Re-Able the Disabled - From Disabled to Star
ONE WAY WE JUDGE OUR SUCCESS . . .
. . . here at TCJobs.com, is by the number of jobs we help find for unemployed disabled individuals living here in Traverse City. We hope to convince employers that hiring disabled individuals is not only right thing to do - BUT THE SMART THING TO DO. Hiring a worker with a disability is both a retention strategy and an employment strategy - people with disabilities have higher than average retention rates and company loyalty.
Statistic: Only 32% of Americans with disabilities aged 18 to 64 are working, but 2/3 of the 68% unemployed would rather be working.
You can find information specific to finding jobs for individuals with mental illnesses - HERE.
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This page consists of large excerpts from the following two US Chamber of Commerce documents.
Disability Employment 101 (pdf)
Disability: Dispelling the Myths (pdf)
Additional PDF Clippings from the Chamber of Commerce Documents:
Business Tax Credits and Reduced Costs (pdf)
Reasonable Accommodations and the ADA (pdf)
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Chamber of Commerce Statements:
"Employers tell us that, once hired, this labor source provides some of the best employees within a corporation. They are generally dependable, dedicated, hardworking, and productive. In fact, employers report that the work ethic of disabled employees has a positive effect on the morale and production of their colleagues. Unfortunately, many employers are not aware of this pool of qualified workers. Even those who realize the potential of this labor pool do not know how to reach them and are concerned about the perceived cost and challenge of providing necessary accommodations."
"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."
Workers with disabilities represent a significant source of productivity:
Industry reports consistently rate workers with disabilities as average or above average in performance, attendance, and safety. When it comes to employee retention and reduced turnover costs, research has found that workers with disabilities are not “job hoppers.” On the contrary, they are inclined to remain in their jobs longer than the general workforce.
Despite these facts, employers still believe many myths and have many fears about hiring people with disabilities.
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DISABILITY: DISPELLING THE MYTHS - SEVEN MYTHS TO DISPEL
MYTH 1:
INDIVIDUALS WITH DISABILITIES DO NOT HAVE THE RIGHT SKILLS FOR BUSINESS.
FACT: People with disabilities develop important critical thinking skills.
“People who have disabilities, either through birth or because they have acquired one, must develop other strengths, traits, and qualities—perseverance, problem solving, goal setting, determination—that make them valuable and marketable in the workplace.”
–Jennifer Sheehy, U.S. Department of Education
FACT: People with disabilities bring unique characteristics and skills to the workforce.
“One manufacturer had difficulty in retaining employees to work in a high-noise area of the plant—employees often complained of headaches. Individuals who are deaf weren’t bothered by the noise. This was a win-win for everybody.”
–Bradley Bellacicco, Salisbury Area Chamber of Commerce
MYTH 2:
SUPPORTS IN THE WORKPLACE WOULD BE TOO COSTLY.
FACT: Accommodations are generally not expensive.
“Many employers believe that they will have to change their physical structures, every desk, every doorway … but statistics show that 15% of accommodations cost nothing and 50% of accommodations cost less than $500.
–Marian Vessels, ADA & IT Information Center for the Mid-Atlantic Region
A March 2003 Work Trends report found that the vast majority (73%) of employers reported that their workers with disabilities did not require accommodations.13
FACT: Employers make accommodations daily.
“The most requested accommodation is a flexible work schedule, which costs nothing.”
–Marian Vessels, ADA & IT Information Center for the Mid-Atlantic Region
“Any operation that has more than a handful of workers is going to have to make accommodations. This might include not asking an employee with a bad back to lift a heavy box or not requiring an employee with poor eyesight to read fine print.You’re not doing something unusual. You’re accommodating the people you work with without even thinking about it.”
–Bradley Bellacicco, Salisbury Area Chamber of Commerce
FACT: As the workforce ages, supports will be necessary for incumbent workers.
“We can’t forget about the graying workforce. These workers will need to be accommodated because their expertise and experience add value to the business.”
–Marian Vessels, ADA & IT Information Center for the Mid-Atlantic Region
MYTH 3:
SAYING THE WRONG THING IN THE WORKPLACE WILL OFFEND EMPLOYEES WITH DISABILITIES.
FACT: Simple etiquette can avoid relationship barriers.
