Disability & The Workforce

Anne Murai

TYPES OF DISABILITIES

Definition

 A person having a permanent physical or mental impairment that substantially limits that person in one or more major life activities    Physical Mental Medical

Types of Disabilities

      Visual Impairments Mobility Impairments Hearing Impairments Seizure Disorders Age Related Impairments Psychiatric Disabilities

Visual Impairments

   Visual Impairments range from low vision to blindness and may Examples include color blindness, tunnel vision, haziness, dimness and total blindness Implications – almost all jobs from technical to industrial require sight. For instance the computers most of us use everyday would not be compatible because of text size and color.

Mobility Impairments

   Mobility impairments impede one’s physical ability. This is as a result of  Muscular weakness and loss of control  Amputation and loss of control of limbs and digits Example: Parkinson’s disease, multiple sclerosis, amputation of limbs Implications: Unable to coordinate muscular activity from typing on a keyboard to operating forklifts

Hearing Impairments

   Hearing impairments range from deafness to inability to distinguish sounds. In addition, this can result in cognitive and language impairments.

Examples: Dyslexia, difficulty remembering and problem solving, difficulty perceiving sensory information Implications: Not only may there be an inability to hear instructions, but also a problem understanding because of cognitive and language impairments

Seizure Disorders

   Seizures are A sudden attack, spasm, or convulsion and can be caused by specific patterns of light of sound Example: Epilieptic and other disorders Implications: Employer will have to weigh the liability of putting an employee with seizure disorders in charge of machinary or other functions.

Age Related Impairments

   Age Related Impairments are conditions that arise naturally as one ages Examples: Deterioration of eyesight, loss of motor coordination, arthritis and stiffening of joints and other degenerative effects.

Implications: When competing against younger candidates, the elderly are normally overlooked because of the assumption that elderly are unable to contribute due to the natural conditions

Psychiatric Disorders

   Psychiatric disorders are mental illness that result in a disruption in a person's thinking, feeling, moods, and ability to relate to others. illnesses that Examples: phobias, social anxiety, mood disorders, personality disorders, substance disorders, impulse control and dissociative disorders.

Implications: This disruption in abilities are internal and can not be seen, so need awareness of illness.

PROBLEM

   The national unemployment rate is currently 5% The current unemployment rate for disabled persons is 60% In most cases, people with disabilities are willing to work; however, due to assumptions, inabilities and/or discrimination 60 out of 100 people with disabilities are unemployed.

E mpl oy me nt R a t e f or P e opl e wi t h D i s a bi l i t i e s

PROBLEM IN OUR COMMUNITY

Scope of Problem

 In Lowndes county, the overall unemployment rate is 4.4%, but the unemployment rate for disabilities is still over 60%. There is a great discrepancy between the two rates.

Lo w nd es U nemp l o yment R at e E m p l o y m e n t R a t e f o r P e o p l e w i t h D i s a b i l i t i e s

Scope of Problem

 For a better picture, its is said that 1/5 people in our community have a disability…that is 20% of the community which is equivalent to: Population Disability Population Lowndes County 94,579

18,916

Valdosta City 43,724

8,744

Contributing Factors

 Effects of Disability: In many cases, the disabilities people have do not allow them to function effectively in the workplace. Not that they are inadequate, however when a manager is faced with the decision, they are more likely to decide on the person who will be more productive.

Contributing Factors

 Stereotypes: This factor contributes more to the problem. Many people are not aware that people with disabilities can be as productive as other employees in the workplace. This may need additional devices to assist with their duties like wheelchair accessible desks, mobility devices and ergonomical accessible stations.

LOCAL ORGANIZATIONS

Government Agencies

   Department of Labor – Vocational Rehabilitation Mayor’s Council for Persons with Disabilities Access Office – Valdosta State University  This resource offers the same services as the other organizations but is available for VSU’s students only

Non Profit Organizations

   LARC: Lowndes Advocacy Resource Center Advocacy Associations in Valdosta Rehabilitation Services: There are a number of organizations that offer rehabilitation services for various types of disabilities. Although they do not directly play a part in getting their clients employment, they do aid by assisting their clients in being better able to function in the workplace.

