Attitude not cost is Barrier

Attitude, Not Cost, Barrier to Disabled Workers
by Catherine Komp


>From The New Standard, at:


http://newstandardnews.net/content/index.cfm/items/2909

Recent data shows employers who make an effort to accommodate
employees with disabilities can do so at little cost and great
benefit, exposing deeper discrimination behind dismal
employment numbers.


Mar. 9 Impressing a potential employer during an interview
and getting a good job offer is difficult for many. But for
those with disabilities who must prove they are as qualified
as non-disabled candidates finding any job has its own
challenges.


When Congress enacted the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA)
fifteen years ago, supporters hoped the equity legislation
would increase disabled peoples' opportunities for employment.
But, according to researchers at Cornell University, the
employment rate for people with disabilities peaked around 25
percent in the 1990s before dropping below 20 percent by 2004.


The Department of Labor attributes this low employment rate, in
part, to the misconception that accommodating people with
disabilities in the workplace is prohibitively costly. In fact,
research indicates that the opposite is true. The Labor
Department's Job Accommodation Network (JAN), which helps
employers hire, retain, and promote people with disabilities,
has found that most workplace accommodations can be implemented
at little or no cost.


Since cost is not the main barrier, say disability advocates,
more needs to change than simply architecture and ergonomics.


"Most disabled people would tell you that the bigger concerns
they have around the workplace are not around physical
accessibility," said Andrew Imparato, president of the American
Association of People with Disabilities. "They're more around
attitudes. I think it's easier to legislate and see change
around bricks and mortar than it is around attitudes."


Low-cost, High-impact
---------------------


The JAN survey, which will continue through September 2007,
released preliminary findings last month based on feedback from
778 employers that had contacted the agency for information
about employing people with disabilities.


The vast majority of the employers surveyed had called because
they were interested in learning how to retain their employees,
who on average had been employed for seven years and were paid
about $13 per hour.


About half reported that implementing workplace adjustments
came at no expense, and about 43 percent reported a one-time
cost that averaged around $600.


"Many employers tell us it's as simple as making a flexible
schedule ," said Anne Hirsch, director of
services for JAN and co-author of the study. She told The
NewStandard that many accommodations are similar to those
commonly purchased to make it easier for non-disabled employees
to do their jobs, like telephone headsets or specialized
computer software that can aid people with vision or range of
motion impairments.


Cassie James, self-services coordinator at Liberty Resources, a
Philadelphia-based advocacy group for people with disabilities,
said many employers wrongly assume that adaptive improvements
will be pricey. James, who uses a wheelchair comfortably at her
office, said there are many obstacles that need simple fixes
rather than state-of-the art solutions.


She gave the scenario of needing to adjust desk height for
someone in a taller wheelchair. "If I went out and thought
about how can we make this, I might be able to get one of those
long working tables and put it on a couple of bricks and it's
just as good," James said.


The law firm Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman is one company
that found cost-effective ways to create a better work
environment for disabled employees. The internationally-based
firm, which employs over 1,000 people, discovered that minor
adjustments like using instant messaging for some office
communications and moving desks so that employees' backs were
not facing the door could help accommodate two employees with
hearing loss.


"With the deaf employees, that was something new for us, and we
actually went to them and asked, 'What can we do to make life
easier and help you communicate with us and help us communicate
with you?'" explained Britta Stromeyer, human-resources manager
at the firm.


Pillsbury law has joined other large companies, including
Cingular, Embassy Suites Hotels and IBM, in working with the
Employer Assistance & Recruiting Network (EARN), a federally
funded accessible-technology company that helps connect
businesses to people with disabilities who are looking for
work. Stromeyer said she initially used EARN's services because
of problems finding quality candidates through traditional
labor recruiting sources, but discovered added benefits beyond
simply attracting qualified employees.


"It makes a difference in teamwork in general when you really
have a diverse pool of opinions and ideas," Stromeyer told TNS.


The JAN report found that of the employers surveyed, nearly 9
in 10 reported retaining a valued employee through better
workplace accommodations. In addition, three-quarters cited
increased productivity, and over half said they eliminated the
costs of hiring and training a new employee.


Employers also reported indirect benefits like improved
interactions with co-workers and customers, increased company
morale and improved workplace safety. Report co-author Hirsch
said that all of these results are nothing more than the
product of good management skills. "Employers who are proactive
look at as how can we use this to
improve work for everyone," she said.


Attitudes Must Follow
---------------------


While the results of JAN's survey indicated that many employers
of people with disabilities found little cost and great
benefit, survey respondents were limited to companies that had
sought out the agency to help them accommodate employees.


Advocates for people with disabilities interviewed by TNS
shared a common concern that in the larger market, stereotypes
and discrimination present greater hurdles.


"The biggest barriers are still attitudinal," said Linda
Richman, deputy executive director of Liberty Resources. In her
view, many employers mistakenly believe that hiring a person
with a disability means that "you're automatically compromising
somehow on the quality or volume of work."


"That means that workers that really want to work
have the right exposure to the business world," she explained,
"and it also means employers are still carrying around a lot
of misconceptions about what it would really be like to work
with a person with a disability every day."


Richman, who runs an intensive 18-month job-training course for
people with disabilities, added that in today's economic
climate, they are lucky if one student per month is hired.


"We really have the decks stacked against us a lot of the
time," Richman said. " makes it hard because our
folks are all entry level, and most companies these days have a
glut of really experienced people that are taking entry level
jobs because they don't have anything else."


In addition to a tight job market and employer misconceptions,
people with disabilities are sometimes hindered by their own
apprehensions about the employment process, according to
Kristen Stern, an employment consultant at the Milwaukee-based
education, advocacy and independent-living-services
organization Independence First.


"A lot people that have disabilities may be afraid to go back
to work. If it's a disability, they might not
know if they can do the job, or they might not have the
confidence needed to do the job," Stern told TNS.


Imparato, of the American Association for People with
Disabilities, stressed the need for more fundamental change to
increase employment rates and financial independence for people
with disabilities.


"The ADA is an equal-opportunity law," Imparato said, "so it
works well for people with disabilities who have skills and who
are qualified for jobs that are open." But, he added, "we still
have a lot of barriers in terms of our education system, our
rehabilitation system, where there are a lot of people with
disabilities who are not competitive in the modern labor
market, and the ADA is not going to change that."


The possibility of losing Social Security benefits and access
to reliable transportation has also prevented some from
venturing into the job market, Imparto noted.


Imparato is currently serving on a federal advisory panel to
develop recommendations to reform Social Security benefits that
would permit people with disabilities to both work and receive
federal assistance for medical bills and other supportive
needs.


"I believe we've defined eligibility for that program based on
outdated attitudes about what people with significant
disabilities are capable of doing in the workplace," said
Imparato. He advocated revising eligibility requirements to
give more weight to the degree of functional impairment, which
would allow more opportunities for people to both work and
receive benefits.


For Babs Johnson, national spokesperson for American Disabled
for Attendant Programs Today (ADAPT), one of the organizations
that pushed for passage of the ADA, the issue of employment
rates among people with disabilities relates directly to the
organization's mission of fighting against the
institutionalization of people with disabilities and enabling
them to attain greater independence.


"I believe that it's healthy for everybody to ," said
Johnson. "We all need to feel like we are contributing to
society, and employment is one of the main ways that people do
that."


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