DoD employees with disabilities. President Clinton signed an executive order in July 2000 directing the federal government to hire 100,000 employees with disabilities over the next five years. In response, DoD pledged to hire 32,000 candidates with qualified disabilities before September 2005.
"We have exceeded our goal and will intensify our efforts in the future," said Chu. "In particular, we want to focus on (hiring) individuals with severe disabilities. I'm proud to report we currently have more than 6,000 individuals with severe disabilities, which is about 1 percent of our civilian work force. While this percentage is higher than many agencies, we know we can do better."
Chu said the Census Bureau reports that 75 percent of people with disabilities do not have jobs. Although many want to work and could work, he said, most do not actively seek employment. "They are often too discouraged to try," he added.
"Most of us who are not so disabled can realistically expect to be employed," said Chu. People with disabilities can have no such expectation, he added. "This must change," Chu said, "and we want do to our part to change it."
In keeping with the goal of Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld to increase the employment of people with disabilities to 2 percent of the department's civilian work force, Chu said one should look to the theme for the awards ceremony and disability forum: "America Works Best When All Americans Work."
"We need all Americans to join in the global war on terrorism," he said. "This war will be fought in many ways, in many places at our desks and on battlefields. As we fight this crucial battle, individuals with disabilities can be full-fledged members of the defense team."
Managers should hire people with disabilities not because it gives them a "warm fuzzy" and makes them feel good, but because of what that individual can do for the work force, said W. Roy Grizzard Jr., assistant labor secretary for disability employment policy.
The keynote speaker congratulated those who received awards. "You are the example of what people with disabilities can do when given the opportunity," said Grizzard, who has retinitis pigmentosa, a progressive reduction in vision.
"People with disabilities bring to the work force far more abilities than they do disabilities," he added. "People with disabilities, when given an opportunity can succeed, move forward and move on."
The ceremony also lauded three DoD components for outstanding accomplishments in their affirmative action programs for people with disabilities. The 2003 Secretary of Defense Trophies for Achievement in Employment of People with Disabilities went to the Department of the Air Force for best military department, the Defense Logistics Agency for best mid-size component, and the Office of the Secretary of Defense/Washington Headquarters Services for best small component. The trophies are brass cups that travel annually from one winner to the next.
7)Employment and Disability - From, "Disability and the Need for Change, " by Thomas Weiss11/10/2007 at 11:05 AM
Employment and Disability
For many persons with disabilities, the hardships that many nondisabled Americans are feeling today is an everyday, all the time experience that they would gladly accept in exchange for what they live in now. Even with the current unemployment experienced by nondisabled persons today, they are still far more employed than persons with disabilities. In this section of my paper I present examples of corporate discrimination and oppression concerning persons with disabilities and employment. I also talk about ways that disabled and nondisabled persons in companies learn from each other. I begin with a statement on disability and poverty.
Denying an entire culture the rights that others feel they deserve is criminal because it keeps it in poverty. According to Gandhi, poverty is the worst form of violence. Worse, keeping people with disabilities from equal participation in society is harming everyone in that society. We are all part of a social whole, and denying a certain group of people is like denying yourself food to eat, or water to drink. We are all necessary for each other to live in our society. Businesses hire people so that their business can prosper, and people need to work for businesses to sustain themselves in America's economy.
Corporations that hire people as workers must become more flexible in dealing with persons with disabilities. Some examples of disability inflexibility in corporations include Wal-Mart, United Airlines, and Boeing. The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) released statements on October 23rd, 2001 and January 7th, 2000 concerning two men who are deaf and their fight for employment with Wal-Mart.
Mr. Darnell and Mr. Fass brought suit against Wal-Mart in 1998 because Wal-Mart did not hire them, even though they were qualified for the jobs they were applying for. The lawsuit was not settled until January 2000, and even then Wal-Mart did not provide adequate training, revise its policies or conduct meetings with the goal of recruiting persons with disabilities as it was obliged to under the settlement. Wal-Mart felt that Darnell and Fass were incapable of doing the jobs they applied for. (EEOC, 2001)
The EEOC and the Arizona Center for Disability Law (ACDL) brought contempt proceedings against Wal-Mart in April of 2000, and on June 13th, 2001 Judge William Browning found Wal-Mart in contempt and ordered it to pay fines, comply with the provisions of the decree on training and policies, and to air a commercial describing the experiences of Fass and Darnell, explaining ways that other persons can get help if they feel they have been discriminated against.
Some of the provisions of the decree that Wal-Mart must face include paying $66,250 each to Mr. Darnell and Mr. Fass. Wal-Mart must hire both men, and provide a sign language interpreter for them during their training and orientation, as well as at any meetings they attend. Wal-Mart must also provide reasonable accommodations for both men, including vibrating pagers, and installation of a TTY or TTD telecommunications system. Both workers will be awarded a corporate service date of September 1, 1995 for use in decisions based on their length of service with the company. Wal-Mart must also pay $57, 500 in attorney's fees and litigation expenses incurred in representing Jeremy Fass and William Darnell. Of course, due to Wal-Mart's inflexibility in hiring persons with disabilities during this time, they must also pay the cost of a commercial describing their lack of diversity awareness. (EEOC, 2000)
The lawsuit involving Mr. Fass and Mr. Darnell of Tucson, Arizona was only part of the EEOC's efforts to help Wal-Mart understand the extent of its inflexible business practices toward persons with disabilities. In a release on December 17th, 2001, the EEOC announced a $6.8 million dollar decree against Wal-Mart in Sacramento, California. The EEOC had brought a lawsuit against Wal-Mart over its "Matrix of Essential Job Functions", which the EEOC felt violated the Americans with Disabilities Act. Parties to the decree agreed to settle 12 other ADA lawsuits filed against Wal-Mart in 11 states. The "Matrix of Essential Job Functions" asked applicants for disability related information, in violation of Federal law.
The decree also requires Wal-Mart to give priority consideration for employment to applicants who were qualified for jobs but were turned down based on medical or disability related information. Money from the decree will be used to fund persons in the case, as well as 12 other Wal-Mart lawsuits. $3 million of the money will cover damages for people who were harmed by Wal-Mart's pre-employment practices. (EEOC, 2001)
I think that Wal-Mart's philosophy of "Always Low Prices, Always", may grow a bit rusty and impracticable in the future if it does not cease inflexible, discriminatory and outright negative treatment of persons with disabilities. Thousands of dollars in fines and settlements won't hurt Wal-Mart one bit. Negative advertising and word of mouth may very well cost Wal-Mart much more than the settlements mentioned here. One in five people in America has a disability, and if a significant number of these persons with disabilities should decide that a boycott of Wal-Mart is called for, Wal-Mart could very well end up taking damages in the hundreds of millions of dollars range, and we will see about those low prices.
Looking at the case of Mr. Fass and Mr. Darnell tells me the amount of hate Wal-Mart has for persons with disabilities. Wal-Mart spent a large amount of money on attorneys, fines and commercials surrounding that particular case, money it could have saved if it had an iota of respect for Federal law, and simply hired the two workers. Both men were very capable of performing the job well, they actually wanted to work for Wal-Mart, and they wanted the jobs badly enough to fight for them. What better employee could Wal-Mart have wanted? I think that Wal-Mart could have taken the money it spent on the lawsuit, fines and commercials, and spent it on training for persons with disabilities, or even on more of its "low prices."
Unfortunately, America's large corporations are slow to learn that just because a person has a disability in their eyes does not mean she is incapable of doing anything. While you see persons with disabilities in the workplace more than you might think you do, persons who are deaf or hearing impaired have a noticeable disability, one that employers show continued ignorance of. I wonder if fear of someone different will be as much of a hurdle for workers with disabilities in the future.
United Airlines kept a deaf mechanic at bay for five years because of its inflexibility, discrimination and fear of someone different than the "norm." United gave "reason" after "reason" for not hiring John Sprague, keeping him from the job he had dreamed of for years. It took Judge George A. O'Toole Jr., and a fine of $320,000 to change United's mind on the subject of hiring John, who commented, "This is a great victory for everyone who has a disability." (The Boston Globe, 2002)
John Sprague used lip reading, notes and speech to communicate with his colleagues during the court case. He flew airplanes as a teenager, and fixed planes at Taunton Airport in 1986. The fact that he can't hear has not gotten in his way. In 1997, United hired him as a line mechanic at Logan Airport, but weeks later a senior executive at UAL "rescinded" the offer. John was moved to a maintenance shop in San Francisco, despite the discrimination lawsuit he filed after being removed from his job at Logan.
For almost a year, John commuted each week to the West Coast. He faxed pictures to his two daughters when he couldn't come home to be with them. He finally decided to take a job as a mechanic for AirTran at Logan, and kept it until it cut its staff two years ago. After that, John worked as a landscaper and a carpenter while waiting for the court's decision on his case. (The Boston Globe, 2002)
When the court's decision came, Judge O'Toole said, "United's shifting explanation of its reasons for withdrawing the job offer undermines United's credibility and suggests that the company simply did not want to employ a deaf line mechanic." United responded by saying that it was only concerned about its employees' safety, and "We don't think we violated any laws or policies. At United, we were very disappointed in the outcome of the case." John's attorney said, "This is the quintessential ADA case, United Airlines made assumptions about John Sprague because of his disability, and those assumptions were wrong." (The Boston Globe, 2002)
I'm not sure why companies are concerned about having an employee with a disability working for them. It crossed my mind that the company might feel liable for the employee's well being, but then; the numbers of persons with disabilities in America regularly rises because previously able-bodied people have accidents that disable them in some way, even among the leadership of a company. Perhaps they are concerned about money; yet there is no study that shows that persons with disabilities have more accidents on the job than anyone else.
John Sprague can hear speech, but cannot distinguish the words. With a digital hearing aid, John can detect a "significant range of sounds, including airplane warnings and irregular engine noises." He is experienced at airplane mechanical work, he sees the job as his dream job, and he has a family to give him incentive to show up for work when he might feel like calling in sick. I can't find a single reason why United shouldn't be pleased to have John working for it. Unfortunately there is a case similar to this with one of America's largest aircraft builders as well.
The Boeing Corporation fought a case in court against two of its workers who experienced hearing loss by saying they were getting old. The worker's jobs involved work that brought them in the vicinity of stamping presses, riveting machines and other loud machinery over a period of decades. Boeing was ordered to pay permanent partial disability benefits to both of the workers. (The Associated Press, 2002)
Boeing fought the judgment, saying that some of the hearing loss the workers were experiencing was because of their age. Boeing wanted the award reduced, but the Board of Industrial Insurance Appeals, and the state's highest court rejected Boeing's appeal. Justice Charles Johnson wrote, "A worker's age is irrelevant to establishing the existence and extent of a worker's disability, and the median-based allocation method cannot be used to refute the existence or extent of an individual's disability."
Boeing attorneys felt that without some form of statistical model of hearing loss, it is nearly impossible to divide deafness due to work related reasons, and hearing loss due to aging. Without such a statistical model, attorneys for Boeing felt that Boeing would have to pay for hearing loss that it shouldn't have to. The court disapproved of the "long-standing" practice of ignoring hearing tests conducted by employers, and said that without information from those tests an employer often has no way to challenge claims like these. (The Associated Press, 2002)
I think that Boeing had reason to pursue a case like this because it is financially prudent for it to not pay for hearing loss it is not responsible for. I also think that Boeing was being inflexible and presenting anti-disability sentiment by not working with the situation more thoroughly before taking the case to court. Large companies like Boeing attempt to deal with workers in generic, mass-standards ways; ways that don't work with disability because every person with a disability is disabled in a unique way. You cannot place hearing loss, or any other disability, into a general-statistics model.
Wal-Mart, United Airlines and Boeing are three examples of large companies going through a process of learning about disabled workers; an inflexible, negative and often discriminatory process. These companies push every button they can in order to get the way they perceive disability justified, at the expense of persons with disabilities, money, and Federal law concerning persons with disabilities. Money seems to be the bottom line for companies like Wal-Mart, United Airlines and Boeing; they don't seem to have much concern for the people involved with them. From a human rights perspective, Wal-Mart, United Airlines and Boeing will either change, or remain on a list of employers that must be forced to recognize the civil rights of persons with disabilities.
