[Senate Hearing 112-816]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
S. Hrg. 112-816
LESSONS FROM THE FIELD: LEARNING FROM WHAT WORKS FOR EMPLOYMENT FOR
PERSONS WITH DISABILITIES
=======================================================================
HEARING
OF THE
COMMITTEE ON HEALTH, EDUCATION,
LABOR, AND PENSIONS
UNITED STATES SENATE
ONE HUNDRED TWELFTH CONGRESS
FIRST SESSION
ON
EXAMINING LEARNING FROM WHAT WORKS FOR EMPLOYMENT FOR PERSONS WITH
DISABILITIES
__________
JULY 14, 2011
__________
Printed for the use of the Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and
Pensions
[GRAPHIC(S) NOT AVAILABLE IN TIFF FORMAT]
Available via the World Wide Web: http://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/
U.S. GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE
85-221 PDF WASHINGTON : 2014
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
For sale by the Superintendent of Documents, U.S. Government Printing
Office Internet: bookstore.gpo.gov Phone: toll free (866) 512-1800; DC
area (202) 512-1800 Fax: (202) 512-2104 Mail: Stop IDCC, Washington, DC
20402-0001
COMMITTEE ON HEALTH, EDUCATION, LABOR, AND PENSIONS
TOM HARKIN, Iowa, Chairman
BARBARA A. MIKULSKI, Maryland MICHAEL B. ENZI, Wyoming
JEFF BINGAMAN, New Mexico LAMAR ALEXANDER, Tennessee
PATTY MURRAY, Washington RICHARD BURR, North Carolina
BERNARD SANDERS (I), Vermont JOHNNY ISAKSON, Georgia
ROBERT P. CASEY, JR., Pennsylvania RAND PAUL, Kentucky
KAY R. HAGAN, North Carolina ORRIN G. HATCH, Utah
JEFF MERKLEY, Oregon JOHN McCAIN, Arizona
AL FRANKEN, Minnesota PAT ROBERTS, Kansas
MICHAEL F. BENNET, Colorado LISA MURKOWSKI, Alaska
SHELDON WHITEHOUSE, Rhode Island MARK KIRK, Illinois
RICHARD BLUMENTHAL, Connecticut
Daniel E. Smith, Staff Director
Pamela Smith, Deputy Staff Director
Frank Macchiarola, Republican Staff Director and Chief Counsel
(ii)
C O N T E N T S
__________
STATEMENTS
THURSDAY, JULY 14, 2011
Page
Committee Members
Harkin, Hon. Tom, Chairman, Committee on Health, Education,
Labor, and Pensions, opening statement......................... 1
Enzi, Hon. Michael B., a U.S. Senator from the State of Wyoming,
opening statement.............................................. 3
Casey, Hon. Robert P., Jr., a U.S. Senator from the State of
Pennsylvania................................................... 14
Blumenthal, Hon. Richard, a U.S. Senator from the State of
Connecticut.................................................... 29
Witness--Panel I
Martinez, Hon. Kathy, Assistant Secretary of Labor, Office of
Disability Policy, U.S. Department of Labor, Washington, DC.... 5
Prepared statement........................................... 8
Witnesses--Panel II
Ridge, Governor Tom, Chairman, National Organization on
Disability, Washington, DC..................................... 15
Prepared statement........................................... 19
Dagit, Deborah, Vice President and Chief Diversity Officer,
Merck, Whitehouse Station, NJ.................................. 30
Prepared statement........................................... 32
Wallrich, Amelia, Law Student, Northwestern University,
Frankfort, IL.................................................. 39
Prepared statement........................................... 41
ADDITIONAL MATERIAL
Statements, articles, publications, letters, etc.:
The Corporation for Enterprise Development (CFED), letter.... 53
Response to questions of Senator Enzi by:
Hon. Kathy Martinez...................................... 54
Governor Tom Ridge....................................... 59
Deborah Dagit............................................ 69
Amelia Wallrich.......................................... 70
Response to questions of Senator Casey by Governor Tom Ridge. 62
(iii)
LESSONS FROM THE FIELD: LEARNING FROM WHAT WORKS FOR EMPLOYMENT FOR
PERSONS WITH DISABILITIES
----------
THURSDAY, JULY 14, 2011
U.S. Senate,
Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions,
Washington, DC.
The committee met, pursuant to notice, at 10:03 a.m., in
Room SD-430, Dirksen Senate Office Building, Hon. Tom Harkin,
chairman of the committee, presiding.
Present: Senators Harkin, Casey, Blumenthal, and Enzi.
Opening Statement of Senator Harkin
The Chairman. The Senate Committee on Health, Education,
Labor, and Pensions will please come to order.
The title of this hearing is ``Lessons From the Field:
Learning What Works for Employment for Persons with
Disabilities.'' The purpose of today's bipartisan hearing is to
learn from a diverse group of witnesses about proven strategies
that have a positive impact on employment outcomes for all
people with disabilities, including young adults and veterans.
Later this month, we'll mark the 21st anniversary of the
signing of the Americans With Disabilities Act, landmark
legislation that made our country more accessible, that raised
the expectations of people with disabilities and their families
about what they can hope to achieve at work and in life, and
inspired the world to view disability issues through a human
rights frame and not simply through a medical or a charity
model.
The ADA stands for the proposition that disability is a
natural part of the human experience that in no way should
limit a person's right to fully participate in all aspects of
society, including employment. Thanks to the ADA, our built
environment and our transportation and telecommunications
infrastructures are dramatically more welcoming to people with
disabilities. Yet, notwithstanding the many improvements that
have been brought by the ADA, the sad reality is that people
with disabilities still experience discrimination and encounter
low expectations as they engage in the workforce.
As we enter the third decade since its passage, I believe
that one of the critical challenges we still need to tackle is
the persistently low employment rates among Americans with
disabilities. In 2008, the Bureau of Labor Statistics began
collecting monthly statistics that help us track the workforce
participation of Americans with disabilities. As of June 2011,
less than a third of working-age people with disabilities were
participating in the labor force.
The disability labor force, which includes people with
disabilities who are either working or actively looking for a
job, was a little over 5 million. Last April, at a disability
employment summit hosted by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and
the U.S. Business Leadership Network, I challenged the employer
representatives in the room to work to increase the size of the
disability labor force to 6 million by 2015. Later that week,
in a piece he wrote for The Examiner, Mr. Tom Donahue from the
Chamber endorsed the goal, encouraged his colleagues to meet or
exceed the 6 million number because, ``It's a good thing to do
and it's good for business.''
If we're going to get serious about the growing size of the
disability workforce, we need to start by recognizing that
people with disabilities have been disproportionately impacted
by the bad economy. Compared to the general workforce, in the
last 2 years adults with disabilities have left the labor force
at a rate six times the rate of adults without disabilities.
Today's hearing creates an opportunity for us to have a
discussion about how to turn that trend around.
At a hearing in March we learned about Walgreens' public
commitment that at least 20 percent of the workers in their
distribution centers will be workers with disabilities. As
Governor Ridge notes in his written testimony for today's
hearing, a number of companies have been inspired by Walgreens'
example and have begun their own targeted hiring programs.
But employment is not just about labor statistics. Work
helps all of us, including people with disabilities, create
structure and meaning in our lives and provides real
opportunities to be full participants in our society and to
access the American dream.
We have a very distinguished panel today. First, Ms. Kathy
Martinez, the Assistant Secretary for the Office of Disability
Employment Policy at the Department of Labor; and then next
we'll hear from former Governor Tom Ridge and former first
Secretary, as we know, of the Department of Homeland Security,
who's been a champion for disability employment in the public
and private sectors; Deborah Dagit, vice president and chief
diversity officer at Merck; and a young woman with a disability
who is at the beginning of what I'm sure will be a successful
career, Amelia Wallrich.
Our goal is to ensure that all individuals with
disabilities have similar opportunities for careers that meet
their goals, interests, and high expectations.
Before we move on to our first witness, I want to
acknowledge the many folks in the room and I guess in a
spillover room who are in town for the National Council on
Independent Living's national conference. NCIL, as it's known,
is a great grassroots organization that is making a real impact
in improving the quality of life of people with disabilities
all over the country, and I appreciate NCIL's commitment to
improving employment outcomes for people with disabilities as
part of their work to promote independent living.
Now I want to also take a moment to thank my colleague and
the Ranking Member on this committee, Senator Enzi, for his own
commitment and long-time leadership, both as Ranking Member and
when he was chairman of this committee, on these issues. So now
I turn to him for his opening statement.
Opening Statement of Senator Enzi
Senator Enzi. Thank you, Mr. Chairman, for holding this
hearing. I know it's something near and dear to your heart,
that you've been involved in for a long time and made some
great inroads on. I appreciate the way that you and your staff
have again involved my office in an effort to have a truly
bipartisan hearing and assembled an excellent set of witnesses
who can share their perspectives on this important issue.
I also want to thank today's witnesses for agreeing to
appear and share their views on how to increase workplace
opportunities for individuals with disabilities. Each of you
brings unique personal experiences and professional expertise
that will greatly benefit this committee as we proceed with the
reauthorization of the relevant Federal legislation, such as
the Work Force Investment Act, which includes the Vocational
Rehabilitation Act, the Elementary and Secondary Education Act,
and the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act.
Taken together, these three pieces of legislation serve as
the foundation for the Federal Government's efforts to improve
the educational and workplace prospects of individuals with
disabilities. Although significant advances have been made as a
result of these pieces of legislation, wonderful things are
also taking place throughout the country based upon our fellow
Americans' desire for inclusive environments in their local
schools, communities, and workplaces.
As we heard in our last hearing on this issue, Walgreens
and Booz Allen Hamilton, for example, are providing excellent
work opportunities for individuals with disabilities. In
Wyoming, our director of Workforce Services, Joan Evans, shared
at the same hearing a truly exciting opportunity with Lowes in
our State.
I've invited Deb Dagit, the chief disability officer at
Merck Pharmaceuticals, to share her experiences about how that
large corporation has expanded workplace opportunities for
individuals with disabilities. As her testimony suggests, Merck
has made conscious effort to create an inclusive environment
where every employee is treated fairly and disabilities aren't
an impediment to hiring and advancement.
With that said, I'm interested in hearing how scalable many
of these practices are for smaller employers that might only
have the capacity of a few employees and who are struggling to
keep the lights on in their companies in this continuing
economic slump. My wife and I are former small business owners.
We operated Enzi Shoes for nearly 30 years. From my experience,
what might work at a larger employer almost never worked at
Enzi Shoes. So I caution against trying to make broad
conclusions based upon individual experiences in this regard,
especially in light of the ongoing economic struggles small
businesses are facing.
I've talked with a number of the small businessmen and
their biggest request is to have someplace that they can go
where they can find out where the capabilities match up with
their needs. They need kind of an employment agency. They're
not big enough to have the capability to go out and interview a
lot of people and do any testing or anything like that. So I
think that's one of the big needs.
But since May 2009, the so-called beginning of the recovery
summer, the average unemployment rate has been 9.5 percent for
the workforce overall, with the participation rate for
individuals with disabilities dropping from 22.3 percent to
21.1 percent over the past year. Last month, the Federal
Reserve lowered its economic outlook for the rest of 2011, and
last week's dismal jobs report only confirmed a dark economic
future.
These realities suggest that a full economic recovery for
America and the pain for employers throughout the country is
going to continue for a while longer. When asked this past
weekend when the American people would feel the effects of
economic recovery, Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner said,
``I think it's going to be a long time still. This is
a very tough economy and I think a lot of people--it's
going to feel very hard, harder than anything they've
experienced in their lifetimes and now for a long time
to come.''
As a result, Congress and this Administration would do well
to find ways to reduce mandates, regulations, and burdensome
rules. In addition, businesses, particularly small businesses,
need better information on how to identify, recruit, retain,
and advance qualified individuals with disabilities. Our local
chambers, the U.S. Business Leadership Network, and the
Department of Labor's Office of Disability Employment Policy,
the ODEP, are already providing some of these resources.
The problem is that this information is not getting to our
small businesses. In today's troubled economy, our small
businesses are struggling just to keep the doors open. Small
businesses sometimes lack the resources or the capacity to seek
out information about hiring people with disabilities. I ask my
colleagues to help us identify more effective ways of
disseminating this information to small businesses across the
country. I know, based on conversations I've had in Wyoming,
small businesses are interested. They just don't know where to
turn.
This hearing, along with many others that have been
recently held by the committee on the middle class, lowering
unemployment, and so on, have yet to yield legislation or
strategy for accomplishing these goals. In short, I hope
today's hearing provides tangible solutions for how we can
finally get the American economy moving and lower the
unemployment rate overall and particularly in the area of
disabilities.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
The Chairman. Thank you, Senator Enzi.
We'll now start with our first panel: the Honorable
Kathleen Martinez, Assistant Secretary of Labor for Disability
Employment Policy. Ms. Martinez was nominated by President
Obama to be the third Assistant Secretary for Disability
Employment Policy and was confirmed by the U.S. Senate on June
25, 2009.
Prior to that she had a very distinguished career. In 2002,
she was appointed by President Bush as one of 15 members of the
National Council on Disability. In 2005, Secretary of State
Condoleezza Rice appointed her as one of eight public members
of the newly established State Department Advisory Committee on
Disability and Foreign Policy. In 2007, she was appointed a
member of the board of the U.S. Institute of Peace, a
congressionally created agency dedicated to research and
projects in conflict management.
As the head of the U.S. Department of Labor's ODEP, the
Office of Disability Employment Policy, Ms. Martinez advises
the Secretary of Labor and works with all DOL agencies to lead
a comprehensive and coordinated national policy regarding
employment of people with disabilities.
Ms. Martinez, welcome back to the committee again and your
statement will be made a part of the record in its entirety. If
you could sum up in 5, 6 or 7 minutes, we'd certainly
appreciate it.
STATEMENT OF THE HON. KATHY MARTINEZ, ASSISTANT SECRETARY OF
LABOR, OFFICE OF DISABILITY POLICY, U.S. DEPARTMENT OF LABOR,
WASHINGTON, DC
Ms. Martinez. OK, I'll do my best, Senator Harkin.
I'd like to just thank Chairman Harkin and Ranking Member
Enzi and the distinguished members of the committee for this
opportunity to testify and I appreciate your continued support
of the Office of Disability Employment Policy, or ODEP. I'm
honored to appear here.
I want to give a shout-out to my distinguished members of
the panel that will follow me today, Governor Ridge, Deborah
Dagit and Amelia Wallrich. It's an honor to share this time
with you all.
As a person with a disability who managed to get off
supplemental security income benefits, as a long-time advocate
for disability rights, and as ODEP's Assistant Secretary, it's
clear to me that the vast majority of the policies and
practices that promote the employment of people with
disabilities are just good business practices. ODEP's efforts
help not only those of us with disabilities, but others, other
folks with complex work needs, like working mothers, sandwich
generation caregivers, and people who work two jobs to make
ends meet.
It's important because each person that finds a job
contributes to our tax base and helps strengthen the economy
and our financial future.
Now, the Senators did mention the disappointing data, and I
won't go into that. It is disappointing that folks with
disabilities are still last hired, first fired, unfortunately,
and we have suffered in this downturn of the economy. But
closing this gap would mean millions of Americans currently
disconnected from the economy would begin earning income,
paying taxes, and reducing their benefits or their dependence
on public benefits.
I want to talk a little bit about what ODEP is doing to
help close this gap. As we know, older workers are projected to
have the highest growth rate in the workforce for the first
quarter of the 21st century. It's anticipated that the increase
of those 55 years and older is 43 percent by 2018.
Consequently, this fall, to deal with this issue--because we're
getting a lot of requests from companies about how to
accommodate older workers, so ODEP is implementing an employer
pilot demonstration project focusing on workforce flexibility,
and we're conducting research on using flexible workplace
strategies to retain older workers with disabilities who work
in the healthcare sector and in the community colleges sector.
This will also include introducing the concept of reasonable
accommodations.
We're also working with the Department of Labor's Office of
Workforce Compensation Programs to identify workforce
flexibility strategies that Federal agencies can use to
successfully return their injured employees to the workplace
and provide technical assistance so that they can adopt and
implement effective return-to-work strategies.
ODEP is working extensively with the private sector. We
have a program called ``Add Us In.'' Innovative small
businesses, as you mentioned, Senator Enzi, are critical to our
economic growth and our closing--we're working with them to
help close the employment gap for folks with disabilities.
This includes many minority-owned and operated firms, the
numbers of which have grown in recent years at approximately
double the rate of all firms in the United States. Recognizing
the opportunity that this growth provides, ODEP created a new
initiative called ``Add Us In,'' through which we are working
across the country to increase the capacity of small businesses
to include people with disabilities in their workforce.
We expect three more grantees this fall and, in addition to
creating replicable models to ensure people with disabilities
have access to a broader range of employment opportunities, we
also are training and setting up the national and local
networks of experts to better connect small employers with, as
you requested, the talent pool of folks with disabilities.
Access to technology, as many people have said, is the
great equalizer for those of us with disabilities. To harness
the promise of the technological revolution, ODEP promotes
universal design in information technology and the availability
of assistive technology at work. ODEP is partnering with the
Assistive Technology Industry Association to improve the
accessibility of emerging technologies, such as Web 3.0 and 3D
Internet technologies. We're also working with technology
developers to make sure that the technology is accessible right
out of the box.
This fall we'll develop and implement a comprehensive plan
for accessible workplace technology with a focus on core
competencies with regard to accessibility.
We want to talk about a variety of models that have worked
to get folks into integrated and competitive employment. One is
the concept of customized employment, which is kind of a
framework of principles which basically matches people's
talents to a job. An example is, in a large department store
they hired a guy named Scott, who's a job seeker with a
disability, after his personal representative negotiated a new
way for the store to handle merchandise delivery. Originally,
store clerks unloaded and repackaged new merchandise. Mina, who
was Scott's representative, suggested that the department store
hire Scott to perform this task instead. The employer agreed
and for Scott performing a customized function, the clerks were
freed up to spend more time serving customers. As a result,
sales increased.
We've seen similar positive outcomes when this model has
been used with disabled veterans, the homeless, and recipients
of temporary assistance for needy families, TANF.
As you know, Senator Harkin, we are well under way with
improving opportunities for folks with disabilities by
strengthening our job training system. I'd like to thank you
for your support. ODEP and the ETA, the Employment Training
Administration, have implemented the disability employment
initiative and more than $21 million in grants, as you know,
have been awarded to nine States, Alaska, Arkansas, Delaware,
Illinois, Kansas, Maine, New Jersey, New York, and Virginia,
last year. We expect an additional 6 to 10 States to receive
funding this year.
The goal is to promote greater coordination and training
services, to provide targeted technical assistance, to improve
education and training outcomes for folks with disabilities who
are unemployed, underemployed, and/or receiving benefits in our
workforce system.
To date, all sites are in the process or have already
become employment networks, meaning that they provide
employment-related and supportive services to social security
beneficiaries under the Ticket to Work program, which prior
research suggests improves long-term employment outcomes. We
are conducting extensive evaluations of the grantees, ETA and
ODEP, through DOL's Civil Rights Center. They're conducting an
independent review of the accessibility of one-stop centers
throughout the system, and that means programmatic and physical
access.
I want to just briefly say that we're looking at reframing
the youth conversation with regard to employment. We've
developed our guideposts, which is--let me just say--a widely
used strategy to improve employment for folks with
disabilities. You know that our 503 regulations, our NPRM, are
being scheduled to be held in August.
I'd just like to say, like many other people with
disabilities, I was supported by taxpayer benefits, and after
being funneled to work in a lock factory and having my case
closed, I stand before you today as a prime example of what can
happen when people with disabilities are given the opportunity
to work and to access productivity tools.
As a closing example, we have our wonderful example of
Poppin Joe, who was very significantly disabled, was basically
originally funneled into a sub-minimum wage job. But Joe
developed a business plan. He sells popcorn with the help of
ODEP's Start-Up USA grant. In addition to having a goal of
100,000 in popcorn sales by 2012, Joe now has several part-time
employees, is a taxpayer, and rents his own home.
There are many more individuals like Joe and, while
improving employment outcomes for people with disabilities is a
complex undertaking, it holds great promise to improve the
lives of everybody in this country.
Thank you for the opportunity to testify.
[The prepared statement of Ms. Martinez follows:]
Prepared Statement of the Hon. Kathleen Martinez
i. introduction
Chairman Harkin and Ranking Member Enzi, distinguished members of
this committee, thank you for the opportunity to testify today and
discuss emerging labor market trends for individuals with disabilities,
our efforts for addressing these trends, and the Office of Disability
Employment Policy's (ODEP) priorities in the coming years. We
appreciate your continued support of ODEP's work, and I am honored to
appear before this committee.
Based on my experiences as a person with a disability who managed
to get off Supplemental Security Income (SSI) benefits, as an advocate,
and as ODEP's Assistant Secretary, it is clear to me that the vast
majority of the policies and practices that promote the employment of
people with disabilities, are just good business practices. Therefore,
ODEP's efforts to promote these policies and practices help not only
people with disabilities, but also others who have the potential to
enter the workforce, if provided with appropriate supports and
flexibilities. And, as you know, each person that finds a job
contributes to our tax base and helps to strengthen the economy and our
Nation's financial future.
ii. the need for flexible workplaces
Research shows us that people with disabilities have been
disproportionately affected by the recent downturn in the economy. Data
available from the Current Population Survey (CPS) indicate that
between October 2008 and June 2011, the rate of job loss among workers
with disabilities far exceeded that of workers without disabilities,
with the proportion of employed U.S. workers identified as having
disabilities declining by 9 percent. In addition, their labor force
participation lags behind people without disabilities. The most recent
data, released in July 2011 by the Department of Labor's Bureau of
Labor Statistics (BLS), shows that only 32.8 percent of working age
people (16-64) with disabilities are actually in the American
workforce. In comparison, the participation rate for people reporting
no disabilities is 77.2 percent. Closing this gap would mean millions
of Americans who are currently disconnected from the economy would
begin earning income, paying taxes, and reducing their dependence on
public resources.
Our Nation as a whole is graying, and so is our workforce. Older
workers are projected to have the highest growth rate in the U.S.
workforce for the first quarter of the 21st century. As this population
grows, the number of people in the workplace with disabilities is
likely to increase too. The number of workers aged 55 and older is
forecasted to increase 43 percent by 2018. In contrast, for those aged
16 to 24, a decrease of 4.1 percent is expected, and for those 25-54, a
1.5 percent increase. We also know that as people age they are more
likely to experience chronic illness or the onset of disability; many
of these highly skilled and experienced workers will want or need a
more flexible work environment if they are to be retained.
A growing number of business leaders recognize that workforce
flexibility provides them with a competitive edge. Because workforce
flexibility benefits both workers and employers, ODEP launched two
initiatives with workforce flexibility at the core. First, this fall,
we will implement an employer pilot demonstration project that will
focus on using flexible workplace strategies to retain older workers
with disabilities who work in the health care sector and in community
colleges.
Second, we will collaborate with DOL's Office of Workers'
Compensation Programs to focus on identifying strategies that Federal
agencies can use to return to work employees who sustained disabilities
as a result of workplace injuries or illnesses. OWCP and ODEP plan to
offer tailored technical assistance to Federal agencies regarding the
adoption and implementation of successful return-to-work practices and
related disability employment practices.
iii. private sector practices and initiatives
Small Businesses
Our economy relies on the private sector to drive job creation and
I know this committee is interested in what is working and what
practices should be expanded. ODEP directs much of its energy towards
helping private employers employ people with disabilities and we are
happy to have the chance today to share what we have learned.
As you all know, innovative small businesses are a critical engine
of U.S. economic growth. This includes many minority-owned and -
operated firms, the numbers of which have grown in recent years at
approximately double the rate of all firms in the U.S. economy. (Census
Bureau's 2007 Survey of Business Owners)
This provides a real opportunity to improve employment outcomes for
people with disabilities. ODEP therefore created the Add Us In
Initiative, which focuses on increasing the capacity of small
businesses to effectively include people with disabilities in their
workforce.
We are working with grantees in different parts of the country to
create replicable models that can be used by small businesses and their
associations to reach out to ensure that youth and adults with
disabilities have access to a broader range of employment
opportunities. We expect to add three more grantees to this initiative
this fall. We are also working to train and set up national and local
networks of experts skilled in connecting small employers with the
underutilized talent pool of people with disabilities.
Technology
In addition to our work with small businesses, we are also making
progress helping private employers use technology to improve their
workers' productivity. Access to technology is the great equalizer for
people with disabilities who are looking for a job or trying to advance
in their professions and in today's workplace. It's not optional; it's
a necessity.
To harness the promise of the technological revolution, ODEP
focuses on promoting universal design in information technology, and
increasing the availability of assistive technology for use in the
workplace to benefit workers with disabilities. To advance these twin
goals we have funded a contract that enables ODEP and the Assistive
Technology Industry Association's Accessibility Interoperability
Alliance (ATIA/AIA) to work together to improve the accessibility of
emerging technologies, such as Web 3.0 and 3D Internet technologies.
This fall we will take what we have learned and develop and
implement a comprehensive plan to make workplace technology accessible.
A primary area of focus will be the identification and validation of
core competencies required to certify professionals involved in the
field of accessibility. We will also conduct research into how
Assistive Technology Act funding is being used to support employment.
We will also develop technical assistance to enable States to use it
more effectively.
Customized Employment
I know that a key priority for your committee is getting the best
return on investments in the workforce. One way to achieve this is to
find effective approaches that can be replicated and scaled by
employers with different workforce needs. Within ODEP, we have found a
way to do so through ``Customized Employment.''
We believe Customized Employment works because it is not a program,
but rather a set of universal principles and strategies specifically
designed to support both sides of the labor force: supply and demand.
