DISABILITY AND EMPLOYMENT

The Disabilitykey Website has been expanded to include employment issues. The purposes of this expansion are:

1. to assist people with disabilities understand their rights and obligations when looking to continue working with a disability;
2. to assist Human Resource professionals better understand their obligations, and the rights and obligations of people with disabilities looking to continue working with a disability;
3. to provide tools and ideas for both HR professionals and people with disabilities design jobs and environments that meet the needs both of the company and the working person with a disability; and,
4. to host a Disability and Employment blog focused on providing information, questions, and result actions for all assisting people with disabilities interested in continuing to work.

The blog focusing on Disability and Employment will also provide an excellent opportunity for people with disabilities interested in continuing to work to ask questions and get answers from others also interested in this subject.

As you review the following pages, here are some statistics provided by the Federal Government about those who have already successfully hired people with disabilities:

"Cost And Benefits Of Accommodations
The Office of Disability Employment Policy's Job Accommodation Network (JAN), a toll-free service, has been advising businesses and individuals about job accommodations since 1984. With the passage of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) in 1990, JAN expanded to include information about the ADA. During the fiscal year that began October 1, 1994, and ended September 30, 1995, JAN received more than 80,000 calls from individuals and businesses in 50 states, the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico. Following is information related to these calls for advice, as well as examples of accommodations that were implemented as a result of the advice.

Major Issues of Concern Percentage of Cases
Understanding the ADA 34%
Impact of Accommodation 13%
Conflict between Employer/Employee 13%
Cost of Accommodation 3%
Concerns related to Federal and State Agencies 6%
Other 31%

Top Five States Using JAN Number of Calls
California 10,079
Texas 4,776
Virginia 4,547
Pennsylvania 4,196
New York 3,921

Accommodation Costs Reported by Businesses
That Used JAN Percentage
No cost 19%
Between $1 and $500 50%
Between $501 and $1,000 12%
Between $1,001 and $2,000 7%
Between $2,001 and $5,000 9%
Greater than $5,000 3%

Company Savings Because Accommodations Were Made Percentage
Value unknown 4%
Between $1 and $5,000 34%
Between $5,001 and $10,000 16%
Between $10,001 and $20,000 19%
Between $20,001 and $100,000 25%
Greater than $100,000 2%

Companies reported an average return of $28.69 in benefits for every dollar invested in making an accommodation." (Red added for emphasis only.)

So, welcome to this addition to the Disabilitykey Website! The more that use the blog as a forum for questions and answers, the better the information will be for all interested in these subjects.

Disability Employment Award Winners!! - DOL Announcement

As we continue to explore disability and employment, it is important to search out and learn about successful examples. These can become benchmarks for us to emulate.

The Dept. of Labor released the following News Release about this year's Employment Award Winners, as follows.

(ODEP News Release: [10/26/2005]Contact Name: Kristin Wilson or Peggy Abrahamson Phone Number: (202) 693-4676 or x7909Release Number: 05-2078-NAT)
Secretary of Labor Announces Seven Recipients Of the Secretary’s New Freedom Initiative Awards
WASHINGTON—U.S. Secretary of Labor Elaine L. Chao announced today that one individual, three non-profits and three businesses have been selected to receive the Secretary of Labor's New Freedom Initiative (NFI) Award for outstanding support of employment for people with disabilities.
“Today's New Freedom Initiative Awards recipients have demonstrated great commitment to helping Americans with disabilities enter the workforce and build solid career paths,” said Chao during a ceremony for the winners at the department. “In facilitating the workplace to be more friendly and accessible to workers with disabilities, these employers are also tapping an underutilized pool of talented workers.”
The Secretary's NFI Award recognizes exemplary and innovative efforts to train, recruit and hire people with disabilities and to incorporate into workplaces the principles of President George W. Bush's New Freedom Initiative.

Introduced in 2001, the NFI is a comprehensive set of proposals designed to give people with disabilities the opportunity to fully participate in all aspects of community life, including employment.

Biographies about the winners are available at www.dol.gov/odep/newfreedom/nfi05.htm. A list of winners follows:

INDIVIDUAL:
Jim WestallPort Townsend, Wash

NON-PROFITS:
1) Breaking New GroundWest Lafayette, Ind.

2) Center of Vocational AlternativesColumbus, Ohio

3) InspiriTec Inc.Philadelphia, Pa

BUSINESSES:
1) Computer Science Corporation Federal SectorFalls Church, Va.

2) Merck and Co. Inc.Whitehouse Station, N.J.

3) Tec AccessRockville, Va.

Biographies about the winners are available at: www.dol.gov/odep/newfreedom/nfi05.htm.

Here is the specific information on the Individual Winner, provided so that it might trigger some ideas in you on how you, and those with whom you are close, can create employment opportunities for people with disabilities.