I think that cases like the ones that Wal-Mart, United Airlines and Boeing were involved in are one way that persons with disabilities teach organizations about themselves and how to work with them. The cases were in the public eye for the duration of the events, and corporations other than Wal-Mart, United Airlines and Boeing will hopefully learn from their mistakes. It is almost always easier to work with someone who has a disability than against them. It is almost always better for the company and the worker with a disability to discuss any problems they may have than to spend money and time fighting in court.
Persons with disabilities teach employers about themselves by their very presence in work situations. Every person with a disability is a unique person with a unique degree of his disability or disabilities. Interaction with employers is perhaps the best way for employers to find out what it is like to have disabled employees. Persons with disabilities who work teach employers about the abilities they have as well as teach them about their disabilities. Showing employers that we can do jobs offered to us is increasingly a matter of pride for persons with disabilities. Persons with disabilities also teach employers by fighting for their rights, showing employers that they want to work and are willing to do what is needed to have jobs.
Persons with disabilities also teach themselves. The process of learning that we can do work in some form, that we don't have to sit on Social Security for the rest of our lives, and that we can reach for our dreams, is an individual process for each and every person with a disability who decides to work. We teach ourselves on the job by learning more and more about what we are capable of in relation to the work we are doing. We teach ourselves the extent that we are able to participate in society and work; it is a process of self-discovery that more persons with disabilities will pursue, given work and other opportunities that many nondisabled persons take for granted. These opportunities include housing, accessibility concerning public places, events and transportation.
The learning we do about ourselves doesn't guarantee that organizations will learn through and about us, but if we don't learn about ourselves there will be no learning on the organization's part. Kazuo Inamori, president of Kyocera, an advanced ceramics technology that is used in electronics, says:
"Whether it is research and development, company management, or any other aspect of business, the active force is "people." And people have their own will, their own mind, and their own way of thinking. If the employees themselves are not sufficiently motivated to challenge the goals of growth and technological development…there will simply be no growth, no gain in productivity, and no technological development."
8)Here's a Challenge9/5/2007 at 06:51 AM
I know that 75-80 percent of the blind and visually-impaired adults in the United States are unemployed. Surely we don't WANT to be unemployed - at least the majority of us don't like it that way. I'm sure the same statistics apply to all so-called "disabilities" and those who have them but are actually able to perform some useful and productive activity.What if we resurrected our skills and abilities, dusted them off (if they've been sitting on a shelf for a while), and started up a business on our own? Many tasks that are performed by employees can be done just as well by independent contractors, and in many cases the client doesn't see the contractor before agreeing to work with him or her.It's scary becoming your own boss. But is it any scarier than going the rounds of want ads and employment agencies? There are tools you'll need, but in many states the state Department of Rehabilitation will help you get them. They may even arrange for training in the use of specialized equipment designed to make your job easier, depending on what accommodations you need. Just be sure, when you're talking with your counsellor, that you have all your ducks in a row and that you use the term "independent contractor" or "independent consultant." If you are receiving Social Security Disability, they won't cut your benefits until you are receiving a secure income.Do your homework! Find out if there are associations of persons who market the same skills as you have. You might be surprised how many things can be done independently. Use these organizations as a resource for ideas and answers to questions you have along the way. And ask those questions without hesitation or shame - there may be stupid answers, but there are no stupid questions. Find out if there are networking groups of small businesses or independent contractors in your community, and join one (or more if you have the time and energy). My first client came from such a group. These groups can also help you with marketing ideas. For instance you can find out how much an employer can save by having an independent consultant over having an employee. That's a big one, because what you charge per hour (approximately twice what you would be making as an employee) sounds expensive at first, but one must bear in mind that the employer is not having to pay benefits and payroll taxes, provide space or equipment, or pay for hours on the job that are not really productive.When I discovered, the hard way, that employers (and even employment agencies) were put off, not so much by my amputation, but by my visual impairment, I remembered hearing of a career called Virtual Assistant, Now I am one. I belong to Whittier Network Connection and to SoCal VA Group, a network of virtual assistants in southern California. The Whittier network meets weekly, and the VA network meets monthly.Above all, don't be discouraged. It only takes one satisfied client to tell others what a good job you do. And I am living proof that it is possible to set up a home-based business with little cash outlay on my part.So here's the challenge. If you have skills and the ability to practice them, even if you need adaptive equipment to do so, contact your DOR counsellor and ask that your goal be revised to "independent consultant." He or she may be surprised that you know the buzzwords, but if they are worth their pay they will help you. After all, if you become useful and productive, you will also become a TAXPAYER, paying money into the state instead of being financially assisted by it. And that, as Martha Stewart would say, is a good thing.Go for it!! And keep a blog of your journey. Others may find encouragement from your successes or learn from your setbacks.
9)Disability History in America - The Short Version; A Rough Draft I Found In My Files11/1/2007 at 07:31 PM
DISCLAIMER: Some of the language used in this paper is language used by other authors, some from different time periods. Also, this is a rough draft I found in my files; it is not in its completed form.
Tom Weiss.
Disability History in America
The history of people with disabilities in America is a rich one that has not always been acknowledged. For most of our shared history, people with disabilities have been marginalized and invisible; there are a couple of reasons why this may be so. Nondisabled people see those of us who are and often see the things they fear most, such as an inability to control their individual lives or anatomy. Fear of these things can have a profound psychological effect on people, and people avoid what they are afraid of. Another reason disabled people have been left out of history is the medical view of people with disabilities.
For many of the people who write history, disability has been a medical issue, not a cultural one. Rehabilitation, medicine, special education and other, similar areas of approach to viewing and interacting with people who have a disability have become the common place. Disability has been the realm of the professional in association with a medical model. Even in the liberal arts, a disabled individual is often viewed as a deviant subject instead of with interest in their social structures. Do not be misled into thinking that disability does not have a place in history; though, disability has had a very large part in American history.
One of the ways that disability comes to play in American history is through its use by white Americans to justify slavery, prejudice and mistreatment against African-Americans. In the early to mid-nineteenth century, arguments such as the African-American being intellectually deficient, and articles written by medical professionals stating that they were "diseased" and had "physical peculiarities" particular to their race were common. An article in the New Orleans Medical and Surgical Journal stated, "It is this defective hematosis, or atmospherization of the blood, conjoined with a deficiency of cerebral matter in the cranium, and an excess of nervous matter distributed to the organs of sensation and assimilation, that is the true cause of that debasement of mind, which has rendered the people of Africa unable to take care of themselves." A description of two "mental illnesses" by Dr. Samuel Cartwright in 1851 really brought home to me the abuse of disability in relation to anti-African American hatred and manipulation.
Dr. Cartwright describes the first "mental illness" as "Drapetomania", a condition that makes slaves run away from their slavery, and which was caused by slaveholders who supposedly became too familiar with their slaves. Dr. Cartwright's second "mental illness", which was only experienced by African-Americans, was described as being "Dysaesthesia Aethiopis", which was different from any other mental disease. This "mental illness" causes slaves to disobey, is known as "rascality" among the overseers, and is accompanied by lesions on the body. "Dysaesthesia Aethiopis" is caused by badly-governed plantations, and is more common among freed slaves, according to Dr. Cartwright. This kind of thinking promoted the hateful use of disability to control African-Americans past the turn of the twentieth century.
The turn of the century didn't deter medical doctors from using disability as a means of classifying African-Americans as being less able or worthy than the white men in the country. A prevailing argument in relation to African-Americans was that they were disabled by freedom and needed oversight. J.F. Miller's article in the "North Carolina Medical Journal" stated that Negroes of the south experienced a great increase in mental illness and tuberculosis, which were supposedly rare among those who were not free. The "New York Journal of Medicine" in 1844 suggested that free blacks suffered from more idiocy, blindness, insanity and deafness than blacks who were not free. White people during this time were described as being the normal race, and their features as being beautiful and desirable. Black Americans were described as having exaggerated lips, big feet, extremely long or bowed legs, missing teeth or bulging eyes. I was amazed by the use of disability to degrade and control people.
When a person with a noticeable disability is treated badly today, I automatically think about how I am not surprised by the offender's behavior. I also try to counter their behavior with a more positive one; I am sometimes successful at making a good point. Incidents which demean a person with a disability through the actions of a nondisabled person don't surprise me as much as they offend me; though, I have unfortunately come to see such incidents as part of living a life as someone with a disability. Seeing non-existent disabilities pressed on African-Americans for the purpose of control is a new disability perspective for me. Ignorance of disabilities, and the issues that surround them, are a recurring theme in Disability history in America; but not the only theme. There are a number of attempts to help, or work with, people with disabilities, as well as a theme of forgetting and then discovering that people with disabilities are useful workers. In an attempt to gain support for the disabled, and help to erase some of the ignorance of disability during their time, Thomas Gallaudet delivered a sermon.
In 1824, Thomas Gallaudet gave a sermon at Burlington and Montpelier in Vermont; in Portland, Maine; and in Concord, New Hampshire. The purpose of his sermon was to promote increased awareness of people who were "Deaf and Dumb." He wanted to help people of his time to understand that the words, "But, as it is written, to whom he was not spoken of, they shall see and they that have not heard, shall understand", applied very literally to people who were hearing and speech impaired. He suggested that if we have the spirit of Paul we will not neglect the "heathens", or the hearing and speech impaired. He felt that faith could become a strong source of energy and encouragement that could be used to help people with these disabilities. He reinforced the identification of the term "heathen" with the Deaf and Dumb by further defining who the heathen were.
Thomas stated that there were millions of heathens in Europe, Asia, Africa and America; that they were a "melancholy host of immortal souls" that were still "enveloped in ignorance, superstition and midnight gloom." He accused the heathens of idolatry, and sacrificing flesh to a deity, as well as many presumably non-Christian expressions of faith to inappropriate beings. He accused them of immoral and profane acts, and ignorance of God. Thomas points out that these were some of the heathen, but also goes on to state that the heathen also existed in the villages, towns and cities his audience had grown up in; heathens who knew nothing of Jesus. He then indicated that there were other heathens, ones who were actually the fellow men of the people he was preaching to, heathens who were even related to them.
These heathens lived in the middle of society, knowledge, the arts, sciences, government, and the gospel. Unfortunately, they knew nothing about all of this beauty of human existence. He pointed out that these people who have no knowledge of society or God often viewed them with amazement or fear, and looked around them at society and its offerings in wonder. Thomas Gallaudet then stated, "These are some of the heathen; long-neglected heathen; the poor Deaf and Dumb, whose sad necessities have been forgotten, whole scare a corner of the world has not been searched to find those who are yet ignorant of Jesus Christ." So, while there were many people who could be seen as heathens during Thomas Gallaudet's day, he stated in his sermon that he was only speaking of one particular group of heathens; the Deaf and Dumb.
He compared the ignorance of the Deaf and Dumb to a desert, filled with superstition and sin. He suggested that the audience might provide a little stream into that desert, a stream that brings cheer and refreshment and consolation from such a stream. Thomas stated that he only craved, "a cup of consolation, for the Deaf and Dumb, from the same fountain at which the Hindoo, the African, and the Savage, is beginning to draw the water of eternal life." Thomas' use of a natural metaphor to express a need for human action is admirable; the ignorance of other human cultures present during his time is not. For the time-frame that Thomas Gallaudet lived in, he was asking the people he was speaking to for a lot. He continued his sermon by asking the people if they should include the Deaf and Dumb in the group of people called "heathens."
The vices of the Deaf and Dumb did not include scandal, falsehood, blasphemy or profanity, Thomas said, because their ears and tongues won't allow them to pursue such things. They are fairly immune to seduction; guile and sin are induced by others. So, he says, God has kept them from many of the evils of the world. The Deaf and Dumb need the same grace as everyone else, he suggested, and need to mould their hearths to conform with God. They also need an interest in Jesus, he said. Thomas then suggested to his audience that it was their duty to give the truth of God and Jesus to the Deaf and Dumb, that Christ has ordered them to spread the news of salvation to every creature under heaven, and that they would be ignoring God's order to spread the word if they do not make his name known to the Deaf and Dumb; they are only heathens because they are ignorant of the Lord.