For the job candidate, the process considers the whole person--his/her
skills, interests, abilities--as well as the conditions necessary for
successful employment. For employers, customized employment allows a
business to examine its specific workforce needs--both ongoing and
intermittent--and fulfill those needs with a well-matched employee. For
example, a large department store hired Scott, a job seeker with a
disability, after his personal representative, Shaina, negotiated a new
way for the store to handle merchandise delivery. Originally, store
clerks unloaded and repackaged new merchandise. Shaina suggested that
the department store hire Scott to perform this task instead. The
employer agreed and Scott began working for the store. Scott's
customized job freed up other clerks to spend more time serving
customers. As a result, sales increased. This is not an unusual result.
Customized employment has had similar positive outcomes when used with
disabled veterans, the homeless, and recipients of Temporary Assistance
for Needy Families (TANF).
iv. federal efforts to reduce barriers to employment
In carrying out its mission, ODEP partners with other agencies and
offices within the executive branch on strategies that improve
employment outcomes for all, including individuals with disabilities.
It is an honor to serve in an Administration that understands that
universal design practices benefit job seekers and employers.
Improving the Workforce System
For example, thanks to the vision and leadership Chairman Harkin
has provided, ODEP has been working extensively over the last year with
the Employment and Training Administration (ETA) on the Disability
Employment Initiative (DEI). This initiative provided more than $21
million to nine States (Alaska, Arkansas, Delaware, Illinois, Kansas,
Maine, New Jersey, New York and Virginia) last year, and this year we
expect to add another 6 to 10 more States as grantees under the
program. The goal of this Initiative is to improve education, training,
and employment opportunities and outcomes for youth and adults with
disabilities who are unemployed, underemployed, and/or receiving Social
Security disability benefits. To meet this goal, DOL is providing
technical assistance to grantees and to the workforce system to expand
the capacity to serve those with disabilities. In addition to
coordinating with a broad range of State agency partners as needed to
create systems change, the grantees must connect with the Social
Security System. To date, all sites are in the process, or have already
become, employment networks--meaning that they can provide employment-
related and supportive services to Social Security beneficiaries under
the Ticket-to-Work program--which prior research suggests may improve
long-term employment outcomes.
ETA and ODEP are also committed to evaluating grantees to make sure
taxpayers are well served by their investments and so that other
stakeholders can learn from what works. In addition, through a
combination of on-site evaluations and an on-line survey, ETA and ODEP,
with the assistance of DOL's Civil Rights Center, are conducting an
independent review of One-Stop Career Centers throughout the system to
assess the extent to which they are accessible to people with
disabilities.
Improving Transition Outcomes by Reframing the Youth Conversation
A simple and ground-breaking concept--that youth with disabilities
are youth first--has reframed the conversation and is the hallmark of
ODEP's youth transition efforts. The Guideposts for Success framework,
the central point from which ODEP's youth work is based, reflects key
educational and career development interventions that make a positive
difference in the lives of all youth, including youth with
disabilities. The Guideposts have been widely used for strategic
planning and policy development across Federal, State and local levels,
and are also woven into ODEP's ongoing work. Moreover, the contents of
the Guideposts have been incorporated into the proposed Rehabilitation
Act reauthorization. Guideposts for youth from specific populations
have also been developed to meet the needs of youth with learning
disabilities, with mental health needs, and those in foster care.
The success of ODEP's youth policy work hinges on its ability to
frame challenges in a positive light and in the context of broader
youth policy applicable to all youth. For example, many employers
assert that today's youth lack the soft skills needed in the workplace.
Consequently, this past year we developed a tool to help all youth
acquire the soft skills employers demand. We called it ``Skills to Pay
the Bills'' and tested it with youth, including those with
disabilities, throughout the country. The feedback was overwhelmingly
positive. The youth and the instructors who delivered the training
liked the interactive approach used in this classroom-based tool. This
year, we will expand our outreach to youth by developing games and
applications as a way to get this information regarding soft skills to
an even broader group of youth.
In order to serve youth effectively, including those with
disabilities, research tells us that youth service professionals need
to have certain knowledge, skills and abilities. Using a universal
design approach, we developed eight training modules that are being
used by workforce professionals across the country, thereby improving
service delivery to all youth.
Last month, ETA and ODEP issued guidance to the public workforce
system on, ``Increasing Enrollment and Improving Services to Youth with
Disabilities.'' The guidance provides information and resources on
promising practices and successful strategies that promote the
enrollment, education, training, and employment outcomes of youth with
disabilities. The resources and successful strategies included in this
guidance can further assist the public workforce system to expand
capacity and adopt practices for effectively serving this population.
The ultimate goal is to better assist youth with disabilities and
enable them to become economically self-sufficient through training,
educational opportunities, and jobs with career pathways. The
Department continues to provide technical assistance to State and local
workforce systems to provide better outcomes for youth with
disabilities.
Making the Federal Government a Model Employer
ODEP is also focused on making the Federal Government a model
employer of people with disabilities. The President demonstrated his
personal commitment to this goal when he signed Executive Order 13548
last year. The Executive order requires the hiring of an additional
100,000 people with disabilities within the Federal Government over the
next 5 years. It calls on all executive departments and agencies to
create goals and action plans for increasing the numbers of people with
disabilities hired and to improve retention and return to work of
Federal employees with disabilities. The Order also requires Federal
agencies to work together to develop and implement action plans, which
include performance targets and numerical goals, to improve their
hiring of people with disabilities. A senior-level official must also
be designated to ensure accountability and to report progress on their
plans to the President, the Office of Personnel Management (OPM), the
Office of Management and Budget (OMB), and the public.
We have been working closely with OPM, OMB, and the Equal
Employment Opportunity Commission in implementing the Executive order.
Our work has included assisting several Federal agencies in the
development of their plans, and helping OPM design model recruitment
and hiring strategies and training programs for human resources
professionals across the government. We have also developed a network
of Federal practitioners and a resource tool kit to assist them and
their agencies in implementing the Executive order.
In addition, we can improve the hiring of people with disabilities
by helping Federal contractors see the value of accommodating a diverse
workforce. Last year, ODEP worked closely with DOL's Office of Federal
Contract Compliance Programs (OFCCP) to issue an Advance Notice of
Proposed Rulemaking (ANPRM) seeking input from the public on ways to
strengthen its regulations requiring Federal contractors to take
affirmative steps to employ and advance in employment qualified
individuals with disabilities. In the near future, a Notice of Proposed
Rulemaking (NPRM) will be issued seeking additional comments from the
public, and the submission of substantive comments once the NPRM is
issued. The potential impact of revising the section 503 regulations
could be significant given that nearly one in four American workers are
employed by a company that is either a Federal contractor or
subcontractor.
v. conclusion
Like many other people with disabilities, I was on taxpayer
supported benefits, after having being funneled to work in a lock
factory and having my case closed by a staid bureaucracy. I stand
before you today, however, as a prime example of what can happen when
people with disabilities are given the opportunity to work and access
to productivity tools.
In closing, I wanted to give you another example of how ODEP's
programs can change the lives of individuals and contribute to our
Nation's financial future. I want to tell you about Joe, the owner of
Poppin' Joe's Kettle Korn, who has autism and Down syndrome and uses an
augmentative speech device to communicate. Previously considered
unemployable, Joe developed a business plan with his parents and ODEP's
Start-Up USA grant. In addition to having a goal of $100,000 in popcorn
sales by 2012, Joe now has several part-time employees. He is now a
taxpayer and rents his own home.
There are many more individuals like Joe. Improving employment
outcomes for people with disabilities is a significant and complex
undertaking, but one that holds great potential to improve the lives of
many and strengthen our economy.
Thank you again for this opportunity to testify and I would be
happy to answer any questions you may have.
The Chairman. Thank you, Madam Secretary, for your
statement. As I said, your full statement will be made a part
of the record in its entirety.
We'll just begin a quick round. I know Governor Ridge has
to be out of here, too, soon and we want to hear from him.
It seems, Madam Secretary, that one of the key things for
increasing the rate of employment of people with disabilities
is, No. 1, outreach. Businesses have to do a better job of
outreach. There needs to be a better pairing of people and
their abilities to the job structure itself.
But also, many people with disabilities are able to do
work, have a great job, if they have certain support systems. I
have often talked about my nephew, who's quadriplegic and he
has a nurse comes in, gets him up in the morning, takes care of
all of his needs. He then gets in his van and drives himself to
work, comes home at night, lives by himself, independent
living, by the way. And then he has another nurse comes in and
takes care of him. If it weren't for that, he couldn't be able
to work.
Other people need some minor help during the day on their
job site.
Can you address that, about how are you looking at it from
ODEP's standpoint and what we need to do to help employers
understand that; and what can we do to make sure that people
understand that for a minimal amount of money that might
require us to put in for support services, a person can work
and become a taxpayer? And what is ODEP doing in that regard,
in terms of supportive services?
Ms. Martinez. Well, first of all, I think that's a great
question. I will tell you that we have an entire kind of team
dedicated to employment supports at ODEP. We have, as I
discussed, our grants in the area of technology. We're working
with the Department of Transportation to make sure that
transportation is accessible, so that folks can get to work.
We have worked with the Department of Health and Human
Services on their community living initiative, which is
promoting folks to live in their homes and get attendant care
services to be able to do exactly what your nephew does, get
services to be able to work and pay taxes.
I think at this point ODEP is focusing on technology and
transportation sort of as the main employment supports, and
we're working again with HHS on the community living
initiative.
The Chairman. Last, I just wanted to ask--you mentioned
about the grants that were going out through the Employment
Training Administration on the disability employment
initiative. You mentioned the States--I think the money went
out last year, if I'm not mistaken.
Ms. Martinez. It did.
The Chairman. Is your office tracking that and what that
money is being used for? How soon could we get some feedback to
this committee about how that money has been used and any
results of that?
Ms. Martinez. According to a 2010 Mathematica study, the
one-stop system is being used more and more by a larger share
of SSA beneficiaries interested in employment. Therefore, it's
really important that this system be accessible, both
physically and programmatically, and in terms of communication
access. So the disability initiative is intended to eliminate
silos and hopefully result in improved coordination.
For example, Arkansas is working very closely with their
youth, and Delaware--they're helping, I guess, one-stops to
adopt a universal design approach, which really helps all job
seekers to access services more easily, including folks who
don't even have disabilities or won't identify as having
disabilities.
The Chairman. I ask that you keep this committee advised,
and as soon as you have some data back from the States, those
nine States, that you would give us a report on that.
Ms. Martinez. You bet. The other thing is that they're all
part of the Ticket to Work program. They're all employment
networks.
The Chairman. Right.
Ms. Martinez. So they're working closely with the social
security system as well.
The Chairman. All right. Thank you very much, Madam
Secretary.
Ms. Martinez. Thank you.
The Chairman. Senator Enzi.
Senator Enzi. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
Last year the President signed an executive order to
increase the Federal employment of individuals with
disabilities, which was intended to improve the hiring
practices of the Federal Government with respect to individuals
with disabilities. How have those practices improved over the
past year?
Ms. Martinez. I think very soon OPM will be formally
signing onto the various plans that have been developed by each
agency. I know that each agency is required to have a very
senior person be responsible and be accountable to the
President. I know that, from the Department of Labor
standpoint, we have worked extensively with the Office of
Workers' Compensation Programs to develop our strategies for
keeping people at work. As you know, it's very expensive for
the government to pay disability benefits sometimes, and a lot
of the folks who go out on disability benefits can actually
work and can stay in the job if they knew about, what some
people call, accommodations, and I like to call productivity
tools, because we all need them; it just happens to be called
accommodations for people with disabilities; and also the
concept of a flexible work environment.
So really there's two prongs. OPM is trying to address the
myth that there aren't qualified people with disabilities out
there, by contracting with a consulting company who provides
the Federal Government qualified Schedule A-eligible people
every month. The list is available to every agency in the
government.
In addition to that, the President will be monitoring what
agencies do. Agencies have to set goals, and then on top of
that working to retain Federal workers when they become
injured, are some of the things that are happening with regard
to that executive order.
Senator Enzi. Thank you.
Most of my other questions deal with some of the small
business things and they're fairly technical in nature. So if
it's OK I'd just submit those in writing.
Ms. Martinez. OK.
Senator Enzi. Thank you.
Ms. Martinez. Thank you, sir.
The Chairman. Thank you, Senator Enzi.
Thank you, Madam Secretary, for being here again. Thank you
for your testimony.
Ms. Martinez. Thank you very much.
The Chairman. Thank you for your leadership on this issue.
Like I said, my staff will be in touch with you about making
sure we get some reports back from those States and how they're
utilizing that money.
Ms. Martinez. And we're happy to provide them.
The Chairman. Thank you very much, Madam Secretary.
We'll excuse you and now we'll call up our second panel.
We'll call up Governor Ridge, Ms. Dagit, and Ms. Wallrich. Our
first witness will be from the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania and
I ask my colleague, Senator Casey, who is here on our
committee, to please make an introduction of our distinguished
guest.
Statement of Senator Casey
Senator Casey. Mr. Chairman, thank you very much.
I have the great honor and privilege to be able to
introduce a fellow Pennsylvanian to this committee, but
certainly no stranger to the U.S. Congress and indeed the U.S.
Senate.
Governor, welcome.
Mr. Ridge. Senator, it's a great pleasure to be here with
you.
Senator Casey. Good to see you again. I didn't have a
chance to greet you personally, but we're grateful you're here
and grateful you're part of this hearing today.
Tom Ridge is a son of Erie, PA. For those who don't know
our geography, I live in northeastern Pennsylvania, in one
corner of the State, and Governor Ridge hails from the
northwestern corner of our State.
His life has been a life of service, service to our
Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, service to our country, whether
as a soldier, as a member of the U.S. House of Representatives
for 12 years between 1982 and 1994, service then as Governor of
the Commonwealth from 1994 through the time he was named
Secretary--the first Secretary of Homeland Security in the
aftermath of the attacks of 9/11. So his life is one of
service.
And also he's been--in those years, in all the positions he
held in government, positions of service, he's been an
advocate. And he comes here today with not just that experience
behind him but also that passion for advocacy and the good
results that come from that.
I've known him a long time. I know him to be a person of
great character and integrity. And there are moments in the
life of a public official where his or her constituents focus,
and I think in a very intensive way, on that person's
leadership and their commitment to public service. And one of
those moments, I think, for Governor Ridge came at a very
tragic time for the country, the day we were attacked. And one
of the attacks, of course, was in Pennsylvania--Shanksville,
PA. And at that moment, he had to lead our State and be part of
the leadership of the country.
Governor, we remember that moment very poignantly, when you
were expressing both the frustration and anger of our citizens,
but also the resolve that came in the aftermath of that attack.
So we're grateful for that kind of leadership, and we're
certainly grateful you're here, back before the U.S. Senate.
And I know that we'll benefit from your testimony and from your
continuing leadership.
Thank you very much.
Mr. Ridge. Thank you.
The Chairman. Thank you very much, Senator Casey. And,
again, one thing I would just add to that is that I know of
Governor Ridge's long-time work in the whole area of disability
policy and employment of people with disabilities. I would like
to add that, too.
Mr. Ridge. Thank you, sir.
The Chairman. Governor--and I say to my other panelists the
Governor has to leave here shortly, so I'm going to recognize
him for his statement and for any questions or interchange that
we want. I know he has to be out of here before 11 o'clock. So
if you don't mind, I'll have the Governor testify first, and
then we'll move on to the other two members of our panel.
So, Governor, again, welcome to the committee. Your
statement, which I read last night, which is very profound, a
very good statement, will be made a part of the record in its
entirety. And please proceed as you so desire.
STATEMENT OF GOVERNOR TOM RIDGE, CHAIRMAN, NATIONAL
ORGANIZATION ON DISABILITY, WASHINGTON DC
Mr. Ridge. Well, I thank you very much, Chairman Harkin. I
would be remiss if I didn't recognize your life-long commitment
to the issue.
To Ranking Member Enzi and to my friend and colleague,
Senator Casey, a Republican from one end of the State in the
corner, a Democrat from the other end of the State in the
corner. We both survived the statewide elections, which means
that Pennsylvanians are pretty independent thinking. And I
appreciate that very kind and gracious--very gracious
introduction, and it's a great pleasure to appear before the
committee. And I thank my colleagues here on the panel for
indulging a schedule of mine and for allowing me to go first.
I want to thank you for your time and attention you are
giving to the vital issue of disability employment in America.
For a community that so frequently struggles to have its voice
heard, these hearings are a very important opportunity, and I'm
honored to share my perspective and my experience.
To shed some light on these issues, I would like to share
some of the work being done by the National Organization on
Disability, NOD, whose board I am very privileged to chair. I
am honored to have my leader, my boss, the president of the
National Organization on Disability, Carol Glaser, here with
me, a passionate, committed, effective leader who also deals
with the challenges of a disability in her home every single
day. And she's also accompanied by Rick Scarp, a vice president
of the organization, who oversees our Wounded Warrior Careers
Program.
I also would like to briefly discuss my experience as
Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security and the
initiative we took to encourage employment of people with
disabilities within the department.
Over the past three decades, NOD, whose Harris surveys have
been an authoritative source of data on the status of people
with disabilities, has addressed a range of issues. Most
recently, we have focused our efforts on the staggering and
stubbornly high rate of unemployment among people with
disabilities, a rate sadly that's been virtually unchanged
since even the years before the ADA.
NOD's employment agenda begins with privately funded
demonstration projects that test innovative employment
practices and service models. Of NOD's many funders, we are
particularly grateful to the Kessler Foundation, a leader in
devoting philanthropic dollars to the needs of Americans with
disabilities. With the knowledge gleaned from our work on the
ground and the evidence gathered through project evaluations,
we seek really to scale up some of these small but effective
demonstrations in part by addressing bodies and organizations
such as a congressional committee who are in a position to set
policies and allocate resources.
One of these projects is our Wounded Warriors Careers,
which has proven to be a highly effective service model for
veterans with severe disabilities. Over half a million veterans
have returned home with injuries from the conflicts in Iraq and
Afghanistan, many of them with disabling conditions that will
impact the rest of their lives. To better address the career
needs of these veterans, in early 2007, the Army entered into a
Memorandum of Understanding with NOD, under which we are
providing career counseling and employment placement support to
veterans in North Carolina, Texas, and Colorado.
I might add, Mr. Chairman, we were happy to have the Memo
of Understanding, but, unfortunately, at the time and to the
present day, there wasn't a check that went with it. We've
funded this demonstration program through a consortium of
national and local funders who contributed for these three
demonstration projects a total of $5 million, with leadership
support from Ford, Robert Wood Johnson, Mott, Kellogg, and Bob
Woodruff Foundations.
If I might add, sir, as a veteran, anybody that's been in
combat knows that but for the grace of God goes I. And one of
these days, hopefully, we'll continue--we'll see that caring
for the severely disabled veterans is a continuing cost of
defense and find ways to allocate even additional resources,
particularly to support the programs necessary to support those
who were severely injured.
It's a great credit to our leaders in government when they
look for ways to partner with those outside of government to
serve transitioning veterans with disabilities. However, I
think we continue to send an inconsistent message to our
veterans and their families. Of the 268 veterans that NOD
currently serves, 40 percent were given a disability rating of
100 percent, which in the terminology of the DVA, Department of
Veteran Affairs, means a person we do not expect will ever
work.
Beyond its obvious impact on the veteran's earning
potential, telling a veteran that he or she cannot work has
implications, much broader implications than people can realize
to their recovery, to their health, and their long-term well-
being. NOD's program evaluation has shown that veterans who are
pursuing or who have attained education and careers perceive
their own health as better, have a more positive view of their
future, regardless of the severity of their disability.
After about 2 years of operations, roughly two-thirds of
these veterans, program participants, including the 40 percent
who were labeled as unable to work, are engaged in education,
training, or work.
A detailed account of this program outcome is included in
my written testimony, as you referred to, Senator Harkin.
It's particularly notable that this support to our veterans
comes with a considerable cost savings. In fact, I think our
work is far less expensive than doing nothing at all. The
dignity and financial self-sufficiency that comes with the
pursuit of a career is a powerful deterrent to homelessness,
substance abuse, domestic abuse, unemployment, and crime, all
of which bring considerable societal costs.
Strong congressional support for the Wounded Warrior
Careers Program has led to legislation in the House Defense
Authorization Act that would apply key elements of NOD's
program on a larger scale. Similar legislation is expected in
the Senate. But since our role in the program is not assured,
NOD remains committed to continuing to produce best practices
that can be used and adopted by relevant State, local, and
Federal organizations. We obviously welcome support from
Congress to assure NOD's best practices are implemented by the
Department of Defense.
There are a couple of important lessons we've learned from
this experience, and I'd like to share them briefly with the
committee. First, severely disabled veterans require ongoing
and flexible support, sometimes over the course of multiple
years. We have veterans working with veterans, and it's a long-
term commitment, 2 or 3 years--interaction almost on a monthly
basis and sometimes weekly as we try to help them and their
families, by the way, develop a career path.
We understand that there are evolving circumstances, and we
need to craft these relationships around the specific needs of
the veteran and their family. And so the first point is the
return to civilian life and career. It's not an event, ladies
and gentleman. It's a process, and we need to understand that.
Second principle--services and support must address the
unique demands of traumatic brain injury and post-traumatic
stress. These are hidden disabilities, but they pervade every
aspect of many veterans' lives and if not addressed can
undermine every attempt at success.
And, third, I think we have to provide support to the
schools and businesses that train, educate, and hire veterans.
Many want to help our returning veterans but need support to do
so effectively.
So recognizing the importance of this last recommendation,
I'd like to talk briefly about the work of NOD's Bridges to
Business Program, which helps employers effectively recruit,
hire, train, and retain job seekers, veterans or nonveterans,
with disabilities, and also helps agencies that provide job
training and placement services to job seekers with
disabilities to work more effectively with businesses. Our work
with these companies has yielded a number of findings that we
believe will be instructive to this committee as you continue
very important work on behalf of veterans and all Americans
with disabilities.
These findings are included, again, in my detailed
testimony. But there is one other finding I'd like to emphasize
publicly before you now.
Members of this committee, your colleagues in Congress, the
executive branch, and the Federal Government, we encourage you
to use your visibility and your advocacy to inspire businesses
to commit themselves to employing Americans with disabilities.
That doesn't necessarily mean regulation, which I think
sometimes intimidates and frustrates businesses. It means
genuine leadership that begins with a clear and forceful call
to action and continues with the Federal Government fulfilling
its goal of becoming itself a model employer of people with
disabilities at all levels of responsibility and in all types
of jobs.
And on this point, I would offer some personal insights
from my time as Secretary of the Department of Homeland
Security. Once my team understood that it was a priority for
the Secretary, and once I assigned someone to design a plan to
open up opportunities within the department--and we started at
headquarters level--we began to see change. We didn't set a
quota, but we did make it a leadership priority so that
everybody knew that it was a priority for the Secretary and,
therefore, a priority of the President.
The first thing we did was send out a memo to all the
undersecretaries or the bureau chiefs. Second, we had even the
undersecretaries and assistant secretaries go to a 90-minute
training program identifying, No. 1, it's a priority for the
Secretary; No. 2, are the resources out there; and No. 3,
beginning the acculturation process is a little discomfort.
Unfortunately and improperly, sometimes people without
disabilities working with people with disabilities--well, they
shouldn't be uncomfortable because the people with disabilities
aren't uncomfortable. They're just happy to work and want to
interact with folks. So we had that training session.
The third thing we did was make our department aware of a
program at DOD called the Computer Electronics Accommodation
Program. DOD will buy, install, and train assistive technology
to help people with disabilities in our department. So within
about 18 months, we went from 1 percent at headquarters to 5
percent of people with disabilities. I can't report what
occurred thereafter. But it's going to take executive
leadership, congressional leadership, and everybody needs to
understand before we can have businesses to be a model, we need
the Federal Government to be a model as well.
In closing, I'm aware that one of your ultimate goals is to
address the disability benefit structure in America, a system
that currently acts as an overwhelming disincentive to work for
most Americans with disabilities. Currently, an individual who
relies on Medicaid and Medicare for health coverage, which for
most Americans with disabilities, even more than most of us, is
of huge importance, will be justifiably hesitant to risk these
benefits in search of what must often begin as entry-level
employment.
Part of the problem, I believe, is rooted in the fact that
these well-intentioned systems designed decades ago were
created with little expectation that Americans with
disabilities would ever be anything more than recipients of
care, that they could not, in fact, become contributors to our
economy, our tax base, and our communities. We live in a
society where your sense of self-worth is really predicated
upon what you do for yourself, not what other people do for
you. And that is embedded in the heart and soul of every person
with a disability.
Sure, it's great to have the check, but the Harris survey
said that two-thirds of the people we surveyed of all those
unemployed--they want to work. They want to work. So it's not a
lack of talent, drive, or ambition in Americans with
disabilities, but rather this tyranny of low expectations that
has led to what I consider to be an opportunity gap between
people with and without disabilities in America.
This committee began its work with a clear message that
Americans with disabilities can and should be contributors. I
urge you to see that message through to ensure that we--to see
it repeated in every policy, every agency, and every service we
deliver to people with disabilities.
On behalf of the National Organization on Disability, I say
to my colleagues in public service we thank you for your time,
your interest, your commitment, and your passion to this issue.
And I'd say again that I, personally, and the team at NOD--we
volunteer. If you need us, we'd love to help.
You're, and again I reiterate, Senator Harkin--well, well
known for years and years. You're a strong advocate, and we'd
like to be part of your advocacy team.
Thank you very much.
And thank you again, Senator Casey, for such a gracious
introduction.
[The prepared statement of Mr. Ridge follows:]
Prepared Statement of Governor Tom Ridge
Thank you Chairman Harkin, Ranking Member Enzi and distinguished
members of this committee for inviting me to speak with you today.
Thank you for the time and attention you are giving to the vital
issue of disability employment in America. For a community that so
frequently struggles to have its voice heard, these hearings are an
important opportunity. I am honored to share my perspective and
experience.
The issues affecting the disability community are very close to my
heart. When I was governor of Pennsylvania, I worked with a great group
of people to create a statewide agenda in support of people with
disabilities.