“We see the fear factor in many employers. They’re worried about saying the wrong thing, embarrassing themselves, or setting themselves up for a lawsuit. But that’s not the case at all. People with disabilities know that others don’t know the language. It’s okay to say ‘walk’ to someone who uses a wheelchair or to say ‘see’ to someone who is blind.”
–Marian Vessels, ADA & IT Information Center for the Mid-Atlantic Region
FACT: People with disabilities appreciate “people first” language.
Employers need only remember to put the person first and the disability second. This means referring to workers as “people with disabilities” not “the disabled” and describing an individual as a “person who uses a wheelchair,” not one who is “wheelchair bound.” Don’t be afraid to ask questions when you are unsure of what to do.
MYTH 4:
CO-WORKERS WILL BE UNCOMFORTABLE AND THEIR PRODUCTIVITY WILL BE NEGATIVELY IMPACTED.
FACT: Workers with disabilities have a positive effect on co-workers.
“After hiring the first employee with a disability in his department, SunTrust’s manager found that employee morale and productivity had increased and there was a noticeable decrease in turnover.”
–Katherine O. McCary, SunTrust Bank, Mid-Atlantic
“Watching someone who has overcome a major challenge in his or her life and manages the disability on the job raises morale and provides a good working environment for everyone.”
–Jennifer Sheehy, U.S. Department of Education
MYTH 5:
GETTING INFORMATION ON HOW TO HIRE PEOPLE WITH DISABILITIES IS TIME-CONSUMING AND COMPLICATED.
FACT: Help is easy to get and available at little or no cost.
Disability and Business Technical Assistance Centers (DBTACs) provide employers with information, training, and technical assistance in such matters as complying with the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 (ADA), employing people with disabilities, and alleviating employers’ concerns. (See the section entitled “Getting Help” for contact information.)
“By calling the local DBTAC, employers can find out who’s doing what in their communities. The DBTAC can help employers connect with people who have disabilities and put employers in touch with businesses that have successfully hired them.”
–Marian Vessels,ADA & IT Information Center for the Mid-Atlantic Region
The new Web site www.Disabilityinfo.gov is a good source of information for businesses and community-based organizations needing quick answers to questions about services for people with disabilities and the companies that hire them.
FACT: Employers may be eligible for tax credits and tax deductions.
Employers can use financial incentives—tax credits or deductions—to help create disability-friendly environments for workers and customers with disabilities. The DBTACs offer information on tax credits that offset costs related to accommodations for both employees and customers.
The most frequently used employer incentives for hiring individuals with disabilities are the Work Opportunity Tax Credit, the Welfare to Work Tax Credit, and the Veterans Job Training Act. In addition,other tax credits and deductions are available to employers, including the Disabled Access Credit, the Architectural/Transportation Tax Deduction, the Mentor-Protégé Program, and the Social Security Administration Employment Network Cash Provision.
MYTH 6:
HIRING PEOPLE WITH DISABILITIES MAKES BUSINESSES VULNERABLE TO LITIGATION.
FACT: Very few businesses experience disability-related claims.
In a 1998 survey of employers regarding their experiences with the ADA, the vast majority of respondents reported that they had experienced no disability related claims against their companies.15 In a 2003 survey, 91% of respondents indicated that they were not aware of any ADA complaints filed against their companies in the last 12 months.16
MYTH 7:
SERVING PEOPLE WITH DISABILITIES WILL ADVERSELY AFFECT BUSINESSES’ BOTTOM LINE.
FACT: Consumers with disabilities represent an enormous market niche.
People with disabilities have a combined income of more than $1 trillion, with $220 billion in discretionary income.17 By comparison, the teen market, heavily catered to by businesses, controls $140 billion in spending power according to a 1998 estimate by Teenage Research Unlimited.18
FACT: Marketing to consumers with disabilities and making appropriate accommodations makes good business sense.
Businesses that make accommodations reap the benefits. For example, increased access provisions enabled hotel and hospitality revenues to increase by 12%.19 Marketing studies have shown that 54% of households pay more attention to and patronize businesses that feature people with disabilities in their advertising.20 Disability-friendly businesses earn the lucrative and loyal patronage of people with disabilities, their families, and their friends.
In 1995, people with disabilities spent more than $81 billion on travel, excluding expenditures of family, friends, and escorts. According to the food-service industry, people with disabilities eat out between 2 and 30 times a month.21
FACT: Yesterday’s accommodation is today’s product innovation.