"Individual
Jim Westall Port Townsend, Washington
In 1988 Jim Westall began the Skookum Corporation as a small non-profit business in the economically strapped rural region of Port Townsend, Washington. A special education teacher at the local high school, Mr. Westall realized that graduates with intellectual challenges had no place to work, so he started a company in his garage. Ten workers with intellectual disabilities made jump ropes, the company’s only product. Today, Skookum Corporation has over 500 employees, 75 percent of whom have disabilities, performing a variety of jobs for several different employers.
When the demand for Skookum Corporation’s first product, jump ropes, was insufficient to support the business, Mr. Westall sought advice from local business owners and retirees. They inspired the idea of training high school graduates with disabilities in janitorial services and bidding on local contracts. In 1994, Skookum won its first NISH/JWOD contract with a local Navy base to provide grounds maintenance services. The organization also took over operation of the local county recycling facility, providing an additional 15 jobs for persons with severe disabilities.
In 1996 another JWOD/NISH contract with the Puget Sound Naval Shipyard provided jobs for 180 employees who managed janitorial services. In 2002 a JWOD contract with the Army brought another 300-plus jobs providing basic vehicle maintenance services. Skookum was growing from a small non-profit venture into a major county employer, but kept its commitment to providing excellent job opportunities for persons with disabilities and superior services to contractors. Twice the company has won the Governor’s Award for the leading non-profit organization in Washington State.
Under the leadership of Jim Westall, Skookum is dedicated to providing a range of job opportunities and support services. It has provided facilities for a host of non-profit service programs, job clubs, worker support groups, assistive technology projects, literacy training and apprenticeship training. Skookum played a major role in the regional Projects With Industry by providing the onsite services of a vocational rehabilitation counselor, and has worked with the Olympic Workforce Development Council to assure the best possible linkage to the Division of Vocational Rehabilitation and the State Employment Service.
Today, the Skookum Corporation manages several large JWOD/NISH contracts, operates the Jefferson County Recycling Center, maintains its Jump Rope Division, and provides community living support services, vocational support services, employment training, a work motivation program for low income women and a host of other services and opportunities. The company, and its founder Jim Westall, have established a reputation of service and accessibility, and have had a profound impact on the community. Local newspapers have praised the success of the Board of Directors and Chairman Westall, who guided a small company into the county’s largest employer in less than 15 years. The most measurable impact has been in the number of job opportunities provided to persons with disabilities." (Note: red not part of the original quotation; added here for emphasis only.)

If any of you readers know of any other success stories, please let us know about them.

Disability Employment Mentoring Day

I have been silent for a few days - moving is always hard! Then, to get a bad cold that turns into Bronchitis - what can I say. But, I'm getting better, and wanted to continue sharing information with all of you.

Today, October 19th, is Disability Employment Mentoring Day. Here is the email that I received announcing what our government is doing to assist people with disabilities learn about and access employment opportunities. As I am plugged in to the disability empllyment activities, I wanted to share information that I receive with you.

"An Important Message from W. Roy Grizzard, Jr., Ed.D., Assistant Secretary for Disability Employment Policy, U.S. Department of Labor

Dear Colleague:

Today, Disability Mentoring Day: Career Development for the 21st Century, thousands of young people with disabilities around the country are being brought together with employers from the public and private sectors for a day of job shadowing and hands-on career exploration.

Disability Mentoring Day began in 1999 with fewer than three-dozen student participants. Last year, 9,000 youth with disabilities participated along with over 2500 employer mentors.

Held on the third Wednesday of October each year, this day provides young people with disabilities on-the-job experiences about the many career options available to them. Disability Mentoring Day also serves to increase awareness among employers and the general public about people with disabilities as a highly talented and largely untapped source of skilled, dedicated employees.

Though Disability Mentoring Day takes place on this one day each year, the experiences of these young people with disabilities, and their employer mentors, is lasting. In offering first-hand experiences of potential career paths, Disability Mentoring Day benefits not only the young people who are mentored, but employers as well, providing them with recruitment opportunities, and an understanding of the great potential of youth with disabilities as active participants in the 21st century workforce.

Under the leadership of U.S. Secretary of Labor Elaine L. Chao, the Department of Labor’s Office of Disability Employment Policy (ODEP) continues its work in developing and influencing policies and practices that directly impact the participation of people with disabilities in the workforce. As we take part in Disability Mentoring Day 2005, we acknowledge the contributions of people with disabilities in the workplace, and reaffirm our commitment to the goals of the President's New Freedom Initiative—the full integration and participation of people with disabilities in the workforce and in their communities."

Look at the second, red, high-lighted information above:

"...increasing awareness amont employeers and the general public about people with disabilities as a highly talented and largely untapped source of skilled, dedicated employees."

The other blog about disabilities in the www.disabilitykey.com website focuses on helping people with disabilities obtain all of the benefits to which they are entitled! This blog focuses on the positive; what we can do, and how to focus those talents in the workforce.

Yes, people with disabilities are highly talented; we are a largely untapped source of skilled, dedicated employees! Some of us can only assis voluntarily to help others, as I do. Some of us want and need employment. This blog offers tools, ideas, website links, and any other information that I can come up with, to help those who want to work, get and maintain that job!

Stay tuned. And, if you have questions or ideas, please comment on these blogs.