Ensuring that people with disabilities have the opportunity to
contribute to society is a noble task. Employment brings dignity and
purpose in life. Employment also brings personal independence and
freedom. That's why it's so crucial that the staggeringly high
unemployment rates among people with disabilities come down.
Because not only are unemployed disabled Americans losing out on
the benefits of employment, but our society then loses out on the
potential contributions of these great Americans. Their resourcefulness
in tackling issues that others do not encounter and their persistence
in overcoming obstacles all lead to innovative approaches and a drive
that is welcome in any job, in any field.
To shed some light on these issues, I would like to share some of
the work being done by the National Organization on Disability (NOD),
and for whom I serve as chairman of the board of directors. I would
also like to discuss my own experience as the Secretary of the
Department of Homeland Security and the work we did to encourage the
employment of people with disabilities within that department.
national organization on disability
NOD was founded in 1981 with the Mission of expanding the
participation and contribution of America's 54 million men, women, and
children with disabilities in all aspects of life.
In recognition of what we believe to be the most pressing need for
Americans with disabilities, NOD's board of directors recently adopted
a Strategic Plan focused on improving employment prospects for
America's 33 million working-aged Americans with disabilities.
And the need is pressing. Our most recent Kessler/NOD Survey of
Americans with Disabilities conducted by Harris Interactive reveals
that only 2 in 10 working age Americans with disabilities are employed,
versus 6 in 10 of those without. These numbers have remained virtually
unchanged for more than 20 years, regardless of the strength or
weakness of the overall economy.
To realize our Mission, NOD has positioned itself as an engine for
new ideas and proven practices in our field. We begin with small,
typically privately funded demonstration projects. Of NOD's many
funders, we are particularly grateful to the Kessler Foundation--a
leader in devoting philanthropic dollars to the needs of Americans with
disabilities. These demonstrations are built as a response to the needs
of individuals and businesses, and our use of private funding allows
for a degree of flexibility and risk-taking that is not often possible
with publicly funded initiatives.
To ensure that these projects accomplish their goals, each of them
includes a built-in evaluation process, which allows us to continuously
improve our work, and ensure that we are responding intelligently to
new findings.
With the knowledge gleaned from work on the ground, and the
evidence gathered through project evaluations, we seek to ``scale up''
our small demonstrations. We accomplish this goal either through direct
pursuit of sustainable public dollars, or by ``spreading the word'
about our work, and influencing policy and practice in an attempt to
see the best of our work replicated in larger-scale agencies and
service providers.
One of these projects is the Wounded Warrior Careers initiative,
which has proven to be a vital source of support to nearly 300 Army
Veterans with significant disabilities, and an opportunity for us to
learn what can and should be done to support all of our Nation's
returning heroes.
the current state of veterans services
The most recent data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics shows that
530,000 veterans have returned home with injuries from the conflicts in
Iraq and Afghanistan. Many of these injuries have led to disabling
conditions that will impact the rest of their lives. Over 114,000 have
garnered disability ratings of 60 percent or higher. In previous wars,
some of these service members would not have survived. Today, they
return home with disabilities ranging from burns and amputations to
post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and traumatic brain injury (TBI).
The imperative to expand support to transitioning veterans with
disabilities and their families has multiple components: the moral
obligation to assist this population; the need to sustain the all-
volunteer military; and, the anticipated impact of additional costs
that will be borne by local, State, and Federal agencies to assist
``at-risk'' veteran families if they do not achieve self-sufficiency.
In response to the transition needs of the most severely wounded
warriors, the military has developed important programs to provide
Recovery Care Coordinators or Advocates to assist these service
members. These programs have improved the transition activities of
veterans with disabilities, even as the programs continue to evolve
their missions and compete for limited resources. However, the
capacities of the Nation are not yet fully developed nor engaged to
support the full range of our Wounded Warrior's needs. NOD is proud to
be involved in these efforts.
To provide a sense of this rapidly expanding work, take the
population of Army Wounded Warriors, which has more than quadrupled
since 2006, from about 2,000 to over 8,500 today. When combined with
the other military services, including Special Operations Command,
there are some 14,000 to 16,000 veterans with disabilities attempting
to transition to civilian careers, achieve self-sufficiency, and forge
lives of dignity in the wake of their military service. Yet, the most
seriously wounded veterans leave the military today with career
assistance needs that are still not fully addressed by existing
education, employment, and vocational rehabilitation programs.
The veterans we serve face many of the same obstacles to employment
that all persons with disabilities face: employer perceptions, low
expectations, and inadequate programs to facilitate their movement into
the workforce.
It is a great credit to the Army that it sought out allies to
explore new approaches to serving transitioning veterans. We further
laud this Administration for its clear commitment to our Nation's
veterans, and this committee for its interest in continually improving
the supports and services we provide to our returning heroes.
However, we continue to send an inconsistent message to our
veterans and to their families. Of the 268 Veterans that NOD currently
serves, 40 percent were given a disability rating of 100 percent which,
in the terminology of the Department of Veterans Affairs, means a
person who is not expected to ever work. Of that group, \1/3\ are
currently pursuing post-secondary education--graduate level education,
in some cases--and another \1/3\ have joined the workforce.
Beyond its obvious impact on the veteran's earning potential,
telling a veteran that he or she ``cannot work'' has implications to
their recovery, their health and their long-term well-being. As our
evaluation has shown, the veterans NOD serves, who are pursuing or have
attained education and careers, perceive their own health as better,
and they have a more positive view of the future, regardless of the
severity of their disability. When we tell a returning veteran that we
do not believe they will ever work again, we are not only robbing them
of their potential income, we are robbing them of their hope, their
health and their well-being.
The most seriously disabled veterans urgently need intensive career
planning and mentorship so they can move into training, education, or
work, and achieve self-
sufficiency as contributing members of their communities. And the
impact of their ability or failure to do so extends beyond the veteran
population--in the case of the Army, over 70 percent of these wounded
warriors are married, 65 percent have children under 18. Moreover,
these veterans have little familiarity with civilian labor markets and
employment. Often they have never held a civilian job, prepared a
resume, or been interviewed for civilian employment. As a result, these
veteran families are an ``at-risk'' population that requires assistance
in navigating paths to civilian careers.
the nod wounded warrior careers demonstration program
In order to better address the needs of veterans with severe
disabilities, in early 2007 the Army entered into a Memorandum of
Understanding (MOU) with NOD. Under this MOU, NOD is providing career
counseling and employment placement support to veterans in North
Carolina, Texas, and Colorado through a 3-year demonstration program
funded by a consortium of national and local funders who contributed a
total of $5 million, with leadership support from the Ford, Robert Wood
Johnson, Mott, Kellogg and Bob Woodruff Foundations. In North Carolina,
we are grateful to the Cannon, Z Smith Reynolds, and Duke Foundations.
In Texas, we appreciate the support from the Dallas and Meadows
Foundations. And in Colorado, the El Pomar Foundation has been a
significant supporter. After about 2 years of operations, over 68
percent of the 268 NOD Careers program participants have entered into
education, training, or work.
This pilot project was established at three sites to demonstrate
innovative transition support for veterans with disabilities that can
accelerate and ease their reintegration and return to self-sufficiency.
The program includes an analytical and best practices evaluation that
is designed to identify enduring changes that are needed in the
services and support to transitioning veterans.
The service model, which NOD and the Army developed after focus
groups with more than 200 veterans and family members, is intensive,
high touch, and characterized by long-term career counseling and
mentoring to veterans with disabilities and their family members. NOD's
Career Specialists, with expertise in workforce development (and many
with a background of military service), work directly with veterans and
family members. We connect the veterans we serve to a wide range of
service providers, therapists, employers, schools, government agencies
and others offering career support. We further work closely with the
Army's Advocates to ensure that our services are well-coordinated, and
offer the widest possible range of supports to the veterans we serve.
To the best of our knowledge, we remain the only program of this
kind to offer comprehensive, wrap-around services that respond to the
specific needs of each veteran--and each family--that we work with.
Among our most important findings is that we should not--we must not--
be alone in this effort.
Strong congressional support for the Wounded Warrior Careers
program has led to legislation in the House Defense Authorization Act
that would apply key elements of the program model on a larger scale.
Similar legislation is expected in the Senate Defense Authorization
Act. However, since NOD's role in that program is not assured, NOD is
committed to continuing to produce best practices and lessons learned
that can serve as innovative concepts for adoption by relevant Federal,
State, and local organizations. We welcome support from Congress that
ensures NOD's best practices are implemented by the Department of
Defense, as intended by Congress.
wounded warrior careers program outcomes
We believe the outcomes of the Careers project are a clear
demonstration of its value. Midway through the demonstration, 68
percent of our program participants are in education, training or
jobs--a figure that is twice the rate of wounded veterans who do not
receive our services. Other significant findings include that about 70
percent of those employed have stayed in their job longer than 12
months and veterans in the program report a high level of satisfaction
with the program and its services. (Refer to Attachment I for a more
complete listing of early quantitative and qualitative outcomes.)
Further, this work comes with a considerable cost savings; in fact,
our work is far less expensive than doing nothing at all. When weighed
against the cost of unemployment and lost productivity, the $3,000 to
$4,000 (on average) that we are spending per veteran per year in this
program is a cost-effective investment for the American taxpayer. The
dignity and financial self-sufficiency that comes with pursuit of a
career is a powerful deterrent to homelessness, substance abuse,
domestic abuse, unemployment, and crime, all of which bring
considerable societal costs.
veteran-related reccomendations
Based on these outcomes, and the work we have conducted in the
field, I would like to offer the following recommendations to this
committee as it considers how best to serve our Nation's wounded
veterans:
1. Veterans require ongoing and flexible support--sometimes over
the course of multiple years--support crafted to the specific needs of
the veteran and their family, and which meets their evolving
circumstances. We have learned that for all veterans, but particularly
those with significant injuries, the return to civilian life and career
is not an event, but a process. Our services must support that process
over time.
2. We should foster a focus on career-related employment that
begins as early as possible in the veteran's process of return. In VA
hospitals and rehabilitation centers, we often see posters that
encourage veterans with disabilities to aspire to play sports again--we
ought to also let them know that they can and should aspire to the
careers of their choosing. Pursuant to this, no matter how we classify
the services an individual might require, we must never send them the
message that they cannot work.
3. Veterans should have access to career planning with clear steps
toward success that are driven by the goals, interests and ambitions of
the veteran. Veterans rarely have access to a long-term support in this
regard.
4. Service models should include the veteran's family. Families
often play a key role in the veteran's transition and can be a source
of inspiration and support, if we in turn provide them with the support
they need through the course of the veteran's process of return.
5. We must have a provision for flexible emergency funds that
assist the veteran in financial crisis, and can meet discreet but
crucial support needs in the course of the veteran's career planning
process.
6. Services and supports must address the unique demands of TBI and
PTSD; these often hidden disabilities pervade every aspect of many
veterans' lives, and, if not addressed, can undermine their every
attempt at success. Support to veterans with TBI and PTSD means
ensuring a robust network of mental health services, available
throughout the country. Currently, our Nation's infrastructure for
mental health services for veterans and civilians is inconsistent from
State to State, and entirely absent in many areas.
7. We must provide ongoing support for veterans in education and
employment. Veterans consistently report that having someone to ``check
in'' can be both helpful and reassuring as they acclimate to
educational and career placements.
8. We need a better and more consistent system for translating
military experience to civilian qualifications and credentials, that
captures all of the talents, skills and aptitudes that are developed in
one of the most demanding jobs in the marketplace.
9. We must provide support to the schools and businesses that
train, educate and hire veterans. Businesses want to hire veterans;
providing hands-on training and support to both the veterans, and
schools and businesses is essential to their long-term success.
Recognizing the importance of this last recommendation, I would
like to talk with you about the work NOD is currently doing to support
the many major corporations who have dedicated themselves to the
principle of including the talent of Americans with disabilities at all
levels of their operations.
In your last hearing on this subject, you heard from Randy Lewis,
senior vice president at Walgreens, who has emerged as a leader in a
new way of demonstrating that businesses can and should take full
advantage of every kind of talent available to them in their
communities. Mr. Lewis is an inspiring leader--so much so that a number
of other companies--Lowe's, Sodexo, Sam's Club, Aetna and ADP, to name
only a few--have taken up his challenge. These companies aspire not
only to match Walgreens in hiring, retaining and promoting people with
disabilities, but to be even better.
To support these companies in this crucial effort, NOD has staged
the Bridges to Business program.
Current Employer Attitudes and Practices
In 2010 NOD and the Kessler Foundation commissioned the survey firm
of Harris Interactive to interview officials at 400 small, medium and
large companies, on their disability employment attitudes and
practices. Among other things, the survey found:
While most companies have diversity hiring policies and
programs, less than 3 in 10 include disability as a diversity category.
While 25 percent of the companies have disability hiring
policies, only 12 percent have programs;
Companies report a desire to hire more workers with
disabilities, yet their primary recruitment sources are word of mouth
and employee referrals. This method of hiring will only replicate the
current workforce, rather than diversify it.
In business, what matters gets measured. And yet our
survey revealed that only one in three companies tracked their hiring
rates of candidates with disabilities.
Six in ten companies report a lack of familiarity with
publicly funded service providers who source candidates with
disabilities.
When asked why companies don't recruit more people with
disabilities, they say they don't know where to source candidates.
With these numbers as a backdrop, it's not surprising that only 3
percent of new hires have disabilities and unemployment rates are
stubbornly high.
nod's bridges to business program
NOD's Bridges to Business program is an ongoing initiative to help
employers to effectively recruit, hire, train and retain job-seekers
with disabilities; and to help agencies that provide job training and
placement services to job seekers with disabilities work more
effectively with businesses.
NOD provides the following services to these businesses that seek
to hire, retain and promote Americans with disabilities:
1. Training to management and Human Resource staff on disability
hiring retention and accommodation practices, and training to general
staff about the nature of disability in the workplace.
2. Development of effective partnerships with community-based
agencies and organizations that can effectively source and support
candidates with disabilities.
3. Goal-setting and measurement practices that help companies
establish quantifiable goals for the hiring of candidates with
disabilities; typically, NOD sets the minimum goals for this effort at
10 percent of all new hires.
But our work is not limited to support of businesses. As you have
heard from a number of other witnesses, the public workforce
development system for people with disabilities is often ineffective in
its service both to people with disabilities, and to the businesses
that seek to hire them.
What should be a clear and focused support for citizens with
disabilities is often a confusing, bureaucratic and disheartening
system that traps the individual in dependence on public benefits.
What should be a responsive and dynamic source of well-trained
talent for businesses is instead an unresponsive series of agencies
that presents countless points of contact, and too few results.
As such, in supporting businesses, NOD has also been called upon to
work with the many public and private agencies that ultimately should
serve as their source of human resource talent. We provide the
following services in support of providers of workforce development
services:
1. Training and consultation to build their capacity to be
responsive to businesses' hiring and retentions needs.
2. Facilitated partnership building and coordination between
multiple agencies and providers, to ensure that they work together to
provide more effective referral and services to businesses and career
seekers, and a single point of contact for those businesses.
3. Connections to businesses, and a facilitated process of joint
goal-setting.
reccomendations for business services
Our work with these companies has yielded a number of findings that
we believe will be instructive to the HELP Committee as they continue
their work on behalf of veterans--and all Americans--with disabilities.
1. All agencies--including Vocational Rehabilitation, the Workforce
Investment System, Developmental Disability Services, and various
private organizations that contract with these agencies to provide
direct services to career-seekers with disabilities--must present a
business with a single point of contact through which the business can
access the widest possible range of talent.
2. Public agencies must recognize businesses as important customers
of their systems, equal to the citizens with disabilities that they
already serve. It is impossible to provide effective workforce
development services to a job seeker without also providing the high
quality services to businesses.
3. The performance of these agencies and organizations should be
measured in part by their effectiveness in serving businesses. We must
hold these agencies accountable for the speed with which they respond
to a business' job posting, the effectiveness of the training they
offer to meet their talent needs, and the satisfaction of their
business customers with the services they receive.
4. To echo Randy Lewis's eloquent testimony before this committee:
``Businesses need an efficient and effective source of
talent, and the certainty that the candidates who are being
referred to them are the right match in terms of skills,
training and goals. While there are numerous other services and
supports required by career-seekers with disabilities, we
should structure employment services--and our means for
measuring their success--around these basic goals that are
essential to the success of both the business and the career-
seeker.''
5. Our current system of ``pay for performance'' for the community-
based providers of services has much to recommend it. It has the
potential to inspire excellence in the services these organizations
provide, and the kind of competition that ultimately fosters
innovation. However, an unfortunate side effect of this system is the
extent to which it discourages collaboration amongst both public
agencies and private providers. Ultimately, this has led to a workforce
development system for people with disabilities that is territorial; a
system or providers that must compromise the overall effectiveness of
its services to businesses and career seekers in hopes of earning the
payments they need to survive and thrive. We strongly recommend that
the current system of pay-for-performance that is used by so many
agencies in their contracts with community providers be tempered with
measures that recognize and reward, not punish, collaboration. By this
means, we can begin to move toward a system wherein a single agency
contact can act as the source of a much wider array of talent to its
business customers, and one in which a more diverse range of career
opportunities is available to every job seeker with disabilities.
6. As we have done in the Workforce Investment Act, we must create
a space for the perspective of business in the leadership and oversight
of these agencies. This leadership will give these agencies insight in
to labor market trends and businesses' hiring needs. It will focus the
training and candidate sourcing efforts, and provide local and State
accountability to the needs of the business customer.
7. Finally, beyond policy, the members of this committee, their
colleagues in Congress, the executive branch and the Federal Government
must use their visibility to inspire businesses to commit themselves to
hire, retain and promote Americans with disabilities. This does not
mean regulation, which only intimidates and frustrates businesses. It
means genuine leadership that begins with a clear and forceful call to
action, and continues with the Federal Government fulfilling its goal
of becoming a model employer of people with disabilities at all levels
of responsibility, and in all types of jobs.
deparment of homeland security hiring efforts
On this last point, I can offer my personal insight from my time as
the Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security. From the
beginning, Homeland Security maintained a commitment to being a model
Cabinet agency for the 21st century. And part of that commitment is
reflected in our efforts to promote employment opportunities for people
with disabilities, both those who are highly skilled and credentialed--
people to fill jobs at the highest GS and SES levels of this
Department--and those who are seeking entry-level positions.
When we had a position to fill, we asked one key question: what
does this person have to offer us? If the person had the skills and
enthusiasm and determination to help us further our mission, we wanted
that person on our team.
And so, it's in that spirit that I'm pleased to talk with you about
a major initiative that I led at Homeland Security to make these words
of commitment a reality, and to ensure that people with disabilities
were given every opportunity to succeed at our Department. I issued a
directive to all of the senior leaders of our Department that we must
aggressively promote equal opportunity for people with disabilities.
Under this initiative, there were several specific directives. Let
me highlight a few:
Managers at Homeland Security headquarters completed a
training course, designed to encourage them to interview and hire
applicants and employees with disabilities. The course described the
tools available to managers to help them successfully hire qualified
candidates and included a panel of employees with disabilities who
could talk about the barriers to employment and the steps that can be
taken to knock those barriers down.
Additionally, every office within the Department was
directed to engage interns with disabilities. These internships were
valuable to both the students who built skills and experience, and the
managers who learned how to ensure that people with disabilities have
the necessary tools and opportunities to grow and contribute to the
organization.
And finally, every office within headquarters was required
to let our equal employment opportunity (EEO) program know about hiring
needs in advance. Our EEO program developed a network of people with
disabilities who were available to work, so that when they got advance
information about job openings, they were be able to put those resumes
on a manager's desk quickly.
One thing to keep in mind is that the headquarters at Homeland
Security is relatively small; the majority of the Department's
employees are people on the front lines of the war on terror--they are
in the field, stationed around the country everywhere from border
crossings to airports to seaports.
The initiative I mentioned was aimed directly at Homeland Security
headquarters; and since we know that the ``one-size-fits-all'' approach
wouldn't work, we also tasked each component agency under the
department umbrella to develop a similarly aggressive strategy for
hiring people with disabilities--one that was tailored to their
specific circumstances.
These are easy, effective and sustainable steps that can position
all Federal agencies to take full advantage of the talent available to
them in the American workforce. Further, these steps will allow us to
speak with knowledge and authority when we give the same message to
businesses.
conclusion
In closing, I am aware that one of your ultimate goals is to
address the disability benefits structure in America--a system which
currently acts as an overwhelming disincentive to work for most
Americans with disabilities. Currently, an individual who relies on
Medicaid and Medicare benefits for their health coverage--which, for
Americans with disabilities even more than most of us, is of huge
importance--will be justifiably hesitant to risk these benefits in
search of what must typically begin as entry-level employment. As such,
we are asking would-be employees to take a huge risk in the name of a
reward that, to most of these folks, seems all too distant.
As we heard from an official representing one of the major Federal
disability employment programs in a Reconnaissance we conducted in
preparation for our employment efforts:
``You have to acknowledge at the outset that employment
policy in this Nation is simply ineffective with respect to
people with disabilities. We are at a crossroads because we
have created policies that are contradictory and create
dependency. . . . Basically, you couldn't purposefully design a
system more fundamentally flawed than this!''
There are, of course, a complex system of Waivers and Buy-Ins that
exist in many States that is designed to allow Social Security
beneficiaries to work without losing their health benefits. However,
these resources are often little-know, confusing and, as a consequence,
underutilized.
Essential reform will require a system-wide assurance for all
career-seekers with disabilities that their health benefits through
Medicare or Medicaid will not be threatened until they have reached an
income threshold wherein it is reasonable to expect that they or their
employer will be able to replace these benefits directly. Without first
removing the pall of fear which hangs over every individual's job
search, we cannot reasonably expect to foster the hope, the vision and
the drive necessary to begin a successful career.
The cause of these policy barriers, I believe, is rooted in the
fact that these systems were originally created with little expectation
that Americans with disabilities would ever be anything more than
recipients of care; that they could not, in fact, become contributors
to our economy, our tax base and our communities. It is not a lack of
talent, drive or ambition in Americans with disabilities, but rather
this tyranny of low expectation that has led to the opportunity gap
between people with and without disabilities In America.
This committee began its work with a clear message: that Americans
with disabilities can and should be contributors, not recipients. I
urge you to see that message through, to ensure that we see it repeated
in every policy, every agency, and every service we deliver to people
with disabilities.
On behalf of the National Organization on Disability, I thank you
for your time, your interest, on your vital efforts on behalf of all
Americans with Disabilities.
Attachment I: NOD Wounded Warrior Careers Early Outcomes
Overall: 64 percent of 268 program participants are in education,
work training or employed; this success rate is twice the average of
wounded veterans who do not receive NOD's services.
education
109 currently in education
Success in education (attending, completed or in follow-
on education): 90 percent
Those not in school who are interested in education/
training: 89 percent
employment and retention
70 percent of those employed have stayed in their job
longer than 12 months
71 percent have held only one job (vs. multiple)
Percent of jobs with benefits: 70-80 percent
Satisfaction with employment/career goals: 93 percent (67
percent a lot/26 percent some)
Satisfaction with job: 76 percent (21 percent very/55
percent somewhat)
Satisfaction with job pay: 67 percent (19 percent very/48
percent somewhat)
other
Participation in volunteer programs: 20 percent
Career assistance provided to spouses: 30 percent
Veterans with moderate to high degree of confidence in
ability to achieve employment or career goals: 80-90 percent.
Veteran Satisfaction: The following chart is derived from veteran
satisfaction surveys and shows the level of satisfaction with NOD's
career services in comparison to others.
[GRAPHIC(S) NOT AVAILABLE IN TIFF FORMAT]
The Chairman. Governor, thank you very much--a very
profound statement. And I read most of it last night, too, and
I said, you know, this is a person that has led by example,
which you did as Secretary.
Believe me, I'm well aware of what you did when you were
Secretary of Homeland Security, breaking down these barriers,
setting up systems. The problem is we're not seeing that going
on in some of the other areas. And I think you kind of put your
finger on it. We've built up a system that was sort of based on
dependency. We built up this system, and we've just got to
start breaking that down.
And it's everything from independent living to outreach and
getting young people with disabilities to understand that the
default position for them is not to go into some kind of
covered employment, but it's to be going out there in
competitive employment. Get those young people out there. Start
thinking about that. And we're working on that right now in
terms of--with voc rehab, to get them to start looking at
getting young people from the very beginning to think about
themselves as being out there in competitive employment.
I don't mean to go on too long here, but you struck so many
chords there, Governor. But you mentioned, for example, on the
100 percent disability thing--that just drives me nuts, you
know. I see you understand that.
Mr. Ridge. Yes, sir.
The Chairman. You're 100 percent disabled. But that doesn't
mean you can't work.
Mr. Ridge. Exactly.
The Chairman. And most people can work and want to work.
And how do we break that down? How do we change that system?
Mr. Ridge. Well, I don't think--first of all, I don't think
you have to change the mind set of the individual that's given
the designation and the categorization of 100 percent disabled.
They already know, in most instances--and some of them,
unfortunately, will have to have that social net, that safety
net--maybe so impaired that it's virtually impossible. But we
want to give everybody a chance.
We have to recognize it may not be a possibility for
every--but for the vast majority of people, it's a possibility.
So you don't have to change the mind set of the man or woman
with a disability. You have to change the mind set of the
people--prospective employers. And that's where I think
government has a role to play.
Senator, I think you mentioned it. It's a matter of
matching--nobody wants charity. But there's a lot of ability
out there, and we just want to match the ability with the need
of the government, the ability with the need of the employer.
One of the things we did to try to--and, again, encourage--your
point--young people--we hired interns with disabilities. We
asked them to come in, and then we matched--on the adult level,
we had an individual, wheelchair-bound who was in IT. We had an
attorney who couldn't hear but was doing a lot of legal work.
We had a service connected employee working on security.
Match the need with the ability. And we like to say in NOD
in the disability, it's the ability that counts.