Thomas then said that it would be impossible for anyone who has grown up with the knowledge and spirit of the Christian people to understand the awe, delight and astonishment that the first glimpse of the understanding of God could provide for someone who has not. He asked the people around him to imitate the example provided by the Apostle of the Gentiles and become sympathetic toward the Deaf and Dumb. He asked them to help remove the "moral waste-ground", that it didn't matter whether that ground lies in Asia, Africa or near at home.
The action Thomas suggested must have seemed daunting to some of his listeners because he reassured them that they are not spending effort on "fruitless and unpromising soil." He stated that the soil had been run over with thorns and briers of ignorance, but that with some planting and water, and the blessing of God, it could become a garden which bears fruit, and "which may yet flourish with immortal beauty in the Paradise above." They should not leave the Deaf and Dumb to live in unhappiness, without the fellowship of man.
Thomas said that we should cheer "these lonely, forsaken and hapless beings." He felt that we should help them to enjoy the industry of the day, and teach them how to judge, distinguish, imagine and "pourtray." We should make the Deaf and Dumb employable, making them valuable members of society, and bring them the dignity that the rest of society enjoys through social interaction. Thomas spoke to his audience, suggesting that if he could only bring some of the Deaf and Dumb before them, letting them see who these people are, and the light in their eyes as they first begin to understand who God and Jesus are he would have no need to appeal to their sympathy. The thought that they, his audience, had contributed to such a cause would help them sleep at night, and give them something to feel good about. A smile from someone who is Deaf and Dumb would be more than adequate recompense for their actions. He ended the sermon by suggesting that they imitate God in the spirit of his gospel, and reaffirmed that they are His disciples, and that "we are meet for the inheritance of that kingdom, where there will be no more sin to bemoan, or suffering to relieve."
Thomas Gallaudet is an example of someone who had the wisdom to not only view the inequality of a particular group of people, but to take action in order to help that group of people. His use of religious sermons to promote the well being of people who were hearing or speaking impaired seems very brave to me; I have not studied the mental models of Christians in the early 1800's, but asking people for more when they were probably struggling to make a living must have been a tremendous task. A sense of equality surrounding race, class, gender and disability was non-existent during his time, making his efforts to promote the well being of the "Deaf and Dumb" all the more spectacular. Mr. Gallaudet is an example of using the tools you have in order to reach a better end. His efforts to enable people with hearing and speech disabilities are very much a marker in the history of people with disabilities.
As time progressed there were other attempts made to work with and assist people with disabilities. The New York Asylum for Idiots worked to bring "idiots" up to a productive or socially acceptable standard. It was a new effort for them, and they were answerable to the state senate. After their first year, they sent in a report.
The year 1852 saw the New York State Asylum for Idiots first annual report, created by Dr. Wilbur, reach the state senate. During their first year, the Board of Trustees for the asylum met in July to appoint committees whose task it was to look for a suitable building in a good location, as well as to find a teacher they felt was competent for the job of instruction. They found the building they desired through Mr. Stephen Van Rensselaer, Esq., who leased his building to the board of trustees for around half the actual rental value of the building. The building was in good shape, needing only small numbers of repair, and some alterations were necessary. There was plenty of pure water on the site, for drinking, bathing and laundry.
One part of the trustee committee was appointed the job of finding a teacher, and they went to Massachusetts to a private school that had been teaching idiots for more than three years to learn about what was, for them, a new subject. They learned of the school through the reputation of Dr. Hervey B. Wilbur, and through negotiation were able to convince Dr. Wilbur to come to the New York Asylum for Idiots to teach. The committee found the furniture and supplies Dr. Wilber would need, and opened the asylum in October.
The asylum was limited to twenty state students by the act that brought the asylum into being, and those students were selected from parents or guardians who were unable to care for them. Two pupils were chosen from each judicial district in the state with enough care that the asylum felt they had found the students whose age allowed them to be trained, and showed a variety within idiocy. The remaining four students, to be chosen after each judicial district had provided two students, were found throughout the state. Each trustee was assigned a district, and sent out circulars to the gentlemen in each county in that district. The circulars asked these gentlemen to find idiot children under age twelve. Parents or friends paid different sums, depending on their financial ability, for the support of the pupils. Trustees created several regulations to govern the asylum, including a very strict accounting of all the money they received and where it went, as well as an accounting of the furniture.
Some of the things accounted for at the asylum included the changes they had to make to the building, the cost for water, furniture, supplies associated with teaching and, "articles as are not in the class of annual expenses"; all of which totaled about three thousand five hundred dollars. They also had to pay for food, fuel and wages that they already had incurred, and cost about one thousand seven hundred and twenty five dollars. In their report, the trustees felt that the remaining seven thousand five hundred dollars in their budget for the year would be sufficient, in fact – they felt they could support another ten students.
After beginning to work with their pupils, the trustees began to form some opinions about them. They felt that there was no doubt that the majority of the idiots could be trained to be useful, or work in a trade or agriculture. The trustees felt that the idiots could be developed mentally and spiritually to the point where they would not only be responsible, but would be able to develop a relationship with God. In almost all cases, idiots could be taught to be "cleanly and neat in their personal habits", and helped to enjoy the comforts of life while ceasing to be seen as "encumbrances" or an annoyance to their families. The trustees also repeatedly expressed appreciation for Dr. Wilbur's teaching abilities and "Christian benevolence".
New York State apparently suggested that the asylum increase their student population from thirty students to between forty and one hundred and fifty. In their report the asylum responds by saying that they don't understand the states request, that the asylum should not go beyond forty students at any time because each student took two years to complete the program. The report also states that one hundred and fifty students are well beyond the abilities of one teacher, no matter how many assistants he might have. "Each idiot is a unique case", the report asserted, "and needs specific treatment." Students could not be arranged in class for a long time, and assistants often distracted the teacher from his work.
The success of the asylum, and the despair of families over how to raise and live with children who were disabled, must have been enormous during the mid-eighteen hundreds, because the state suggested that the asylum become one of many such schools for idiots. The problem, said the report, was that "The number of idiots or imbeciles in the State, and their residences, are unknown. The census returns idiots and lunatics in the same class." The report defined Idiocy as "the want of a natural or harmonious development of the mental, active and moral powers of a human being, and usually dependent upon some defect or infirmity of his nervous organization."
The report also described what it felt were physiological symptoms of idiocy, such as "the prominent features in the popular observation and idea of idiocy." Muteness or imperfect speech, a wandering gaze or stare, poor hearing, defective sensation, excessive restlessness, and mechanical motions repeated among other idiots were further examples. The report also made note of "a variety of disorders of function of the various organs." Idiots have adequate muscles, they are smart enough to know when they are hungry, but they don't have the willpower to reach for the food, said the report.
Out of twenty-five students in the asylum, twelve could not speak. Out of the twelve that couldn't speak, six did not understand language at all. Of the students who were not "dumb", three of them spoke a few words, but indistinctly. Two others didn't say a word until they were nine years old, and even then indistinctly and only a few words. Seven of the students walked imperfectly, three had a partial paralysis, eleven had seizures, eight drooled, and seven were incontinent. Several of the students had to be watched constantly because of health issues related to cleanliness, and five of the students were "irritable." Most were unable to dress or undress themselves, and only four students could feed themselves. None of the students could read, write or distinguish colors by name.
The report also points out that these idiots were young, and that they could be taught. They were free of the habits of older idiots, and were more flexible, more susceptible to development. There was more of a chance to correct their physical defects or infirmities through diet or medicine. They were generally happy, affectionate, obedient, and easily amused.
The asylum's first annual report made a point of acknowledging the misconceptions that surround idiocy, creating doubt over whether they can be taught at all. It suggested that these misconceptions arise from the crude observations of only a few cases, and are confirmed by the common expressions associated with the subject whenever it is brought up. The report stated that even results of efforts to teach them are looked upon as if they were training for animals, as if they had been given instinct instead of reason by God. In a show of empathy for their students, the report then said, "It should be remembered that they have a human origin; that however they may differ in physical, mental or moral organization they are yet human beings."
The asylum's report presented its mission ideals by saying they did not propose to create faculties "absolutely wanting", or to bring all idiots to the same level of development, or make idiots capable of sustaining all the relations of a socially moral life. Instead, the asylum wanted to bring idiots to their greatest practicable development, to awaken their faculties to a useful purpose. At the basis of their efforts, the asylum said, "lies the principle that the human attributes of intelligence, sensitivity and will are not absolutely wanting in an idiot, but dormant and undeveloped."
There was no mention in the report of the race or gender of any of the students at the asylum during its first year. It might be inferred that all of the students were poor, but the fact that parents and friends were paying for at least some of their education leaves room for doubt concerning their class status. There was no mention of what daily life was like for the students in the asylum with the report.
The report did differentiate between students in a couple of ways that effected their approach of the student. Students with bad habits were pursued with "judicious labors of suitable instruction". There were students at the asylum that fell into the category of "higher grades of idiocy"; students who could begin their education at the asylum, but then move on to common schools. The asylum's "lowest class" of pupils, who were the most challenging, were still educated as best possible in the ability to perform an occupation. The asylum's report does admit that there was a group of idiots that were "incurable" and couldn't be dealt with due to an incapacity to develop, caused by a "disorganization of the nervous centres, the brain or spinal cord." The report explains that the disease couldn't be predicted, but that they also could not define someone as "incurable" until there has been a "faithful trial of suitable remedial and educational means."
Efforts to assist people with disabilities changed over time, and by the turn of the twentieth century, disability was being redefined in America. Around 1890, some of the first institutions perhaps best referred to as "Hospital Schools", as well as the first vocational programs for the training of "cripples" emerged, along with the approach known as rehabilitation. The years 1890 – 1920 were an important period in disability history because they acted as a bridge between nineteenth century supernatural views of disability and the post 1920 medical model of disability. During this time period cripples were referred to as people who had mobility impairments, such as paraplegics and amputees, but were also financially dependent on other members of society for support. Cripple's reliance on charity caused them to become immoral characters that drained the lifeblood of the economy, it was believed. The path to elimination of cripple's dependency was through rehabilitation, according to the reformers of the time.
Some reformers, referred to as "social rehabilitationists", promoted the need for social and cultural change, and did not see any real need to change the disabled person through surgery or physical therapy. Other reformers, referred to as "medical rehabilitationists", took on the opinion that the person with the disability was the problem, and focused their efforts on orthopedic surgery and moral education, as well as other solutions involving the repair of the person. Scholars in the field of disability studies believe that the actions of the medical rehabilitationists helped to define the medical model of disability.
Medical rehabilitationists freed society of any complicity in the exclusion of people with disabilities from employment, marriage, access to schools or government buildings. Social rehabilitationists disagreed with this view of disability. Neither groups rejected the ideas of the other entirely, and were apparently not aware of the differences between their ideas. Reformists from both groups expressed elements of each other's approaches in their writings. It was the orthopedic surgeons of the time that give us an idea of the reasons why an age devoted to science took so long to meet with a medical paradigm.
Orthopedic surgeons didn't have the credibility in the early twentieth century to dominate the rehabilitation movement of the time. Despite recognition as early as 1890 as the specialists best able to deal with cripples, and their uncontested position in medical circles, they did not gain standing in the rehabilitation movement until after the first world war. Orthopedic surgeons of the nineteenth century were often called, "sawbones", and in the early twentieth century they had to share leadership with everyone from teachers, businessmen and social scientists to other reform-minded people.
These leaders, with an interest in the rehabilitation of cripples, asked questions like, "Do older, nineteenth century notions of divine causation still have validity in the twentieth century?", and "Are they victims of stereotypes and social discrimination?" In large, east coast cities such as New York and Boston, reformers rejected the idea of supernatural causes in relation to cripples, and explained disability as a product of the interaction between physical impairment and social prejudice. The rehabilitationists decided that the one largest problem the cripple had was rejection from the workplace, and that change was needed in regard to the cripples in society, beginning when they were children.
