If adding 163,000 jobs to the U.S. economy is being “stuck in low gear” as The Wall Street Journal reporters Neil Shah and E.S. Browning put it in the opening paragraph of their August 3 article, does that make the .3% increase in unemployment for people with disabilities a case of driving in reverse?
Let’s hope not. But Shaun Heasley’s headline, “Hiring Spree Offers Little For People with Disabilities,” for his story at Disability Scoop tells us all we need to know about how this underserved population fared during the country’s largest employment gains in five months.
An article from last Friday’s Maryland Gazette provides some anecdotal context for why people with disabilities aren’t making workforce gains even during this latest period of growth. Representatives from several state organizations that provide career training for people with disabilities and contract service labor in a number of manual skill fields tell staff writer Sarah Cutler that because employers can now bring on a full-time hire, it eliminates the need for the part-time and temp help their people have been providing for tasks such as filing, data entry, and facility maintenance.
Why more individuals with disabilities are not hired into these full-time positions is not clear. If they prove they can do the job as a temp worker, or even on a volunteer basis, what about their ability changes when the opportunity becomes a 40 hours per week with benefits position? Tad Asbury of the Bridges From School to Work program in Bethesda says employers are still hung up on the type of disability an individual has rather than focusing on the talents and capabilities that make him or her qualified for the position. He tells Cutler:
We’re walking in any saying, ‘Here’s a person who can do the job… Sometimes employers will say, ‘Well, what’s wrong with them?’ And it’s like, What’s wrong with any of us? What’s right with any of us? Let’s focus on what they can do.
What employers inevitably discover when they focus on the ability of the individual is that they’ve got the right man or woman for the job; someone who is reliable and enthusiastic about the opportunity they’ve been given, and is willing to take on many tasks because it means feeling valued in the workplace.
The service industry seems to be the most welcoming for people with disabilities in Maryland, according to Cutler’s findings. A local McDonald’s franchiser named Gerry Gimelstob lauds their willingness to work no matter whether they are interacting with customers or working behind-the-scenes. Then there’s the Giant Food supermarket in Potomac, which currently employs nine people with disabilities; including Bill Weidenbruch, who has worked there since 1979, earning the respect and accolades of his manager, Glenn Kapuscinski:
It doesn’t matter a bit to Kapuscinski that Weidenbruch has a disability. To the contrary, Weidenbruch is an especially consistent employee and is well-liked by regular customers of the Cabin John Road store, Kapuscinski said. ‘He’s always moving, working — I call him the mayor of Potomac,’ he said.
A worker that still loves what he does after 30 years on the job — what employer wouldn’t want that?
Comments?
Image by Daquella manera (Daniel Lobo), used under its Creative Commons license.