Work and Wellness

This is a guest post from Jeffrey Stoller, Director of Communications and Outreach, John J. Heldrich Center for Workforce Development


Many people with disabilities have a special appreciation for how important a job is to a person’s well-being. This feeling comes from long years of experiencing disproportionately high unemployment despite having significant skills to share. It is not just the financial impact of being jobless that matters; there is a high emotional price that is paid as well.

May is a good time to remind the public and policymakers about the special importance of work to people eager to reach beyond their physical and emotional limitations. Every year since 1949, the National Mental Health Alliance (now known as Mental Health America) has designated the month of May as “Mental Health Month”. In May 2010, with millions of Americans out of work for the first time in their careers, this may be a “teachable moment” for many who have never recognized the connection between work and wellness.

The emotional toll of joblessness has been dramatically illustrated by two recent nationwide surveys conducted by the Heldrich Center for Workforce Development at Rutgers University. The Center, which also hosts the NTAR Leadership Center, has tracked the views of American workers for more than a decade through its acclaimed Work Trends survey series. Its research generated headlines worldwide when it conducted a special poll of unemployed American workers just before Labor Day 2009 and again this spring.

The 1,200 jobless workers interviewed for last summer’s Anguish of Unemployment survey used language to describe their situation that would be familiar to anyone with disabilities who has sought – and been denied – an opportunity to work. The respondents described themselves as “discouraged”, “shaken”, “fearful”, “traumatized” and “scared of what will happen.” They reported “feeling worthless” and regretted that that they were “not contributing to family finances”.

The Great Recession of 2007-2009 took a heavy toll on these individuals. Three-quarters of the jobless reported stress in their daily lives, two-thirds reported being depressed, three-fifths felt helpless, and more than half said they were angry. More than half suffered the embarrassment of borrowing money from family or friends, and believed recent changes to the U.S. economy were fundamental and lasting.

Six months later, 900 of the same people expressed similar feelings in a new Heldrich Center survey entitled No End in Sight: The Agony of Prolonged Unemployment. Nearly 80% of the jobseekers were still unemployed, and many reported a deep sense of frustration and low esteem due to what they saw as outright discrimination in hiring. In the words of the report’s co-authors, “The inability of these jobseekers to new find opportunities is an economic and cultural disaster.”


So what’s the “good news” here? It seems to me that millions of Americans are experiencing for the first time what it feels to be a skilled person who cannot connect with meaningful work. Few know and understand this feeling better than the many talented people with disabilities who have frequently encountered prospective employers who fail to recognize an applicant’s countless abilities. There is a window of opportunity here: to explain the goals of disability employment to a diverse group that suddenly see the same barriers to work.

Today’s unemployed could be important allies in the fight to expand disability employment in the years ahead. The people made jobless in the current economic downturn include many innovative, highly-trained, highly-educated workers who understand the pain of having their skills overlooked or being offered a substandard wage.

This May, the best way for people with disabilities to celebrate Mental Health Month may be to reach out to other jobseekers. They may find they have a lot in common.

Employment First

This is a guest post from Wendy Parent, Research Associate Professor and Assistant Director, Lawrence Site, Kansas University Center on Developmental Disabilities, NTAR National Research Advisory Panel Member

Employment First is an exciting new public policy that is gaining increased momentum at the state and federal levels. It establishes the idea that integrated competitive employment is the first option for all individuals regardless of disability level or support needs. This is significant in that it changes the way we think and overtime changes the way we do things with funding streams and service delivery practices eventually following suit.

To date, numerous states have implemented some type of Employment First activity. These include: Minnesota, Oklahoma, Georgia, Washington, Tennessee, California, Massachusetts, Wisconsin, Missouri, Indiana, Colorado, Vermont, Delaware, Iowa, and Kansas. Efforts have focused upon conferences, summits, publications, training and technical assistance, agency goals and mission statements, and policies and legislation. Kansas has recently submitted an Employment First Bill, H.R. 2669, which has passed the House and is currently in the Senate for vote. This landmark piece of legislation establishes that “…competitive and integrated employment of persons with disabilities in communities of Kansas shall be the first priority in the state…” and creates an oversight commission for monitoring and accountability.

The Employment First Bill introduced in Kansas represents the culmination of a series of major activities and multiple peoples’ involvement. The original impetus was the result of contract negations between the state funding agencies and provider organizations including self-advocates in which “employment first” language was added. A task force of key stakeholders was appointed and the outcome of their work was an Initial Report and Recommendations. The concept was rolled out for the legislature at a reception conducted at the beginning of their session with presentations from several individuals with disabilities who talked about their employment experiences, an employer, and a researcher who discussed employment outcomes in Kansas. Information sharing and networking for professionals, families, and individuals with disabilities is proposed at a two-day Kansas Employment First Summit to be held in the near future with an impressive line-up of national speakers and ending with a Conversation with the Governor’s Cabinet Secretaries and Directors.