Individual philanthropists, and organizations such as the Shriners and Rotarians, began work to create institutions they believed would improve the lives of crippled children in the 1890's. They gained the help of orthopedists in order to achieve their goal. Nondisabled people directed the effort not only to rehabilitate crippled children, but after World War I – veterans as well. The institutions that came into being during this time period gave orthopedists a base to develop their specialty from. The reputation of the orthopedist rose greatly, increasing medical authority over disability, and prompting a greater following of the medical model of disability. There were events; however, that slowed the rise of the orthopedist, as well as the medical model, the rehabilitationists agenda, and the American public's view of disability.
Doctors didn't dominate rehabilitation. A number of the philanthropists and reformers that created the rehabilitation movement wound up sharing control with different medical practitioners in their two main areas of work; hospital-schools and vocational rehabilitation. There were a number of different leaders such as businessmen, doctors, nurses, politicians, publicists, sociologists and even a few people with disabilities. The tendency to blame dependence on the cripple also began to extend to employers. Rehabilitationists of all kinds felt that if adult cripples were poor candidates for rehabilitation, children were the best subjects for their attention.
Hospital-schools pursued their work with crippled children even though it was a new and developing medical specialty. Orthopedists had a broad control over these children; they didn't resist medical authority to any great degree. The hospital-schools also insisted that the parents of the child to be admitted give the institution temporary custody of the child. For the orthopedist, indigent children were the ideal patients for their new medical specialty. Rehabilitationists in general liked the focus on children because of the appeal they had to philanthropists.
Hospital-schools were supported in part by fundraising campaigns, and one problem that complicated fundraising was that medical rehabilitationists continually presented one set of views to the popular media, and another set of views to trade and academic journals. To the popular press the medical rehabilitationists stated that the cripple was not at fault for their dependency. To the trade and academic journals, they contradicted their claims, and placed blame on the person with a disability for their dependency. By presenting the disabled individual as capable, rehabilitationists helped to open up jobs that were needed for their success. Yet by finding faults in the disabled person, orthopedists justified their work and the institutions. The cripple might benefit from the institution, but emerge to find conflicting views among their fellow Americans.
In the hospital-schools the focus was definitely on boys, but in some institutions girls may have outnumbered the boys. Knowing that the main goal of the hospital-school was employment, the fact that there were as many girls in the hospital-schools before 1920 is surprising. Americans of the time objected to the employment of large numbers of women, and while girls at the hospital-schools were taught traditionally female jobs like sewing or teaching, they were also encouraged to finish high school and perhaps go to college. At the time, most girls from working class families ended their education before high school. Why did rehabilitationists give such consideration to girls in the hospital- schools? During the time period, Americans believed that a crippled woman was not fit for marriage, and would need to support herself. Rehabilitationists at the time felt that girls had a place in hospital-schools.
Rehabilitationists built seventy hospital-schools in the thirty-four years between 1890 and 1924. The hospital-schools ranged in size from thirty bed facilities to huge institutions with hundreds of beds. Despite their physical size, they were all committed to providing crippled children with education and medical treatment. During the early years of the hospital-schools, education was at least an equal part of the agenda. Orthopedists were not fully trusted with the fate of crippled children; they generally only performed operations that posed little or no threat to the child's life.
Reformers used the term "rehabilitation" in reference to surgical and therapeutic treatment, but also in terms of change to public attitudes toward people with disabilities. Their interest in working for change in the American public's view of disability was different from their predecessors, and it complicated America's move toward the medical model of disability. An emphasis on pointing out flaws in American society in order to explain problems with disability influenced emerging social sciences such as sociology and psychology. The social sciences concluded that childhood is when social values are instilled; values that were much more difficult to replace later in life. Rehabilitationists felt that "a poor diet, unhealthy air, cramped living conditions, and disability all conspire to hinder the development of critical values in the working-class child."
Yet by 1914 only one-fourth of the hospital-schools had a doctor as chief administrator. Out of the twenty-three institutions with listed medical laypersons in charge, twenty-one superintendents were listed with the title Miss, Mrs., or Sister; two were listed as Mr. or Father. Traditional gender roles of the time made women the choice to care for crippled children. The women of the time who were superintendents of the hospital-schools left few written records stating their ideologies concerning the institutions, but it is clear that they worked to develop institutions that paid more than a passing glance to the education and medical care of crippled children.
Orthopedists, meanwhile, were trying to change the public's opinion of them and their work. Their authority was consistently being challenged by American public opinion, especially among working-class families that the hospital-schools were constructed for. Orthopedists were shunned as charlatans whose goal it was to turn crippled children into objects for experimentation. The fact is, at the hospital-schools where indigent and crippled children were admitted, doctors referred to their patients as "clinical material." Doubt concerning the abilities of the orthopedist and their treatment did not stay in the lower classes; it moved into the middle and upper classes as well. Orthopedists began to doubt themselves.
World War I created a wealth of "clinical material", enabling the orthopedists to develop their skills. Many soldiers suffered an impairment of one or more limbs, and these impairments became known as "orthopedic handicaps." Many American doctors went to the battlefields of Europe, even before America became involved in the war. Battlefield surgery helped orthopedists to create methods for repairing injured muscles, tendons, and bones. When these doctors returned to America they brought home increased knowledge and confidence, and also a greater respect in the eyes of their critics. Some of these doctors returned to work at the hospital-schools.
Before 1920, hospital-schools accepted all children, regardless of whether their "condition" was amenable to surgery. After this time, hospital-schools began to accept only those crippled children who would benefit from surgery. The move toward the medical model of disability was under way, and hospital-schools like The Michigan Hospital-School became part of a larger hospital. The focus changed from education and medical care to curing cripples. The hospital-schools of America made a transformation from hospital-school to a part of the medical view of disability, or disappeared.
The need for assistance to enable cripples did not disappear, as the hospital-schools did, and President Roosevelt, on February 18th, 1931, gave a radio address concerning a program of assistance for the crippled. He talked about the reasons he felt it paid to "do things" for crippled children and adults. His approach was not the human one of easing the distress of people, but on the financial aspects of helping cripples gain a sense of productivity. His argument was largely based on the math of bringing crippled Americans back into the workforce.
"I am told that there are somewhere between three and four hundred thousand cripples in this country today", stated the President. He went on to point out that most of them were children who needed care from others. The number was a tremendous percentage of people in America's population, in his eyes. The president suggested "for the sake of argument" that three hundred thousand people who, if they could work, might produce a thousand dollars a year each; three hundred thousand of them would add three hundred million dollars to the productivity of the United States each year. Helping cripples to become productive would help the general well-being of the United States.
The President then identified himself with cripples, stating "because as some of you know, I walk around with a cane and with the aid of somebody's arm myself." He said that he is aware that it costs money to bring a cripple into the workforce, but that being a cripple isn't like other diseases that can be cured, or operations that find a person well in a few weeks. He said that he was aware that people who are crippled take a long time to reach productivity, and suggested that if the cost of getting a crippled child "back on his feet" is a thousand dollars a year, and takes five years to accomplish, the cost to the community is five thousand dollars.
Mr. Roosevelt then quickly pointed out that most cripples can be brought back to productivity, so that by the time they are age twenty or twenty-one they can expect a long and useful life, maybe as many as forty years. During those forty years, said the President, each cripple should be able to earn a thousand dollars a year. Each person should be able to earn forty-thousand dollars at a cost to the country of only five-thousand dollars, and the net saving to the state or country would be thirty-five thousand dollars.
He went on to say that there are about thirty-thousand new cases of people who become crippled each year. He suggested that the first thing we needed to do was cut down on the number of new cases. The president hoped that work in every state would bring that number down to twenty-thousand cases each year, and stated that industrial accidents were too common. The next step, said the President, was to find the cripples living in America.
He pointed out the state of New York, which had surveyed not only the cities, but the different country districts and remote farms. He said that surveys had been made that found thousands of children and grown-ups who were crippled and were without medical care of the kind they needed. He suspected that there were many more people who lived in cities and in the country that were in the same situation as the people already surveyed. Many of the cripples yet to be found, he said, had probably never seen a doctor, or been to a hospital, or been looked over to find out if they could be brought back to productivity.
Another step the President felt needed to be done was the diagnosis of the trouble the cripple was having. Unfortunately, many doctors, even general practitioners, had trouble working with "what is really orthopedic work." Doctors had to go to specialists to find out how to treat different kinds of patients. On the other hand, more and more clinics in cities, counties, schools or run by the state were becoming available to crippled children. Medical professionals were beginning to realize that operations could be avoided through the use of "plaster casts, massage techniques and other forms of treatment." The point, said the President, was to get the case properly diagnosed and treated.
A part of the medical step, he felt, was what he called "after care." Once the problem was diagnosed and remedies applied, the child would go home – but the medical treatment must not stop. Parents needed to be taught how to care for their children after the child leaves the hospital. Nurses might visit on occasion, he felt, to see how the child is doing. President Roosevelt then revealed that America was creating new ways that "after care" could be provided in schools for crippled children. The majority of crippled children who receive proper treatment could be put to work as adults, in the Presidents estimation. As he worked toward the closing of his radio address, President Roosevelt complimented the cripples he had been discussing.
"The average cripple in this country has about the finest natural disposition of anyone in the community", said the President, "There is something that comes to crippled children that gives them happier, better dispositions. They are seldom cross, they are seldom fretful; we nearly always find them ready to cooperate; we find that they turn out well as scholars and that they are ready to assist in every way in the treatment provided for them." President Roosevelt went on to say that America owes every crippled child a chance to "come back." By restoring the tens of thousands of crippled children in the country we would be doing a "fine thing", and "pursuing a great objective for the Nation." President Roosevelt finished his radio address by stating that he was glad to have the opportunity to speak, that Americans were enlisted in a great cause, "one of the greatest causes of humanity that exists in America today."
Not all was going well for the person with a disability in the early-to-mid 1930's. Jobs were short, and in contrast to President Roosevelt's message only four years earlier, people with disabilities were having a hard time making a "come back." Frustrations grew, and on May 29th, 1935, a Wednesday, three young women and three young men entered the Emergency Relief Bureau in New York City; they were there to see the director of the program, one Oswald W. Knauth. They were told that Mr. Knauth wouldn't be available until the following week. The six young adults stated that they were going to sit there until he met with them or until "hell freezes over." By the following day there was a large crowd supporting the demonstrators and demanding work for themselves, but after more than five years of economic depression, protests of this kind were commonplace. This demonstration; however, was different because the protestors and some of the people who were supporting them were physically disabled. They complained that they were being discriminated against by the work-relief agencies and the Works Progress Administration (WPA) in particular. The WPA was run by the Federal government. The protest was the beginning of the League of the Physically Handicapped, and over the next few years they fought job discrimination and contested the ideology of disability that controlled early twentieth century public policies, social arrangements and professional practices.
A number of the people in the League of the Physically Handicapped limped, wore leg braces, or used crutches or canes as a result of polio. Some had cerebral palsy, heart conditions or tuberculosis. More than one member had lost limbs due to accidents. One member had been gassed during the Great War; but none of the members used wheelchairs, or was deaf or blind. Members of the League didn't identify with people who had disabilities that were different from their own, but they didn't dwell on their members disabilities either. Their concentration was on discrimination, not diagnosis, and their activism was designed to alter the public's understanding of disability. They wanted to change the focus from coping with a disability to managing an identity, and from experiences with polio to politics. The league's approach showed the basic dilemmas and features of disability as a historical phenomenon. The effects of a physical injury or illness were just one part of what it meant to be disabled, in their opinion. The social and cultural meaning given to different conditions was much more at the center of disability.
