Persons with a disability were also over three times as likely as those without a disability to be age 65 or older. And nearly one-third of workers with a disability were employed part time, compared with about one-fifth of those with no disability. (Read the full release here).

The Americans with Disabilities Act is designed to increase employment by prohibiting discrimination in the workplace and requiring employers to provide “reasonable accommodations” to help workers with disabilities perform their jobs. But let’s forget the ADA for a moment, and consider all of the substantial reasons to bring more disabled into the workforce.

Workers with disabilities are proven to be loyal employees, which reduces hiring and retention costs. This group has also developed increased abilities in other ways that make them strong job candidates, such as creative problem solving, the ability to adapt to pressures and difficult situations and a knack for using technology that helps them do their job.

For example, people who are blind are able to navigate most of a computer using their keyboard and a software program that reads the screen and computer elements out loud. A worker who is deaf may be highly competent in online communications that are visual, such as email, instant messaging, video conferencing and using the Web.

Tax credits exist to help employers offset the cost of technology and other accommodations. Small businesses for example can apply the Disabled Access Credit to $5,000 in expenses each year, according to the Job Accommodation Network. Interestingly, around 70% of accommodations cost less than $500 while 20% cost nothing, such as free Instant Messaging programs from Yahoo! and AOL.

Forward thinking companies are making strategic efforts to bring more disabled people into the workplace. Hire Disability Solutions partners include prominent companies like AT&T, Pfizer, and Tyco. These companies have recognized the value of diversity that not only transforms a workplace but can also enhance its products and services by leveraging this group’s unique perspectives and putting their pulse on marketplace needs. After all there are 54 million Americans with disabilities, not including children with special needs, an aging population, and thousands of newly returned veterans with service-related disabilities.

If you’re an employer take the first step towards eliminating unemployment for people with disabilities. This is a loyal group that wants to be at work, and who will spend their working hours proving to you why they were the right hire for your company. This is what every employer aspires to as they build their workforce, so tap this market and get a head start.

A federal appeals court recently overturned a district court’s decision against a deaf UPS employee. The employee is fluent in American Sign Language, a visual, three-dimensional, non-linear language that has different grammar and syntax differ from English and other spoken languages. He claimed UPS did not provide him with sign language interpreters for certain weekly meetings and instead only provided written summaries by note takers.

The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, which filed the suit on behalf of the employee, says UPS unlawfully discriminated against him by failing to make reasonable accommodations.

Should employers have to provide sign language interpreters for Deaf employees who request them at each and every meeting? ASL interpreters usually have a two-hour minimum charge of about $100 an hour. Another alternative is Communications Access Realtime Translation, or CART. This method is similar to captioning by providing a deaf consumer with a real-time, verbatim transcription of words that are spoken in a meeting. It costs more than ASL interpreters but can be done remotely via the Internet.

The Americans with Disabilities Act says that an employer has discretion to choose among effective modifications, and they do not need not provide the employee with the accommodation he or she requests or prefers. However, an employer cannot satisfy its obligations under the ADA by providing an ineffective modification.

The UPS employee claimed that handwritten notes were ineffective, particularly because he can’t read and write English above a fifth-grade level. This is a common issue among some Deaf people who never had oral schooling and so did not learn proper English grammar.

The ADA also says that employers must consider the nature of the information being communicated in a particular meeting or the length of the meeting; the federal court found that UPS relied on relatively arbitrary considerations in determining that an interpreter wasn’t needed for its weekly departmental meetings.

Aside from interpreters and CART, if you work with or employ a Deaf employee here are some tips to communicate with him or her:
- Get their attention first, by waving, making eye contact or touching someone lightly on the shoulder
- Stay in their field of vision
- Keep your hands away from your mouth
- Speak in a normal tone or voice; many deaf people can lip-read
- Use gestures and visual cues
- Establish context around the conversation before it starts
- If possible, choose a quiet room

Take stock of your abilities. Understand your skills and strengths and learn how to market them to employees.

Understand the employment landscape. Keep on top of job and salary trends; if there’s a field where workers are needed, you’re more likely to get an interview. Request and study annual reports of select companies, and read general-interest as well as special-interest newspapers and magazines.

Be computer savvy. Increasing your technical computer skills increases your marketability in the job market. Create a website with samples of your work; this shows your computer literacy and is a place for employers to learn more about what you can do for them.

Conduct online job searches. This helps you cast a wider net. Visit employer Web pages and key job sites like Monster.com.