Why emphasize work? Research shows that employers express positive attitudes toward workers with disabilities and are willing to hire employees with extensive support needs when they receive competent services from disability employment programs (Katz & Luecking, 2009). Individuals with disabilities themselves, tell us they want to work and have made employment their priority (Alliance for Full Participation, 2009; The Riot, 2007). Furthermore, supported and customized employment strategies are effective at meeting the hiring needs of the employer and the support needs of the employee resulting in a cost-efficient alternative to sheltered work and day services (Cimera, 2008; Office of Disability Employment Policy, 2005; Wehman, Inge, Revell, & Brooke, 2007).

Why Employment First? Nationally, the number of individuals participating in sheltered work and day services continues to rise. In Kansas and many other states, the majority of their dollars are spent on funding these segregated programs for the very population of people for whom supported and customized employment strategies were developed and have proven to be effective. Multiple systemic issues contribute to the problem. A federal and/or statewide employment first policy would begin to shift these outcomes by establishing integrated competitive employment as the first option for people with disabilities. No one agency or organization can do it alone. Employment First would put everyone on the same agenda, working towards the same goal, with integrated competitive employment as the expected outcome and the focus of limited resources. A collaborative effort will direct our attention to the challenges we must address in order to make these outcomes a reality for all citizens with disabilities. Employment First could potentially be the change we need.

Scary Realities and Practical Solutions

According to a recent report issued by the Heldrich Center for Workforce Development, the labor market, workforce and educational system are undergoing significant changes in the first decade of the 21st century. With widespread unemployment at all levels of education, longer than usual time spent now looking for a job, and declining heath care coverage, it is no surprise that the Heldrich report highlights how very dissatisfied people are with both their personal economic circumstances as well as the country’s.

At the same time, state budgets and state workforces are suffering as well -- teetering on the point of going broke or broken. To respond to taxpayers cries for less government, lower taxes and to keep states from going bankrupt, federal and state law makers are desperately looking for fresh solutions to cutting costs and getting Americans back to work. The jobs crisis and state budget crises demands immediate attention, but need solutions that are practical and evidence based, and that mutually help job seekers and employers.

Jobseekers (including those with disabilities) need solutions that provide them with a paycheck first and foremost, along with a work experience and the ability to acquire skills and education if that paycheck is not from a full time job. Employers need solutions that can get them access to qualified workers at wages and benefits they can afford. As seen in the recent increases in part time and temporary workers, employers continue to remain reluctant to make permanent hires because of doubts about the recovery’s durability, and still remain skittish about the escalating costs of health care and the uncertainty of health care reform.

As for public policy makers charged with creating and implementing solutions, they need strategies that are low cost and high volume; that are easy to implement with a minimum degree of complexity and that promise to yield a moderate degree of success (meaning jobs) for hundreds, if not thousands of people. What state policy makers cannot afford these days are boutique programs, untested initiatives or further policies that research demonstrates don’t yield big results for either the unemployed or employers. They also can’t afford programs that are high cost and low volume; that require lots of complex moving parts to implement, that require low paid front line workers to develop new, higher skills in order to make it work, and where employment is realized for only tens of people, not in the hundreds and thousands needed to make a dent in the unemployment rate.

The $15 billion jobs bill passed by the Senate and the House is sadly likely to be much ado about nothing. The bill, which includes tax breaks to businesses to hire, will have a negligible effect on employment rates – especially among people with disabilities. In fact, evidence from the Work Opportunity and Welfare-to-Work Tax Credits points out that these employer tax breaks for new hires have suffered from poor participation and have not had any meaningful effect on employment rates among the disadvantaged (Urban-Brookings Tax Policy Center, 2005), despite what is seen as large potential benefits to firms. And for people with disabilities who have been routinely shut out of a robust labor market, much less one in recession, hiring credits are unlikely to yield any benefits at all.

Economists and academics have suggested other solutions that would put ‘jobs’ back in a credible job creation strategy. These include expanding summer youth employment programs, and deploying time-limited employment programs for public purposes in public and nonprofit agencies. These also include transitional job programs such as on-the-job training or OJT in private firms and nonprofits, and paid work experience programs such as through internships and apprenticeships. Other promising strategies, some more complex and longer to implement, include stimulating small business development including seeding and supporting ‘real businesses’ through nonprofits.