 For example: Jacobs Ladder – offers therapeutic services for people having muscular and physical disabilities

Mission

  The mission of all these organizations and agency’s is to serve individuals with disabilities. Their programs are designed to meet the needs of these individuals in the facility, home, community and/or ob settings.

Providing support with employment is one of the services they provide to people with disabilities.

Services

   Counseling and guidance  Counselors help people in choosing a career path and developing a work plan Job search skills training  Help creating resumes, training for interviews and filling job applications Additional Training Programs  On the job training and work adjustment training that are focused on employed clients. These programs can help an employer reduce their initial investment costs in a new employee.

Services

 Job Placement  This is the most important service they provide. The organizations develop relationships with businesses in the community and this opens up employment oppertunities for the clients. There are various businesses that repeatedly employ disabled people because of these relationships

RELATIONSHIPS BETWEEN AGENCIES

 When speaking to representatives of the different organizations and agency’s it is apparent that there are positive, helpful relationships between the organizations. There are even councils that bring together these various representatives in an effort to solve the problems faced by people with disabilities. These relationships are complementary: working together to accomplish a common goal

EVALUATION

 It is encouraging to see the relationship between the listed organizations – and their dedication to the overall mission. However, the truth is that they face external opposition to this mission. This is partly due to the disabilities their clients face. There are a number of disabled people who can not work at all due to their condition and the representatives are hard pressed to find employment for them.

The other part is due to the perceptions they face in the community. One commonality I noticed as I interviewed the representatives was their frustration at people’s perceptions. Lastly, the fact that there are a limited number of relationships and positions in the community limits achieving the mission. In addition, there are side effects – mental and personality challenges – that arise due to the difficulty of transition and change on the part of the client

IDEAS

1. One way to combat this problem in our community is to educate people on the plight of this population. As mentioned before one of the hindrances is people’s erroneous perceptions. This could be done through workshops and educational seminars for people of the community that give a clearer picture of the need and the abilities as well as the disabilities of people with disabilities. These organizations already have workshops but they are only for the disabled population and not to the rest of the community.

2. Incentives for hiring: These are incentives for local businesses if they hire people with disabilities. These incentives could be monetary or other forms but it would be with the aim of getting more businesses to contribute to the elimination of this problem. As stated earlier, there are a handful of businesses that do have relationships with local organizations – but if there were more companies willing to hire those who qualify (through the Vocational Rehabilitation program for instance), this would create more jobs for this population. Since there are workshops that provide training and equipment/tools for disabled employees, the companies would not have to worry about investing ridiculous sums of money to accommodate one’s disability (another false perception)

3. Lastly, if there could be organizational resources for each type of disability. A lot of times all types of disabilities get lumped together in one category and chronic back pain is equated to anxiety disorder – when in reality, they are two totally different areas. Along with the other initiatives to help eradicate the problem, organizations (or departments with local organizations) like LARC and Voc Rehab could offer extensive resources on the different types of disabilities. That way, an employer would know who to contact if they had any questions or concerns and they would not feel as anxious. In addition, an employer could potentially deal with one department. For instance, if they hired an employee who was blind. If they had equipment installed to help that employee with that job, in the future they could hire another person with the same disability because they have already fashioned the workplace. So in this sense they could work closely with counsel who would know about visual disabilities.

Final Thought

 There is still a lot of work to be done, however, there are competent organizations on the scene. The demand for services is just greater than the supply these organizations can offer.

SUPPLEMENTAL INFORMATION Real Examples and Case Studies

Case Study 1

 A client has had a stroke that limits the usage of his right hand. As a result he has difficulty grasping and holding objects as well as difficulty completing essential job tasks consistently SOLUTION: The client was advised of a job in a kitchen cutting fruits for salad. With the help of a cutting board-fruit peeler and slicer, they were able to gain employment

Case Study 2

 A client with spinal cord injuries who uses a wheelchair for mobility and has limited uses of upper arms and hands works has customer service, data entry and other office duties.

SOLUTION: Provide the client with an accessible workstation allowing him to perform the tasks

Case 3

 A client who is a long tie employee working on an industrial sewing machine suffers from cumulative trauma disorder and is unable to perform essential job tasks.

SOLUTION: Provide the client with an accessible sewing station and eliminate stressful and painful job tasks as well as provide counseling to the client