The discrimination against league members, and people with disabilities in general, was largely social and cultural. Most league members were born in America, but immigration policies declared that "people like them" were unworthy, even of citizenship. School policies, court rulings and local laws very often segregated people with disabilities within communities, and immigration laws banned them from entering the country. The immigration act of 1907 barred anyone with a "mental or physical defect which may affect the ability of such alien to earn a living." At a time when coming to America meant coming to freedom and justice for all, people with disabilities were barred out of fear that they would become a public charge or a threat to the national genetic stock.
Eugenic laws, meant to prevent the very existence of people with disabilities, sought to sterilize disabled people and prevent them from marrying. There were even efforts to incarcerate disabled people in order to prevent their reproduction. Euthanasia was called for among some doctors of the time, and in 1915 one such doctor, a Chicago surgeon named Dr. Harry J. Haiselden, stated that he had killed several newborns with disabilities. During this time in American history, disabled babies were considered to be "defective." In 1916, the year that some future league members became disabled with polio, a film was released portraying a young man who "as a mentally normal hunchbacked boy…grows up to become an insane criminal" because of "the constant humiliation and embarrassment caused by his deformity." Such is the social and cultural climate the members of the league had to live with.
In an example of the difficulties in finding work while handicapped, Florence Haskell, who used crutches, presents a frustrating and demeaning experience. Florence graduated from high school and applied for work as a secretary. The man in charge of hiring people told her, "I'm afraid you'll have to take a physical." She had not considered that her handicap would get in the way of her finding a job; the man disqualified her. Needless to say, Florence was angry and upset. Another woman, Sylvia Bassof, who used crutches and a leg brace, wanted to teach English or be a librarian; she found out that she couldn't get either job, even if she was trained for it. The reason was not the Depression; it was because she was handicapped. Sylvia entered the Drake Business School, did very well at stenography, typing, and the use of an adding machine. She thought, "I'll graduate from the Drake Business School and they're all going to grab me." No-one did. Nondisabled people who were not as good at the same work she did were hired, but not her. Sylvia couldn't work in private business because nobody would hire her, and she felt humiliated at having to take a job in a charity-run workshop. She finally got a job at the Brooklyn Bureau of Charities, who only hired handicapped people. She earned three dollars and fifty cents for every thousand envelopes she addressed.
The protesters who were The League of the Physically Handicapped didn't get any public attention for the first twenty-four hours as they sat waiting for Mr. Knauth of the WPA to show up. When support for them did show up officials found themselves with demonstrators inside and outside of the building. Those same officials at first refused to allow any food to be brought in, but shortly decided that they would feed the protesters at the same cost or less than what it would cost the city for home relief, maybe because they felt it would be better to present a compassionate face to the press. Next, the officials acting for the WPA tried to cut them off from public attention, a tactic that failed as well.
By Saturday the number of nonhandicapped protesters outside shrank, but four women and five men, all handicapped, continued to walk the line under the title "Committee of Action for the Support of the Handicapped Unemployed." Lou Razler, an ex-business college student with cerebral palsy, learned about the protest through the Daily News and went to watch it from across the street. A picketer, Sara Lasoff, saw Lou and asked him to join them; Lou did, and became very active. Lou later said, "I got nothing to lose." All day long that Saturday, they chanted to director Knauth, "Knauth, come out, wherever you are!"
On Monday, June 3rd, the sixth day of the demonstration, Mr. Knauth finally met with the strikers, and the strikers again rejected charity and segregated workshops. Instead they warned Mr. Knauth that, "the league of 100 cripples would expand to 1,000, and that jobs would have to be found for all of them." They demanded fifty jobs right then and another ten jobs per week at wages of at least twenty-seven dollars a week for workers who are married, and twenty-one dollars a week for single workers. They demanded that those who were hired be integrated with nonhandicapped workers, and that they not be placed into separate projects. Mr. Knauth, perhaps predictably, rejected their demands, promising instead to "investigate." "That's not a good enough answer", league member Mr. Abramowitz stated; "we are not just any other group. We are all handicapped and are being discriminated against." Mr. Abramowitz then accused President Roosevelt of "trying to fix things so that no physically handicapped person can get a job, so that all of us will have to go on home relief. We don't want charity, we want jobs." But Mr. Knauth stuck to his policy; the city didn't owe handicapped people anything more than home relief. "This is not an organization to give work to those who are permanently unemployable", he said.
The demonstrators stayed put for three more days, and the picketers outside marched below. By Thursday, June 6th, the ninth day, workers in the building had begun to complain about the noise the protestors on the sidewalk were making, and Mr. Knauth told the superintendent to call the police. The police came, and arrested eleven protestors, eight of whom were handicapped. The strikers upstairs ended their demonstration, but by that evening there were twenty-five handicapped protestors and three hundred sympathizers demonstrating at Fifty-fourth Street and Eighth Avenue. The police again dispersed the protesters, but they re-grouped at the VA radio station where Mr. Knauth was to deliver a speech celebrating his departments first anniversary. Demonstrators rushed the lobby of the radio station and attempted to take over an elevator, but police arrived and removed them from the building.
On Friday, June 7th the handicapped activists met once more with Mr. Knauth, who said that he couldn't promise them any immediate jobs, but hoped that federal funds would include some help for the purpose. Meanwhile, handicapped workers outside were passing out handbills announcing a demonstration at city hall on Saturday. The next morning a dozen handicapped demonstrators and around fifty nonhandicapped supporters circled City Hall Plaza. They unsuccessfully demanded an interview with Mayor Fiorello LaGuardia, and then moved to Foley Square where some speeches were made. They dispersed afterward, marking the end of the first actions of the novice activists.
The picketers that were arrested on June 6th were brought to trial, and Judge Overton Harris seemed at a loss as to how to deal with the militant young handicapped defendants before him. They were shouting slogans in the courtroom, and were labeled "the communist cripples" by the public. The first day of their trial there were picketers at the building where the protests began, and on the second day of the trial five more protesters were arrested, and later paroled without bail. Two of them, and another four handicapped protesters, were arrested at the Eats the next day. On June 28th Judge Harris convicted the original protesters of disorderly conduct, suspended the handicapped defendants' sentences, and gave the remaining nonhandicapped protesters five days in jail. By the end of the evening, police had arrested fifteen more handicapped protesters at the building where the demonstrations began; they were protesting the punishment of Judge Harris court in singling out the handicapped from the nonhandicapped defendants.
After six more months of unrest, and another three weeks of picketing toward the end of that time, WPA director Mr. Victor Ridder promised to hire around forty league members. Almost all of the original protesters would get jobs, but Mr. Ridder did not concede their claim that the government had an obligation to hire handicapped workers, and protect them from discrimination by private industry. Mr. Ridder wanted to create a "sort of demonstration project…to show employers what the handicapped can do." Members of the league didn't quite see things that way. The officials "figured if they hired the most active of [us]…it might kill the thing. But instead of killing it, more handicapped came to the line," stated Lou Razler. The success the activists were having prompted them to work toward not just finding jobs for themselves, but also efforts to change local and federal policies in relation to all handicapped workers. By January of 1936 they were once more picketing the WPA in New York.
Time passed, with more unrest and picketing, and on April 5th Mr. Ridder accepted that there are obstacles in the job market where handicapped workers were concerned, and that this needed government attention. He also admitted that handicapped people made up about five percent of New York's population, but less than one percent of WPA employees. A new Bureau for the Physically Handicapped would be "the first step in a comprehensive plan to give closer attention to the employment problems of these people", said Mr. Ridder. There would also be a "handicapped interview unit" which would refer home relief recipients to the WPA. But the WPA didn't guarantee jobs; it just stated that handicapped workers would be considered for them. While there were five thousand handicapped workers classified as employable, fifteen hundred were given work by the WPA.
Mr. Ridder's assistant suggested that only Washington could help them deal with their concerns, and league leaders tried to get a meeting with WPA chief Harry Hopkins and President Roosevelt; they received no response. They decided to announce that they were coming the next morning, "as per appointment through President Roosevelt." Fourteen women and twenty-one men, some of them risking the jobs they had fought so hard for, rode a flatbed truck all night to the capital. When they arrived at the WPA headquarters, Labor Relations Director Nels Anderson told them that they were concerned only with finding work for "employables." Mr. Anderson told them that their problem was one for New York's municipal relief agencies. Needless to say, this did not go over well with the activists. Sylvia Bassoff, who had become the league's president, took a vote and told reporters, "unable to find satisfaction in New York, we resolved to come here and ask the aid of Mr. Hopkins in providing WPA employment. They class us as unemployables, despite the fact that our members include…teachers, chemists…and others who are professionally skilled. We are going to stay here until Mr. Hopkins does see us. Until then nothing can make us leave." Mr. Hopkins left them to sleep on office furniture that night, but agreed to meet them the next day.
The activists' meeting with Mr. Hopkins didn't go as well as they had hoped. The activists demands included five thousand WPA jobs for handicapped New Yorkers, a permanent relief program for the handicapped, and a national census of the handicapped to be conducted by the league but funded by the WPA. Mr. Hopkins rejected the idea that his agency was discriminating against handicapped people, and doubted that five thousand handicapped people who were employable existed in New York. He also suggested that the league do its own census and come back with proof, "a thesis…showing such discrimination." Then, he said, he would "correct those conditions at once." Mr. Hopkins walked out, and the activists went home with the promise to return with the thesis.
In August of 1936 the league sent its "Thesis on Conditions of Physically Handicapped" to President Roosevelt and Mr. Hopkins, as well as the press. They used their own experiences to create a ten page paper that analyzed the struggle of handicapped people to find both economic and social security. The paper stated that their financial disadvantages were caused not by their disabilities, but by job discrimination, unfair rehabilitation, unjust policies and unfair relief programs. In the paper they stated that a number of areas of manual labor were closed to them, but that the private sector had unfairly kept them out of jobs where disability didn't matter. The league also said that Municipal, State and Federal government set ridiculous physical qualifications for jobs that people with handicaps could otherwise perform more than adequately. Federal hiring practice already gave preferential treatment to veterans with disabilities; the only difference between the disabled veterans and league members was the cause of their disabilities. The league's paper also criticized government for indiscriminately classifying handicapped and Deaf people as "unemployable."
In another statement, the league's paper complained that vocational rehabilitation by the state was "not only inadequate but also detrimental" because it created the illusion of constructive action where none existed. New York State's Rehabilitation Bureau was highly under funded, and had to turn away thousands of handicapped people, and could only offer limited training to those they did not turn away. Even those accepted for training lacked sufficient help for daily needs. League members complained about sheltered workshops that singled them out from the rest of society, as well as the exploitation of workers in those same workshops – particularly the Brooklyn Bureau of Charities. Such charities hid behind the face of charitable action while paying workers rock bottom wages and reaping the benefits. Instead of charity, the league stated in their paper, Mr. Hopkins at the WPA should give them jobs. The deep suspicion of nonhandicapped policy makers and service providers league members promoted at this time traveled through disability culture, and in the late twentieth century emerged as the now familiar declaration "Nothing about us without us."
The league turned to the subject of home relief next. In their paper, the league stated that many handicapped people were denied the opportunity to provide for themselves and their families, and were forced to accept charity from their families, private charities or home relief. Due to the hardships of living with a handicap, league members not only wanted jobs, but the expansion of home relief. If the home relief allowance was not adequate for ablebodied recipients it was very insufficient for a handicapped person because of the needs for medical care and mechanical appliances. Handicapped people who were not only denied work, they said, but also denied home relief, were forced to live in municipal lodging houses. Others who had been denied work or home relief were forced to live as beggars during a depression. The problem is, beggar ordinances banned or regulated handicapped person's begging. The league's paper declared that something had to be done to "eliminate the necessity of any handicapped individual being forced to resort to begging." The league's paper concluded by stating that their proposals were the very minimum needed to ease the current situation of handicapped people.
President Roosevelt did not adopt the league's analysis or advice, in fact – he apparently didn't bother to respond to it. Mr. Ridder of the WPA was succeeded by Col. Brehon Somervell, who promised handicapped workers seven percent of WPA jobs in the future. Col. Somervell, come spring, began a process of massive layoffs across the entire WPA program; more than 600 handicapped people lost their jobs. The league threatened "drastic actions unless all cuts [were] stopped and dismissed persons reinstated", but the layoffs continued. League members made the trip to the main WPA offices in August of 1936, demanding to be heard, and they were, but the meeting was not profitable. League members said that they would return in larger numbers, and soon; but they never did.