Any successful national jobs strategy must provide mutual support to jobseekers need for work and income, and businesses need to stay in business. Only if these two needs are met can communities prosper and our nation thrive. The current job bill falls far short.


Kathy Krepcio
Director, NTAR Leadership Center

Every Willing Heart

In his inaugural address just over a year ago, President Obama said something that resonated deeply: “The success of our economy has always depended not just on the size of our gross domestic product, but on the reach of our prosperity, on our ability to extend opportunity to every willing heart – not out of charity, but because it is the surest route to our common good.”

As the nation starts to crawl out of its deep economic hole, it might seem counter intuitive to talk about disability employment. But a large body of evidence and a growing public policy consensus suggest that the president is right: it’s in the nation’s best interest for everyone to work.

That notion is articulated in the value proposition adopted by Minnesota’s SLII team: We need everyone in the workforce for businesses to thrive and communities to prosper. This is the organizing principle of the Minnesota team’s work.

Our work assumes that employers will recognize that it is in their own best interest to seek out "every willing heart" from populations that have long been under-represented in the workplace. This belief represents a vision of workplace flexibility (or customization) that provides accommodations, maximizes productivity, changes workplace experiences and attitudes, and reconfigures the composition of the workforce, perhaps dramatically, and perhaps forever.

New hiring policies might, for example, distinguish between “qualified” workers (who meet specific and rigid job requirements) and “quality” workers (who maybe wouldn't meet rigid qualification tests, but who would demonstrate flexibility, trainability and eagerness to work). Policies like that very likely would bring new workers into the workplace rather than erecting barriers that keep them out. That would indeed be a historic change.

A couple of years ago Minnesota employment planners identified a number of workforce issues that state government will be forced to address soon. Minnesota, like the rest of the nation, has an aging workforce, accelerating retirements, and a looming shortage of people who have the education, skills and training to fill key government positions. The planners also identified several underutilized populations in the workforce and outlined strategies to include those populations—including people with disabilities—in the state's workforce planning.

One of several responses to these findings was an executive branch initiative to make Minnesota a model employer of people with disabilities. The idea was to create an expectation—not a hope or a wish or a request, but an expectation—that all state hiring managers would be both intentional and proactive in recruiting and hiring people with disabilities. The results, while admittedly modest in numerical terms, have nonetheless raised dramatically the profile of disability employment in state government. In the first couple of years, the model employer initiative generated about 100 new government internships, apprenticeships and part-time or full-time jobs for people with disabilities. In a state workforce that comprises some 40,000 employees, that's a small but very real shift. The early results of this initiative show great promise, and it appears likely that the trend will continue as more and more employees retire from public service.

The reality of workforce shortages for everyone is becoming increasingly dire. Employers will have to compete, as never before, for skilled workers. Attitudes toward hiring people with disabilities are changing, and public policy is shifting in the direction ensuring employment for every willing heart. Not, as President Obama said, out of charity, but because it is the surest route to our common good.

John Fisher
Public Affairs Director, Vocational Rehabilitation Services
Minnesota Department of Employment and Economic Development

The Year of the Perfect Storm

About two weeks ago, First Lady Michelle Obama, spoke to a group at the U.S. Department of Labor. She, in no uncertain terms, talked about the need for our workplaces to catch up with and reflect the realities of our lives. Her statements directly reflect the need for today’s workforce to focus on workplace flexibility as a means to obtaining and retaining a solid and productive work-life balance.

Secretary of Labor, Hilda Solis, remarked on the 19^th Anniversary of the ADA, “And although the federal government strives to be a model employer, in actuality the number of people with disabilities in the federal workforce has decreased over the past decade. This trend must be reversed, and the Department of Labor will be a leader in the effort.” Her statements reflect the acknowledgement that the largest employer in the US needs to step up and make some changes.

Lastly, Christine Griffin, the newly appointed head of the Office of Personnel Management asked all federal agencies to do some introspection and look at their unintended barriers to hiring and advancement, particularly for people with disabilities. She encouraged agency representatives to “start doing some barrier analysis” and discover where the problems exist not only for career advancement, but also for the opportunity to even get in the door.

So, this is the year of the “Perfect Storm.” At this point in history, we have a rare combination of circumstances that has a potential to drastically change a situation. That situation is the overall (generically poor) employment outcomes for people with disabilities. Not only does the Federal Government have the opportunity to do something dynamic, their actions and words have the potential to lay the foundation for states and local areas to do the same. And, as those of us who work (or have worked) on the front lines know, it’s much easier to move a creative vision forward at the local level than it is for the Federal Government. Anyone courageous enough to meet this challenge?

