By Rob McInnes, © Diversity World, 2003

“We don’t come in teams” said my friend Lance Dawson. Lance is a terrific speaker on topics of disability awareness & etiquette. At the time, he was addressing a crowd of about 300 HR professionals. I had to chuckle at the visual image that his statement invoked for me – of a dozen or so people with disabilities trotting along with matching sweaters with a big “D” on the front. As someone who is blind, Lance knows from personal experience how erroneous it is to lump people with disabilities (even with the same disabilities) together.

Human beings have a tendency to do that. We readily categorize people and things by some common characteristics and make generalizations about what we think we know about them. For the most part, this can actually be a very useful skill. For instance, seeing a plant with thorns on it and lumping it into the category of “plants we don’t touch because they hurt” can be a good thing. Seeing a person who is waving a gun around and lumping them into the group of “people we stay away from because they are potentially dangerous” can likewise be useful. Unfortunately, most human beings also have a tendency to lump people who are different from themselves into the “people I stay away from because I am unfamiliar with them, uncomfortable, and possibly intimidated by their differences.” Of course, this is the root cause of most of our societal and workforce discrimination. Not only is this kind of thinking not useful, it is wrong, harmful and hurtful.

In the context of attitudes towards people with disabilities in the workplce, we need to examine this “grouping” tendency even closer. We know how an employer’s unfamiliarity with people with disabilities can be a barrier. Familiarity can also be a barrier.

My earliest memory of a personal encounter with a person with a disability was when, as a young teenager, I would cut my grandparents’ grass. Almost every time, a boy who was close to my age would appear. He would follow about 12 feet behind me – walking with a strange gait, talking to himself and drooling. (On the one occasion that I tried speaking to him, he only looked down and mumbled incoherently.) For many years, when anyone mentioned the words “handicapped” or disabled”, his was the image that would immediately come to mind. For me, people with disabilities became synonymous with feelings of discomfort and assumptions of incompetence. Similarly an employer, whose first encounter with someone with a disability is with someone who does their job poorly, will tend to generalize that “all people with disabilities do their jobs with equal incompetence”.

Of course, there are employers who have a great first experience with a person with a disability – and, from then on, are always on the lookout for more of them. This is the “six pack” phenomenon: “Hey, this person with a disability is great! Send me six more of them!” Those of us in the “job development business” love this one. We play on it. We make sure that our first placement in a company is going to be a great fit – so the employer will readily hire more of our job seekers with disabilities.

Further playing on the dynamics of group perception, we may find ourselves using statistics like the DuPont study to convince employers that “All employees with disabilities are…”.

I have met few people who wanted to be offered a job because of their disability. Over and over, however, I hear stories from people who commend their employers for hiring them despite their disability – for being able to overlook the disability and see their skills and abilities clearly.

Speaker and writer Richard Pimentel, was the first one to make me realize that promoting people with disabilities as a group, even positively, has an inherent flaw. It just reinforces the tendency to group people – instead of promoting the idea of seeing each person as an individual. (Richard’s perspective on this is explained in more detail later in this newsletter.)

Richard’s “Pick-a-Disability” module in the Windmills attitudinal training program is a brilliant way to make people understand that everyone with a disability is different and needs to be seen for their individual strengths and weaknesses. I also think that the “No Two Disabled Persons Are Alike” chart in the book “Job Hunting for the so-called Handicapped” is another clever tool for driving home this lesson.

Our overriding job in educating employers about disability is not to convince them that people with disabilities make good employees; but to convince them that each prospective employee with a disability should be considered equally (without bias or preconceptions) and individually, on his/her own merits, throughout the recruiting, interviewing and hiring process.

As an employer, I’ve had the opportunity to employ dozens of people with disabilities. There were people with disabilities that I would rank among the best people that I ever worked with. There were others who ranked among the worst. Based on my experience, I would never tell another employer that people with disabilities make great employees; but I would readily advise them that some of my very best employees have been people who happened to have disabilities.

That has to be the message, loud and clear: People with disabilities come in Ones.

(Oh, and the guy who followed me around when I used to cut the grass? We met again about 10 years later. Ross and I ended up working for the same company. Admittedly Ross was employed doing simple tasks for piece-work; but he was working and proud of his job. His mumbling turned into real conversation once we got to know each other. I learned that he had always had a fascination with machines and he wasn’t following me at all – it was the lawnmower that had held his interest.)