Update Your Resume. You should customize your resume to reflect the assets you bring to each job, using key words that will jump out to (and can be electronically scanned by) employers. List volunteer work and internships, if you don’t have a lot of experience. Minimize employment gaps.

Be Prepared. Have a written personal plan for vertical and lateral growth opportunities. Many employers will ask, “where do you see yourself five years from now?” You’ll need an answer that fits into the purpose of the company and highlights your ability to grow and take on challenges.

Network, network, network. Go to networking events, join and use LinkedIn and other professional groups, and join volunteer organizations where you’ll meet other likeminded people. (Hire Disability Solution has a group on LinkedIn that you can join to find open jobs.)

Have a Positive Attitude. Job searching is tough, and try not to take it personal if you aren’t offered a job. Show that you are flexible. A sense of humor and positive attitude are pluses.

Disclose a Disability Only as Needed. The only reason to disclose a disability is if you require an accommodation for an interview or to perform the essential functions of a particular job. There is no need to mention your disability in your resume or cover letter.

Rosalind Joffe is a co-author of Women, Work, and Autoimmune Disease: Keep Working, Girlfriend! and the founder of cicoach.com, a career-coaching practice that helps people with chronic illnesses develop workplace skills. She helps her clients return to the workforce after an extended absence and assists them in the process of succeeding in their careers.

Joffe emphasizes that workplace success in the face of illness is transforming. “It gives you the power and the confidence to face other challenges, large and small,” she writes in her book.

Because disabilities vary greatly, and “no two people’s stories look the same,” Joffe says there’s no single, generic piece of advice that she can give to her clients and others. Still, she offers five tips that are applicable to anyone with a disability who is considering going back to work.

1. Do a reality check. Joffe says people with disabilities need to be realistic about a career that they will be able to sustain given their disability. This can require some work on your end, and is one of the services Joffe offers as a consultant. She emphasizes that finding a career that you can succeed in, even if it’s not the one you originally planned for, is part of looking at the bigger picture of life.

2. Hone your skills. Joffe is adamant that you should focus on developing the skills necessary for the career you want (and can reasonably pursue). For someone with a disability, it’s a good idea to try to focus on developing strengths — like good technology and communication skills — that will allow you to work virtually. “There are more opportunities than ever to work from home,” she says, “and that’s good news for someone with a disability.”

3. Go back to class. Joffe emphasizes taking specific skill-related classes, or to volunteer in an area related to your future career. Volunteering is a good move for someone who is currently unemployed and needs to build up his or her assets, she says. One of Joffe’s clients decided she didn’t want to return to her previous career and instead wanted to re-invent herself. The client did “smart volunteer work,” upon Joffe’s advice, “that allowed her to build her contacts and networks” while gaining skills at the same time. Within about a year, she was offered a paid position in her new field.

4. Start small. Joffe says some of her clients have been able to find part-time work in the field they’re looking to enter. Working part-time will give you training and income, and also enable you to explore whether you are in the right career for your health, both physically and mentally, she says.

5. Nurture your mental health. In Women, Work, and Autoimmune Disease, Joffe admits that she lacked mental resilience when she was first diagnosed with multiple sclerosis at the age of 27, and says it took time to develop this again. “To cultivate your physical resilience, you must have the mental reliance that comes from a place called hope,” she writes. According to Joffe, “hope” is the belief that your life can be fulfilling despite a physical (and often financial) setback like having to quit work due to a disability.

Ultimately, Joffe’s advice is to go back to work if you can, because no doing so can make you feel worse over the long term. The resilience to keep going, despite whatever obstacles may stand in your way, will make you a stronger person and employee.

This article was repurposed for Hire Disability Solutions by abledbody.com

Hire Disability Solutions recently celebrated the achievements of individuals with disabilities in June at the first annual Corporate Achievers Award for Individuals with Disabilities (CAAID). The event, held in May at New York City’s Roosevelt Hotel, honored corporations and individuals who have embraced Inclusion and who have eliminated barriers that the disability community has faced.

HDS was a proud major corporate sponsor of this event. CAAID is a Washington-based non-profit company that runs a range of programs to assist people with disabilities. The first annual event recognized organizations and individuals that are committed to promoting equal access, opportunity and full participation of professionals with disabilities.

There are approximately 54 million Americans that are disabled in the United States. They represent 20% of the marketplace and have a total buying power of $220 billion in discretionary spending. Many companies and organizations believe bringing more people with disabilities into the workforce will have a positive impact on their culture as well as their bottom line.