The Chairman. That's right. That's right. Governor, you're
a breath of fresh air. Thank you very much.
Senator Enzi.
Senator Enzi. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
And thank you for your testimony. I was particularly
impressed and want to emphasize page seven of your testimony
when you say, ``When asked why companies don't recruit more
people with disabilities, they say they don't know where to
source candidates.'' And just before that, you said, ``Six in
ten companies report a lack of familiarity with publicly funded
service providers who source candidates with disabilities.''
Somehow we've got to get that all matched up because I really
do think there are a lot of people out there that just haven't
considered hiring people with disabilities. They don't even
know what the process is or what's involved with it.
So I appreciate what your organization does, and I'm very
interested in the National Organization on Disability's Wounded
Warrior Program. Could you talk a little bit about the partners
that you have that work to achieve that goal?
Mr. Ridge. First of all, we've been certainly supported by
primarily private foundations to support us. Second, I think
the cost per--as I mentioned before, it's a very cost-effective
approach, and it's a model that we think could be scaled.
What we basically do, Senator, is we have veterans
supporting veterans and their families. As you can well
imagine, when mom or dad leaves with all their normal
capacities and comes home from a tour of duty without sight or
in a wheelchair or is dealing with some of these hidden wounds
of PTSD and TBI, it's not just the veteran you have to be
focused on, but it's also the family that has to adjust. So
there's a range of psychological and emotional and physical
problems that we think--that's why we--and you mentioned it,
Senator--it's almost a wrap-around service model that says for
a year or two or three, in order to get the veteran career
focused--and sometimes it's education and then career--but also
the family acculturated, we really need to do more than just--
it's good to have all these programs that the Federal
Government has, the Department of Labor has, the VA refers them
to. But just referring them to a Web site or dealing with a
career counselor, particularly for the severely disabled,
that's just not enough.
We have great partners in these local communities in the
three projects we're working with, and we also have veteran
caseworkers--veterans helping veterans. There's a certain
empathy there.
And we've talked to some of the veteran service
organizations, and one of the things that they do--and you've
got to give credit to these VSOs--many times, when there's a
severe disability, they will send in--they don't talk about
employment or careers, but they'll send in someone at the
Walter Reed, for example, who's severely disabled as a result
of their efforts on behalf of our country, and show them what
they are presently doing, and almost begin to acculturate--it
took a while to get here, but look what I'm doing now. I am
employed. You can be employed. You can be a contributor.
You said it right, Senator Enzi. There are a lot of
partners. But it's a wrap-around support program that these men
and women are certainly deserving of because of their service.
But, again, the Bridges to Business--we focus on veterans, but
nonveterans alike.
Senator Enzi. Thank you. In the interest of time--I know
you have a schedule--I'll submit some other questions in
writing.
Mr. Ridge. I hope you do. I'm happy to answer them.
Senator Enzi. Thank you.
Mr. Ridge. When I was Secretary of Homeland Security,
getting QFRs wasn't exactly something that I encouraged--
questions for the record. It's not something I necessarily
encouraged, but everybody was very responsive. But in this
instance, bring them on.
The Chairman. I'm very conscious of your time, but if you
have at least one question or a comment, Senator Casey and
Senator Blumenthal.
Senator Casey.
Senator Casey. Questions for the record. We'll get you
some.
Mr. Ridge. Good.
Senator Casey. Governor, thanks for being--I don't want to
hold you up. But thank you for being here.
Mr. Ridge. Yes. I really apologize. I hope I get a chance
to come back.
The Chairman. Absolutely.
Senator Blumenthal.
Statement of Senator Blumenthal
Senator Blumenthal. I want to thank you for being here as
well, Governor, and great to see you again. And thank you for
your great work, particularly on disabilities of veterans. And,
again, I don't want to hold you now, but I am very much
involved in trying to work on behalf of veterans and
particularly those whom you know firsthand have been injured in
these last 10 years of war. And I'd welcome any comments that
you have on the record now or, even better, afterward--perhaps
be in touch with you directly on how we can improve what the
United States does to help these wounded warriors.
Mr. Ridge. I would welcome that opportunity. You know, we
want our veterans to be employed, but there's a group of them
that will come back with both visible and invisible injuries.
They're going to need a lot more than what we're providing now.
And what NOD has tried to demonstrate is that some of these
veterans need more, far, far more than the well-intentioned
programs that presently exist offer. And we hope that our
approach can be scaled up, particularly with those with very
severe disabilities.
But, again, we are also mindful as we build Bridges to
Business that there are millions of other Americans with
disabilities that may--if we looked at them carefully, may need
some more support. So the Wounded Warriors Careers Program may
be a good model for a much broader group of Americans than just
veterans. I will welcome that conversation, Senator, and thank
you for the invite.
Senator Blumenthal. Thank you.
The Chairman. Well, Governor Ridge, again, thank you very
much for being here, but also just for your great leadership,
and through you, thank the National Organization on Disability
for all that they do. We appreciate it very, very much.
Mr. Ridge. Thank you.
The Chairman. Thanks, Governor. Thank you.
Now we'll turn to the rest of our panel. Ms. Deborah Dagit
has been the vice president and chief diversity officer for
Merck and Company for the past 10 years. She currently serves
on the board of the U.S. Business Leadership Network and is the
past chair of the Conference Board's Workforce Council on
Diversity.
Ms. Dagit has been a small business founder and owner,
starting ``Bridge to Jobs'' in 1987, a firm that placed 400
people with disabilities annually in full-time employment
positions. She also worked with Representative Norm Mineta in
the House for the passage of the ADA--thank you--and, as far as
we know, is the only Fortune 100 company diversity officer with
a visible disability.
We welcome you.
Our final witness is Ms. Amelia Wallrich, a recent graduate
from the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, and a rising
first year law student at Northwestern University. Ms. Wallrich
has been in Costa Rica as a goodwill ambassador for Mobility
International USA, has served as an AAPD intern in Senator
Durbin's office, has worked on international student exchange
programs, and has been a campus leader in educational access
for students with disabilities.
So, again, I thank you both for being here. Your statements
will be made a part of the record in their entirety.
Ms. Dagit, we'll start with you. Welcome, and, again,
please proceed as you so desire.
STATEMENT OF DEBORAH DAGIT, VICE PRESIDENT AND CHIEF DIVERSITY
OFFICER, MERCK, WHITEHOUSE STATION, NJ
Ms. Dagit. Thank you very much. And thank you, Chairman
Harkin and Ranking Member Enzi, for having me here today and
allowing me to make this testimony.
I come to this conversation as a person who was born with
brittle bones, otherwise known as Osteogenesis Imperfecta. And,
as you said, I led ``Bridge to Jobs'', which was actually a
coalition of agencies, a private partnership with the public
sector. We were very proud of how many people we were able to
place. I also have been a vice president and chief diversity
officer in the private sector for 20 years now.
As a baby boomer, I attended school in the San Francisco
Bay Area in the 1960s and 1970s. And at that time, my mother
had to fight just to get me into public school. Today, as the
parents of three teens who all have various types of
disabilities, my husband, who's here with me today and also has
a disability, we can attest that parental advocacy is still
needed in our schools. Thankfully, it's not required to get
into school, but rather to make sure that our children are not
tracked away from competitive college and career preparation.
As parents, we must also continue to work to affirm that
our children's individual education plans are treated as
environmental enablers in their education instead of as
premature labels that stigmatize them and limit their
potential. Our schools must have high expectations of all
students, and in addition to high standards for academic
performance, school experience must include critical
socialization and work experiences for students with
disabilities.
There are three model programs that Merck actively sponsors
and engages with that I would recommend for all firms: the
Rutgers Future Scholars Program, Career Opportunities for
Students with Disabilities, and the U.S. Business Leadership
Network. All of these resources are highly effective and
provide students with the supports they need to prepare for
postsecondary education, transition to the workforce, and
become active participants in their communities. My written
testimony includes details about these, and I'd be happy to
provide more information.
In addition to external partnerships such as these,
companies that are really serious about fully including people
with disabilities in their workforce also need to make sure
that they have the right internal policies and practices in
place. For most companies, a major barrier to including people
with disabilities is that they need to move away from the
commonly held medical model that defines disability as some
sort of deficiency that is inherently negative to a model that
is more consistent with other aspects of how companies address
diversity in their workforce.
At Merck, we believe that for colleagues with disabilities
to be viewed like other underrepresented groups, it is
imperative to think about it through a social model that simply
defines disability as different from the majority and neutral
in the absence of additional context. Most importantly, it
identifies the primary agents of change as company
representatives and the person themselves.
Our social model is embodied in our Workplace Enablement
Program. Nora Velli and June Mills, our colleagues at Merck who
are here with me today--and they lead that program, which
provides work environment solutions for all employees with both
nonapparent and visible disabilities. This resource positively
impacts return to work after a health event and enhances
productivity for employees, their managers, and their peers
because they can quickly access accommodation solutions.
Like many of us in this room, I am experiencing various
changes associated with the aging process. In my case, that
means my bones are becoming more fragile. Last year, I fell and
broke both legs, which changed my needs so that I could still
be safe and productive at work. Due to this program, rather
than go on medical leave or retire early, I was able to quickly
obtain the accommodations I needed, like door openers and my
husband being able to accompany me on business, like this
hearing.
The barriers people with disabilities in this Nation face
are persistent and not subtle. As an example, a mere decade
ago, 10 years after the passage of the ADA, when the IT sector
in Silicon Valley began to shed many jobs, I decided to pursue
new opportunities in other industries, including healthcare,
finance, and retail. I interviewed with many Fortune 250
companies and was surprised and dismayed that despite my strong
resume, which included 10 years of experience as a successful
and well-regarded diversity leader, I was repeatedly rejected
as a candidate when they met me in person.
In one particularly memorable situation, after several
phone interviews, I was flown first-class to New York City, put
up in a five-star hotel, driven to the employer in a limousine,
and then upon meeting me, the recruiter for the company
canceled all the interviews. He explained that his firm was not
comfortable considering someone like me for the role. However,
given my subject matter expertise, he did wonder if I would be
open to them hiring someone else who had strong media and
government contacts but lacked diversity experience so that I
could support their success from behind the scenes.
Fortunately, shortly after this experience, I interviewed
at Merck, where I finally found the perfect match. At Merck, I
feel I am truly a partner in our mission to enhance and save
lives.
In closing, as parents, Dan and I know we can continue to
be strong advocates for our children in partnerships with the
schools they attend to make sure they are fully prepared to
compete for jobs in our country. But if they are to fully
contribute to this Nation as Americans with disabilities, I'm
going to need your help. I will not be the chief diversity
officer for the company they go to work for some day. And I am
counting on the people in this room to make sure the public
policy and legislative requirements are in place that not only
help the United States to be more competitive in the global
marketplace, but also ensure that my children are not
stigmatized, marginalized, or excluded from contributing to
their full potential. And I am at your service if I can help in
any way.
Thank you.
[The prepared statement of Ms. Dagit follows:]
Prepared Statement of Deborah Dagit
Chairman Harkin, Ranking Member Enzi and committee members, I am
honored to participate in this committee's examination of employment
opportunities and barriers for Americans with disabilities. I bring to
this discussion both my experiences as someone born with a visible
disability and my experiences in the business community as a human
resources professional and chief diversity officer.
I am a baby boomer, born in 1959 in San Francisco, CA at Letterman
Army Hospital. The doctor who delivered me told my terrified parents
that I had two broken femurs due to a brittle bones disease
(Osteogenesis Imperfecta), and that I would not likely live beyond age
2. He said that if I lived I would not walk or go to school. My parents
carried me home on a pillow afraid that they would cause a fracture
when feeding or caring for me. Although I would end up having more than
70 broken bones and 25 major surgeries to straighten and strengthen my
legs, I have been able to live a full and active life.
Starting in the second grade I was able to attend regular public
school. I went on to college and then entered graduate school for
clinical psychology. I worked full-time, and went to school at night--
still experiencing fractures now and again--but they were less
frequent, and I was able to live independently.
Upon graduation I wanted to apply my skills in a corporate setting,
but I faced many attitudinal challenges. Five different senior
corporate executives told me that I should stop applying for more
senior level positions. They felt I was ``lucky to have a job,'' and
should realize ``someone like me'' could not expect to be in a
leadership position.
In 1987, when the COBRA act took affect, I decided to try a new
strategy. COBRA created an opportunity for me. It allowed me to
maintain my health benefits while I founded and managed ``Bridge to
Jobs,'' a non-profit job placement agency for people with disabilities.
We were able to annually place approximately 400 people with
disabilities into meaningful employment. I learned from this experience
that many people with disabilities also belong to other disadvantaged
and/or under-represented groups including people of color, older
workers, veterans, and individuals living in poverty or are otherwise
economically challenged.
In 1990 my Congressman, Norm Mineta, asked me to assist with the
passage of a bill he was a key co-sponsor of in the House, the
Americans with Disabilities Act. After much hard work by many,
including the Chairman of this committee, I was honored to be there on
the White House lawn when President George Bush signed the ADA into
law.
After that historic day, I thought about how best to make sure this
legislation resulted in the intended outcome of ensuring that Americans
with disabilities can fully participate in our society. I quickly
realized the best place for me to affect change was back in the
corporate sector--creating sustainable replicable models for full
employment and inclusion of people with disabilities in the workforce.
In addition to my extensive business and corporate experience, I
also have a great deal of family experience. My husband Dan, who also
has a disability, and I have three children who are now teenagers. They
each have various disabilities, and we have learned much about the
contemporary challenges youth with disabilities face educationally,
socially, and in preparing for college and a career.
In my professional life, I have been a ``Chief Diversity Officer''
(CDO) for 20 years in three different companies. Being the only CDO
that I know with a visible disability, I have been honored to represent
both the business perspective and the needs of people with disabilities
in a variety of settings--including this important hearing. I have come
to understand the enablers and barriers to fully including people with
disabilities in the workforce. Today I would like to share my
recommendations from these experiences.
improving the lives of people with disabilities by moving to a social
model
I strongly believe that the foundation of any changes in our
current system needs to be rooted in moving our view of disability from
a medical model to a social model.
The medical model of disability is still prevalent in our country
as evidenced by the manner in which Americans with disabilities are
depicted through our language choices, media portrayals, fundraising
activities, and program eligibility requirements. People with
disabilities are routinely characterized as having some sort of
deficiency, that their condition is inherently negative and needs to be
ameliorated, and that the agent of remedy is some type of health
professional's intervention. In the employment sector, we may do the
most harm of all. Before individuals with disabilities are eligible for
supplemental security income (SSI) or social security disability
insurance (SSDI), they must declare they cannot work. This is the
ultimate example of a deficit model approach, and is bad policy if we
want individuals with disabilities to be part of the workforce.
A social model defines disability as different from the average,
neutral in the absence of additional context, and located in the
interaction between individuals and society. The remedy in the social
model is ensuring that the environment is accessible and that
attitudinal barriers are addressed. In this model there are multiple
individuals who might assist in this process, and self-assistance is
often the primary mechanism. There are signs that this model is
gradually emerging in our Nation's schools, programs, workplaces and
policies, but we need to accelerate this paradigm shift to effect
sustainable change and to ensure that individuals with disabilities are
fully included in all parts of society.
At Merck our philosophy about employees who have disabilities is
that they likely have strengths that offset and are linked to their
limitations. It is also likely that their limitations provide new
perspectives that support innovative thinking. We believe that living
life with some limits can hone skills and values that can enrich the
contributions employees can make. The inclusion of people with
disabilities in our workforce sets a tone, particularly in a health
care company, which improves the work environment for all. It
demonstrates a core principle, that better health care outcomes are
achieved when consumers are empowered decisionmakers that make informed
choices due to heightened health literacy and confidence. Diversity is
our Nation's strength and competitive advantage in the global economy.
We literally represent the world in one country, and if we could more
consistently harness the available knowledge and insight of diversity
of thought and experience through inclusive practices, we would be able
to develop and deliver more innovative solutions faster than any other
nation.
educational challenges
Schools are the source of our workforce, but as early as middle
school we are starting to lose talent in our country. Unfortunately for
students with disabilities there is all too often a crisis of low
expectations. While access to public education is better today than in
the past, often children with disabilities (mine included) are
``tracked'' away from college. While today's Individual Education Plans
(IEPs) help, it is important that they be set up to enable students to
attain the same academic standards as their peers, not just to pass
standardized testing. An IEP needs to be viewed as an environmental
enabler in our education system, much like a job accommodation in a
company. The IEP should promote access to rigorous curricula that will
enhance the opportunities for students with disabilities. It is
important that we have the same standards for young people with
disabilities. The tools available to access challenging curricula,
including modified instructional techniques, assistive technology and
accessibility as resources, will allow students with disabilities to
achieve outstanding educational goals. This is consistent with the
Elementary and Secondary Education Act expectations that are set forth,
and we should be holding schools accountable for the rigorous academic
achievement of students with disabilities.
One great program that is currently underway and is similar to the
U.S. Department of Education TRIO programs is the Rutgers Future
Scholars Program (RFSP). This intervention at grade seven identifies
disadvantaged youth, including young people with disabilities, and
offers them a variety of invaluable resources including:
The program focuses on building the Scholar's social
capital through collective efficacy. The RFSP is unique in that it
creates a pipeline of support from 7th grade through college graduation
(9-year continuum of support) providing academic year tutoring,
mentoring, cultural and career-readiness activities, and summer
learning cost free. Every year 200 Scholars are selected, and as of
2011 the program serves 800 students from across New Jersey. Lastly,
which makes this program extraordinary, every Scholar is promised a
tuition scholarship to study at Rutgers if they earn admission upon
graduating from high school.
Staff who work directly in the schools to obtain
additional information about selected students, such as their
Individual Education Plans. This informs the accommodations that are
provided for the students while they are in the program and enables
RFSP staff to maximize each scholar's multifaceted growth. All
accommodations are defined and progress is tracked through the creation
of an Academic Success Plan or Victory Plan. This is a key tool,
enabling RFSP to provide optimal learning and accessible environments
based on the students' strengths and challenges. As part of this
planning school partners, parents, and the Scholar him or herself are
included in the development of the plan.
The program's goal is to provide a wide variety of
promising students who are underrepresented in higher education with
the support needed to graduate from both high school and college. Thus,
the program focuses on the many dimensions of differences of the
scholars and provides support so the scholars can maintain a focus on
inclusion as well as fostering educational equity.
Public-private partnerships like the Rutgers Future Scholars and
the U.S. Department of Education's TRIO programs demonstrate that this
model of early support can have tremendous impact on students with
disabilities when they are included in the target population.
Once a student graduates from high school and begins their college
experience, a new set of challenges emerges. While there is frequently
some form of disabled student services on campus, designed to gain
access to accommodations and various types of academic support, student
career planning and placement centers are less accessible. Those career
planning and placement centers often direct students with disabilities
who are seeking employment advice back to the disabled student services
offices. Disabled Student Services office staff, while often very
qualified to provide accommodation for students while they are on
campus, often know very little about the career planning and placement
process and the labor markets in which students with disabilities might
be interested. This leaves students with disabilities without the type
of job placement resources that non-disabled students receive.
But there is a solution: Career Opportunities for Students with
Disabilities (COSD). In its 12th year, COSD is a network of over 1,200
colleges, universities and national employers in the private and public
sectors. They raise awareness regarding the unique challenges that
students with disabilities face and help with career placement. They
also encourage employers to specifically request access to students
with disabilities during campus recruiting activities, and inquire
whether or not the school coordinates their disability support services
and career placement programs. The employers' advocacy, combined with
information from COSD, leads more schools each year to adopt an
integrated approach to supporting students with disabilities as they
begin their job searches.
Every year, contemporary information, resources and training are
disseminated by COSD via conferences, summits and webinars to
professionals in both higher education and employers. The goal is to
enhance awareness of career development strategies and to foster best
recruiting practices of college students and recent graduates with
disabilities, including veterans. COSD Career Gateway provides direct
service to college students through a nationwide, online, no-charge job
posting and student resume database specifically designed for college
students and recent graduates with disabilities. Finally, COSD
coordinates ``Student Summits,'' regional networking events that bring
together up to 60 college students, veterans and recent graduates with
disabilities with employers in an intimate and relaxed setting to
network and get to know one another. The purpose is to help students
become more confident and be able to more positively present themselves
to employers. These summits also allow hiring managers to become more
comfortable interviewing students with disabilities in a no pressure
setting.
Other supports are needed to further the COSD model. For example,
grant funding is needed to establish Communities of Practice with
higher education institutions to identify the best method for each
campus to outreach to students with disabilities for career development
activities and to benchmark methods of collaboration between student
disability services and career planning and placement. In 2010, a
demonstration project, funded through the Medicaid Infrastructure
Grant, was conducted with nine higher education institutions in New
York State. The result was each campus identified their own unique
model programs integrating disability support service and career
placement services. These models were shared among the nine IHEs. A
more extensive communities of practice model using this approach could
be very helpful if it were replicated across the country.
In addition, research is needed to specifically identify the
barriers that prevent college graduates with disabilities from making a
direct transition to work. This research should be conducted by
disability categories to allow a more targeted plan to help students
with specific types of disabilities that have a significantly more
difficult time in finding career employment. This includes students
with psychiatric disabilities, intellectual disabilities, autism and
sensory disabilities (blindness and deafness). As you can see, COSD is
a great model for accessing college students with disabilities, but for
companies of all sizes to access candidates at all career levels,
additional partnerships are needed.
employment challenges
At Merck we collaborate with and support the US Business Leadership
Network (USBLN) where I am proud to serve as a board member. It is a
national disability organization that serves as the collective voice of
over 60 Business Leadership Network affiliates across North America,
representing over 5,000 employers. The USBLN helps build workplaces,
marketplaces, and supply chains where people with disabilities are
respected for their talents, while supporting the development and
expansion of its local BLN affiliates.
The membership of the USBLN believes that the following public
policy changes would expand the pool of job candidates and
entrepreneurs with disabilities:
establish appropriate affirmative action expectations for
people with disabilities as with other under-represented groups. We
also suggest there be an expansion of the census survey to include
questions that help bridge the gap between occupational information and
demographics inclusive of people with disabilities and veterans. For
those that are unemployed, we could leverage the educational attainment
tables to set more aggressive hiring goals. In the interim, it may be
worth establishing a percentage hiring goal for a location as the
available pool of talent with disabilities varies across the country
due to practical matters like access to public transportation and other
forms of infrastructure that are required.
evaluate the impact of developing a standardized
definition of disability across all Federal programs. The USBLN
believes that Federal agencies need to have better alignment about when
it is appropriate to ask about a disability and necessary
accommodations and supports; in addition, companies need to make the
self-disclosure process for employees with disabilities something that
is both easy to do (separate from requests for workplace
accommodations) and as risk-free as possible.
evaluate the impact of modernizing the Social Security
definition of disability by defining disability in a manner that
acknowledges the interaction between the person's disability and the
environment, and does not require the individual to prove their
inability to engage in substantial gainful activity.
create employer incentives to increase the availability of
effective workforce retention policies and programs to keep working
adults with newly diagnosed or recently exacerbated medical conditions.
develop financial incentives for businesses to provide
transportation subsidies for employees with disabilities.
promote international accessible design standards for
building environments, transportation vehicles, and information and
electronic technology.
create incentives for the parent and academic communities
to promote STEM careers for students with disabilities.
authorize research to collect hard data about the
discretionary spending power of people with disabilities, the actual
and potential employment pool of persons with disabilities, the
disability market share, and the long-term ability of people with
disabilities to retain employment.
authorize a comprehensive review of statutory and
regulatory authorities addressing procurement and acquisition of
Federal contracts and develop proposals for revisions, as necessary, to
insure increased utilization by, and awarding of contracts to,
disability-owned business enterprises.
The USBLN's flagship program is the Disability Supplier Diversity
Program (DSDP). DSDP is the Nation's first and only third party
certification program for disability-owned businesses and includes
service-disabled veterans. The certification is a rigorous process that
includes a site visit. It offers the Disability Owned Business
Enterprise the opportunity to market its certification and to connect
with USBLN member companies. The program advances economic
opportunities for all entrepreneurs with disabilities, by working with
America's top corporations to broaden corporate supplier diversity
programs to include disability-owned businesses. The ultimate goal of
the Disability Supplier Diversity Program is to develop and grow an
infrastructure that will foster a mutually beneficial relationship
between corporate purchasers and disability-owned businesses.
The business community needs research to effectively build the
business case to broaden corporate supplier diversity to include
disability-owned businesses. The research should:
identify the pool of entrepreneurs/potential suppliers
with disabilities;
identify barriers and facilitators experienced by
disability suppliers;
examine issues of capacity development, job creation,
effective relationships with corporations, and inform more targeted
capacity/business development for disability-owned businesses; and
identify facilitators and barriers to becoming a
successful supplier and coming to scale as a business, and working
effectively with corporations.
Once a company has successfully recruited people with disabilities,
the next step is to ensure full inclusion in their workforce and
workplace. At Merck we have a ``Workplace Enablement'' program that
provides supportive, productive and flexible work environment solutions
for employees with both non-apparent and visible disabilities. This not
only ensures we are fully compliant with regulations, but positively
impacts return to work after a health event, and enhances productivity
for employees, their managers and peers who can quickly access
appropriate accommodations solutions.
There are four key pillars in the program:
Inclusion messages that ensure the program is well
understood and easily accessed by employees, managers, and the human
resources community.
Linkages to our broader health and wellness initiatives to
ensure all employees are proactively engaged in our fit and healthy
efforts.
Ensuring full compliance with ADAAA and OFCCP guidance and
associated documentation requirements.
Training for managers to support confidence and capability
by addressing any concerns around language choices, accommodations, and
performance management; linking these efforts to the broader talent
objectives (e.g. retaining top talent after the advent of a health
challenge), the business case for disability inclusiveness, an overview
of the ADA Amendment, and some case scenarios to ``make it real.''