The league remained active in New York City, opposing job discrimination and working to open the public sector to workers with disabilities. At their peak, the league had forced the WPA to hire almost fifteen hundred handicapped workers in New York. The most active of the members went on into civil service careers. By 1938 the League of the Physically Handicapped dissolved. The actions the league took to gain rights during the depression were very impressive in that they were not only trying to live with disabilities during the depression; they were also fighting for work and the rights of inclusion during a time when the American public had a highly negative view of disability. The League of the Physically Handicapped is a part of history that should promote attempts to understand disability from a social, cultural and political perspective, instead of a medical perspective. The league's history shows us that we need to include people with disabilities in all levels of society, including roles as policy maker and professional. Perhaps a beginning to this process of inclusion should be the inclusion of the league's history in the history classes taught to all people.
With the coming of World War II, the fight for jobs among people with disabilities began to fade, and people formerly considered "unemployable" found themselves in demand. In June of 1942, Crippled Child Magazine published an article on "The Physically Handicapped on the Industrial Warfront." The article begins by pointing out that sixteen workers were needed to produce equipment and supplies for a single soldier, and that because of this fact there were labor shortages in industries that were vital. Physically disabled people made up almost a third of America's unemployed at the time, and many of them became workers during the war effort. It is clear that efforts were made to "enlist" people with disabilities into the labor force to ease the lack of workers.
Out of every ten handicapped men and women registered with the Placement Bureau of the Society for Crippled Children in Cleveland, Ohio, eight were helped to find work in industry. The article points out how a realistic approach to unemployment due to disability can place disabled workers, and find the community resources needed to support the disabled worker. In 1940 in the city of Cleveland, a placement program was created to serve disabled men and women; a program that was meant to be a demonstration project.
The program was designed to find work for, and act as a go-between, employers and disabled job seekers. Resources were limited; though, and registration was reduced to people with a "serious" disability. The program worked intensely with people to show industry that selectively hired disabled people were productive. The program wanted to convince employers in the area that the pre-employment physical exam that many times disqualified people with even minor disabilities could be used to guide the use of people with disabilities on the job.
Efforts were made to decrease the number of obstacles confronting a handicapped worker. The number one problem the program encountered was lack of valid work experience, which was usually the first thing looked at for hiring a new employee. Disabled men and women in their twenties were very often unable to find a job during the Depression years, so they had no work experience. There were older workers, a great number of whom had been unemployed for up to ten years, and workers who had lost jobs because of sickness or injury that kept them from going back to the jobs they had been doing previously. Handicapped workers often needed a physical examination just to gain an understanding of their general health and work limitations. Attempts were made to distinguish between people in good health and a permanent disability, and people with a chronic illness that couldn't work.
The Society for Crippled Children created a method for administering aptitude tests to job seekers with disabilities. Among the things tested for were hand and finger dexterity, muscle coordination, intelligence, and mechanical knowledge. Managers for different employers were asked to look at the relationship of the things tested for and the specific needs of jobs in their place of work. These managers showed an immense interest in the process of testing, and began to take disabled workers into greater consideration.
The Society found that very few people showing up for registration had recently visited a hospital or private physician, so a free medical examination service was created by doctors with some idea of industrial job requirements. Specific recommendations could then be made by the doctor, to the benefit of both patient and employer. Apparently this system was so successful that less than one percent of the people registering for job interviews were rejected by company doctors. The few that were rejected by company doctors usually received some assistance through receipt of appliances, medical help or sheltered shop activity. The Bureau of Vocational Rehabilitation was used as a means of training disabled workers, who were then guided toward jobs.
Before Pearl Harbor, the Society viewed this placement program as an important part of community services for people with disabilities. Results were seen in terms of the thousand persons registered, the disabled men and women who found work, the extent to which employers were cooperative, and the reactions of the public. After December 7th, the Society immediately stepped up the pace of the program in order to meet war time needs in industry. Men and women with handicaps began being trained to fill positions in factories that created tanks, planes, and guns.
Disabled workers at the Cleveland Twist Drill Company helped to eliminate a bottleneck which was threatening to slow up the entire machine tool industry. These workers put out a six hundred percent increase in the creation of reamers, drills, and cutting tools, and helped to avoid a shortage in war materials. Their hard work earned the company the first Army-Navy Merit Award presented to any company in America. For the Society, the award was a confirmation of their success. Other employers studied the production records, labor turnover and accident reports of the Cleveland Twist Drill Company and modified their policies concerning handicapped workers.
Several handicapped workers placed by the Bureau received promotions at their places of work, and promotions into jobs with greater responsibility. One worker, "Ted", fought for his health for several years before being placed into a new job he had just been trained for. Over a two year period, Ted paid off his debts and saved more than a thousand dollars; he also invested twenty-two percent of his earning in War Bonds. A woman with a back deformity was recognized as one of the most outstanding workers in her place of employment, where she produced signaling equipment for the Navy. A young man with deformed hands tested metals to be used in Army transport trucks, while another young man helped to draft plans for airplanes that "will some day bomb Tokyio [sic]."
The article states that they were able to use the Wage Earner Tests that had been developed by Professor Joseph Kopas of Fenn College. Over a three year period, the tests were given to all persons looking for work at fifteen large employers in Cleveland who had more than sixty-thousand workers. The tests were used to measure the ability of people to develop, analyze and use human potentialities in an efficient way. Tests for mental alertness, familiarity with mechanical terminology, mathematical and scientific skills were given. The tests helped testers to determine a person's ability to "read routine tickets", set instruments, and do some basic math calculations. Still other tests measured emotional stability, interest in routine work, the ability to get along with fellow workers, and the ambition and drive of the person being tested.
The "Personnel Test X of the Wage Earner" series is in the form of "an upright wooden stand which has three rows of different size nuts and bolts." The person being tested was given a pair of wrenches and a screwdriver, and told how to loosen the nuts and reverse the bolts on the stand. If you completed the test in less than five minutes you were considered to be an excellent prospect for mechanical work. The Society adopted the Wage Earner tests to use with their employment department because they felt it would enable them to match workers with jobs while speeding up the process of screening people who were registering.
As the article comes to a close, The Society for Crippled Children asserts that all their future work will be based on the continuing relationship between themselves and industry. They planned for a number of employer conferences where "all services for the handicapped will participate." The conferences were to be patterned after the "Man Salvage Clinics", which were conducted in Connecticut. The Society notes that the work testing program was sent to schools around America with current job information for disabled young persons. They expected teachers to help young people through counseling, work testing and career conferences with industrial leaders.
Finally, the Society acknowledged their responsibility in connection with the "physically handicapped youth and adults." More and more jobs were becoming available, and their challenge was to meet people with disabilities with jobs they could perform as the War Effort continued.
People with disabilities have consistently been the focus of charitable efforts by nondisabled people in America, even when that charity was not appreciated. For Thomas Gallaudet, charity for the "deaf and dumb" was expressed through religious presentation and action. As he asked his neighbors in different towns to participate in the promotion of beneficial efforts for deaf citizens in America, he was also asking them to lead these disabled people toward a relationship with God and Jesus. Mr. Gallaudet was very bold to take the stance he did; his neighbors held a supernatural view of people with disabilities in general, and they were struggling to support themselves, let alone a person with a disability.
Twenty-eight years later, charity in New York State's Asylum for Idiots was expressed through the care and education of people who were known as "idiots" at the time. The asylum's goals were to find idiots in the area who were still in their childhood and teach them how to groom themselves, be polite toward others, and gain the ability to do some form of productive action. The pupils of the asylum arrived having been through both untreated disability and family or friends who felt they could not care for them. After completing the program at the asylum, these pupils often left able to be productive to some degree in society's view. New York's Asylum for Idiots was so successful at working with their pupils that they found themselves struggling to keep up with the demands placed on them. The asylum also became a role model for other institutions.
With time, more change crossed paths with the charitable approach to disability. The years 1890 through 1920 were a transitional period in disability history. During this time period, nondisabled people began to question the supernatural view of disability, and embrace the medical model of disability. Hospital-School's began to appear, with goals that included not only the education of people with disabilities, but medical care of them. Orthopedists were the doctors that many felt were best able to care, medically, for crippled children. At first; though, orthopedists were not viewed as fully competent, or were viewed by families as trying to find patients to experiment on.
There were many different groups of people trying to control the way charity was applied in the hospital-schools, including Social Rehabilitationists, Medical Rehabilitationists, individual Philanthropists, The Shriners, The Rotarians, businessmen, nurses, politicians, publicists, sociologists, and even a few people with disabilities. I can only imagine them trying to run the hospital-schools in a coherent manner, while the orthopedists attempted to aid the crippled children they were there for. During World War I, orthopedists gained a large base of knowledge in connection with their field of practice. When they returned to America after the war they found that the public had a new respect for them, and some returned to the hospital-schools to help crippled children.
President Roosevelt, in a 1931 radio address to the nation, tried to spell out the cost of charity for cripples. The President stated that there were three to four thousand cripples in America who could be earning a thousand dollars a year each, giving more than three hundred million dollars in productivity each year. He felt that by helping cripples, making a note of identifying himself as one, would help the well-being of the United States. It would cost about five thousand dollars to help a cripple back into productivity, but over the lifespan of that cripple they could earn around forty-thousand dollars, leaving Americans ahead by thirty-five thousand dollars per cripple.
The President went on to say that as a country, we needed to reduce the number of new crippling accidents in industry each year. He also pointed toward a need for a national survey, to find out how many cripples there were in America. Another step America needed to take in helping the cripples of the country was the promotion of their medical care. To end the radio address, the President complimented cripples, saying, "The average cripple in this country has about the finest natural disposition of anyone in the community."
Four years later, in 1935, a group of people with disabilities protested for jobs at the WPA office in New York City. They did not protest for charity, or recognition as people with disabilities; they protested because they felt they were being discriminated against as handicapped people. They felt that they were very capable of performing jobs, but were being denied work because of their handicaps. The first twenty-four hours of their protest inside the building saw no support from outside, but afterward both disabled and nondisabled protestors joined them in a protest that went on for several months. The original protestors named themselves, "The League of the Physically Handicapped." The WPA changed its position after such a lengthy protest, and hired nearly fifteen-hundred handicapped workers. The number of workers hired by the WPA did not last, and a new director started laying off workers, both handicapped and nonhandicapped.
At different times during the several protests against the WPA, people were arrested by the police. When taken to court, the judge dismissed charges against the protestors with disabilities, and gave the nondisabled protestors five days in jail. Protests against the judge for discriminating between disabled and nondisabled protestors erupted. Meetings with WPA leaders were demanded, but even when the meetings were held they were often nonproductive. It is fortunate that there is a record of the action of The League of the Physically Handicapped; the story is long. The record of their actions is also important because they describe the disability militancy of the time.
Just as World War I had an effect on people with disabilities through the increased skills of the orthopedic doctor, World War II had a strong effect. During the war, people with disabilities were taught how to create materials needed to support soldiers. The shortage of labor in America was very great at the time because of the war, and it required sixteen workers to support one soldier. Many tests were created at this time and applied to people with disabilities, guiding them toward jobs they were best suited for. Disabled workers received a very prestigious award for the time, resulting in inspections by other employers who wanted workers with disabilities at their factories. Society had put aside its previous feelings concerning people with disabilities in favor of filling the gaps they had in labor for industry.
The history of people with disabilities in America is as long as the country is old. The specific portions of history that I have included in this paper are just a small part of the history disabled people have experienced. Through these historic times, a charity model of disability has been ever-present. Thomas Gallaudet was seeking charity for the deaf and dumb, The New York State Asylum for Idiots was created out of the desire to provide constructive charity for its pupils, Hospital-Schools of the period 1890-1920 were there to provide charitable services as well. President Roosevelt, in his radio address of 1931, addressed the nation explaining the need for charitable action in regard to cripples. The League of the Physically Handicapped, in 1935, fought against society's charity, demanding jobs alongside nondisabled workers. Disabled workers during World War I were trained by charitable organizations for war industry related jobs.