Customers with disabilities have the same preferences, perceptions, attitudes, habits, and needs as customers without disabilities, and they are looking for the same quality of products and services.
Today, automatic door openers, talking ATMs, accessible photocopiers, and accessible Web sites are commonplace. The telecommunications industry is developing wireless communication systems for people with hearing impairments. As the population ages, greater numbers of people will require accessible home design to be a readily available option.
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HOW TO HELP BUSINESSES GET STARTED
Here are some of the strategies to successfully tap into the pool of workers with disabilities.
Provide the business case for hiring people with disabilities.
• Help employers understand that hiring a worker with a disability is both a retention strategy and an employment strategy—people with disabilities have higher than average retention rates and company loyalty.
• Educate small and medium-size businesses to show how workers with disabilities can increase productivity.
• Emphasize to employers the advantages of reaching a population that has $220 billion in discretionary spending.
Develop community resource networks.
• Provide help and guidance to businesses and emphasize the positive aspects of hiring workers with disabilities.
• Raise awareness and foster best practices by planning events to share information, resources, and examples of businesses that have been successful in hiring workers with disabilities.
• Demonstrate that providing accommodations can be easy. Serve as a workforce facilitator, broker, or intermediary.
• Serve as an information clearinghouse; help employers remain current on where to find help in the community.
• Keep a database of community resources current by maintaining relationships with community-based organizations that provide services to people with disabilities. Establish a pipeline of ready workers.
• Develop mentoring and internship programs so that young people with disabilities are aware of careers and establish relationships with potential employers.
• Build relationships among businesses, state and local business leadership networks, local workforce investment boards, and training entities to focus training on employer needs.
GETTING HELP
Job Accommodation Network
The Job Accommodation Network (JAN), a service of the U.S. Department of Labor Office of Disability Employment Policy, provides information about job accommodations, ADA, and the employability of people with disabilities. JAN’s mission is to facilitate the employment and retention of workers with disabilities by providing information to employers, employment providers, people with disabilities, their family members, and others on job accommodations, self-employment, small business opportunities, and related subjects.
JAN’s work helps employers in a number of ways to
• hire, retain, and promote qualified employees with disabilities;
• obtain information on accommodation options and practical solutions;
• understand their responsibilities under ADA;
• reduce workers’ compensation and other insurance costs; and
• address issues pertaining to accessibility.
For more information, call 800-ADA-WORK (V/TTY) or go to http://janweb.icdi.wvu.edu.
Disability and Business Technical Assistance Centers (DBTACs)
Employers looking for information, training, and technical assistance can find it at the 10 regional DBTACs around the country that are sponsored by the National Institute on Disability and Rehabilitation Research (NIDRR).
DBTACs provide technical assistance on accessing information technology, complying
with ADA, employing people with disabilities, and dispelling myths. DBTACs also provide information on low-cost or free training, local resources, and tax credits and deductions to supplement the cost of making accommodations for both employees and customers. For more information, call 800-949-4232 (V/TTY) or go to www.adata.org.
Business Leadership Networks (BLNs)
BLNs are employer-led organizations whose missions are to increase workforce and marketplace diversity by including people with disabilities. BLNs engage employer-to-employer dialog on best practices, accommodations,and mentoring.There are 37 BLNs across the country, several of which partner with local chambers of commerce and local workforce investment boards. The U.S.Chamber of Commerce’s Center for Workforce Preparation serves on the steering committee for the U.S. BLN. For more information, go to www.usbln.com.
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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.
Finding Qualified Workers with Disabilities
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 RSA’s Web site at
www.ed.gov/about/offices/list/osers/rsa.
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. Again, contact your local CIL by visiting www.ilusa.com/links/ilcenters.htm.
Strategy 6:
Educate your partners from disability organizations about business by inviting them to serve on employer- led committees of your business organizations.
Cultivating the Next Generation of Qualified Workers
Work-Based Learning: A Win-Win
Employers benefit from work-based learning experiences, as well. Companies that institute mentoring, job-shadowing, apprenticeship and internship programs learn firsthand how people with disabilities can contribute. Businesses discover that working and interacting with employees with disabilities raise morale and eliminate the mystery of workplace accommodations. Positive experiences with students dispel the fears that employers have about giving people with disabilities a chance in full-time employment. Most importantly, businesses that implement these programs cultivate their next generation of qualified workers and attract new customers.