At Merck we also have evaluated other aspects of company life to
ensure full inclusion of people with disabilities:
We have created guidelines and checklists for ensuring
meetings are accessible and that accommodations are readily available
for travel, hotel requests, accommodations for presenters with a
disability, and dietary needs.
We have evaluated and addressed various access issues to
Merck facilities for both guests and employees to make sure our
environment is safe and welcoming.
We ensure that development opportunities, both virtual and
classroom, are accessible.
We routinely included closed-captioning during major
business meetings and make this service or sign language interpreters
available to colleagues upon request for smaller meetings.
We offer a variety of work/life tools and resources,
including ready access to flexible work arrangements, and a variety of
home health support through an external partner.
We include entrepreneurs with disabilities in our supplier
partner programs.
Merck has partnered with eSSENTIAL Accessibility, a
provider of a software-based service, to make online environments fully
accessible to individuals with physical disabilities.
Our desired outcome at Merck is that candidates and colleagues who
have a disability believe that ``Merck is always there for me. They
know that I am not defined by a disability, but by the contributions I
am able to make to my team's goals.''
Finally we have a very active Employee Resource Group for
colleagues with disabilities, caregivers and allies. The members of
this team have helped us to develop our approach, as outlined above, in
keeping with the social model of disability. The Employee Resource
Group has played a key role in executing our disability support and
diversity programs. We truly believe that our efforts to fully include
people with disabilities in our workforce will help Merck to achieve
our mission: to become the most trusted and valued healthcare company
to all people.
final recommendations
Prior to joining Merck in 2001, I interviewed with many Fortune 250
companies, most of them on the East Coast. I was surprised and dismayed
that despite my strong resume and 10 years of experience as a
successful and well-regarded diversity leader, I was repeatedly
rejected as a candidate and was explicitly told it was because of my
disability. In one particularly memorable situation, after several
phone interviews, I was flown to New York City for an interview. Upon
meeting me the recruiter cancelled all my other interviews. He
explained that the firm was not comfortable considering someone like me
for the role. However, given my subject matter expertise they wondered
if I would be open to working ``behind the scenes'' if they hired
someone with strong media and government contacts who did not have
diversity experience. Obviously, I declined the offer.
I am interested in contributing to society, and fortunately when I
interviewed at Merck, I found the perfect match. At Merck I feel I am
truly part of our mission to enhance and save lives by addressing unmet
medical needs. I believe I can have particular impact in under-served
communities. When I interviewed at Merck, their chief concern was
whether or not I was willing to relocate from California to New Jersey,
a move I have learned is not all that common in our country. Now having
served as a chief diversity officer for 20 years, I would offer the
following parting thoughts regarding full inclusion strategies for
people with disabilities:
Recommendation #1: Like many who identify as a person with
disability from a young age, I was told that I was ``special.''
Everything I was involved with was ``special.'' This included the
special school I attended for the first few years, the reason why the
local newspaper featured me regularly in the Sunday living section, the
wheelchair I used after a broken bone or surgery, the place where I
received healthcare, and the various adapted activities I engaged in--
all were ``special.'' Fifty years later, we still commonly use
``special'' to describe the ways our society thinks about people with
disabilities and the associated products, services, and activities we
use. The intent was and is to depict these things in a positive light.
The reality is that if you are special enough to be periodically
featured in the Living or Community section of your newspaper, whatever
health condition you are managing is the least of your worries. You
have now entered a world where people are either characterized by
society as ``poor souls'' who are dependent on others, or
``inspirational heroes'' who make those who don't have a disability
shake off their worries and say, ``If they can do X, (fill in the blank
activity), why then I should stop feeling sorry for myself and do more
with my life!''
Recommendation: Avoid the word special when referring to
programs, services, building, and other supports related to
disability. We have done a good job of eradicating
``handicapped,'' ``crippled,'' ``confined,'' ``afflicted,'' and
various other damaging words to describe people with
disabilities. Let's go the distance and work on this last word
that damages self esteem and sets people apart. For firms that
have a global footprint, they may want to consider adopting
``differently able'' or other country-specific language which
translates better than ``disability.'' Unfortunately
``disability'' in some languages translates as not valued or
less valued. It is also important to take the time to ask and
seek to understand how each sub-community of people with
disabilities prefers to be referred. For instance those with
hearing impairments prefer to be referred to as ``deaf,''
individuals who are of small stature, like my husband and I
prefer ``short-statured'' over ``midget,'' and people with
intellectual disabilities prefer ``developmental disabilities''
vs. ``mental retardation.'' Words matter.
Recommendation #2: Managers of people with disabilities sometimes
assume that everything is fine because the person with a disability who
works for them is not complaining, even if they have remained in an
entry level role for an extended period and are not interacting with
people outside of their immediate work area. These employees are highly
vulnerable to reductions in the workforce as their skills often become
dated and they are typically not visible to more senior leadership when
business decisions are made about layoffs and workforce reductions.
Recommendation: Make sure programs for individuals with
disabilities continue to enhance their job skill development
after the person is hired. Ensure managers continue to follow
the progress of people with disabilities once they join the
firm to ensure they are reaching their full potential to
contribute to the business. If people with disabilities are
languishing in entry level roles, find out why, even if they
are not complaining, and support them to grow and develop. If a
firm has low expectations, of anyone, those employees will
likely live up to those low expectations.
Recommendation #3: Caregivers should be considered. My husband Dan
and I both have disabilities ourselves, and are also caring for three
children with disabilities. We also care for my mother who is
challenged by various conditions. We are just as grateful for the
resources and supports that we have access to as caregivers as for the
workplace accommodations I have had available to me over the years. A
company's reward for addressing the needs of caregivers as part of
their corporation's disability strategy is more engaged employees who
are getting the support they need to care for a loved one so they can
focus at work. Examples of resources we provide along those lines at
Merck include elder care resource and referral, college planning
resources for parents of children with autism spectrum disorders, a
robust Employee Assistance Program, back-up child care, flexible work
arrangements and various internal networks for caregivers to exchange
ideas and resources.
There are some risks to focusing on the care-giving population as
part of an overall approach to addressing disability at work. The
``out'' caregiver population is usually much larger than people who are
willing to self-identify as having a disability. As a result the needs
of this group can over-shadow the needs of the individuals who are
differently able, and they do tend to be different. Caregivers are
often focused on how to help their loved one get the quality health
care and education-
related support they need. People with disabilities are focused on
career development, accommodations in the work environment, inclusion
in company social activities, and social justice/equality issues like
other under-represented populations in your workforce.
Recommendation: Combine the two groups to create a critical
mass for disability initiatives. Because there are some common
interests, this can help programs be sustainable and help
companies identify and train workplace ``allies'' who will
create momentum. Separate and clearly articulate the needs and
priorities of the two groups making sure that both are
experiencing visible and substantive progress towards their
most pressing concerns.
Recommendation #4: Companies should foster an environment where
people are comfortable with their disabilities. Then they are able to
more freely ask for what they need to be fully productive, engaged, and
included. It is useful to look to the lessons learned from the work
those of us in the field of diversity and inclusion have done in the
Lesbian Gay Bisexual and Transgender (LGBT) community, which faces many
similar challenges around being out at work:
Ensure benefits plans and flexibility policies are
equitable and accessible (e.g. eliminate pre-existing condition clauses
in medical plans, provide coverage for mental health support, manage
employees by objectives vs. face time).
Engage allies in the workplace, and provide them with the
language and tools of empowerment like ``differently able'' and
``wheelchair user.'' It was a big deal for the LGBT community when
company leaders could say those four words in the acronym. We need to
do the same for those who have been traditionally known as
``handicapped.'' Refer to this group in a manner that is empowering and
deserving of respect as colleagues and consumers vs. in the context of
philanthropy. Create ``safe space'' efforts where allies are available
as visible confidantes to interrupt misinformation and champion full
inclusion.
Make sure your business case is strong and well-
articulated for this population, which is well-represented both in the
labor pool and marketplace. LGBT and disability populations are very
similar in size and buying power.
Ensure that senior level leaders who have a disability are
visible as role models and have them address head-on the perceived
risks around being out and the importance of bringing all of who you
are to work.
Invite other Employee Resource Groups to support
disability efforts. Since all other groups include people with
disabilities there is a strong case to be made for everyone getting
involved in the efforts for this constituency. Remind your ERG members
that cultural differences can lead to additional challenges for people
who have a disability, and if we are to address the needs of this
population, as we have done with LGBT, we need to be courageous enough
to say out loud how these cultural norms compound the challenges people
with disabilities face.
Recommendation: Apply best practices and lessons learned from
LGBT advocacy work in addressing needs of employees who are
differently able.
Recommendation #5: With the current conflicts in the Middle East
and the many service men and women who are returning with both hidden
and visible disabilities, there is a new call to action we must meet.
The military is looking for corporate partners to help them in
supporting veterans who are transitioning back to civilian life. Now
more than ever it is important that we invest time and effort in
understanding the transferrable skills that these men and women learned
during their service and how they might be applied in our industries.
We also need to educate ourselves in the various hidden disabilities
that are all-too-prevalent in this population including post-traumatic
stress disorder, traumatic brain injuries, and various other chronic
health conditions that are the result of the extreme and dangerous duty
they lived through.
Recommendation: Develop partnerships with military leadership
to understand and transition returning veterans. At Merck we
have formed a Veteran's leadership network that is made up of
about 500 men and women from all branches of the military who
have informed our outreach, recruitment, accommodation, and
inclusion efforts in a manner that is respectful, sensitive,
and credible. We are encouraged by the enthusiasm of our Merck
veterans who are applying their can-do spirit to the challenges
associated with matching returning veterans with our job
opportunities.
I feel very fortunate to have had several people in my work life
who gave me the opportunity to demonstrate that I am differently able.
Their names and faces are always with me. I know how important it is to
evaluate a person with a disability to determine what they are capable
of and what they have not yet demonstrated. We should all strive to be
that person who sees what is possible.
Since the Americans with Disabilities Act was signed into law 20
years ago many things have changed, but I think we can all agree that
we have not yet achieved the vision of economic empowerment and
meaningful employment for people with disabilities that we all dreamed
of that day on the South Lawn of the White House. As we near this
milestone anniversary let's celebrate the laudable successes, and
redouble our efforts to address unemployment and under-employment of
people with disabilities.
In closing, as parents, my husband and I know we can continue to be
strong advocates for our children in partnership with the schools they
attend to make sure they are fully prepared to compete for jobs in our
country. But if they are to fully contribute to this Nation as
Americans with disabilities, we will need your help.
I will not be the chief diversity officer for the company they go
to work for some day, and I am counting on the leadership of our
country to make sure that public policy and legislative efforts are in
place that not only help the United States to be more competitive in
the global marketplace, but also ensure my children are not
stigmatized, marginalized or excluded from contributing to their full
potential.
I am at your service if I can help in any way.
The Chairman. Thank you very much for your testimony and
for being here. And now we'll go to Ms. Wallrich.
Welcome. Please proceed.
STATEMENT OF AMELIA WALLRICH, LAW STUDENT, NORTHWESTERN
UNIVERSITY, FRANKFORT, IL
Ms. Wallrich. Thanks. Good morning, Senator Harkin, Senator
Enzi, and Senator Casey. Thank you very much for the
opportunity today. It's an incredible honor not many people of
my age have the chance to take part in.
I'm also particularly indebted to this committee. I grew up
in the generation that had the benefits of the Americans with
Disabilities Act and the IDEA, and many of the opportunities
and my successes come from the protections of this law. So I
thank the committee and, in particular, Senator Harkin, for
your tireless leadership in continually pushing our community
forward and making sure we have continual access.
I'm also incredibly indebted to my fellow witnesses who
served as role models and definitely pushed these laws forward
so that future generations would have so many more
opportunities. And we're doing our best to make the most of
them.
As you've read in my testimony, I grew up with a rare
genetic bone disorder that causes limitation in the joints. So
my hands and feet are basically frozen in their positions, and
my knees, elbows, and shoulders have limited movement. I'm able
to walk and stand for short periods of time, but mostly I use a
motorized scooter to get around. I use other accommodations in
school and the workplace when I have to do a lot of writing or
typing, and at home I use devices for putting on my shoes,
turning on lights, so that I can live independently.
One of the unique perspectives I guess I can add is that I
am the ADA generation. ADA is 21 this year. I'm 22. So I had so
many of the opportunities because of this act. I did not have
to fight to have access to school, which was very fortunate,
because I love school. But I did, as you said, need a lot of
parental advocacy to make sure that I was continually part of
the learning environment.
I am very fortunate that I have a very assertive mother who
continually pushed and advocated on my behalf with school
officials, making sure that I wasn't placed into a special ed
classroom, that I had access to advanced courses, that I had
access to aids that helped teach me self-advocacy skills so
that I did not have to rely on an adult or a school official to
tell teachers about my needs. I could talk to them myself, and
that was hugely instrumental in not only my transition to
secondary education, but to higher education, and now on to law
school.
But also in the workforce, when I get a job, I'm not going
to bring my mother with me to my interview to sit next to me
and tell them about me and my disability. I'm going to be there
on my own, saying,
``Yes, I can do a fantastic job, but I need a little
help. Maybe you can not put me in the office at the top
of four flights of stairs, and you could have a nice,
strong intern carrying the heavy boxes.''
These were very, very key, and a lot of students with
disabilities--I wish sometimes I could clone my mother. Maybe
I'd like to add a little caveat to that. I'm definitely not
showing her this testimony so she doesn't hear that.
But she was great in the sense that she never wanted me to
be dependent. She wanted to stay out of my way so that I could
do what I wanted. But she was very aware that she needed to
teach me how to speak for myself so I could go out into the
world. And I think that self-advocacy training is still a big
part of the job transition and the school transition that is
overlooked.
It is great that we have all these resources. But we need
to learn how to get those resources on our own. And that's
where I had the huge benefit, not only in school but also in
structured internship programs, to be able to have role models
with disabilities that said, ``Well, this is how it works in
the workforce; this is how you can present your disability so
your employer will understand,'' and having resources to kind
of bounce ideas off of or places to go when I have questions on
how to further my career and how to resolve issues with
disabilities.
The last thing I want to say is, as you're considering
legislation, you should keep youth with disabilities at the
forefront. As the ADA generation, we grew up with the
expectation that we would have high successes, and we really
expect those to be met in the laws that you guys are making.
And as you're considering broad education and employment
legislation, youth with disabilities should be included with
those, not an afterthought. We should be at the forefront,
because we matter as well. And we're more than capable of being
strong and hard workers to contribute to our economy and our
society.
Thank you.
[The prepared statement of Ms. Wallrich follows:]
Prepared Statement of Amelia Wallrich
First, I would like to thank Chairman Harkin, Ranking Member Enzi,
and the other committee members for the opportunity to speak today. As
a young person with a disability, just beginning my career, it is an
incredible honor to be able to share with you a little about my
employment and educational experiences and my hopes for the future.
My name is Amelia Wallrich, I am 22 years old, and am from
Frankfort, IL, a small suburb of Chicago. I was born with a rare
genetic bone disorder, called Torg Syndrome. I am one of a handful of
people in the world with this disorder, and doctors are still
researching its root causes, treatments, and the way the disorder
progresses. The disease works by causing inflammation in the joints,
when a joint becomes inflamed I experience extreme pain and a loss of
full movement in those joints. The inflammation has resulted in
weakened bones and limited movement in almost every joint. My hands and
feet are basically frozen in their positions, and my knees, elbows, and
shoulders are limited in their movements. I was 13 months old at the
disease's onset, and it has steadily progressed, affecting more joints,
as I aged. Because the disorder is so rare, treatment is more of an art
than a science, and doctors are unsure how the disorder will progress
and affect me in the future. Doctors have tried to slow its progression
with intensive physical therapy, various drug therapies, and most
recently surgery.
In my day-to-day life, my disability affects how I move. I am able
to walk and stand for short periods of time, but mostly I use a
motorized scooter. I have difficulty with tasks requiring fine motor
skills, for example I write and type more slowly than the average
person. Therefore, in the academic setting I use extended time on tests
and note taking services. At home, I use devices for putting on my
shoes, opening jars, even turning on lights. Additionally, I struggle
with unexpected ``flare ups,'' where any type of movement becomes too
painful, and I require assistance with basic tasks.
My goal through this testimony is to share my experiences in
preparing for the workforce. In doing so, I hope to highlight some of
the obstacles facing young people with disabilities seeking employment
and some ways these obstacles can be eliminated or minimized. As you
will see, I benefited greatly from mentorships, self-advocacy and
leadership training, structured internships, and an inclusive
educational environment that understood as a young person with a
disability I required a customized approach to integrate into the
workforce.
expectations
As young people, we often rise to the expectations society sets for
us, whether positive or negative. At a basic level, society needs to
learn to have higher expectations for youth with disabilities. Youth
with all types of disabilities should be expected to be successful in
school, to be permanently employed, and to be active, contributing
members of their communities. Higher expectations are a basic
foundation for any other supports for people with disabilities. To meet
these expectations, youth with disabilities need the same access to
opportunities to grow and develop as any young person, but customized
to their specific abilities. The path to permanent employment for
people with disabilities should include:
customized support in job seeking and career preparation
services;
self-advocacy training that teaches youth how to manage
and accommodate their specific disability in the workplace;
leadership training to compliment self-advocacy skills;
opportunities to gain work-related experience through
internships and community service activities that allow youth with
disabilities to explore their talents and gain new skills in a
supportive environment; and
access to an inclusive education that teaches youth with
disabilities skills that are marketable in the workforce.
Every person with a disability will have different strengths,
different needs, and access to different resources, but the important
thing is that every person with a disability is capable of being a
contributing and valued member of the community. Society and employers
should be flexible in bringing out the many talents of youth with
disabilities and in making accommodations.
A little bit more about my background, I graduated from Lincoln-Way
East High School in Frankfort, IL in 2007 in the top 3 percent of my
class. I attended the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, where
I majored in English and Political Science, graduating in December 2010
cum laude. In August, I will begin law school at Northwestern
University. Eventually, I plan to become a lawyer working in disability
rights advocacy. I have an older sister who lives and works in
Switzerland as a stock trader and analyst. My mother works as a
Community Development Director in local government and my stepfather is
an instructional designer for food safety training. I benefited greatly
from my parents hard work, both are highly educated and work to offer
their children every possible advantage in life. From the time I began
preschool, my mother constantly battled to ensure I had the same
opportunities as everyone else and never let anyone use my disability
as an excuse to hold me back.
I wish I could say the experiences I will share with you are
typical for youth with disabilities, but too often they are the
exception. In part, much of my relative success has been due to the
expectations set by my parents that pushed me to seek out opportunities
that would make me competitive in the workforce. It was never a
question that I would graduate college, attend law school, get a job,
and eventually provide for my own family. My parents' expectations were
the same for my sister and I; my disability did not diminish these
expectations, it just changed the way I went about achieving my goals.
My family's expectations helped me form the expectations I have for
myself. These expectations are the basis for all my goals and give me
confidence in pursuing new opportunities.
I experienced both high and low expectations from teachers during
my educational career. Those with high expectations offered the most
support in accommodating my disability and ensuring I was a full
participant in the classroom. They were flexible and open to helping me
make the most of my abilities. Teachers with low expectations were
predictably less supportive. I had to work twice as hard in those
classrooms to have the same basic access to learning, and often needed
to continually educate these teachers about my disability and remind
them of my accommodation needs. Often this resulted in my spending more
time trying to accommodate my disability than learning. During college,
I found much more consistent support because high expectations and
equal access for students with disabilities is a large part of the
campus culture and history at the University of Illinois at Urbana-
Champaign. The disability services department works on behalf of the
student to set up all accommodations, and students with disabilities
are active in all aspects of campus life--from Student Senate, to Greek
life, to adapted athletics. This type of culture meant I was able to
focus fully on working towards my goals and had access to a variety of
specialized resources to help me throughout my education and in seeking
work experience for future employment.
In the workplace, when employers had high expectations of me, I was
given more responsibilities and thus more opportunities to learn new
skills. When employers expected very little of me, it was a struggle to
receive meaningful projects. With my first internship at Odelson &
Sterk, a law firm in Evergreen Park, IL, my boss, Burt Odelson,
expected me to attend law school and someday be a practicing attorney,
so he gave me a variety of projects to introduce me to the work of a
lawyer and to help develop my research and writing skills.
access to opportunities
In addition to high expectations, I received support in reaching my
goals through opportunities to job shadow, perform internships, and
hold part-time jobs. I was lucky that my mother worked outside the home
in local government and was therefore able to provide me with a range
of job shadowing opportunities and introductions. Beginning in junior
high, I participated in job shadowing programs in the local government,
where a group of students were able to observe the work of local
leaders, ask them questions about their careers, and learn about the
education and experience needed to attain these positions. Both of my
parents also participated in ``Take Your Daughter to Work Days''
throughout junior high and high school where I had the chance to
observe a typical day in a professional setting. This allowed me to
observe and understand more about workplace cultures, how meetings are
conducted, how employees interact with each other and their bosses, and
more basically what is expected of an employee on a day-to-day basis.
These job-shadowing opportunities provided me with connections and
confidence to find part-time jobs during high school to further develop
my resume. My first job was as a receptionist in a local bank. Finding
employment through family and community connections made it much easier
for me to transition into the workforce because I did not have to
figure out how to ``break the ice'' about my disability, my boss
already knew me and any accommodations I might need. This allowed me to
worry less about managing my disability in the workplace and instead
focus on learning professional skills. Through my job as a receptionist
at the bank and later as a receptionist at a real estate agency, I
learned how to interact professionally with customers on the phone and
in person, communicate with my supervisors and coworkers in a
professional setting, and a variety of other soft skills like using fax
machines and copier machines, clerical work such as filing and typing,
dressing professionally, and managing a work schedule. Having part-time
jobs during high school was also important for building a competitive
resume for college admissions. Additionally, it provided me with
references and helped me develop a professional reputation for seeking
internships in the future.
Having a job also taught me important independent living skills
related to finances. When I started earning a paycheck, I opened a
savings and checking account, and my parents taught me how to balance
my checkbook, create a budget, and plan for future expenses. These
basic skills started teaching me about responsibility and gave me a
preview of adult life.
The next step in my preparation for permanent employment was
seeking an internship. Too many students with disabilities do not seek
out internships because they do not have access to supports to show
them how to disclose their disability in a work environment or how to
seek accommodations. Additionally, if there are low expectations of a
student with disability in an educational setting, it is unlikely a
mentor will push a student with a disability to seek an internship, job
shadowing opportunity, or part-time job to further develop their work-
related experience. I received guidance from my parents, my
University's disability services department, and a structured
internship program for people with disabilities on the importance of an
internship and how to manage my disability in the workplace.
As mentioned, at my first internship at Odelson & Sterk I was
fortunate to have a boss who cared a lot about my success and was
flexible as I learned how I would need to accommodate my disability in
a professional setting. He continually checked in to see how I was
navigating the office and introduced me to a wide range of jobs and
experiences. He gave me meaningful work so I could gain a holistic view
of a lawyer's job. He pushed me to speak with the various attorneys' in
the office so I could hear many different perspectives and get advice
from a variety of sources. Successfully completing an internship in my
field of interest raised the expectations I had for myself and renewed
my confidence in seeking permanent employment as a lawyer. More
importantly, the internship taught me the practical skills needed to
reach my career goals and showed me the steps I would need to take in
working towards these goals. This internship experience was essential
for developing a professional network that helped me build a stronger
resume and provided professional references that helped me seek even
more competitive internships and eventually apply to law school.
After my junior year of college, I participated in a structured
internship program geared towards mentoring students with disabilities
through the American Association of People with Disabilities (AAPD).
This internship program provided training on self-advocacy in a
professional setting. Through the program I was a congressional intern
in Senator Durbin's office. This internship was the first job I held
without the assistance of family or community connections, which meant
I was responsible for communicating information about my disability and
any accommodations I would need. AAPD's assistance was key in helping
me navigate this new arena, they asked questions about my disability
and necessary accommodations that helped me frame how I was going to
communicate any issues with the Senator's office. Furthermore, they
know a lot about the work environment on Capitol Hill and were able to
give me advice about where I should go for assistance for disability-
related concerns. AAPD also served as a resource for the Senator's
office on how to create an inclusive environment for an intern with a
disability.
Through job shadowing, part-time jobs, and internship experiences I
gained more confidence in defining my career goals, but more
importantly I learned skills to help me work towards these goals. I
learned what is expected of an employee and how I can meet those
expectations. I have steadily taken on more and more of the
responsibilities of living independently as an adult as a result of
these work experiences; and I have immense satisfaction in being a
valued and contributing member of society.
supports
I was able to gain access to various educational and employment
opportunities, and perform successfully in these settings, because of
the support of mentors and accommodations. Through family connections I
had access to various types of lawyers and a local judge whom I could
seek advice from and ask career-related questions. These mentors
provided guidance on what I should study during college, the importance
of internships, and even on beneficial extracurricular activities.
Through my internship with AAPD I gained access to mentors with
disabilities, mentors active in the disability community, and peer-to-
peer mentors. These mentors were able to offer me valuable perspectives
on living successfully and independently with a disability. They
further offered examples and strategies of how to request
accommodations and even on specific accommodations that could make me
more successful in the workplace. I continue to use these mentors as a
resource in goal setting and working towards career goals.
