Misinformation makes finding jobs tough for physically disabled

Heather Barcal began her job search months before graduating in May 2004 with a master's degree in higher education administration.

Her resume generated several enthusiastic responses, but she was never asked back for a second interview or offered a position.

She can't prove it, but Barcal suspects it was because she's blind.

"Any college that had not met me previously said, 'Yes, yes, come interview with us,' " she said. "I don't disclose my disability in my job search."

Months after she graduated, Barcal took a job with the Lake County Center for Independent Living working with youth with disabilities while continuing her search for a job in higher education.

The College of Lake County hired her to work in the Office for Students with Disabilities in June 2007.

While grateful for her job, the Vernon Hills resident says her search raised distressing questions.

"It took three years for someone to give me a chance," she said. "I felt very typecast. I wonder if I will ever have a job that is not disability-related."

Slow progress

Eighteen years after the Americans With Disabilities Act of 1990, employment remains a difficult and elusive goal for many disabled residents. The most commonly cited statistics indicate only 30 percent of the disabled are employed either full- or part-time.

The reasons are many -- from a need for better awareness among employers to misinformation among disabled job seekers, lack of transportation and fear of losing health and other government benefits.

With an aim of pinpointing such problems and reducing the obstacles, the Coalition of Citizens with Disabilities in Illinois has made expanding employment opportunities its primary focus this fiscal year.

Brendt Ramsey, executive director of the Springfield-based advocacy group, says the emphasis probably will continue next year, too.

Working with other organizations that serve people with disabilities and with the disabled themselves, the coalition has created an Employment Advisory Committee to examine policies and legislation, and make recommendations.

Sometimes the problem might lie with disabled job seekers themselves, Ramsey says, if their lack of information, skills or even hygiene keep them from jobs.

"The reality is some people with disabilities have their own personality things," he said.

But employers also need a better understanding of what disabled employees can offer.

"Statistics show people with disabilities miss less work than people without disabilities," he said.

Saving benefits

Advisory committee members point to many issues that must be addressed.

Marsie Frawley, senior policy analyst with Health & Disability Advocates, says people with disabilities who get jobs have justifiable concerns about losing benefits from Social Security and other government programs.

"Many times, people with disabilities have to be careful about how much money they have because it could cause them to lose the programs they need so badly," she said. "There is an overwhelming fear of loss of public benefits to return to work."

While some are justified, other fears are based on misinformation, she said.

For example, some people who return to work are told they need to repay benefits they've already received.

Frawley says the situation can be avoided by correctly reporting income. But if it does occur, there are ways to address it without repaying benefits.

Disabled job seekers also may fear giving up health coverage they have through Medicaid, Frawley said.

"The health care provided through an employer might be too expensive for an individual or not cover their needs as much," she said.

To help address that, the Illinois legislature passed a bill last year raising the income eligibility for disabled workers to receive Medicaid to 350 percent of the federal poverty level.

Gerard Broeker, executive director of the Statewide Independent Living Council and a member of the advisory committee, says some employers may fear hiring the disabled will cause health insurance costs to go up.

One solution might be to create a non-Medicaid state insurance pool to provide health coverage for disabled workers so employers could pay into the pool if they did not provide the health insurance themselves, he said.

Lack of information

With all the misinformation floating around, Broeker suggests creating a single Web site to address such issues.

"It's a big conundrum from what I see," he said. "I certainly believe that streamlining the process would be beneficial."

Employers, as well those with disabilities, may not be aware of their rights or available resources.

Ann Ford, executive director of the Illinois Network of Centers for Independent Living, says people with disabilities should be viewed simply in terms of their ability to do the job.

"People with disabilities make good employees and do a good job. If they don't, you don't have to keep them," she said.

For employers who fear they may have to make costly accommodations, the state's 23 Centers for Independent Living can provide guidance on what's reasonable.

"Most accommodations are pennies and dollars, not thousands of dollars," said Don Davia, a benefits counselor with the DuPage Center for Independent Living. "Not everything has to be accessible, only bathrooms and the place where they work."

Some problems might be solved with flexibility and creativity, he said. For example, if a deaf person works in a pool of secretaries who take turns greeting people at the front desk, they might be exempted in exchange for picking up other tasks.

Employers also might not be aware of federal tax credits that may be available when they hire people with disabilities and make accommodations, Broeker said.

State Sen. Susan Garrett, a Lake Forest Democrat, introduced a bill last year to extend those credits to the state level. Garrett said the bill got a quasi-hearing, but appeared to pique the interest of some legislators.