President Roosevelt's Labor Secretary Frances Perkins once pointed out that most of our problems "have been met and solved either partially or as a whole by experiment based on common sense and carried out with courage." Dare I say it’s time to start using common sense?!? If the definition of insanity is to do the same thing over and over again and expect different results, than let’s break the cycle of insanity! Make an opportunity happen…experiment…come up with new ideas…try out a new approach. Slowly but surely those dreadful employment outcomes will change. You might choose one of the following: meet employers in a different way; assist others develop the skills they need to find their own jobs rather than focusing on “job placement;” develop a new relationship with a community workforce partner; or just simply step outside of your comfort zone to make something exciting happen.

If what you’ve been doing to assist people with disabilities get to work isn’t working…and if your relationships with employers are getting stale, find the courage to try a new approach. Most importantly, share your stories with NTAR and let them know the progress you’re making. They have a direct line to the Federal Government….and would be thrilled to share your successes. Who knows? Maybe one of your courageous ideas could be planted as a “seed of change” at the Federal level. After all, we’ve got nowhere to go but up.

Lisa Stern

Stern Consulting, LLC

Preparation and Promise and the Importance of Being Relevant

I sit down to write this as the New Year begins. January is always a month of reflection for me, and this year is no different. Thinking back on 2009, working with state leaders through a still struggling economy, continued rising unemployment, renewed terrorist threats, and now the devastation in Haiti. It is a lot to take in. Yet, I am approaching 2010 optimistic about the future and our ability – as individuals and as organizations - to make some headway into what seems to be the intractable problem of unemployment and underemployment of people with disabilities. And I believe, as always, our solutions lie within us - as persevering people - to continue to plow through but perhaps with a more single minded focus, and a notion that we have to make the preparation for work, and the promise of jobs a mantra.

Preparation and promise. For me, this means continuing to talk about the importance of preparing all of our young people and adults, especially those with disabilities, for a world of work and inclusion in our nation’s economic prosperity. Good or great things just don’t always happen by luck or circumstance in our lives – they happen because many of us (and our parents, friends and family – maybe even our public policy makers) understand the importance of preparation. Promise is about opportunity and the promise of potential new jobs and new opportunities that await those who are prepared. This may be my optimism or perhaps my advancing age, but economies like play sets always have swings. There will be jobs in the future, but they just might not be the jobs in place today, and they just won’t appear without any concerted, focused effort to create them. As such, it is vitally important that we internalize the importance of making our systems change efforts relevant. That is, if there is going to be any progress, our efforts must be relevant to employers so that job training is based on jobs that employers foresee needing to fill. If there is going to be any progress, our efforts must be relevant to governors and public officials who will be focusing on creating jobs and supporting business development. And, if there is going to be any progress, our efforts must be relevant to every person with a disability who would like to leave dependency on government programs behind and get a job.

Kathy Krepcio
Director, NTAR Leadership Center

Going Viral

The fear of hiring people with disabilities stems from a number of reasons and not just one single preconceived notion. This fear often originates from unknowns such as cost or liability. This is unfortunate because almost one-third of ADA accommodation can be met at zero cost and liability is actually greater when not hiring an individual with a disability. Fortunately, this fear can be overcome.

I work for a large corporation that values diversity and believes that its strength comes from a diverse culture. Knowing that this company operates with these beliefs has allowed me to create a truly diverse recruiting strategy with an emphasis on building and sustaining an inclusive workforce. Unsure of where to begin, I was pointed in the direction of the New Mexico Business Leadership Network (NMBLN). Their efforts, assistance, direction, and support was invaluable in building the foundation to our success.

By building meaningful relationships within the community, we were easily able to identify the resources that would help us connect with qualified individuals seeking employment. Before long, I had job seekers, agencies, and employers were all reaching out directly to me to learn more about opportunities for recruiting, hiring, and retaining people with disabilities. Additionally, my peers across the nation were also contacting us with questions about recruiting strategies and training implementation.

This small effort by one person in a small city has gone viral. We all have the ability to truly make a difference when it comes to building an inclusive workforce. Disability does not equal inability. Employees with disabilities often have higher production and retention rates along with lower absenteeism rates. Our employees are focused, dedicated, and loyal.