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By Richard Pimentel

(Excerpt from: Working With People With Disabilities in a Job Placement/Job Retention Environment, © Milt Wright & Associates, 2001)

About twenty years ago, I was doing job development in Portland, Oregon. I had assisted a veteran with a below-the-knee right leg amputation obtain employment as an intrastate truck driver for a wholesale food distributor. Not long after I made the placement I received a call from the employer. The employer was very pleased with the man and called to ask me if I had any other veterans just like him that I could send over. I thought about it and to my surprise I did have another veteran with a right leg amputation.

I told the employer that I did have one but I was not going to send him. The employer became upset and asked why, and I told him that it was because the other participant did not want to be a truck driver and would probably make a lousy one. I explained that it was not the fact that the first participant had an amputated leg that made him a good employee. It was because he was eager, smart, hard working, dependable and wanted to be a truck driver. I told him I had a number of participants like that and he could have all of them.

One of the most difficult attitudes for persons with disabilities to overcome is the belief that one experience with a person with a disability will give an employer or employment professional great insight into what everyone with that impairment is like. It is not true for race or gender or ethnicity. Why then should it be true for disability?

As a job developer I must admit that when an employer called me and was happy with a hire and wanted someone else with that disability to work in the same job category, I was tempted. Yet I knew that I would be setting up my participant for failure if he or she was not right for the job. A disability is not a job qualification. I also knew that to stay silent and make a referral was to lend credibility to an error of thinking. Sure, the employer liked my participant, hired him and wanted another. But what if my truck driver had not been a good employee? What if he had been a terrible employee? Would that employer have reasoned that the amputation had nothing to do with the poor job performance and some day give another applicant who was an amputee a chance? Would the employer simply assume that persons with artificial legs do not make good truck drivers because they tried one once? You know the answer.

We must take every opportunity to educate the employer to think of persons with disabilities as individuals.

It is too easy for an employment professional, as well as an employer, to believe that they are matching a disability to a job rather than a person with a disability to a job. As employment professionals, we must take every opportunity to educate the employer to think of persons with disabilities as individuals and not make the mistake that was made with so many women and racial and ethnic minorities. There was a time when the belief that women and racial minorities were only suited for certain jobs was commonplace. Thankfully, these beliefs about race and gender are in rapid decline. Unfortunately, this belief still exists for many persons with disabilities. Even today, there are employment professionals and employers who attempt to match a disability to a job. This creates clustering, where persons who use wheelchairs are only considered to work on computers, persons with retardation are limited to food service or janitorial positions, and persons who are blind are trained in assembly.

This is limiting and it is wrong. Moreover, it is detrimental not only to those persons with disabilities who are not hired because they may not fit the stereotype, but also to those who are hired. If an employer believes an employee is doing a good job because a proper match was made between the job duties and the disability rather than a good match of the person and the job, what is the motivation to ever promote that employee? There is none. In fact, there is a strong argument for leaving that employee in that job. This is one of the reasons for lack of upward mobility for employees who have disabilities. By embracing this attitude, the employment professional not only hurts his or her participants but also harms the program or agency by limiting salary increases, career growth, promotion and retention of participants. Job placement without salary growth, career development, promotion and retention is not worth the taxpayer’s money. These are the new standards in training and placement. Persons with disabilities have the potential of being one of the most successful groups that your organization works with.

When I did job placement, one of the sayings that I had framed on my wall was:

THERE ARE NO GOOD JOBS FOR PEOPLE WITH DISABILITIES. BUT THERE ARE PERSONS WITH DISABILITIES WHO ARE GOOD FOR JOBS.

Evan Kemp was right. No one can legislate attitudes. However, we all can seek to understand our own attitudes as well as those of others and evaluate whether these attitudes are helpful or hurtful to our goals. Understanding the role that attitudes play in the employment and unemployment of persons with disabilities is the first vital step of an employment professional who seeks to work with this population.

Find out more about Richard Pimentel...
 

Author: Richard Pimentel, (70 pages, spiral bound) An excellent primer for people who are charged with the responsibility of finding/creating employment opportunities for people with disabilities.

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This online Fact Sheet is for people who have a disability and believe they have been treated unfairly by an employer because of their disability. It answers important questions about how you can get protection from discrimination in work-related situations. It covers the federal law called the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) and the experiences of people with disabilities who have used that law.

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Investigators at the University of Pittsburgh are conducting a new research study under a grant from the National Institute for Disability and Rehabilitation Research to identify the frequency and nature of injuries to wheelchair riders involved in motor vehicle accidents. Persons who use wheelchairs or scooters as their primary means of mobility are eligible to participate. It is not necessary to have been involved in an accident to participate. All eligible participants who complete the survey will receive $20.00 for their time and effort.