Putting Research into the Workplace
Strategies
Strategy 1:
Look at the facts. Hiring people with disabilities makes good business sense for your company. Visit Cornell University’s RRTC for Economic Research on Employment Policy for Persons with Disabilities at: http://www.ilr.cornell.edu/edi/p-eprrtc.cfm. You can also look up Cornell's surveys of employers at http://www.ilr.cornell.edu/edi/p-survey.cfm.
Strategy 2:
Learn about successful employment strategies used by other businesses and form your own business roundtable to support disability recruitment, hiring practices, retention methods and placement efforts in your business and community. For more information about a model for business-led efforts to increase the employment of people with disabilities, visit the Worksupport.com Web site at www.worksupport.com.
Strategy 3:
Locate your local Disability and Business Technical Assistance Center (DBTAC) and explore its resources by visiting www.adata.org/dbtac.html or calling 800-949-4232 (voice/TTY).
Recommended Disability-Friendly Strategies for the Workplace
Employers who hire people with disabilities diversify, enrich and enhance the culture of the workplace. Outlined below are strategies to successfully include people with disabilities in the workplace.
• Make a corporate commitment to include people with disabilities among your stakeholders. Is the CEO committed to a disability-friendly workplace? Do corporate policies, procedures and practices specifically mention the word "disability?" Do people with disabilities serve on the board? Are workers with disabilities employed at all skill levels in the workforce, including senior management positions? Are your products and services marketed to customers with disabilities? Do people with disabilities purchase your goods and services?
• Educate all staff on disability issues. Does new staff orientation include disability awareness training? Are training materials available in alternate formats such as large print, Braille and captioned? Do employees with disabilities serve as mentors for new hires who do not have disabilities? Are people with disabilities integrated into your workforce?
• Provide continuing information on disability issues. Is staff familiar with legislation pertaining to disability issues? Is disability information provided routinely in the company newsletter or on an intranet site?
• Form a disability support group. Do employees with disabilities meet to discuss disability employment issues? Does this group have authority to make recommendations to management? Is all staff aware of this group and the contributions it makes to corporate success?
• Provide accessible facilities and services. Are buildings, parking areas, work spaces and communication systems accessible to people with disabilities?
• Accommodate applicants and workers with disabilities. Is there a central source and budget for accommodations? Are applicants and employees informed that accommodations are available if needed? Does staff routinely stay abreast of new developments in universal and assistive technology?
• Project a disability-friendly image to attract candidates and customers with disabilities. Do college recruiters target students with disabilities when making campus calls? Do recruiters search for resumes on disability-related Web sites? Are recruiters and other personnel responsible for establishing working relationships with community agencies serving applicants with disabilities?
• Hire applicants with disabilities. Do recruiters regularly attend employment fairs for candidates with disabilities or target students at colleges with known populations of students with disabilities, such as Gallaudet University (www.gallaudet.edu) and the National Technical Institute for the Deaf (http://ntidweb.rit.edu)?
• Train and advance workers with disabilities. Do employees with disabilities routinely participate in employer-sponsored training opportunities? If not, has this issue been brought before a disability support
OTHER DOCUMENTS:
Nine Ways Employers Can Earn Federal Income Tax Credits
Michigan Helps Employers Build Businesses through Disability-Related Assistance (pdf)
Michigan Tax Credits and Deductions to Assist with Workplace Accomodations (pdf)
Disability Employment 101 For Your Business (pdf)
2008 MICHIGAN ADA Information Wizard
GIVING CREDIT TO GRAND TRAVERSE INDUSTRIES
GTI is a private nonprofit business providing employment and training to persons with disabilities throughout the Northwestern Lower Michigan.
Grand Traverse Industries
Board Officers (2008-2009):
Bob Reed, Tri Turf
Gerald McAvoy, Central Lake High School
Karen Kuehlhorn, CPA Dennis, Gartland & Niegarth
Patricia Rockburn, Northern Lakes CMH
Dan Stoudt, Huntington Bank
ALSO CHECK OUT THE NEW GOVERNMENT SITE: DISABILITY.GOV/EMPLOYMENT , AND THE MICHIGAN REHAB SERVICES BROCHURE (pdf)
ONE MORE LINK: Job Resources for Individuals With Disabilities