There was also a transition, a change in society's views of people with disabilities between the years 1824 to 1942. In the early nineteen-hundreds, disabled people were seen as being punished by God, or as being diseased. By the 1890's that view was beginning to be questioned, and a medical view of disability was starting to be established. From the mid-1920's onward, the view of disability as a medical problem continued to grow. Today, people with disabilities are still viewed from a medical perspective much of the time, but they are also starting to be seen through a cultural perspective as well. Disability history in America is rich, highly relevant to the topic of American history as a whole, and one of the best subjects to teach others in order to increase awareness of Disability culture in America.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
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Gallaudet, Thomas. Sermon, on the Duties and Advantages of Affording Instruction to the Deaf and Dumb. American Antiquarian Society. Isaac Hill, 1824.
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Hunt, Isaac H. Astounding Disclosures! Three Years in a Mad House. Maine: Isaac H. Hunt, 1851.
Byrom, Brad. The New Disability History: American Perspectives. New York: New York University Press, 2001.
Nasar, Sylvia. A Beautiful Mind. New York, New York: Touchstone, 1998.
Shapiro, Joseph P. No Pity. New York, New York: Times Books, 1994.
Shaw, Barrett, ed. The Ragged Edge. Louisville, KY: The Avocado Press, 1994.
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On Nov 1, 2007 American Singles » Disability History in America - The Short Version; A Rough Draft I… said:
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On Nov 1, 2007 Meet Singles » Blog Archive » Disability History in America - The Short Version; A Rough Draft I… said:
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On Nov 2, 2007 Debbie said:
hey tom, long one ey?lol i read some of it, sad how some people with disabilities have been treated over the yrs, but we're gonna try and change that here right?gotta love ya, my best to wendy too.xoxo
On Nov 2, 2007 tweiss1 said:
Thanks Debbie,
Yeah, somewhat long - I have longer ones; sheepish grin. I think I am going to break down the next one into pieces to make it easier to read. Thanks for taking the time to read it! Hope everything is going well for ya!
Tom.
10)Equal employment opportunity policies
Information about equal employment opportunity, non-discrimination and non-harassment policies
Equal Employment Opportunity, Non-Discrimination and Non-Harassment Policy
Employment — Individuals With Disabilities
Definitions
Qualified Individuals With Disabilities and Qualified Covered Veterans
Reproductive and Developmental Risk/Work Capacity
Equal Employment Opportunity, Non-Discrimination and Non-Harassment Policy
Effective August 1, 2001; Updated June 15, 2005
The Company has a strong commitment to maintaining a working environment that respects individual rights and dignity. The Company will make all employment-related decisions (including recruiting, hiring, training, compensation, promotion, demotion, transfer, lay-offs and return from lay-offs, discipline, termination and administration of policies/programs) without regard to race, color, sex, religion, age, disability, national origin, veteran status, military status, sexual orientation, gender identity or any other characteristic protected by law.
The Company will not tolerate and prohibits: (1) discrimination against any employee over any term or condition of employment based on race, color, sex, religion, age, disability, national origin, veteran status, military status, sexual orientation, gender identity or any other characteristic protected by law, and (2) harassment of any employee, or non-employee on Company premises, for any reason, including race, color, sex, religion, age, disability, national origin, veteran status, military status, sexual orientation, gender identity or any other characteristic protected by law whether committed by a manager/supervisor, co-worker or non-employee. The Company also will not tolerate and prohibits any form of retaliation against a person because he/she has made a discrimination or harassment complaint, or participated in a discrimination or harassment investigation.
Prohibited sexual harassment includes unwelcome sexual advances, requests for sexual favors, and other verbal or physical conduct of a sexual nature when:
submission to such conduct is made either explicitly or implicitly a term or condition of an individual's employment;
submission to or rejection of such conduct by an individual is used as the basis for employment decisions affecting an individual; or
such conduct has the purpose or effect of unreasonably interfering with an individual's work performance or creating an intimidating, hostile or offensive working environment.
Every employee must exercise his/her own good judgment to avoid engaging in conduct that may be perceived by others as harassment. Examples of prohibited conduct include, but are not limited to:
verbal conduct (whether oral, written or e-mail), sexual innuendoes, racial or sexual epithets, derogatory slurs, off-color jokes, propositions, threats, or suggestive or insulting sounds.
visual/non-verbal conduct: offensive or derogatory posters, cartoons or drawings, suggestive objects or pictures, graphic commentaries, leering or obscene gestures.
physical conduct: unwanted touching, interference with an individual's normal work movement or assault.
Any employee who believes that he/she has been subjected to discrimination or harassment must immediately report it to his/her supervisor or (especially if the offending person is the supervisor) to an appropriate human resources manager or representative, or to OpenTalk via telephone at 1-800-225-6141 or by e-mail at the link below. Any employee who witnesses or is otherwise aware of discrimination or harassment involving others must report it to his/her supervisor, human resources manager or representative or to OpenTalk. Supervisors/managers to whom discrimination or harassment has been reported must notify the appropriate human resources manager. Because the Company's goal is to prevent situations from becoming severe or pervasive, an employee should not wait until discriminatory or harassing conduct becomes severe or pervasive before reporting it.
When an employee complains of discrimination or harassment, the Company will promptly investigate. The investigation will be conducted by an impartial person, who will inform the employee against whom the complaint has been made of the complaint and afford that employee a chance to respond. The investigator also will speak with other potential witnesses, as appropriate. The investigation will be conducted maintaining as strict confidentiality as is feasible, because it probably will be necessary to reveal certain information to those being questioned in order to develop the pertinent facts. Investigations will be documented.
opentalk@myalertline.com
Both the employee who made the complaint and the employee against whom the complaint was made will be advised of the results of the investigation. If the Company determines that discrimination or harassment has occurred, the Company will undertake immediate and appropriate action to stop the discrimination/harassment, ensure that discrimination/harassment does not recur and remedy the effects of the discrimination/harassment. Also, if the Company determines that discrimination/harassment has occurred, appropriate disciplinary action up to and including discharge from employment will be taken against the perpetrator.
If the Company determines that an employee intentionally has made a false complaint of discrimination or harassment, the Company will take appropriate disciplinary action up to and including discharge from employment.
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Employment — Individuals With Disabilities
In accordance with the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) and the Company's Equal Employment Opportunity Policy, the Company will not tolerate and prohibits discrimination against a qualified individual with a disability over any term or condition of employment. The Company will make reasonable accommodations to the known physical or mental disabilities of an otherwise qualified individual unless it causes the Company undue hardship or poses a direct threat to the health and safety of the individual or others.
In accordance with the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 for all federal contractors, the Company will take affirmative action to employ and advance in employment qualified individuals with disabilities at all levels of employment.
To avail themselves of opportunities under this Policy, applicants and employees are invited to identify themselves to the Human Resources Department or their supervisors as individuals with disabilities and describe: 1) any special methods, skills or procedures which qualify them for a job that they might not otherwise be able to perform because of a disability, and 2) any accommodations which would enable them to perform the essential functions of the job in question properly and safely, including special equipment, changes in the physical layout of the job, elimination of certain duties relating to the job or other accommodations.
Making a request for an accommodation will not subject an employee to any adverse treatment. The Company will use information provided by employees in ways that are consistent with Section 503 of the Rehabilitation Act and the ADA.
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Definitions
An "individual with a disability" is a person who has a physical or mental impairment that substantially limits one or more major life activities, has a record of such an impairment, or is regarded as having such an impairment.
A "qualified individual with a disability" is a disabled individual who meets the legitimate skill, experience, education, or other requirements of a position that he or she holds or seeks, and who can perform the essential functions of the position with or without reasonable accommodation.
"Reasonable accommodation" is a modification or adjustment to a job or the work environment that will enable a qualified applicant or disabled employee to peform essential job functions, or will enable an applicant to complete the job application process.
An employee may review his/her Business Unit's/Functional Group's Affirmative Action Plans for Individuals with Disabilities, Special Disabled Veterans, Veterans of the Vietnam Era and Other Qualified Veterans by contacting their Human Resources advisor to schedule an appointment to review the plan(s) during regular working hours.
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Qualified Individuals With Disabilities and Qualified Covered Veterans
Effective December 1, 2003
In accordance with the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 for all federal contractors, the Company will take affirmative action to employ and advance in employment qualified individuals with disabilities.
In accordance with the Vietnam Era Veteran's Readjustment Assistance Act of 1974 (Veterans Act), as amended, for all federal contractors, the Company will take affirmative action to employ and advance in employment qualified (i) disabled veterans; (ii) veterans who served on active duty in the Armed forces during a war or in a campaign or expedition for which a campaign badge has been authorized; (iii) veterans who, while serving on active duty in the Armed Forces, participated in a United States military operation for which an Armed Forces service medal was awarded pursuant to Executive Order No. 12985; and (iv) recently separated veterans who were discharged or released from active duty within the preceding three (3) years.
The Company's efforts will apply to all employment practices including, but not limited to, hiring, upgrading, demotion, transfer, recruitment, layoff, termination, compensation, and selection for training.
In order to implement equal opportunity for covered veterans, the Company will list all employment openings not filled from within the organization with the appropriate local office of the State Employment Service System, as specified in the Veterans Act.
An employee may review his/her Business Unit's/Functional Group's Affirmative Action Plans for Individuals with Disabilities and Qualified Covered Veterans by contacting their Human Resources advisor to schedule an appointment to review the plan(s) during regular working hours.
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Reproductive and Developmental Risk/Work Capacity
Effective August 1, 2001
The Company strives to operate all facilities in a manner that protects employee health and safety. The Company will not knowingly place employees at risk through unacceptable exposure to recognized fetal development or reproductive toxicants. When the Company determines that an unacceptable exposure to any such substance exists, the Company will act to reduce exposures through measures which may include engineering controls, process changes, substitution of materials, work practice modifications, personal protective equipment and/or administrative controls. When it is not feasible to reduce exposures to an acceptable level through the above measures, the Company will consider alternatives.
Pregnant employees or employees who are concerned that occupational exposures may adversely affect pregnancy outcome or reproductive capacity should discuss their concern with their supervisor or other manager, or the appropriate medical staff, in order to arrange for a work site exposure assessment.
An employee should notify her supervisor or other manager when she learns she is pregnant. The Company physician may implement appropriate work restrictions. Ordinarily, the employee will be allowed to work until it is determined medically that the employee should no longer work. When it is no longer advisable medically for a pregnant employee to continue working, the employee will be granted up to 26 weeks (up to 28 weeks in California) of family medical leave, during which any short-term disability benefits for which the employee is eligible will run concurrently.
OFFICESEmployment Disability 101: Lesson OneTable of Contents Previous Next
Lesson One: Finding Qualified Workers With Disabilities
Employer case studies indicate that a diverse workforce is a key factor for improving productivity and guaranteeing success for a business, but that too often people with disabilities have been overlooked as part of this initiative. (Brooke, Fraser, Green, Habeck, McMahon and Wehman, 2004). The following resources are available in your community and can connect you with qualified workers with disabilities. These programs, administered by the Rehabilitation Services Administration (RSA) of the Office of Special Education and Rehabilitative Services (OSERS), include the state Vocational Rehabilitation (VR) program and the Centers for Independent Living (CILs).
Vocational Rehabilitation
The VR program is a strong state-federal partnership that promotes the employment and independence of people with disabilities. The VR program, which began more than 85 years ago, was the first federally authorized program specifically created to serve the employment needs of people with physical disabilities (footnote 1) not injured as a result of military service. Today, on average, more than 200,000 people with disabilities find employment each year with the help of the VR programs in their states (U.S. Department of Education, 2005).