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The purpose of these grants is to develop and document the capability of individuals transitioning from segregated environments (such as nursing homes, institutions, and segregated day environments) to: (1) Successfully participate in community employment through utilization of customized strategies; (2) increase their earnings and economic power through participation in such employment; and (3) live, work and fully participate in their communities. The WorkFORCE Action Grants will be funded for a one-year period and may be renewed for a period of up to four additional years at varying funding levels (see Section IV) depending upon the availability of funds and the efficacy of the project activities.

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The Disability Awareness section of the Canadian Association of Independent Living Centre's Literacy for Independent Living project features various online resources that introduce you to the cultures of the various types of disabilities. Information such as etiquette, background, organizations, funding, and newsletters is given for disabilities in general and for specific types of disabilities.

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If you've never been to DisabilityResources.org, it is worth a visit. The link below will take you to their "State Index" where you can find links to various resources in that State according to category (i.e. "Employment").

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NEC Foundation of America makes cash grants to nonprofit organizations in support of the development, application and use of technology by and for people with disabilities. Eligible proposals must demonstrate national reach and impact. Next Submission Deadline: September 1.

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A nicely-done source of online career/employment guidance for people with learning disabilities.

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Boston University has compiled some good basic information on this site - particularly aimed at the needs of Employers and Educators.

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"OPENING STAGES: A Quarterly Newsletter for People with Disabilities seriously Pursuing Careers in the Performing Arts" is a free online newsletter published by the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts. We found it to be very informative and full of interesting content.

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RecruitABILITY is an online job-matching service for people with disabilities and proactive employers who want to do targeted recruiting. Unlike similar sites, it is FREE to job seekers and employers. Job seekers can post their resumes and search job postings. Employers can post job openings and search for resumes. RecruitABILITY recently announced that there are now over 180,000 jobs posted on their site.

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The Disability Rights Commission in the UK has developed an interactive "game" on their website - as a fun and educational way to teach retailers how to better serve customers with disabilities. From this page you can also get to their interactive demo on Website (Non)Accessibility.

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In April 2003, the Government of British Columbia, Canada, established a $20 million endowment fund with Vancouver Foundation to help British Columbians with disabilities find and keep jobs.

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Similar to the US Government's DisabilityInfo.gov, this is a new collaborative effort of several Canadian federal government departments to consolidate online resources for people with disabilities.

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Secretary of Labor Elaine L. Chao has selected "America Works Best When All Americans Work" as the official theme for October's National Disability Employment Awareness Month. "The theme, America Works Best When All Americans Work, emphasizes the Bush Administration's position of economic opportunity through job creation," said Chao. Office of Disability Employment Policy (ODEP) Assistant Secretary Roy Grizzard said, "The selection of the theme will especially help the private sector, federal, state and local governments, and advocacy organizations plan events and programs that showcase the abilities and skills of job seekers and working Americans who have disabilities.

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The "Career and Employment Guide for Job Seekers and Employees with Disabilities" is a good overview of basic issues, strategies and resources developed by Portland Community College - definitely worth browsing through.

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The "Guide for Employers: How to Recruit, Interview, Hire and Accommodate People with Disabilities" is basic and sometimes Oregon-specific; but this is a very handy little reference from Portland Community College.

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Barry, from Best Supported Employment, is looking for other agencies that might have Spanish-language posters that promote Supported Employment.

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In future issues of this newsletter and on our website, we want to profile some innovative strategies to improve employment for people with disabilities. "Innovation" is the key word. We want to highlight NEW strategies - or a least strategies that are uncommon but worthy of replication. Please submit an overview (200 words or less) and we'll be in touch with you.

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Through until July 15 several of our most popular products are on sale at up to 30% off. Included in this sale are Denise Bissonnette's popular books "Beyond Traditional Job Development" and "30 Ways to Shine as a New Employee".

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Diversity World has developed a program that allows Associate organizations/businesses to refer customers to our store, via links from their websites/emails, in return for commissions on actual purchases that result. If you your company/organization is interested in becoming a DiversityShop Associate, please contact us.

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We have just added two new videos to our store. Both of these were developed by California State University Fresno. One is a 10 minute introduction to issues of Web accessibility. The other is 27 minutes long and explains some of the more common technologies used by people with disabilities to access the web - and how to better design websites that will work with them. Both videos are very reasonably priced.

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