I need fewer accommodations in the work setting than in the
classroom, in part because I have benefited from the support of
flexible employers and mentors who worked with me to design projects
that would allow me to use my talents and abilities. Some of the basic
accommodations I have used are flexible work times/the ability to work
from home, limiting work tasks that required heavy lifting, and a place
to park my scooter when not in use. In the future, I may make use of
more assistive technology, such as speak-to-write programs that would
alleviate the need for long hours of typing.
self-advocacy and leadership training
Finally, self-advocacy and leadership training will further prepare
youth with disabilities for permanent employment by teaching them how
to communicate effectively about their disabilities and accommodation
needs, while giving them confidence to find ways of using their talents
and contributing to their community. Self-advocacy takes a lot of
practice and the continued support of people who understand a person's
specific disability and accommodation needs. During grade school and
junior high my mother met with teachers and school officials on a
regular basis to educate them about my disability and the
accommodations I would need to have equal access to the classroom. She
included me in these conversations and continually pushed me to
advocate for myself, showing me how to communicate about my disability
with teachers and which school officials to go to if I encountered
problems. I also benefited from having the same disability resource
aide/teacher from 3d grade through my graduation from high school,
which helped with transitions between schools. Like my mother, she made
self-advocacy a top priority, so by the time I reached high school I
was able to communicate with my teachers and request disability
accommodations on my own, only using her or school counselors when I
met resistance. In college and in the workplace, therefore, I was more
comfortable communicating independently about my disability and my
accommodation needs because I had experience doing so in high school,
and I knew where to look if I had questions about ways I could be a
better self-advocate.
Moreover, the leadership training I received from community service
and extracurricular activities reinforced my advocacy skills. I tried a
variety of activities during high school, but focused most of my energy
towards Student Council, Speech Team, and Key Club (a community service
organization). I learned to work with my fellow students to make
improvements to the school and compete in tournaments; my involvement
in Student Council led to leadership positions on the executive board
and eventually president. In college, I was largely involved in Student
Senate and an international student organization called AIESEC, where I
was a member of the executive board and the head of two committees. My
experiences in high school and college taught me how to work in a
collaborative environment, how to conduct efficient meetings, and even
how to speak in front of large groups. These skills taught me
leadership qualities to be a better self-advocate, and also provided me
with marketable skills when I sought internships and other employment
opportunities. I was able to be a fully participating member of all of
these activities because there was a basic respect for my disability,
and a willingness to make necessary adjustments to allow me to
participate.
conclusion
As you can see I benefited greatly from a variety of resources as I
worked towards my career goals. The biggest resource was my parents'
expectation of my success, which pushed me to work hard and seek out
opportunities where I could use my talents. Their expectations and
support helped me make use of employment, educational, and leadership
opportunities. While my experiences are limited to my specific physical
disability, the lessons apply to the entire disability community.
People with all types of disabilities--intellectual, learning, sensory,
physical, and mental health--can be permanently employed if there is a
customized approach to their development and a basic willingness to
support the growth of their talents and abilities. These approaches
need to include access to an inclusive educational environment, self-
advocacy and leadership training, mentorships, and opportunities to
gain work-related experiences and skills.
As you address major employment and education legislation, I hope
you will keep the specific needs of youth with disabilities at the
forefront. My experience shows that youth with disabilities are more
than willing to work hard if given the proper resources and support to
succeed. There are resources out there for the disability community,
but they need to expand so they work across systems and disability
groups to reach more individuals. As it is, permanent employment for a
person with any type of disability is still too often the exception
rather than the norm because many in the disability community do not
have access to the same resources I did. Access to a lot of these
resources comes down to funding. Programs that contribute to the growth
and development of youth with disabilities need adequate funding to
ensure youth with disabilities have a good start to their lives and can
become contributing members of society. The disability community has so
much to offer as members of the workforce and members of society, but
we need help breaking down barriers to our full participation.
I would like to thank the committee again for the opportunity to
share my experiences and speak on such an important topic; it has been
a great honor.
The Chairman. Well, Ms. Wallrich, thank you very much for a
very profound statement. I left a couple of things out in my
introduction of you, that you were a December 2010 graduate cum
laude with a 3.84 GPA, on the dean's list five out of six
semesters, university's James Scholar Honor Program. That's
quite an accomplishment.
Ms. Wallrich. I didn't sleep much during my undergraduate--
--
The Chairman. The most important thing, though, that I
wanted to focus on was your senior thesis was entitled ``Harry
Potter and the War over Normal.'' And I happen to be a big
Harry Potter fan. I've read all the books. I've listened to Jim
Dale's tapes. I haven't seen the latest movie yet. But--
Ms. Wallrich. Midnight tonight.
The Chairman. Would you please get me your thesis so I can
read it?
Ms. Wallrich. Definitely. I had a hard time getting it
approved at first, because English majors sometimes like to be
a little bit pretentious and only want you to talk about Jane
Austin or Charles Dickens. But I feel like my thesis has been
the most useful. I've had it brought up in every interview I've
ever had, and it's been a great avenue for explaining
disability to people who have no familiarity with the
disability world, because everybody has some familiarity with
Harry Potter.
The Chairman. Well, I haven't read it, but just from the
title of it, I have kind of a perception of what it's about,
having read all the books and being a big fan of Harry
Potter's. I'd like to read it. You'll get that to me, right?
Two things, Ms. Dagit. Let me get back here to your
testimony. There was something here that I wanted to especially
focus on.
What you talked about:
``The medical model of disability is still prevalent
in our country as evidenced by the manner in which
Americans with disabilities are depicted through our
language choices, media portrayals, fundraising
activities, and program eligibility requirements.
People with disabilities are routinely characterized as
having some sort of deficiency and that their condition
is inherently negative and needs to be ameliorated, and
that the agent of remedy is some type of health
professional's intervention.''
You go on:
``Before individuals with disabilities are eligible
for SSI or SSDI, they must declare they cannot work.
This is the ultimate example of a deficit model
approach and is bad policy if we want individuals with
disabilities to be a part of the workforce.''
Could you develop that a little bit more, because I think
you're onto something there, and it's a mindset that we've
tried to change through education. And you talk about people
that--when you came to work, and they saw you, they said--well,
maybe you didn't fit in or something like that. I've seen that
so many times.
But those of us who have been here a long time--when we
started with IDEA--and I remember when my daughters were young
and in school, and the first child that came into class with a
disability--I just remember that so well. And I remembered as
they went through school, the good thing about it was not just
for the kids with disabilities to be mainstreamed, but the kids
without disabilities to be able to associate and to grow up
together, to play together, to associate, so that when they
entered the workforce, it was not a big deal to be working next
to someone with a disability.
Well, that's back in the 1970s. And so we've come all this
way. I'm just somewhat surprised, I guess, or dismayed--I don't
know what--to find that these attitudes are still out there,
even though we've had pretty much full integration and
mainstream kids with disabilities in our schools for all these
years.
Ms. Dagit. Right.
The Chairman. So how do we start overcoming this medical
model?
Ms. Dagit. I think that's a great question. And I think
part of the challenge is that the decisionmakers for jobs are
not in that generation. They're not in Amelia's generation, and
they're not often yet the business owners that are deciding who
to hire. And so we need to work on attitudes with people who
didn't grow up with peers who had a disability.
There was a public service announcement. I always forget
the name of it. But there's a woman rolling through a
workplace, and she's noting all the oddities and peculiarities
about the people that work with her. And they don't have a
disability, but they like to play with the copier or they dress
odd or something like that. I think public service
announcements help.
I can also tell you that we really need to encourage the
media to do a better job of portraying people with
disabilities. Unfortunately, for better or for worse, reality
shows have helped a lot. My husband and I joke about the fact
that there's a reality TV show that's been very popular for
years called ``Little People, Big World'' that are two short-
statured parents and their kids. And although we don't look
anything like them, we frequently get asked for their
autograph.
What it's really helped with is that people exposed to
individuals with disabilities in positive media portrayals that
are not on the Sunday Living section and designed to make
people cry and say, ``There but for the grace of God go I'' but
instead are talking about some of the successes that have been
noted by this panel and just talk about them as business owners
and as regular, everyday people. I think the more exposure
people get to seeing a person with a disability doing normal,
everyday things will help a lot.
For employers, I can tell you that what we also do, very
briefly, is something called Just in Time Training. It was put
together through Cornell University. It's very inexpensive. It
would be accessible, Senator Enzi, to the constituents in
Wyoming, and it's not at all expensive. And it has different
modules, so it's getting ready to interview. It's
accommodation. It's using the proper language. So there are
really great no-cost and low-cost resources out there that can
help baby boomers who didn't grow up with someone with a
disability in their classroom get new knowledge and new
language and feel more confident.
The Chairman. As you know, we have the provision of
reasonable accommodations. We've had a pretty good history of
that--court cases and things like that--we have a good
background on what is expected of employers for reasonable
accommodations. Do you think that employers, by and large,
understand that? And are they cognizant enough of what they
need to do to provide those reasonable accommodations? Tell us
about Merck. I mean, for example, what did Merck do?
Ms. Dagit. Well, we were looking at it through a variety of
lenses. One, we wanted to make sure that when someone requested
an accommodation for a disability, whether it was the
individual themselves or their manager, that we responded very
quickly and appropriately. And, as Kathy said, it's a
productivity tool.
There's a real financial enabler for this, for any business
of any size. If you can help people be safer so they don't end
up becoming injured at work, if you can return people to work
more quickly after the advent of a health condition, and if you
can avoid having people go on public assistance, it saves a lot
of money and allows valuable talent to stay in your workforce
if they have a health event or challenge.
At Merck, what we did is we simply put in a 1-800 number
and advertised it very broadly and said, ``If you have a
question or a need about accommodation, here's the number to
call, and we guarantee you that we'll respond in no more than
14 days.'' In most cases, we could do it within 24 to 48 hours,
because most of them are simple. But for things that take
longer, like some of the requests I've needed to make with door
openers, they've got to order it and install it.
I think an employer of any size can do this. It's pretty
rare, if you go to the Job Accommodation Network and look at
all the accommodations provided, for them doesn't cost very
much at all. And, often, they can be gotten from public
agencies like the vocational rehab.
The Chairman. I've gone way over my time. I have to yield
to Senator Enzi. But on reasonable accommodations, about the
door openers, we have found that in many cases, the reasonable
accommodations provided for a person with a disability actually
helps everybody.
Ms. Dagit. Right.
The Chairman. Not just the person with a disability. It
helps productivity. It helps people move around better, have
better accessibility, that type of thing. Has that been your
experience?
Ms. Dagit. Excellent point.
The Chairman. Thanks.
Senator Enzi.
Senator Enzi. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
And, Ms. Wallrich, I think you're going to make a fantastic
attorney. I don't say that about many people.
Ms. Wallrich. Thanks.
Senator Enzi. I always try to encourage them to go into
accounting.
Ms. Wallrich. Oh, my sister's the one good at math, not me.
Senator Enzi. Oh. But both you and Ms. Dagit spoke about
how the individual education plan, the IEP process, was
particularly instrumental in your education experience, and
that you valued the inherent inclusiveness of IEPs. Although
IDEA authorization is further down the road, what
recommendations can you provide relative to that IEP process
for the committee to consider? And I'd ask that of Ms. Dagit,
too.
Ms. Wallrich. Well, really, it's more about a culture. I
mean, IEPs--you have maybe an annual review, and you sit in the
room with your teachers, the head of the special education
department, and your physical therapist and your resource aid.
And everybody talks about, ``OK. What accommodations do you
need next year? Did you have any problems this year? '' It's a
once-a-year thing, whereas a lot of people with disabilities--
you're going to encounter different issues every day.
And, you know, for me, particularly, my disability can
change unexpectedly. So I think the IEP is a good basis for
starting a conversation on what is going to be needed in the
classroom. But it also serves as a nice, formalized process to
fall back on when you have teachers that are resistant or just
not getting it, basically.
I had great success at the University of Illinois, because
they just have a fantastic disability resources department.
It's world renowned. It was started right after World War II
when a lot of veterans were coming back with disabilities. And
the whole culture there is preparing students for the next
step. It's not about just getting through day-to-day life,
making sure that you have a note taker in class or that you
have extended time on tests. It's about, how are you going to
use your classroom experience to go to the workforce.
There needs to be a concentration on that transition,
because that's where a lot of people start to fall through the
cracks--is because maybe you do really well in the classroom,
and then you graduate high school and you don't know what to do
next. You don't have that day-to-day place to go for a
resource.
At University of Illinois, you know, I'm still in touch
with my disability services advisor. We're friends on Facebook,
and she asks how I'm doing, if I need help transitioning my
accommodations to law school. And, you know, the services
department there is so big, it has its own building. And she
asks--she continually sends out job announcements and asks how
I'm doing during a summer program--that I know I have that
constant support, even if I am not physically on campus. Or now
that I'm an alumna, I know that they care about my development
and my transition to the next step, so that I can start out the
strongest possible at each step.
It's hard to catch up once you get in a place and there
hasn't been that attitude or culture of, OK, we're going to
work to bring out your abilities. We know we're going to have
to do that a little differently than perhaps we do with a
student without a disability. I think there needs to definitely
be a lot of focus on the transition, because that's the place
where you find a lot of setbacks.
Ms. Dagit. I would agree with everything that Amelia said
and--so I'm speaking as a parent. But I would say that my
concern with IEPs is twofold. One, it seems to be primarily
aimed at students performing sufficiently well on standardized
tests rather than getting them ready for competitive
employment. And it also can be quite stigmatizing, depending on
how it's handled, because the students are actually tracked in
some cases when they have an IEP and are not seen as college-
bound.
And so that's a really huge problem, just that whole
attitude of what an IEP is for. An IEP should be for people to
reach their full potential and with the end result in mind that
they are going to be able to fully participate. And that means
that it should also include support to participate in
socialization. When I was in school, I was student body
president. I was in the Model United Nations. I competed in
public speaking. And, like Amelia, I had a really strong mom.
It was A's or nothing.
I liked the socialization aspect, because I spent a lot of
time in the hospital, and when I got out of that kind of--what
I thought of as incarceration and I got to go to school, I
really loved to do the social aspects. And if I look back at
what prepared me to work, it was public speaking skills. It was
directing plays. It was understanding Model United Nations. I
don't see IEPs encouraging students to do that.
I do think the Rutgers Future Scholars Program, which
starts at seventh grade and is a whole person approach, is a
great model, as well as to the point that Amelia made, Career
Opportunities for Students with Disabilities, where the career
placement office and the disabled student services partner to
help the student get ready for employment. And that can be
replicated on any campus of any size.
Senator Enzi. I want to thank you both. I've used up all my
time, too. But you've just been a wealth of information on
this, and I hope that we can--as we get into the actual
drafting of the legislation, we can count on both of you as a
resource on that, too--phenomenal, phenomenal information. I do
have a whole list of other questions, and I would submit some
questions to you in writing, too. If you'd be so kind as to
answer those, I'd appreciate it.
Ms. Dagit. Absolutely.
Senator Enzi. Thank you.
The Chairman. Thank you, Senator Enzi.
Ms. Wallrich, can I just come back to you a second here?
You talked a lot about in your written testimony--and you
mentioned it also here, too, verbally--about expectations. You
said here in your testimony,
``As young people, we often rise to the expectations
society sets for us, whether positive or negative. At a
basic level, society needs to learn to have higher
expectations for youth with disabilities.''
And then you go on to talk about some other things here
that would lead to that.
Who was it that said something about IEPs--or the testing,
because we're involved in redrafting the ESEA right now--and
this whole idea of testing but not preparing people for
competitive employment. Who brought that up--who said that?
Was that you, Ms. Dagit?
Ms. Dagit. Yes.
The Chairman. Tell me more about that. What did you mean by
that?
Ms. Dagit. The IEP--the way it's measured in terms of
whether or not it's being successful is the proficiency on the
standardized testing. They don't have the IEP with a goal of,
your child wants to do something in sports or wants to be an
attorney. And, therefore, this is where we should emphasize in
addition to the standardized tests. So if they wanted to be an
attorney, for instance, you might want to make sure they're in
public speaking. It's beginning with the end in mind, and the
end not being their score on the test.
The Chairman. College-ready, right? Excuse me.
Ms. Dagit. Does that make sense? I wish I could be even
more clear about that. But you really hear it in terms of what
their worry is and their concern that the way they're being
measured in the school is by the scores versus what the parents
and the student themselves feel like the school is doing to
prepare them for employment.
The Chairman. Well, I think--one thing Senator Enzi and I
have been working very hard on in working together on
reauthorizing ESEA is to make the goal of it that every child
that graduates from secondary school be career- and/or college-
ready. Did I say that right? Career- and college-ready.
And so I think you're onto something there, that somehow we
haven't done that. And especially when it comes to IEPs, which
you said before--sort of more of a limitation than it was as a
kind of a pathway forward for high expectations.
Ms. Wallrich, I really agree that somehow we're not
challenging young people with disabilities enough.
I always call it about giving them a kick in the pants.
Ms. Wallrich. Exactly. You spoke about your mother. It was
straight A's or nothing. That was my household, too. And I can
speak a little bit about my IEP, that when you go in there,
they're saying, ``Well, do you want to go to community
college?'' And I'm sitting there thinking, ``I'm top 3 percent
of my class. I'm not going to community college. I have higher
plans for that.'' You know, I participated in student council
as well and speech team. A lot of times, they're like, ``Well,
why don't you drop that, you know? You need time for physical
therapy services.'' And my thought and my mother's thought--
well, shouldn't those services revolve around what I'm
expecting to do in high school, not the other way around?
And so there's definitely--that IEP limits you to--well,
this is the path that we think people with disabilities should
go, not what I want for my life and what I expect out of my
future. And sometimes it would be a real struggle and very
disheartening to be in those meetings and hear, ``Well, this is
what we think you should do.'' And I'm lucky that I had a
mother saying, ``Well, that's not what we're doing.''
The Chairman. Well, I'm glad you had a mother like that and
you had a mother like that. But what about kids that don't have
that kind of family support service? And there's so many of
them out there. What do we have--what needs to be in place for
those kids that don't come from that kind of a--maybe a well-
structured family or a family that has some means or that are
involved with their children? What about those kids? What about
those kids that don't have the kind of mothers and fathers like
you had? What do we do for them?
Ms. Wallrich. I think you definitely touched on this, about
being involved in student council. Being involved in your
school is not being in class every day. Being involved in your
school is being involved in sports or being involved in
extracurricular activities. And I went to a very large high
school, so there were a lot of options.
But many times when I was in an activity, I was the first
student with a disability who had ever been in that activity.
So I needed to spend time educating those teacher advisors on
my disability and how I would interact in community service
activities. And, oftentimes, what I ended up choosing and the
activities I ended up choosing were where the teacher advisors
were also teachers I had in class, so that I didn't have
another barrier to full participation.
I think there definitely--in the IEP, maybe that should be
another section on the form or something that says, ``How do we
make this person part of the classroom or outside of the
classroom as well? ''
The Chairman. Well, anything else, Ms. Dagit, do you have
anything to add before----
Ms. Dagit. I was just going to say with all the social
networking tools that are available out there, I think one of
the things we could do, since especially teenagers starting in
middle school are very interested--we could do outreach to
students through those kinds of media and perhaps provide them
with mentors, like many of the people in this room, in this
hearing here today, who would be willing to be their remote
mentors and coaches and cheerleaders. So that might be a
possibility that would be an innovative solution.
The Chairman. Well, thank you very much. I want to thank
you for being here today. And I also want to thank the
attendees who are here with the National Council on Independent
Living Conference.
We'll leave the record open for 10 days. I would just say
that as we've heard from a number of witnesses, while there are
many success stories in the area of employment for people with
disabilities, we still have a way to go before our public
policies consistently deliver the message that competitive
employment is the expected outcome for young people and all
citizens with disabilities.
I look forward to working with my friend and our Ranking
Member, Senator Enzi, on a bipartisan basis to advance these
goals and these efforts so that we can get that employment rate
up for people with disabilities.
Thank you all very much. And with that, the committee will
stand adjourned.
[Additional material follows.]
ADDITIONAL MATERIAL
The Corporation for Enterprise Development (CFED),
July 19, 2011.
Hon. Tom Harkin, Chairman,
Hon. Mike Enzi, Ranking Member,
Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions,
428 Senate Dirksen Office Building,
Washington, DC 20510.
Re: Letter of Record: promote asset limit reform in the Supplemental
Security Income program to enable employment for people with
disabilities
Dear Chairman Harkin and Ranking Member Enzi, The Corporation for
Enterprise Development (CFED) thanks you for holding the July 14
hearing on employment for persons with disabilities. CFED is a national
nonpartisan nonprofit organization dedicated to expanding economic
opportunities for all Americans. CFED believes that Congress and the
Administration should provide American households pathways to financial
security and self-reliance through programs and policies, and the
community of people with disabilities is no exception.
We concur that the work participation rates among persons with
disabilities is entirely too low and support policies that encourage
people with disabilities to enter or remain in the workforce. However,
we believe that Governor Tom Ridge, chairman of the National
Organization on Disability, brought up a valid point during the hearing
that is often overlooked: that we must address the disability benefit
structure in America.
Many people on disability desire working, paying taxes, and serving
as full participants within their communities, but are discouraged by
the asset limits of the public benefit programs that they often rely
on, some entirely. This is particularly true in the case of the
Supplemental Security Income (SSI) program.
The SSI program, administered by the Social Security Administration
and providing cash-assistance to more than 8 million Americans, has
asset limits that discourage its recipients to open a bank account,
work and save because, with few exceptions, individuals cannot hold
more than $2,000 in total assets and couples no more than $3,000. These
limits have not been adjusted in more than two decades (since January
1, 1989).
SSI asset limits:
Discourage many young people with disabilities from
securing a first job, to gain experience which will likely lead to
full-time work and employment with benefits;
Force many to stay unbanked and/or discourages
participation in employer-sponsored retirement plans to remain eligible
for SSI and Medicaid; and
Punish individuals with disabilities who are currently
working who save for a future time when they may be unable to work. If
their medical condition or disability worsens in the future, they
cannot save now for a later time as they will be unable to work but no
longer eligible for SSI.
These asset limits leave SSI recipients vulnerable to predatory
lenders and deeper poverty, and requires them to ultimately rely on
greater government assistance. Given the high levels of asset-poverty
(insufficient savings to cover 3-6 months of expenses without a steady
income) within the disability community, CFED advocates and promotes
policies that improve the financial stability of people with
disabilities.
CFED asks Congress to propose reforms in the SSI program to address
this unfortunate but widespread and common issue for people with
disabilities. We recommend the following reforms which are contained in
the SSI Saver's Act (H.R. 2103):
Raise the asset limit test to $5,000/$7,500 for
individuals/couples and index the limit to inflation: Allowing SSI
recipients to have a slightly higher level of savings provides them
with a buffer against one-time emergencies; without this modest buffer
they are vulnerable to predatory lenders, deeper poverty, hunger, and
potential homelessness, and will ultimately require greater government
assistance. It would also encourage households receiving SSI to open
savings accounts and participate in the financial mainstream. Indexing
the limits preserves a modest level of personal savings.
Exclude retirement accounts, education savings accounts
and savings bonds from the asset test: Exempting retirement accounts
from the asset limit will allow SSI recipients the chance to accumulate
modest savings and ultimately be less dependent on government support
for survival during retirement. Excluding special savings accounts such
as 529s and Coverdell ESAs will allow recipients to save for their
education, which will improve their earning potential over their
lifetimes and thus their financial stability. Excluding savings bonds
enables individuals with disabilities to receive gifts from families
and personal investments in a safe and accessible vehicle now able to
be purchased on tax forms.
Thank you, Chairman Harkin and Ranking Member Enzi, for your
commitment to increasing the workforce participation rates of people
with disabilities. Please recognize that without changes in the asset
limit test, people with disabilities will be hindered in their efforts
to open a bank account, save for the future and pursue employment.
Sincerely,
Carol E. Wayman,
Director of Federal Policy, CFED.
______
Response to Questions of Senator Enzi by the Hon. Kathy Martinez
Question 1. Senator Harkin has set forth a goal of increasing the
number of persons with a disability participating in the labor force
from 4.9 million to 6 million by 2015. How does the Department of Labor
plan to do its share in increasing the number of employed persons with
a disability?
Answer 1. DOL's Office of Disability Employment Policy (ODEP)
provides national leadership on developing and influencing disability-
related employment policy and practice affecting the employment of
people with disabilities. It coordinates the Department's efforts on
disability employment by working with other DOL agencies such as the
Civil Rights Center, Employment and Training Administration, the Office
of Federal Contract Compliance Programs, the Office of Workers
Compensation Programs, the Veterans' Employment and Training Service,
the Wage and Hour Division, and the Women's Bureau. To increase labor
force participation among persons with disabilities, ODEP addresses
three key factors that contribute to the under employment of people
with disabilities:
1. Low expectations and negative perceptions reflected in
discriminatory policies and practices;
2. Lack of access to training, employment, and transition services;
and
3. Scarcity of employment supports and accommodations.
Although many of ODEP's efforts are cross-disability and multi-
faceted, ODEP concentrates significant effort on populations that face
particular challenges to entering or remaining in the workforce such as
youth, culturally or socio-economically disadvantaged groups, and
workers disabled later in life through accidents, injuries or aging.
changing expectations, perceptions and practices
To counter low expectations and negative perceptions that may lead
to discriminatory policies and practices, ODEP uses multiple
strategies. For example, ODEP conducts an ongoing public information
campaign (Campaign for Disability Employment) to increase awareness of
the benefits of employing people with disabilities. The Campaign for
Disability Employment reaches millions of Americans, including, but not
limited to, employers and the workforce development system. ODEP also
conducts public outreach activities during National Disability
Employment Awareness Month (NDEAM) to highlight the contributions made
by workers with disabilities. First established by law in 1945 to raise
awareness about disability employment issues, NDEAM is recognized each
October through a Presidential Proclamation.
ODEP also aims to change the misperception that many business
owners have about the costs of employing people with disabilities by
developing and widely disseminating the ``business case'' for employing
people with disabilities. By working with a business school, ODEP
intends to strengthen the existing ``business case'' and provide the
most reputable information available to demonstrate that employing
people with disabilities makes good business sense.