Due to a collaborative effort by business leaders, the community, and organizations like the New Mexico Business Leadership Network, companies are looking to hire qualified people with disabilities. It takes all of us working together and combining our thoughts, ideas, and resources, to overcome the barriers of fear. By getting involved, staying involved, sharing experiences and asking questions, we have the collective strength to make a very real difference. We have a powerful impact on disability employment.

Michelle M. Gonzalez
Human Resources Professional
Board Member, New Mexico Business Leadership Network

Equal Employment for All

When will Equal Employment for men and women with disabilities become a reality and not just a few words that are part of some article written in the month of October for National Disability Employment Awareness month? When will the unemployment rate that this community faces every day become a number we can live with rather than a statistic no one cares or does something about? When will the people in the Federal, State and City Governments start hiring people with disabilities and not just tell others to do it? We have seen the Rehabilitation Act and the ADA not make opportunities for this community become more plentiful. Today we stand as the greatest country in the world, with some very smart people. Why do we allow our disabled citizens to be underemployed or unemployed and have no voice regarding their future? Have you ever gone to a party where someone didn’t ask what you did for a living? Would you want to answer I receive Social Security? The solution to the issue of putting our disabled community to work must be an issue we take seriously. Steps must be put in place to right this wrong. First, we must get corporate America to sit at the table, and we must have our Human Resource Professionals include disability management into the daily framework of their positions. We must make funding available for the organizations entrusted with preparing this community for employment with the tools they need to succeed; vocational counselors must be able to have access to the latest in technology, training and human resource education available. We must stop training people for jobs that no longer exist in this economy and prepare them for positions that will provide for family sustaining income and career advancement. We must bring corporations and the world of vocational education closer together and to trust one another. When a vocational counselor tells a corporate recruiter “I have the best person for the job” they truly are the best person for the job.

Jeff Klare rides 300 miles to promote the Employment of men and women with disabilities, led by Eric Madeus an 8 year old. Eric one day will be seeking employment

He noted that what happens now would likely affect Eric Madaus, 8, who suffers from Spina Bifida, and other young people with disabilities. They will need, and want to hold meaningful jobs in the future.

Madaus, from the D.C. area, led Klare to the finish line on a special bike.

“If not now, when?” Klare asked. “If companies don’t look to employ people with disabilities now, what’s his future going to be like?”

Jeff Klare
CEO, Hire Disability Solutions, LLC

Common Challenges and Opportunities for Collaboration

I am a member of the Connecticut Team, one of three states selected to receive a grant from the NTAR Leadership Center to participate in a 15-month State Leaders Innovation Institute (SLII). One of our team goals is to have the state of Connecticut become a model employer for people with disabilities. In my professional life I am employed as a Human Resources Consultant in the Department of Administrative Services which houses the statewide human resources management division. Some of the functions my division is responsible for include: setting human resources policies for the state, developing job descriptions, administering merit examinations, conducting collective bargaining grievances, and providing consultation to all state agencies on the entire spectrum of human resources matters from employment to termination and everything in between. As a person who has done a lot of work with employees who have disabilities throughout my career this is the goal I am most committed to.

Thanks to the NTAR Leadership Center, I recently had the opportunity to attend The Governor’s Forum on Disability and Economic Development in Roanoke, VA. I was very excited about attending because I was looking forward to seeing what success Virginia had in closing the employment gap for persons with disabilities and I was hoping to get a few ideas that maybe we could adopt in Connecticut. (The later being very important to me as I don’t believe in reinventing the wheel!)

Virginia has high hopes and incredibly motivated leadership, but advancing employment goals in this economy is challenging at best. Virginia is approaching this issue in a similar fashion to Connecticut and faces many of the same challenges. I learned at the conference that while Virginia has great resources available for people with disabilities, it is difficult to get the word out about these resources. It struck me that someone - who was involved in the disability employment field and was attending this conference - was not aware of all of the resources available. This is one of the many challenges that states face; we not only need to make resources available, we need to get these resources to those who need them, especially during these tough economic times.

So while I didn’t learn new strategies to approach the issue of employment, I did get something I consider ever better… networking contacts. I met and talked extensively with my HR counterpart in state government, I networked with many people from other agencies that provide services to or work with peoples with disabilities such as the department of Rehabilitative services, the workforce development board, department for the Blind and Vision impaired, Virginia Tech University and Northrop Grumman Corporation. These contacts I consider to be invaluable, especially since I’ve already been able to tap into the expertise of at least one of them. I also left with the feeling that as an employer the state of Connecticut is doing much better that I thought we were.

My sincere appreciation and gratitude to the NTAR Leadership Center for providing me with this wonderful opportunity.

Francine E. Dew
Human Resources Consultant, State of Connecticut