This year’s CAAID attendees included individuals representing Pfizer, The McGraw-Hill, Pepsi, Colgate-Palmolive, MetLife, City University of New York, New York State, U. S. Department of Labor, Pernod Ricard, and the U. S. Military in New York City.

Among the awards handed out, the Corporate Achiever awards went to Lee Brodsky, president of The Carey Group, a software consulting firm, and Lori Shafner, a vice president of Pfizer’s Medicine Development Group. Pfizer is the maker of Apixban, a stroke prevention drug.

This year’s Non-Profit Achievers were Enable America, a non-profit that works to help people with disabilities find employment and live independently. One Enable program, VetConnect, pairs wounded warriors with veterans who have faced similar challenges to help them re-acclimate to civilian life. Another winner: Wesley Poriotis, co-founder of Veterans Across America.

Other notable honorees included Kessler Foundation, which provides funding for rehabilitation research that improves the lives of people with disabilities; Kessler won the Foundation Achiever award.

Participants also attended panels designed to help facilitate the hiring and inclusion of people with disabilities. One panel discussed ways to better support and value the contributions that workers with disabilities bring to the table. For example, the City University of New York, which has 9,000 active students with disabilities, has created, CUNY LEADS, a partnership between the City University of New York (CUNY) and Vocational Services for Individuals with Disabilities (VESID) to give students with disabilities counseling and guidance, assessment, textbooks and materials, and access to tuition assistance, CUNY Leads has referred more than 1,900 students to VESID in the last two years.

At Pfizer, the pharmaceutical giant’s ties its disability initiative to business success by showing how their support touches the customer, suppliers and the community in which they operate. Through its Disability & Inclusion colleague resource group, Pfizer does extensive education outreach and advertising; the company was recently named one of Connecticut’s top employers for hiring, promoting and retaining colleagues with disabilities.

To nominate an individual or attend the 2011 CAAID event in New York City, go to http://caaid.us

This is a question often asked: Does the shaky economy make it harder for people with disabilities to find a job? Undoubtedly, yes. The job marketplace is more competitive, and frankly, it’s easier for an employer to hire someone who doesn’t need an accommodation.

Though the American with Disabilities Act prohibits discrimination of the disabled, it still happens indirectly — and more so when the hiring pool is larger. In June 2010, the unemployment rate of persons with a disability was 14.4 percent, compared with 9.4 percent for persons with no disability, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

The good news is assistive technologies can help level the playing field and open more employment opportunities for workers with disabilities. Assistive technology is any item, piece of equipment, or product system — whether acquired commercially or off the shelf, modified or customized — that increases, maintains, or improves the functional capabilities of individuals with disabilities.

All assistive technology items are either considered low-tech or high-tech. Low-tech might include pencil grips or for those with motor impairments; reaching aids for people with short stature; or magnifying glasses for people with visual impairments.

High-tech examples include a keyboard with large keys or a special mouse tor workers with physical impairments; a screen reader for the blind, which is a piece of software that reads computer text and menus out loud in a computer-generated voice; or a handheld speech-generating device for people with speech disorders that speaks out loud as they enter text via a keyboard.

In many cases, higher-tech assistive technology is more expensive, harder to find and requires a learning curve, but the results can be extraordinarily successful in the sense that they’re life-changing devices.

Still, many assistive technology gadgets used in today’s workplace cost $500 or less, and some are free, according to a recent survey conducted by the Job Accommodation Network. Look at instant messaging, a popular text-messaging platform that cost nothing to install or use and is a great communications tool for the deaf and hearing impaired.

Even if there’s a cost involved, you can get some help with funding. First, you should realize that companies who hire qualified people with disabilities will work to provide them with a “reasonable accommodation” if it will help them better perform their job; assistive technology is one such accommodation recognized by the ADA. A couple of conditions: This rule does not apply to businesses with fewer than 15 employees, and you must disclose your disability in order to be eligible for an accommodation.

Another place to get funding is through state agencies. Under the Tech Act, agencies will provide people with disabilities with assistive technologies if they are needed for a job.

Small businesses may also be able to receive tax credits towards the cost of assistive technologies under a provision known as the Disabled Access Credit. Companies can receive a maximum credit of $5,000 a year.

So there you have it: Many accommodations are already in use in the workplace, and most cost less than $500 or are free to use. If you have a disability, brush up on your assistive technology knowledge and make it clear to employers that these tools are the key to success in your  job.

This article was repurposed for Hire Disability Solutions by abledbody.com

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