ODEP's Add Us In initiative also aims to change negative
perceptions of individuals with disabilities and the resultant policies
and practices that deprive them of the opportunity to contribute to the
economy. The Add Us In initiative specifically focuses on small
businesses and brings together diverse organizations to collaborate on
developing replicable strategies for increasing employment of people
with disabilities. In September 2010, ODEP awarded four 2-year
cooperative agreements totaling more than $2.4 million to four
consortia in Kansas City, MO; Los Angeles, CA; Bridgeport, CT; and
Norman, OK. A second round of 2-year cooperative agreements totaling
almost $2.2 million were awarded in September 2011 to four consortia in
Chicago, New York, Oakland, CA and Rockville, MD. One of the high-
priority goals of the Add Us In Initiative is to create business
engagement models in these communities that can be replicated on a
national scale.
Another way to change perceptions and practices is for the Federal
Government to set a good example as a model employer. Towards this end,
ODEP works collaboratively with the Office of Personnel Management
(OPM) and other Federal agencies to increase employment of people with
disabilities throughout the Federal Government (for further discussion
see #2 below).
enhancing access to training, employment and transition services
The Nation's workforce development system provides the training,
employment, and transition services. It is essential that these
services be fully available to and usable by people with disabilities.
Toward this end and in order to realize Secretary Solis's vision of
Good Jobs for Everyone, including persons with disabilities, DOL
implements a variety of efforts to increase the accessibility of the
workforce development system.
For example, DOL's Civil Rights Center (CRC) enforces civil rights
laws and concentrates its efforts on identifying potential systemic
discrimination, including disability-based discrimination, within the
workforce system. CRC conducts reviews to ensure that States and local
areas are complying with requirements to identify statistically
significant differences in participation or selection rates and to
investigate whether such differences appear to be a result of systemic
discrimination.
CRC also provides technical assistance on nondiscrimination and
equal opportunity issues, including disability-related issues, to Equal
Opportunity (EO) Officers, EO staffs, and workforce system
administrators from across the country through its annual National
Equal Opportunity Training Symposium. It delivers webinars on
disability-related topics and one-on-one technical assistance to EO
Officers, officials and staff members of other DOL and Federal
agencies, and members of the general public.
To further increase the availability and use of the workforce
development system by people with disabilities, DOL has implemented the
Disability Employment Initiative (DEI) grant program, jointly funded by
the Employment and Training Administration (ETA) and ODEP. ETA
administers the grants and ODEP convenes grantee meetings and manages
the contract that independently evaluates the initiative. DOL awarded
$21,276,575 to 9 States under the DEI in September 2010, and another
$21,166,560 to 7 States in September 2011. The goal of this initiative
is to improve education, training, and employment opportunities and
outcomes for youth and adults with disabilities who are unemployed,
underemployed, and/or receiving Social Security disability benefits. To
meet this goal, DOL provides technical assistance to grantees and to
the public workforce system to expand its capacity to serve people with
disabilities. Grantees are required to connect with the Social Security
System and must also coordinate with a broad range of State and local,
public- and private-sector partners to leverage resources and create
systems change. DEI grantees are also required to become Employment
Networks (ENs), which provide training, employment-related and
supportive services to Social Security beneficiaries under the Ticket-
to-Work program and receive payment from the Social Security
Administration (SSA) only if the ``Ticket Holder'' (beneficiary)
becomes employed.
Research shows that individuals receiving SSI and SSDI benefits
already use the workforce development system and suggests that the
types of services offered by ENs may improve the employment outcomes of
all individuals with disabilities. For these reasons, ETA and ODEP
recently issued a joint Training and Employment Notice to encourage all
State workforce agencies, local workforce investment boards, and One-
Stop Career Centers to become ENs. ETA has also been working with SSA
to develop tools and implement policies and procedures to help
workforce system entities become ENs including a new initiative funded
by SSA that provides intensive technical assistance to the public
workforce system. The number of public workforce entities serving as
ENs increased by approximately 37 percent from 2010 to 2011 and
currently totals 124.
Another important means of enhancing the workforce system's
capacity to help customers with disabilities (and other challenges to
employment) navigate the array of available services and resources is
by providing training and technical assistance to the workforce system.
Workforce3One, an interactive communications and learning platform that
is ETA's primary vehicle for delivering on-line technical assistance to
the public workforce system, includes a Disability and Employment
Community of Practice page with easy access to disability employment
related topics, resources and best practice information. In addition,
``Disability'' has been added as a ``super search'' category to make it
easier for users to find disability-related information on
Workforce3One.
Additional DOL efforts to increase the availability and usability
of the workforce development system for people with disabilities focus
on equipping youth, including youth with disabilities and the systems
that serve them, with knowledge, skills and abilities to help them
succeed in the jobs of the future. For example, through the National
Collaborative on Workforce and Disability for Youth (NCWD/Youth) funded
by ODEP, the Department provides technical assistance to State and
local public workforce systems to assist youth with disabilities to
become economically self-sufficient through mentoring, training,
educational opportunities, and jobs with career pathways. Also, an
eight-day training curriculum, developed to increase the capacity of
youth service professionals to effectively serve youth with
disabilities, has been provided to youth service professionals in
Chicago, Albuquerque, Boston, Maryland, and requested by many others.
ODEP's Individualized Learning Plan (ILP) research and
demonstration project team has provided technical assistance to State-
level officials responsible for developing and administering policies
related to students' transition from secondary school into post-school
education and employment. Another component of ODEP's technical
assistance has included educating policymakers and practitioners on the
differences and impact of ``entitlement'' policies that govern
provision of services in secondary school and the ``eligibility''
policies that are present in college and employment settings.&
In addition, ODEP and NCWD/Youth have worked closely with WIA-
funded youth programs, including Job Corps and Youth Build, to assist
them in enhancing outcomes for youth with learning disabilities and
mental health issues. In Fall 2011, NCWD/Youth and ODEP are planning to
deliver a series of webinars on increasing the number of youth with
disabilities in pre-apprenticeship and apprenticeship programs.
Moreover, ETA and ODEP recently issued a joint Training and
Employment and Guidance Letter ``Increasing Enrollment and Improving
Services to Youth with Disabilities,'' to provide information and
resources to youth service providers on promising practices and
successful strategies that promote the enrollment, education, training,
and employment outcomes of youth with disabilities.
increasing availability of employment supports and accommodations
A number of ODEP's efforts strive to change policy and practices
that will ensure that critical employment supports and accommodations
are available to enable workers with disabilities to be fully
productive and contributing workers. ODEP funds the Job Accommodation
Network, which provides expert and confidential guidance on workplace
accommodations and disability employment issues to employers and
employees with disabilities.
ODEP also focuses on promoting workplace flexibility in the type of
job, time, and place of work to shape the jobs and work environments to
maximize the productivity of workers with disabilities. ODEP sponsored-
research suggests that workplace flexibility strategies, including
customized employment, may help individuals with significant
disabilities succeed in integrated employment. ODEP is now exploring
the use of such workplace flexibility strategies for workers who
acquire disabilities through accidents, injuries and/or changes in
health, including those due to aging. This fall, ODEP will implement an
employer pilot demonstration project that will focus on using flexible
workplace strategies to retain older workers with disabilities. ODEP
will also conduct research on how workplace flexibility can be used to
retain aging workers employed in the health care sector and by
community colleges.
To increase the labor force participation of people with
disabilities, ODEP also works to improve accessible technology. ODEP
promotes universal design in information technology and promotes
increasing the availability of assistive technology in the workplace to
benefit workers with disabilities. To advance these twin goals ODEP
awarded a contract that enables ODEP and the Assistive Technology
Industry Association's Accessibility Interoperability Alliance (ATIA/
AIA) to work together to improve the availability and usability of
emerging technologies, such as Web 3.0 and 3D Internet technologies.
This fall, ODEP will develop and implement a comprehensive plan to
make workplace technology accessible. Among other things, ODEP is
working to establish a means of identifying and validating core
competencies that can be used to certify professionals involved in the
field of accessible technology. ODEP will also conduct research into
how employers are using the Assistive Technology Act to support
employment and develop technical assistance to enable States to use it
more effectively.
Question 2. How do you think the Federal Government can be a model
employer for individuals with disabilities?
Answer 2. The Federal Government can become a model employer for
individuals with disabilities by creating a workforce that truly
reflects the diversity of the population. Last year's Executive Order
13548 articulated the President's commitment and charted the course for
the Federal Government to employ an additional 100,000 people with
disabilities within the next 5 years. It also required Federal agencies
to work together to develop and implement action plans that included
performance targets and numerical goals to improve their hiring of
people with disabilities, and imposed reporting requirements to ensure
accountability.
ODEP is working closely with OPM and other Federal agencies to
provide them with the information and tools they need to achieve their
goals. A few strategies that ODEP believes will position the Federal
Government as a model employer for people with disabilities include:
Implementing centralized accommodation funds that pool
agency resources to reduce the financial impact on individual office
budgets;
Training all hiring managers and all those involved in the
process on hiring policies and processes&cluding Schedule A and other
hiring authorities as well as on reasonable accommodations policies
and&ocedures;
Expanding the use of internships, fellowships, and
training and mentoring programs, such as the Workforce Recruitment
Program and Project Search;
Utilizing the Office of Personnel Management's (OPM)
shared list of qualified job candidates with disabilities (i.e., the
``Bender'' database) to hire eligible individuals through Schedule A
appointments.&
Adopting practices to return-to-work Federal employees who
have sustained disabilities as a result of workplace injuries or
illnesses, such as those identified through the Protecting Our Workers
and Ensuring Re-employment (POWER) Initiative, a joint effort of ODEP
and DOL's Office of Workers Compensation Programs;
Expanding the use of workplace flexibility and the
provision of reasonable accommodation to retain, enhance and maximize
the productivity of older workers as they acquire age-related
disabilities, as well as employees with disabilities as their health
changes with age;
Leveraging employee resource groups (ERGs) as tools to
empower and develop an engaged workforce; and
Creating and maintaining a welcoming, safe and supportive
work environment by accounting for the needs of employees with
disabilities in emergency planning.
Also, in this increasingly knowledge- and technology-based
workplace, it is critical that all electronic and information
technology are accessible, interoperable and usable for all--including
technology used by applicants to find and seek jobs with the Federal
Government. As the Nation's largest employer, it is important that the
Federal Government demonstrate a commitment to fully including people
with disabilities in its workforce.
Federal agencies can best be engaged to produce results by sharing
knowledge about effective strategies for recruiting, retaining and
advancing people with disabilities. Towards that end, OPM and ODEP are
building a Community of Practice (CoP) Web site, eFedlink.org, for
Federal disability program managers and selective placement managers to
share information and promising practices with their peers.
internal dol efforts
In addition to coordinating with OPM and assisting other agencies
to meet their disability employment goals, the Department's own
commitment to a qualified, diverse, and inclusive workforce remains at
the forefront of our recruitment and hiring strategies. DOL's outreach
efforts include activities at colleges and universities with a diverse
population; local, State, and national organizations; and other
targeted recruitment that promotes Departmental opportunities for
people with disabilities and our valued veterans.
The Department's national recruitment team, comprised of six
regional recruitment coordinators and four recruitment policy
coordinators, including a disabled veterans' employment program manager
in the Human Resources Center (HRC) is fully versed on special hiring
authorities, particularly Schedule A, veterans' hiring authorities and
recruitment of people with disabilities. The HRC recruitment policy
coordinators work with each DOL agency to integrate the plan for the
employment of people with disabilities, including veterans with
disabilities, into the overall Departmental recruitment strategy.
The Department has worked for many years to establish relationships
with local, State, and national disability organizations that advocate
on behalf of and work directly with people with disabilities. In
response to the Executive Order, the national recruitment team will
intensify and expand its targeted strategies and lead an effort for the
Department's outreach to such organizations as One Stop Career Centers,
State Vocational Rehabilitation Agencies, Centers for Independent
Living, disabled veterans programs and others. The national recruitment
team will develop and implement a national train-the-trainers program
to educate DOL leaders as well as advocates in the disability community
about the special hiring authorities, including Schedule A and
veterans' hiring authorities.
Question 3. Please identify specific examples of where the Federal
Government can remove regulations and burdens for private employers to
assist in increasing employment levels overall.
Answer 3. Department of Labor regulations ensure a level playing
field for firms following our Nation's labor laws so that they do not
face unfair competition to maintain employment while following the law.
The Department recently completed a review of its regulatory agenda
following E.O. 13563, which requires regulations to be: (1) cost-
effective and cost-justified; (2) transparent, allowing for public
participation; (3) coordinated and simplified; (4) flexible, reducing
burden and allowing for freedom of choice for the public; (5) science-
driven; and (6) reviewed, updated, modified or withdrawn, as
appropriate. In the Final Plan for Retrospective Analysis of Existing
Rules published on August 23, 2011, the Department identifies examples
of burden-reducing review projects. Access DOL's Final Plan at: http://
www.dol.gov/regulations.
Question 4. How have stimulus projects provided under the American
Recovery and Reinvestment Act increased employment of individuals with
disabilities?
Answer 4. The Employment and Training Administration collects data
on the number of WIA program exiters with self-reported disabilities
and employment outcomes; however, ETA's does not disaggregate the data
between ARRA-funded projects and regular WIA formula grants. Similarly,
the WIA nondiscrimination regulations enforced by CRC require the
workforce system to collect data on individuals with disabilities who
received services, but this data is not disaggregated by funding
source. Therefore, we do not know how many people with disabilities
were served with ARRA dollars specifically. Overall, in 2009 4.2
percent of WIA exiters were adults with self-reported disabilities, and
12.9 percent of WIA exiters were youth with self-reported disabilities.
We believe that it is likely similar percentages were served with ARRA
funding in the WIA Adult and Youth programs.
Question 5. Has the number of persons with disabilities employed
since February 2009--the passage of the stimulus bill--increased or
decreased?
Answer 5. Disability statistics have only been available since June
2008 when questions were added to the Current Population Survey (CPS),
making it difficult to compare the effect of this most recent recession
on employment to the effects of previous recessions on employment.
According to BLS, (http://www.bls.gov/webapps/legacy/cpsatab6.htm) the
proportion of persons with a disability who were employed began
declining in September 2008, and since February 2009 the employment
rates for persons with disabilities have followed that previous
pattern.
BLS also advises that because seasonally adjusted data currently
are not available for this group, comparison of same month employment-
population ratios (the proportion of a population group that is
employed) can provide a clearer picture of changes in the employment
situation of persons with disabilities. The employment-population ratio
of persons with a disability was 17.7 percent in August 2011, down from
18.4 percent in August 2009.
Question 6. The U.S. Department of Labor has advocated passage of
the Employee Free Choice Act (EFCA). Please provide examples of how
EFCA can boost the employment levels for persons with disabilities.
Answer 6. The Obama administration continues to strongly support
proposals such as the Employee Free Choice Act which provide all
workers, including workers with disabilities, with a voice in the
workplace. Strong unions are a key to a strong economy and help provide
a sure path to a secure middle class job that pays higher wages, and
provides flexibility and benefits like paid leave, child care,
education assistance, and retirement security.
Question 7. President Obama's Executive Order 13563 requires
executive agencies to identify regulations that are outdated, outmoded,
inefficient, and burdensome. What regulations will the Department of
Labor specifically seek to end that would enhance job creation,
particularly for individuals with disabilities?
Answer 7. As discussed in response to question 3 above, the
Department has identified several burden-reducing regulatory projects.
The efficiencies created by these regulatory modifications may benefit
individuals with disabilities as well as other workers.
Response to Questions of Senator Enzi and Senator Casey by
Governor Tom Ridge
questions of senator enzi
Question 1. In your opinion, how well-aligned are the career,
education, and training programs that NOD accesses to provide
coordinated services for these individuals?
civilian programs
Answer 1. Lack of alignment and coordination between the agencies
that provide services to Americans with disabilities is a significant
problem, and, ultimately a hindrance to these services and their
intended beneficiaries.
To be clear: the challenge is not that there are too many services;
rather, that multiple agencies on both the Federal and State levels
create a sometimes confusing array of eligibility rules, performance
measures, and service delivery procedures. Navigating these processes
can be a challenge even for those who work in this arena. For persons
with disabilities and their families the processes can result in delays
or otherwise make access unintentionally difficult. It can be
impenetrable.
Even in just the employment services area (not including benefits
and services related to medical and personal care, therapy, housing,
transportation, etc.), there are multiple agencies, legislation and
funding authorities emanating from the Federal Departments of Labor
(DOL), Education (Ed), Health and Human Services (HHS), Defense (DOD),
Veteran's Affairs (DVA), and Social Security (SSA), to name only the
most significant players. Within each of these Federal departments are
numerous sub-authorities that operate semi-independent employment
initiatives.
With each of these agencies and sub-authorities, the challenge is
more than just the numerous eligibility, performance and spending rules
that accompany them. As an individual, a family member, or a service
provider on the ground, it can be difficult to reconcile the different
perspectives of these agencies and the services they provide.
For example, DOL and HHS each offer employment services for people
with disabilities. The employment programs that are funded by HHS are
invariably entwined with therapeutic services (e.g., housing, personal
and medical care, therapies, etc.), while those funded by DOL are more
directly focused on training, employment and self-sufficiency. HHS
programs approach employment from the perspective of its impact on
personal health and care, while DOL approaches employment services in
hopes that every American can become self-sufficient. These different
approaches can cause the professionals who implement them to present
them in ways that can appear contradictory to the individuals and
family members who depend on them. Starting from such different sources
on the Federal level, these programs do not always mingle easily on the
local level.
Finally, in an era of unprecedented fiscal challenges, these State
and Federal administrative entities can require a share of the dollars
that could go to services on the ground. It is appropriate to review
these programs with an eye for how to reduce any redundancies and
improve efficiencies.
As the first appointed Secretary of the Department of Homeland
Security, I sometimes felt that too many Federal agencies had
overlapping responsibilities and that separate administration of
similar services could be less efficient and effective.
The problem is clear; the solution, less so. If, hypothetically,
you were to combine many of these services and funds under a single
administrative entity, you would have to make a number of choices, each
of which comes with risks. I offer the following issues for
consideration, to highlight some of the structural issues that result
in practical challenges on the ground:
Mingling Generic and Disability-Specific Services: Combining
services designed for individuals with disabilities with ``generic
services'' (those for individuals with and without disabilities) would
run the risk of undermining years of advocacy by people with
disabilities who fought to ensure that there would be dedicated
agencies designed to meet their needs. The fear is that an agency
designed to meet the needs of all job seekers might not fully grasp the
intricate needs of job seekers with disabilities, and that these
individuals' needs would, as a consequence, go unmet. The ultimate goal
would be to combine generic and disability-specific services, while
putting in place safeguards to ensure that disability-specific needs
are not ignored.
Combining Disability-Specific Authorities: If, alternatively, one
chose to combine the various authorities that serve people with
disabilities under a single administrative banner, there are two
significant challenges to be aware of.
First, this would perpetuate what is essentially a segregated
system of services for people with disabilities. The fact that
disability and ``generic'' services operate at such a distance from one
another has made it much harder for people with disabilities to access
services offered through the Workforce Investment Act, and other non-
disability specific programs. Further, it codifies in law, regulation
and policy the separation of people with and without disabilities.
Second, looking only at disability-specific services, there is
still a significant divide between funding and services that are built
around a mentality of care, and those that are designed to promote
economic self-sufficiency for individuals with disabilities, as I
discussed in my testimony. It is for this reason that the Federal
Government often appears ambivalent about the employment of people with
disabilities--1 minute saying that we promote opportunity for all, the
next threatening individuals with disabilities who attain success with
the removal of the medical and personal care benefits they need to
survive. Clearly, we must provide care and support, and we must create
the path to self sufficiency for Americans with disabilities. The
challenge is to ensure that these two goals are mutually supportive,
not seemingly at odds.
For this reason, the principal goal of any policy change must be to
ensure that--in our words, in our policies, and in our funding
choices--our government speaks with one voice. We must have the same
expectations for people with disabilities that we have for all
Americans, and we must ensure that the services we offer support this
expectation.
veteran programs
NOD strives to provide veterans in transition to civilian careers
with referrals to agencies that provide reliable services, whether at
the Federal, State or local level. In instances where services are not
available or are inadequate, NOD supplements the community's resources
to bridge those gaps. Several of the more notable programs are
described below.
Transition Assistance
Federal Disabled Veterans Transition Assistance Program (DTAP)--
While this program is currently under a major revision, the program is
widely thought to provide too much information in too little time,
particularly with regard to veterans with cognitive or psychological
impairments. In addition, the seminar and materials are too often more
useful at later junctures when the veteran may have trouble recalling
the information. Also, there are many references, Web site links and
pamphlets provided on a wide variety of topics, including career
planning actions. However, career planning should be done in a much
more comprehensive and integrated manner and it should integrate
actionable career steps with resources available to accomplish those
actions. Finally, financial counseling and planning is critical since
most veterans suffer a significant decrease in pay as they separate--
this is exacerbated by the lengthy VA disability determination process.
Among the recommendations are:
Lengthen the seminar and allow spouses to attend with
disabled veterans;
Develop a compendium of the information that remains a
more handy resource by providing a tailored ``separation benefits and
entitlements'' binder which veterans can use to organize and store the
most relevant information, including DD Form 214 and medical disability
and similar reference materials;
Provide monthly DTAP update seminars at locations across
the country that any veteran can attend to learn the most recent
information and ask questions. These could easily include a web cast
for more remote locations but should allow in person attendance so that
first hand advice and referrals can be effected.
Develop a Joint Inter-Agency (DOD, VA, DOL, Dept of Ed,
OPM) Career Planning Process that is initiated during transition and
remains a resource to the veteran and the agencies that have missions
to support veterans. NOD developed such a process out of necessity.
Unfortunately, many PTSD and TBI veterans have trouble planning and
executing key career steps. NOD developed an approach that simplifies
and integrates career steps that they are more easily accomplished,
managed, and so that progress can be more easily monitored by family
members or supporting counselors.
Provide a detailed financial counseling service to
separating veterans that affords a more realistic assessment of
expenses and income veteran families can expect after separation. Doing
this at an early juncture allows better awareness and decisionmaking.
Most veterans suffer financial hardship upon separation. Mitigation of
any additional turbulence during separation is critical to sustaining
focus on career and family needs versus managing financial crises.
Vocational Rehabilitation
Veterans Affairs Vocational Rehabilitation and Employment (VRE--
While VRE is a valuable benefit to disabled veterans, many veterans
needing these services choose to use the GI bill which they often view
as more flexible. In some cases, disabled veterans with PTSD or TBI may
find the additional bureaucracy of VRE difficult to navigate. NOD has
attempted to develop a collaborative effort with the VA VRE service in
order to increase utilization of this valuable benefit. Generally,
however, VRE counselors have too large a caseload (about 150) to serve
their clients fully. There appears to be little segmentation of the
caseload to ensure that each counselor has a manageable size group of
clients. Clearly the type and severity of the disabled veterans on the
caseload can vary greatly, as can the demands on the counselor.
Accordingly, each veteran served should be considered in the context of
their needs, and services designed to meet those needs. Each case is
unique, and the aspirations and support needs of each veteran are
unique. Finally, the outcomes should be evaluated more closely. Simply
getting a veteran into a job is not enough, nor is closing the case
file when the veteran has completed 3, 6, or 9 months on the job. The
goals of VRE should be long-range self-sufficiency and long-term/
longitudinal tracking is necessary to more appropriately assess the
effectiveness of how this benefit/service is administered.
Employment
Department of Labor Disabled Veterans Outreach Program Specialists
(DVOPS) and Local Veterans Employment Representatives (LVERs)--In order
for these federally subsidized, State-employed counselors to be
effective, veterans have to register for services. In most cases, young
veterans are not registering at State veterans employment offices. In
part this is because these offices are widely perceived as providing
only the most basic services, which often are not customized to the
veterans careers aspirations. Since these personnel are provided to
States via a noncompetitive grant program, there is insufficient
Federal control of the metrics, outcomes, and operating practices at
these offices. In short, NOD has tried to work with these offices but
finds them largely ill-suited to disabled veterans today, the vast
majority of which (75 percent) have a cognitive or psychological
impairment (PTSD/TBI). In addition, these offices do not develop strong
relationships with employers and veterans do not appear to believe
their chances of employment are greatly enhanced by working with these
offices. While some of the services are of some value, much of the
resume-writing, interview skills, and similar employment classes are
not specific enough for an individual who has never pursued a civilian
job before and for whom significant skill gaps may remain. In short,
many younger veterans are not entirely job-ready. The DOL program
should be reviewed to assess how the current generation of veterans
could be better served. SHRM recently published a report that shows few
employers are aware of DOL offices and fewer choose to use them. That
report alone indicates that these offices do not provide strong
linkages to employment opportunities.
Education
GI bill (education)--Many NOD clients take advantage of the GI
bill. Fully 80 percent of program participants are expected to use the
GI bill within 3 years of separation from the military. This program is
an essential component of retooling for civilian careers and to
supplement knowledge/experience needs of employers. However, there are
some limitations to the program and some measure of outcomes that do
not fully ensure that maximum benefit is provided. One dynamic that is
problematic are the financial needs of many separating veterans. In
some cases, veterans will enroll in school in part because they will
receive a stipend when they do so. Unfortunately, a difficult economy
adds to this dynamic. Financial needs should be addressed by more
suitable mechanisms and education counselors should be empowered to
screen for this issue and address financial needs in others ways so
that the education benefit is preserved for its best use.
While annual adjustments/changes to living allowance rates and
changes to authorized tuition payments are often slow in being
announced and implemented each year, the GI bill is a tremendous
benefit to veterans. Importantly, the Post-9/11 GI bill has expanded
benefits to veterans for vocational, apprenticeship and On-The-Job
training (OJT) programs. However, the approved list of programs does
not always allow veterans to enroll in the vocational program of their
choice. Since many veterans choose vocational training, this limitation
can be a hardship as veterans seek local programs in career fields of
their choice. Expansion and more flexibility in this effort would
enable more of our war-fighters to use their new GI bill benefits.
Limitations in distance learning programs can be similarly restrictive,
particularly the unavailability of the substantial monthly living
allowance for those in distance learning programs versus attending a
brick and mortar educational institution. This has the effect of
forcing veterans who need the living allowance to pursue resident
education when distance learning may be more convenient, appropriate
and less expensive.