"I'm optimistic (about its passage) but I don't think it's going to happen overnight," she said. "Our goal is to provide more opportunities for people with disabilities … and to encourage employers to hire people with disabilities."

More jobs wanted

Agencies that provide job training and coaching to people with disabilities say they see more openness toward hiring their clients -- especially among managers who went to school with people with special needs.

But when the economy is tight, workers with disabilities may be the first to suffer.

"Everybody is multi-tasking and that has made it more difficult to find employment for our clients," said Vicki Goodrich, director of employment services with the Association for Individual Development, which has training centers for people with developmental and physical disabilities in Elgin and Aurora.

Goodrich said many of AID's clients need job-carving situations in which the position is fitted to their abilities.

AID will do job evaluations so employers can see how clients can meet their needs and assign job coaches, she said. Many clients find positions in stores such as Jewel, Target and Wal-Mart.

"The big-box companies have been pretty good in offering situations," she said.

AID also has created its own opportunities for clients by contracting to provide business services, such as assembly and collating, and starting a janitorial service.

Finding employment for clients who are physically disabled can be more problematic, especially if they have enjoyed job success in the past, Goodrich said.

Kelli Brooks, acting director of the Lake County Center for Independent Living, agrees that many people with disabilities are underemployed for their education level.

Her own college-educated daughter, who has muscular dystrophy, has been looking for work for more than a year.

"You might have someone with a master's degree who is doing retail work," Brooks said.

One trend in finding employment for people with disabilities is to encourage them to start their own businesses, said Davia of the DuPage Center for Independent Living.

A seminar on micro-enterprises and business ownership for people with disabilities sponsored last March by Little Friends Inc. drew a lot of interest, said Tom Pendziszewski, vice president of adult day services for the Naperville-based agency, which serves adults and children with developmental, emotional and behavioral disabilities.

Pendziszewski said he doesn't know any clients who have started their own business, but he likes the idea.

"We need to think a little bit wider," he said.

Like AID, Little Friends does contract work for companies and started its own business -- color screen printing -- to provide paid work to clients.

Little Friends also takes referrals from the Illinois Division of Rehabilitation to provide job development and coaching to people with disabilities seeking work in the community. Many earn an average wage of $7.75 an hour and have a job retention rate of three years or more, Pendziszewski said.

But the minimum wage increase last June from $6.50 to $7.50 an hour has made those opportunities more challenging to find, he said.

"Some employers now hire fewer people for certain positions and expect their workers to have the ability to perform a wider range of job tasks," he said.

Like other agencies that take referrals from the state Division of Rehabilitation, Little Friends could use more funding, Pendziszewski said.

Robert Kilbury, director of the Illinois Division of Rehabilitation, said 77 percent of the division's funding comes from the federal government and 23 percent from the state. There is a push for the federal government to provide more money.

"Clearly, there is not as much money for vocational rehabilitation as we would like," he said.

Getting there

Kilbury also points to a lack of affordable housing as an obstacle to employment.

"A lot of affordable housing that would work for a lot of people wouldn't work for people in a wheelchair like me," he said.

Agencies that work with the disabled also agree that transportation is a major challenge. Brooks said that is acutely felt in Lake County, where population growth has outstripped the transit system.

Rebecca Klabunde, community job developer with Clearbrook, which serves people with developmental disabilities from 80 communities in northern Illinois, said the agency has a number of vans in which it transports clients to work and others use public transportation. But the available bus routes are not nearly enough.

"I think if there were more routes and spots and places where they could get off, they would," she said.

The Regional Transportation Authority provides door-to-door paratransit service to people with disabilities unable to use fixed routes. Their pick-up and drop-off locations must be within three-quarters of a mile of regular CTA or Pace routes or el stations

For Barcal, who can't drive because she is blind, that meant making sure both her job and home were in areas served by paratransit.

Ride DuPage, established 3½ years ago in DuPage County, has added a measure of increased flexibility for those who live in areas that sponsor the program.

The service is available seven days a week, 24 hours a day, and riders are not limited in where they can go. But they must pay the fee set by the local sponsoring agency.

In Glen Ellyn, where 35 percent of riders use the service to get to work, the fee is $1, plus $1 for each mile. Other sponsors of Ride DuPage are Naperville Township, Lisle Township, the city of Naperville and DuPage County, which uses it for clients in several human service programs.

Ride DuPage has made a difference for people with disabilities, said Kim Zoeller of the Ray Graham Association, which serves people with developmental disabilities.

"Without that program, a lot of people would not be working," she said.

But Mary Keating, director of community development for DuPage County, says more needs to be done.

"If people with disabilities are really going to be able to integrate in the community, the public transit component has to be there," she said.