VR counselors have extensive specialized training, making them uniquely qualified to work with your business to:
dentify qualified people with disabilities ready for employment;
develop productive partnerships between your business and training organizations that support a person's career development while meeting your need for qualified applicants and skilled workers;
provide access to cutting-edge assistive technologies that can improve the overall work performance of people with disabilities; and
provide information regarding the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 (ADA) and the Rehabilitation Act of 1973, as amended.
Footnote 1. The Civilian Vocational Rehabilitation Act, passed by Congress in 1920, defined vocational rehabilitation (VR) as a program for persons with physical disabilities. Mental disabilities were not part of the VR program until 1943.
VR counselors also have long-standing relationships with a wide variety of employers in your area. Some of the country's most successful businesses, such as SunTrust Bank, Starbucks and Manpower, Inc., to name a few, have thriving relationships with VR programs and counselors in their states that help them actively recruit, hire, support and retain qualified workers with disabilities.
Vocational Rehabilitation Puts Dreams Within Reach
VR gave Kevin the help he needed for a promising future in medical technology. Through assistance from the Arkansas Rehabilitation Services, Kevin graduated with honors from the Oregon Institute of Technology with a degree in radiologic science-nuclear medicine technology. He passed the related national boards examination and is now licensed in nuclear medicine technology. He has a new job that pays $37 an hour.
Jeff was injured on his plumbing job several years before he contacted the state vocational rehabilitation agency. With VR's assistance, Jeff enrolled in accounting courses at his local community college. VR also provided adapted equipment that he would need for his new job as a teller and loan officer. Jeff has since been promoted and is now an assistant vice president of a bank in his hometown.
(Council of State Administrators of Vocational Rehabilitation, 2005)
The findings of a recent longitudinal study, conducted by the U.S. Department of Education of 8,500 applicants and recipients of RSA's VR services, show that people with disabilities who have achieved competitive employment through existing business and VR partnerships have a nearly 85 percent job-retention rate after one year (2003). These findings concur with those of companies such as DuPont and Sears who have measured retention rates of their employees.
State vocational rehabilitation agencies help employ individuals with disabilities. To that end, VR agencies (with the support of their federal partners) stand ready to provide employers with qualified job candidates with disabilities to meet the workforce needs of American businesses. To connect to the single point of contact in a given state whose job it is to build and maintain employer relationships, visit the State Employment Specialists in Vocational Education's Web site at www.ed.gov/rschstat/research/pubs/vrpractices/busdev.html#al. In addition, you can find examples of how some state VR agencies approach their relationships with businesses.
The VR program in my area is:
Contact Name: Address: Phone: E-Mail:
Centers for Independent Living (CILs)
CILs are cross-disability, nonprofit organizations that are designed and operated within a local community by individuals with disabilities. CILs provide an array of independent living services to people with disabilities and can assist your business with finding resources for employees with disabilities, such as accessible transportation and housing. CILs disseminate information about job postings and career fairs throughout the local disability community. By providing these services, CILs can be a source for identifying qualified people with disabilities who are eager to assume competitive, meaningful and integrated employment. CILs help individuals with disabilities get to work and obtain other supports they need to be successful in the workplace.
Your business can benefit from partnering with disability organizations like the CILs. By raising awareness that your company is a disability-friendly business, you will attract job candidates and new customers. Customers, potential employees, investors and local communities are increasingly paying attention to diversity as part of a company's overall corporate social responsibility. Public recognition through lists such as Fortune's "Best Companies for Minorities" and DiversityInc's "Top 50 Companies for Diversity," as well as more specific ratings like the Human Rights Campaign Corporate Equality Index and the NAACP's report cards and consumer guides, allow potential employees, customers and investors to incorporate a company's diversity reputation into their decisions on whether to interact with the company. (Business for Social Responsibility, 2005). You can find the local CIL in your area by visiting www.ilusa.com/links/ilcenters.htm.
The CIL program in my area is:
Contact Name: Address: Phone:E-Mail:
By actively recruiting, hiring and promoting workers with disabilities companywide, and building strategic alliances with the disability community, businesses send a powerful message that results in a stronger workforce and increased numbers of customers. By weaving an accessible welcome mat for employees and customers with disabilities, and activating a disability-inclusive diversity policy, companies can sharpen their competitive edge and build brand loyalty by tapping this emerging $1 trillion market segment.
- Tari Susan HartmanEIN SOF Communications
Lesson One: Strategies
Strategy 1:
Contact your state or local VR agency to post job vacancies to reach people with disabilities who are ready to work. Let VR counselors know the kinds of highly qualified workers you are seeking so they can adapt training programs in your area to better meet your needs. To locate the VR agency in your area, visit the State Employment Specialists in Vocational Education's Web site at www.ed.gov/rschstat/research/pubs/vrpractices/busdev.html#al.
Strategy 2:
Help VR counselors understand your employment needs by inviting them to tour your business.
Strategy 3:
Engage VR counselors in business association meetings and events.
Strategy 4:
Develop relationships with local disability-related organizations to post jobs and communicate your interest in recruiting and hiring people with disabilities. Contact a CIL in your community and ask them to recruit people with disabilities, post job openings and help locate training opportunities. You can find the local CIL at www.ilusa.com/links/ilcenters.htm.
Strategy 5:
Volunteer to serve on advisory boards or participate in events sponsored by local disability-related organizations. CILs have contacts with other local disability organizations.
Strategy 6:
Educate your partners from disability organizations about business by inviting them to serve on employer-led committees of your business organizations.
Effective Partnerships Between Local Chambers and Vocational Rehabilitation Agencies
Local chambers and VR agencies are working together to help connect people with disabilities to employment. The Wiregrass-area Chamber of Commerce in Alabama has a strategic partnership with the Alabama Department of Rehabilitation Services (DRS) that helps connect the business community to people with disabilities in the Wiregrass area. Through the Alabama DRS's Governor's Committee on Employment of People with Disabilities (chaired by the chamber's liaison to the committee), businesses are readily linked to the VR agency and its community partners.
Businesses receive a multitude of services including assistance with recruitment, retention of workers with disabilities, staff in-service training and job coach supports.
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OFFICESDisability Employment 101: IntroductionTable of Contents Previous Next
Americans with disabilities are active and contributing members of our society, and they must have the opportunity to develop the skills they need to complete and obtain jobs in the 21st-century workforce. By reducing physical barriers and false perceptions, our country meets our commitment to millions of Americans with disabilities, and benefits from their talents, creativity and hard work. ,
President George W. Bush October 2004 National Disability Employment Awareness Month Announcement Proclamation Washington, D.C.
Introduction
Employers face workforce challenges daily, and the forecast of labor market shortages is not getting any brighter. The 2005 survey report, Cost and Effectiveness of Accommodations in the Workplace: Preliminary Results of a Nationwide Study, conducted by the Job Accommodation Network (JAN), a service of the Office of Disability Employment Policy (ODEP) of the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL), reveals that workforce development and retention of workers at all skill levels are two of the major issues facing small and large businesses today. Moreover, a 2003 Aspen Institute report projects a critical shortage of workers over the next 20 years, particularly in jobs requiring higher education and training. The report confirms what businesses already know-there are too few qualified workers to meet projected needs.
Quick Facts
A fall 2005 survey of employers and individuals with disabilities found that the median cost of accommodations was only $600.
Seventy-two percent of individuals with disabilities reported that their accommodation was made at no cost.
Employers who had made accommodations for employees with disabilities reported multiple benefits as a result, including that the accommodation: allowed the company to retain a qualified employee; eliminated the costs of training a new employee; and increased the worker's productivity
(Hendricks, Batiste and Hirsh, 2005)
However, there is good news. Employers now can meet their workforce shortages by tapping into non-traditional sources of labor. Imagine finding workers who are self-motivated, have solid critical thinking skills and solve problems every day. Now, imagine that these workers, who have achieved competitive employment, have consistently proven to have nearly 85 percent one-year employment retention rates (U.S. Department of Education, 2003). As an employer, you need to know that people with disabilities are eager and ready to join your workforce.
Filling the Worker Shortage
Greater demand for skilled labor has increased awareness that many employable people are seeking employment who traditionally have not been considered as potential sources of skilled labor. People with disabilities represent the single largest minority group seeking employment in today's market. Both large and small companies have benefited by recruiting people with disabilities for many years. Many leading companies attribute much of their success to employing a diverse workforce that includes people with disabilities.
The 21st-Century Workforce
Companies that are strategic in their recruiting efforts understand that they can no longer meet staffing needs through traditional means. Contacts with rehabilitation agencies, welfare offices and other social programs are designed to assist companies in identifying new sources of qualified workers and an array of workplace supports. For example, companies can benefit financially by recruiting through government and nonprofit sources. Business for Social Responsibility (2001) reported that underutilized workers represent an untapped source of labor, particularly when unemployment is low. In cases where nonprofit training organizations are used, companies can access pre-trained, pre-screened candidates at minimal or no cost. American Airlines, for example, calculated savings of 20 percent in recruiting costs by using nonprofit partners to help in its recruitment efforts. Resources are available to help your business achieve its competitive advantage by supplying a steady pipeline of qualified workers.
Business Incentives
There are compelling reasons to hire people with disabilities.
People with disabilities possess valuable problem-solving skills because they are experts in finding creative ways to perform tasks others may take for granted.
Employees with disabilities have proved to be dependable, dedicated, hardworking and productive employees.
Many businesses report that the experience of working with people with disabilities increases every employee's morale and productivity.
After acquiring a disability, employees who return to work after being rehabilitated help reduce a company's training and hiring costs and lower insurance premiums. Employers who have return-to-work programs establish a culture that regards employees as valuable — not disposable.
Employees with disabilities reflect the customer base and can help craft effective marketing strategies to reach this lucrative market for companies that hire them.
People with disabilities make up part of the diverse work force necessary for your business to succeed.
By raising awareness that your company is a disability-friendly business, you will attract job candidates and new customers. A recent study from the University of Massachusetts Boston's Center for Social Development & Education (2006) reports, "overwhelmingly positive attitudes among consumers toward socially responsible companies, and in particular toward those that hire individuals with disabilities. Specifically, 92 percent of consumers surveyed felt more favorable toward companies that hire individuals with disabilities, and 87 percent said they would prefer to give their business to such companies. Among those surveyed, hiring people with disabilities ranked third behind offering health insurance to all employees and protecting the environment as an indicator of a company's commitment to social justice."
Your business has an important partner in the effort to enhance its success through diversity. President George W. Bush pledged to improve employment for people with disabilities in his landmark New Freedom Initiative — a comprehensive, innovative plan to promote full participation of people with disabilities in all parts of American society. OSERS has an important role in working to achieve the president's objective by helping your business identify strategies to recruit, hire and retain people with disabilities. By releasing this initiative in his first two weeks of office, President Bush signaled his commitment to improving the quality of life for Americans with disabilities. For more information, visit www.whitehouse.gov/infocus/newfreedom.
To help you prepare to employ people with disabilities, OSERS has designed this employment planning guide.
The most important thing for Starbucks is a relationship. That's what vocational rehabilitation (VR) has built with us. It was anew opportunity for us to bring in individuals with challenges, both physically and cognitively, and we were unsure as to how to proceed. That's where the relationship with VR helped.
-Debra Russell Starbucks (Council of State Administrators of Vocational Rehabilitation, 2005)
What This Employment Planning Guide Offers
Lessons and strategies to help you continue to plan and design a program for employing people with disabilities:
Lesson One — Finding Qualified Workers With Disabilities
Lesson Two — Cultivating the Next Generation of Qualified Workers
Lesson Three — Learning From Other Businesses
Lesson Four — Putting Research Into Practice in the Workplace
Contact information for programs and resources in your state or locality dedicated to helping you in your effort to recruit and hire people with disabilities.
Fact sheets and a checklist.
We have budget restraints … and bottom lines to talk about ... and when you're in business, it's all about the bottom line. The free services and resources … that VR provides to us are … valuable to our company in achieving this bottom line."
-Beth Butler South Trust-Wachovia Bank (Council of State Administrators of Vocational Rehabilitation, 2005)
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