Employers' fears work against severely disabled people

By Jennifer Lafleur
Of the Post-Dispatch
Monday, Sept. 4, 2000

Travis Everett enjoys his new cubicle with a view of the tree-lined parking lot at Union Pacific Technologies, where he is a computer programmer.

"They just moved me down from the third floor," Everett says, pulling his motorized wheelchair into position. In front of his computer monitor is an enlarged keyboard that allows him to type letters with his right thumb rather than with his fingers. "I didn't have a window before," he says. "I really like it here."

But Everett's view is not typical. Despite a booming economy, one demographic group, people with severe disabilities, is still burdened with an unemployment rate of about 70 percent, far exceeding the rest of the work force.

"That unemployment level has held steady since 1990," says David Newburger, a civil rights attorney based in St. Louis. "There's something wrong with the law."

Ten years after enactment of that law -- the Americans with Disabilities Act, which bans discrimination committee for Employment of People with Disabilities. The federal agency works to educate employers and create job opportunities for people with disabilities.

Employment rates differ depending on the severity of the disability, according to 1997 figures from the U.S. Census Bureau. Of working-age Americans who have difficulty performing daily activities but who don't need personal assistance, six out of 10 had jobs. Among people with more severe disabilities, those requiring personal assistance, only three out of 10 were working.

The jobless rate among people with disabilities results in lower incomes for a group that typically has greater expenses because of equipment needs and health costs. Among people with severe disabilities, the median income is slightly more than $13,000 annually. Among those without disabilities, the median income is nearly double.

Fear is a factor

While accommodation issues play some part in why businesses are slow to hire people with disabilities, Meyer cites a more common reason. "The number one, two, three, four and five reason that companies don't hire someone with a disability is fear," Meyer says. "Everything else pales in comparison."

Everett faced such prejudice in his job hunt after he earned a bachelor's degree in mathematics from the University of Missouri at St. Louis.

"I had sent out resumes and all I would get is a letter saying that they really didn't need my services," Everett says. He figured he was short on work experience and some companies were reluctant to hire someone with a disability. He has cerebral palsy.

Everett later heard about a computer training program from a friend. In 1989, he was among the first graduates of ADEPT, a program run by Goodwill Industries in St. Louis that trains participants to be computer programmers. The one-year program includes a three-month internship. Everett interned as a computer programmer for the federal government, and his internship developed into a full-time job. He took a job with Union Pacific Technologies in 1996.

Union Pacific Technologies has worked with the ADEPT program since its beginning in 1989. "Our philosophy has been to hire good people," says Ron Stockmann, senior manager for human resources services. "If they're developing the kinds of people we're looking for, we'll keep using them."

Stockmann estimates that his company has hired five or six ADEPT graduates in the past several years.

"I don't mean to be overly dramatic, but ADEPT has totally changed my life," Everett says. "I have financial independence now. I feel like I'm contributing to the operation here."

Job training programs such as ADEPT are helping where they exist. Missouri's Division of Vocational Rehabilitation provides job training opportunities to Missourians with disabilities through programs such as ADEPT. The State of Illinois Department of Human Services also operates a Vocational Rehabilitation program.

It was through Missouri's Division of Vocational Rehabilitation that Talisha McKnight found out about ADEPT. A 1998 graduate of the program, McKnight learned the basic skills she needed in her job as an analyst for Southwestern Bell, where she designs computer billing systems. Vocational Rehabilitation also funded some special tools to help McKnight do her job easier.

Partially paralyzed from a bullet wound in 1994, McKnight had to learn how to be left-handed. McKnight uses adaptive tools such as software that allows her to control her computer vocally and a small keyboard that she can use with one hand.

McKnight, 26, returned to work last week after being on maternity leave. Her second daughter, Atiyah, was born in June.

"They called my first daughter the ADEPT baby," she says. She met her husband, Eugene, a programmer for BJC Health Systems, in her ADEPT class.

Robyn Wallen found her new position as a telephone sales agent at a disabilities job fair last year. The chief wage earner for her family, Wallen wanted better pay and more challenge.

"I wanted more for myself than mindless factory work," Wallen says. "I wanted something I could be proud to do. So when I heard they were hiring, I decided to go for it. However, I never thought in a million years I would get the job."

"The best part of this job is I did it myself," she says. "Nobody got this job for me. It is kind of like when you are an Olympic athlete and you struggle and struggle to make it to the team even though you think you will never make it and then all of a sudden you are there."

Even with the ADA in place, getting a job is a struggle for many workers with disabilities such as Wallen.

"The ADA's a wonderful law, but it's not a problem-solution situation," Meyer says. "That doesn't mean it's not the answer; it just might not be enough of an answer. It is like me giving you a hammer, drill and saw to build a house. While you'd need that stuff, is it enough? The ADA is a cornerstone."

Other materials need to be built atop that cornerstone: changed attitudes of employers, good transportation and health benefits.

"If you have good health care that you would have to give up, you can't work," Meyer says. "If you can't get to work in a reasonable way, you can't work. If your employer can't make accommodations, you can't work."

Making progress

Progress has been made on many of these fronts.

More programs are encouraging employers to hire people with disabilities, and the tight job market is creating opportunities as well, Meyer says.

Many people with disabilities who want to work fear losing their health care coverage because their employment could make them ineligible for benefits such as Medicare and Medicaid and they often cannot get private health insurance.

The Ticket to Work and Work Incentives Improvement Act, signed last year by President Bill Clinton, allows people with disabilities to go to work with no loss of medical benefits.

"No one should have to choose between taking a job and having health care," Clinton said when he signed the legislation at the Franklin D. Roosevelt Memorial in December.

The act creates new incentives for states to offer a Medicaid buy-in for workers with disabilities; extends Medicare coverage for an additional 41/2 years for people on disability insurance who go to work and sometimes struggle to get private insurance; creates a $250 million Medicaid buy-in to help people whose disability is not yet so severe that they cannot work; and enhances employment-related services for people with disabilities.

As people with disabilities enter the workplace, transportation becomes key.

Transportation is an issue for rural residents who don't have access to public transportation and continues to be an issue for workers with disabilities living in cities where public transportation is unreliable, Meyer says.

Technology eliminates some barriers for people joining the work force. "This is the most exciting thing to me," Meyer says. "Disabilities don't change. Blind today and blind 50 years ago are the same, but technology keeps coming online, and the cost keeps going down."

Decreasing costs mean that it's easier for companies to provide special equipment for workers with disabilities.

But what hiring really comes down to is recruiting from the whole pool of viable candidates, which may include people with disabilities, Meyer says. If you want the 10 best computer scientists available to be hired, why leave out a computer scientist from Stanford, just because he's in a wheelchair? he says.

"Educating the business community will take time," Meyer says. "Ten years is a short time considering the myths and stereotypes we've heard for so long."

E-mail: jlafleur@post-dispatch.com
Phone: 314-340-8296