The Veterans Administration should also monitor the outcomes
associated with education programs. While each veteran's success or
failure in school and subsequent employment efforts may be the result
of medical/disability conditions, personal efforts, and educational
prowess, each school should be judged on the success of its graduates
in some manner. Such an effort would help ensure that U.S. taxpayers
get the results that they intend the GI bill to achieve. Moreover, such
information would be useful to veterans as they select the school/
program most appropriate to them.
Also, many veterans are entering the civilian work environment for
the first time. The VA should develop ways to encourage internships,
mentorships, and similar exposure to civilian employers as part of the
educational experience. It would not be unreasonable for schools to be
required to have internship placement efforts that are required for a
certain percentage of their veteran students, or for such a requirement
to apply to certain career fields. This approach would allow veterans
to develop job prospects while in school and for companies in such a
program to be more receptive to employment of the graduate since they
would be more familiar with them. Given the rate of unemployment among
young veterans, it is clear that military experience and GI bill
benefits alone are not sufficient. More innovation is needed to lower
the threshold for veterans moving into the civilian workforce.
Question 2. Please provide specific examples of what you did as
Secretary of Homeland Security to increase the employment opportunities
for individuals with disabilities.
Answer 2. (See response to Senator Casey's question 3b.)
questions of senator casey
Question 1. In your testimony you referenced that the return to
civilian life is a process not an event. What do you think we can do to
help make that transition smoother? Are there specific roadblocks that
you find troops face when making this transition?
Answer 1. There are several areas on which NOD would like to
comment regarding transition challenges:
Federal Disabled Veterans Transition Assistance Program (DTAP) and
related processes--This program is currently under a major revision.
However, the program is widely thought to provide too much information
in too little time, particularly with regard to veterans with cognitive
or psychological impairments. Alternative presentations, perhaps in
smaller groups, at slower paces, and with a family member present, are
among ideas to consider. PTSD and TBI victims will have special
challenges focusing, recalling, or integrating transition steps/
resources and those challenges are not well understood. NOD is among
the few organizations with expertise in this area that comes from long-
term support to disabled veterans. DTAP seminar topics and materials
are often more useful at later junctures when the veteran may have
trouble recalling the information. Also, there are many references, Web
site links and pamphlets provided on a wide variety of topics,
including career planning actions. However, career planning should be
done in a much more comprehensive and integrated manner and it should
integrate actionable career steps with resources available to
accomplish those actions. Finally, financial counseling and planning is
critical since most veterans suffer a significant decrease in pay as
they separate--this is exacerbated by the lengthy VA disability
determination process. Among the recommendations are:
Lengthen the seminar and allow spouses to attend with
disabled veterans;
Consider alternative modes for delivering DTAP for
cognitively or psychologically impaired veterans.
Develop a compendium of the information that remains a
more handy resource by providing a tailored ``separation benefits and
entitlements'' binder which veterans can use to organize and store the
most relevant information, including DD Form 214 and medical disability
and similar reference materials. Some veterans misplace paperwork or do
not organize it or retain it in ways that are most helpful;
Provide monthly DTAP update seminars at locations across
the country that any veteran can attend to learn the most recent
information and ask questions. These could easily include a web cast
for more remote locations but should allow in person attendance so that
first hand advice and referrals can be provided.
Develop a Joint Inter-Agency (DOD, VA, DOL, Dept of Ed,
OPM) Career Planning Process that is initiated during transition and
remains a resource to the veteran and the agencies that have missions
to support veterans. NOD developed such a process out of necessity.
Unfortunately, many PTSD and TBI veterans have trouble planning and
executing key career steps. NOD developed an approach that simplifies
and integrates career steps that are more easily accomplished, managed,
and so that progress can be more easily monitored by family members or
supporting counselors. Such a career planning process, particularly if
also made available through web-based applications, could be a resource
on and off active duty and after separation, and should include interim
and longer term actions and career goals. NOD has a model for this type
of more integrated 5-year career planning module and we believe the VA
should be required to develop such a program that is easier to access,
more intuitive to use, which is initiated before separation, and which
can help DOD, VA and DOL support these veterans more comprehensively.
Veterans that need less assistance would be able to continue to employ
the tool on their own.
Provide a detailed financial counseling service to
separating veterans that affords a more realistic assessment of
expenses and income veteran families can expect after separation. Doing
this at an early juncture allows better awareness and decisionmaking.
Most veterans suffer financial hardship upon separation. Mitigation of
any additional turbulence during separation is critical to sustaining
focus on career and family needs versus managing financial crises.
Career Counseling and Goal Setting--Most veterans, disabled or not,
have very little civilian employment experience and have difficulty
translating their experience into civilian equivalents. If disabled,
they also do not receive adequate assistance from existing Federal
programs in evaluating career options, developing career plans,
selecting schools and training programs, preparing resumes and job
interview preparation. These factors significantly complicate their
ability to envision, plan, and execute the career change when leaving
the service. While State and Federal agencies exist, such as the
Department of Labor's Disabled Veterans Outreach Program Specialists
(DVOPS) and Local Veterans Employment Representatives (LVERs), these
federally subsidized, State-employed counselors do not have appropriate
outcomes measures and therefore are not incentivized to provide
personalized assistance to disabled veterans. The common perception by
younger veterans is that these agencies do not provide assistance that
is needed. Therefore, most young veterans are not registering at State
veterans employment offices. This is largely because these offices are
widely perceived as providing only the most basic services, which often
are not customized to the veteran's careers aspirations.
Since these offices are partially staffed by State employees via a
noncompetitive grant program, there is insufficient Federal control of
the metrics, outcomes, and operating practices at these offices. NOD
has tried to work with these offices but finds them largely ill-suited
to disabled veterans today, the vast majority of which (75 percent)
have a cognitive or psychological impairment (PTSD/TBI). Because these
offices measure success by job placement (measured once the veteran has
been employed about 90 days), they are not incentivized to work with
veterans over a longer period of time to ensure education and training
needs are met to address experience gaps before pursuing employment. In
short, many younger veterans are not entirely job ready. The DOL
program should be reviewed to assess how the current generation of
veterans could be better served. SHRM recently published a report that
shows few employers are aware of DOL offices and fewer choose to use
them. That report alone indicates that these offices do not provide
strong linkages to employment opportunities. Among the recommendations
are:
Provide set aside, competitively awarded funds within the
Department of Labor's Disabled Veterans Outreach Program Specialists
(DVOPS) and Local Veterans Employment Representatives (LVERs) grant
program to resource a number of locations where innovative approaches
to veteran career counseling and employment can be piloted. Such a
program would allow best practices to be substantiated and applied more
broadly. More information on this idea is available from NOD staff.
Require new measures of outcomes for grant recipients that
assess veterans' satisfaction and longer term career goal achievement.
Since veteran transitions often take several years as they pursue
education, training, and often part-time work to supplement their
income, short term measures of job placement are inadequate to
accurately assess transition success. The Nation expects these veterans
to become self-sufficient and meaningful members of their communities.
More appropriate measures of outcomes are needed.
Require/authorize the Departments of Defense, Veterans'
Affairs, and Labor to develop meaningful internships and partnerships
with the private sector so that separating service members and veterans
have easier access to employers who want to provide work experiences
short of full time employment. While DOD has developed Operation War
fighter, it is limited to internships for those still on active duty
and only in Federal agencies. DOD and other agencies often cite ethics
obstacles to working closely with private organizations. Existing
interpretation of the law by Federal agencies is not what Congress
intended and represents a significant obstacle to collaboration between
government and nongovernmental organizations that prevents practical
and effective relationships that could dramatically improve support to
veterans in transition.
Vocational Rehabilitation--Veterans Affairs Vocational
Rehabilitation and Employment (VRE)--While VRE is a valuable benefit to
disabled veterans, many veterans needing these services choose to use
the GI bill instead, which they often view as more flexible. In some
cases, disabled veterans with PTSD or TBI may find the additional
bureaucracy of VRE difficult to navigate. NOD has attempted to develop
a collaborative effort with the VA VRE service in order to increase
utilization of this valuable benefit. Generally, however, VRE
counselors have a very large caseload (about 150) to serve their
clients fully. There appears to be little segmentation of the caseload
to ensure that each counselor has a manageable size/group of clients.
Clearly the type and severity of the disabled veterans on the caseload
can vary greatly, as can the associated demands on the counselor, and
even the skill sets of the counselors may need to be modified for some
caseload types. Each veteran served should be considered in the context
of their needs, and services be designed to meet those needs. Each case
is unique, and the aspirations and support needs of each veteran are
equally unique. Finally, the outcomes should be evaluated more closely.
Simply getting a veteran into a job is not enough, nor is closing the
case file when the veteran has completed 3, 6, or 9 months on the job.
The goals of VRE should be long range self-sufficiency and long term /
longitudinal tracking is necessary to more appropriately assess the
effectiveness of how this benefit/service is designed, administered,
and measured.
Provide legislation for a grant program that demonstrates
best practices in supporting the career transition of disabled
veterans.
Review metrics for success and modify to address self-
sufficiency, long-term monitoring and support, and ensure integration
of career planning with other Federal agencies involved in veterans
services.
Education GI Bill
GI bill (education)--Many NOD clients take advantage of the GI
bill. Fully 80 percent of program participants are expected to use the
GI bill within 3 years of separation from the military. This program is
an essential component of retooling for civilian careers and to
supplement knowledge/experience needs of employer. However, there are
some limitations to the program and some measure of outcomes that do
not fully ensure that maximum benefit is provided. One dynamic that is
problematic are the financial needs of many separating veterans. In
some cases, veterans will enroll in school in part because they will
receive a stipend when they do so. Unfortunately, a difficult economy
adds to this dynamic. Financial needs should be addressED by more
suitable mechanisms and education counselors should be empowered to
screen for this issue and address financial needs in other ways so that
the education benefit is preserved for its best use.
While annual adjustments/changes to living allowance rates and
changes to authorized tuition payments are often slow in being
announced and implemented each year, the GI bill is a tremendous
benefit to veterans. Importantly, the Post-9/11 GI bill has expanded
benefits to veterans for vocational, apprenticeship and On-The-Job
training (OJT) programs. However, the approved list of programs does
not always allow veterans to enroll in the vocational program of their
choice. Since many veterans choose vocational training, this limitation
can be a hardship as veterans seek local programs in career fields of
their choice. Expansion and more flexibility in this effort would
enable more of our war-fighters to use their new GI bill benefits.
Limitations in distance learning programs can be similarly restrictive,
particularly the unavailability of the substantial monthly living
allowance for those in distance learning programs versus attending a
brick and mortar educational institution. This has the effect of
forcing veterans who need the living allowance to pursue resident
education when distance learning may be more convenient, appropriate
and less expensive.
The Veterans Administration should also monitor the outcomes
associated with education programs. While each veteran's success or
failure in school and subsequent employment efforts may be the result
of medical/disability conditions, personal efforts, and educational
prowess, each school should be judged on the success of its graduates
in some manner. Such an effort would help ensure that U.S. taxpayers
get the results that they intend the GI bill to achieve. Moreover, such
information would be useful to veterans as they select the school/
program most appropriate to them.
Also, many veterans are entering the civilian work environment for
the first time. The VA should develop ways to encourage internships,
mentorships, and similar exposure to civilian employers as part of the
educational experience. It would not be unreasonable for schools to be
required to have internship placement efforts that are required for a
certain percentage of their veteran students, or for such a requirement
to apply to certain career fields. This approach would allow veterans
to develop job prospects while in school and for companies in such a
program to be more receptive to employment of the graduate since they
would be more familiar with them. Given the rate of unemployment among
young veterans, it is clear that military experience and GI bill
benefits alone are not sufficient. More innovation is needed to lower
the threshold for veterans moving into the civilian workforce.
Federal and Private Internship Programs--Currently, the Departments
of Defense, Veterans' Affairs, and Labor have not been able to
establish a full range of collaborative programs with the private
sector, nor have Federal internship programs been assessed to identify
and apply the very best practices, including metrics. NOD's experience
is that 75 percent of disabled veterans choose nonfederal employment.
Serving the career aspirations of veterans therefore, requires a
broader effort to provide experiential opportunities to learn about
civilian career paths. Meaningful internships and partnerships with the
private sector would provide separating service members and veterans
with improved access to employers who want to provide work experiences
short of full time employment. This is particularly important in the
current economic climate when any hiring, much less a disabled person,
is challenging for employers. DOD's Operation War fighter program is
limited to internships for those still on active duty and only in
Federal agencies. DOD and other agencies often cite ethics obstacles to
working closely with private organizations. Existing interpretation of
the law by Federal agencies is not what Congress intended and
represents a significant obstacle to collaboration between government
and nongovernmental organizations, and which is preventing practical
and effective public-private relationships that could dramatically
improve support to veterans in transition. Recommendations include:
Review and modify ethics statutes their application in key
agencies to ensure they do not inadvertently exclude appropriate
public-private collaboration.
Members of Congress and committees interested in applying
best practices in Veterans transition support should support
legislation developed by Senator Bennet (CO) and already included in
the House Defense Authorization Act (FY 2012 NDAA) as Section 594
(Wounded Warrior Careers Program). This section requires the Secretary
of Defense to carry out a 5-year career-development demonstration
program within DOD's Education and Employment Initiative to apply best
practices in career mentoring and transition support for severely
wounded warriors of the armed forces and their spouses. This effort is
required to be implemented in 20 geographic areas across the country
where there are large concentrations of wounded warriors. This section
would also require the Secretary of Defense to collect data on best
practices, share lessons learned with other Federal agencies with
missions to support veterans, and conduct a cost-benefit analysis of
the results of the services provided to severely wounded warriors and
their families. In addition, the section requires reports to Congress
regarding program results, implementation of appropriate policies and
programs, and associated budget actions.
Question 2. What lessons have you learned from working with people
classified as 100 percent disabled? What do you think we could be doing
to give them greater access to education, training and employment
opportunities?
NOD's Wounded Warrior Careers program has collected survey
information that clearly indicates that veterans who are more engaged
in career activity have a more positive view of their own health than
those who are not engaged. NOD's work with veterans has also
demonstrated that even veterans rated at 100 percent disabled, some who
have also been designated as ``unemployable,'' are capable of far more
career activity and community involvement than our Federal programs and
policies currently are designed to attempt to support. It is important
to recognize that Federal agencies, which necessarily assign disabled
veterans to categories for purposes of administering compensation and
services, can inadvertently but negatively influence the motivation of
disabled veterans to pursue careers. Some policies serve to impede
veterans' views of what they are actually capable of doing. Therefore,
a review of programs like NOD, and a new grant program that allows the
VA and other agencies to systematically learn from private sector
ventures like NOD's, would allow alternative approaches to be tested
within Federal agencies. Such efforts should be designed to remove
unintended disincentives to career and community involvement for
severely disabled veterans and apply best practices that are efficient
and effective in inspiring greater involvement in careers and
advancement of self-sufficiency for disabled veterans and their
families. Recommendations include:
Review disability classifications and services afforded
the most serious ones. Assess to ensure that services which could
enhance involvement in community and careers, such as vocational
rehabilitation, are not denied in any form to persons who have some
ability for engagement.
Support legislation developed by Senator Bennet (CO) and
already included in the House Defense Authorization Act (FY 2012 NDAA)
as Section 594 (Wounded Warrior Careers Program). This section requires
the Secretary of Defense to carry out a 5-year career-development
demonstration program within DOD's Education and Employment Initiative
to apply best practices in career mentoring and transition support for
severely wounded warriors of the armed forces and their spouses.
Question 3a. Mentors play an important role in the lives of most
people. In your testimony you referenced the especial role mentors can
play in helping veterans with employment. My staff and I have been
looking at developing legislation to help veterans entering or
returning to college work with mentors to help with this transition
including developing career opportunities and translating skills they
learned in a military situation such as management and information
technology to a nonmilitary situation. From your experiences do you
have specific suggestions of policies we should include? What existing
resources do you think we could build off in creating this program?
Answer 3a. There are numerous philanthropic community and national
organizations, as well as employers, which have undertaken a variety of
mentoring programs. Each of these has its own design, focus, and goals,
may occur inside or outside the actual workplace or educational
institution, and may serve veterans and/or family members. NOD believes
that it is necessary to characterize and categorize mentoring programs
in order to best assess their intent, their metrics, and their
effectiveness.
NOD's mentoring approach is very holistic because it includes a
wide variety of transition related support (career planning, benefits,
access to key services, education, employment, and longer term self-
sufficiency) and is also designed to link veterans with other community
resources. Other programs may have a somewhat more narrow support role
or focus, such as employment, education, or financial planning. Some
programs provide morale support through social activities. All have the
potential to enrich veterans, their families and the community
separately, or in collaboration with other resources.
The mentoring program landscape is very diverse and growing. Many
mentoring programs primarily focus on veterans-to-veterans or citizen-
to-veteran and provide employment advice and take place outside the
work place (essentially familiarizing veterans with career paths,
employer needs, or industry sectors). Other mentoring programs are
sponsored by the employer and exist to support the veteran in the
workplace or career path more directly. There are also mentoring
programs that take place in educational settings, within national
veterans' organization programs, and within government and civilian
internship and apprenticeship programs. In Michigan, the National Guard
has a buddy-to-buddy program that focuses on general transition and
mental health support. Other government-sponsored programs exist as
well that provide general career-related support or support to veterans
starting businesses. Accordingly, NOD's recommendation is that
mentoring programs should be looked at with specific regard to their
purpose, beneficiaries, training or qualifications of mentors,
location, design, metrics/measures of outcomes, relationship to
partners or referral agencies, funding sources, cost/ease of
replication, and likelihood of endurance, among other factors.
Assessing effectiveness should include the opinion of the organization,
but also extend to the veterans being served input from other relevant
community partners that may be associated with the program or in a
position to gauge it. Among other data collected in the NOD program, is
a satisfaction survey, below:
[GRAPHIC(S) NOT AVAILABLE IN TIFF FORMAT]
Regarding existing resources that are worthy or consideration, in
addition to a program like NOD, others include American Corporate
Partners, Buddy-to-Buddy, Student Veterans of America, Iraq and
Afghanistan Veterans Association, American Legion, Rutgers-University
Veteran Mentoring Program, Joining Forces for Women Veterans mentoring
project, Veterans Across America Champion Mentor program, VA Mentor-
Protege Program, Veterans Strategic Legal Resources Volunteer Mentor
Program, and many that exist within corporations such as IBM.
With regard to policies, a significant obstacle is the impediment
to collaboration between private organizations and the Federal
Government. Ethical statutes and regulations often prevent government
agencies from referring separating service members to civilian/
nongovernmental organizations in a systemic and efficient manner. Some
organizations with congressional charters, are afforded unique access
(USO, Red Cross, and some VSOs, while other worthwhile organizations
find direct collaboration and referral processes exceptionally
difficult to establish with government agencies. Too often, these
challenges undermine the efficiency of private efforts that provide
valuable services to separating service members and their families.
Clarification of statutes should be accomplished to specify how
governmental/nongovernmental collaboration can be accomplished so that
concerns about the appearance that the Government is endorsing private
organization are addressed without undermining the potential for useful
collaboration. The Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff has described
a ``Sea of Goodwill'' that is valuable to service members, veterans and
families in communities across America. However, DOD too often cannot
directly collaborate with much of the ``Sea of Goodwill.'' This
represents a tremendous loss of opportunity and too often makes the use
of private resources that are critical to veterans and communities that
support them far less efficient and effective. Recommendations include:
Review key mentoring programs with specific regard to
their purpose, beneficiaries, training or qualifications of mentors,
location, design, metrics/measures of outcomes, relationship to
partners or referral agencies, funding sources, cost/ease of
replication, and likelihood of endurance, among other factors. Identify
collaborative referral mechanisms and provide guidelines to Federal
agencies to better exploit private organizations' capabilities.
Develop grant program to allow most effective programs to
receive some Federal support in order to achieve scale, further
substantiate the model, or otherwise expand the ability of the Nation
to exploit the potential of the approach inside or outside the Federal
Government.
Question 3b. Please provide specific examples of what you did as
Secretary of Homeland Security to increase the employment opportunities
for individuals with disabilities.
Answer 3b.
As I created a new Cabinet department, I determined that I
wanted to provide as many opportunities for people with disabilities as
possible. Employment of people with disabilities has always been a keen
interest of mine, stretching back to my days as Governor of
Pennsylvania when I had a disability issues agenda for my
administration.
I tasked one of my senior leaders to develop a concrete
plan to ensure that people with disabilities would get a fair
opportunity to land positions within our new department. Please note
that we did not set a ``quota'' or specific numerical goals for hiring
people with disabilities. This is the approach taken in many ``EEO''
contexts, but we decided to pursue a different strategy. Our strategy
was to identify this as a key leadership priority, give managers and
supervisors all of the tools they needed to make this successful, and,
aggressively recruit qualified candidates. We didn't place a mandate on
any of our hiring managers; we simply worked hard to make this a ``win-
win'' opportunity for both our new Department and for prospective
employees.
People told us we could not accomplish much with this
initiative. First, they told us that we were a security/law enforcement
agency. The government agencies that have had the best track records
have been those with social service or education missions. We were told
that people with disabilities are more drawn to that work, and that
hiring managers in security/law enforcement agencies are far less
inclined to hire people with disabilities than those in social service
or education missions. Second, we were told that our initiative cut
against overwhelming trends. At that time, employment of people with
disabilities within the Federal Government as a whole was dropping by
approximately 10 percent. We were told that our initiative could not be
successful in the face of those trends.
We pressed forward. After 18 months, we evaluated the
success of this initiative, and the results were astounding. In those
18 months, we had seen a 300 percent increase in the number of people
with disabilities who worked for our organization. That is, we tripled
the number of people with disabilities we had working for us. In
proportion to the total population of DHS HQ, people with disabilities
went from approximately 1 percent of the workforce to over 5 percent of
the workforce. We had people with every type of disability and in all
kinds of positions--an attorney who was deaf, a security employee who
had been wounded in military service, an IT manager with a mobility
impairment that required him to use a wheelchair, and people with
learning disabilities.
Our initiative showed that it can be done; increasing the
employment of people with disabilities can be accomplished, and, even
in a very difficult context. Employment of people with disabilities
should be a much easier proposition now for Federal agencies because of
the large number of young men and women who are returning from wars in
Iraq and Afghanistan with disabilities. These are young men and women
who have security clearances. These are young men and women who are
very inclined to do government service; they already have pledged to
work in the public sector. These are young men and women with
experience. These are young men and women who have a support structure
to help make them successful--they have the DOD's leadership and
wounded veteran's programs available to help them. In short, Federal
agencies attempting to hire people with disabilities are faced with
many advantages and opportunities that I did not have when I was
standing up the new Department of Homeland Security.
Specifically, here is how we pursued this initiative:
Leadership. I sent a memorandum to my senior team
announcing this initiative. It is critical to have leadership.
When senior leaders take on an initiative like this, it is
likely to be successful. This type of initiative struggles when
it is a bottom-up approach; this type of initiative needs to
have top leadership buy-in. And my senior team knew I meant
business; I discussed this initiative with the leadership team
on multiple occasions. Many of them reacted with great
enthusiasm and took it on as a personal priority as well.
Training for Managers and Supervisors. We required
every single person in DHS headquarters who was responsible for
hiring or interviewing new employees to take a training class
on this initiative. The training class was 90 minutes long, and
it accomplished two things. First, it showed all managers and
supervisors that this was a project that really mattered to me
and to my leadership team. When the managers saw Under
Secretaries and Assistant Secretaries sitting through the
training, with enthusiasm, it sent a message. Second, it
greatly minimized the reluctance many people with disabilities
have toward working with those with disabilities. We had
several current employees with disabilities speak at length
about how they get their jobs done, their greatest hurdles on
the job, and their greatest successes. This greatly increased
the level of comfort our managers and supervisors had because
it personalized the issue. Finally, it showed the managers that
this would be a win-win. They were under pressure to bring on
excellent new employees very quickly. We showed them that under
the Schedule A hiring authorities, if they could identify a
qualified applicant with a disability, they could move through
the Federal employment process very quickly. So, they could get
a qualified candidate in record-breaking time, AND make the
Secretary happy by meeting this new initiative. They left
seeing this as a win-win.
Technology. We signed an agreement with the Computer/
Electronics Accommodation Program. CAP is a Department of
Defense program that purchases assistive technology and related
services, providing training on using assistive technology,
advising on creating accessible electronic environments and
assisting in accommodating workers with disabilities. In other
words, when an employee needs some sort of accessible
technology to do his or her work, CAP buys it, installs it, and
trains them how to use it. For free. While CAP is located
within DOD, it is authorized by Congress to provide assistance
to employees at other government agencies. We signed a
Memorandum of Understanding with CAP, and then had their
leadership come to DHS headquarters to demonstrate the
technologies that could be provided for free. This allowed
employees with disabilities to do their work effectively. But
it also reassured managers and supervisors that hiring
employees with disabilities would be a success--because there
would be the technology needed to support them.
Implementation. Finally, we hired a person who was
completely dedicated to hiring people with disabilities. She
attended job fairs, went to Walter Reed, and met with community
groups. She got to know every manger or supervisor who
expressed any interest in hiring a person with a disability.
She took resumes from qualified candidates and then became a
case worker to place that person in a job.
Response to Questions of Senator Enzi by Deborah Dagit
Question 1. In your testimony you advocate for ``employer
incentives'' as a means of increasing workforce retention. Please give
specific examples of how we can do that on the Federal level.
Answer 1. Authorize employer tax incentives that are not
administratively burdensome and that will increase the availability and
utilization of effective workforce retention policies and programs to
keep working adults with newly diagnosed or recently exacerbated
medical conditions connected to the workforce.
The private sector has developed many best practices in disability
management. For instance, when workers acquire new disabilities,
employers focus on timely intervention to ensure that workers have the
necessary health care and rehabilitation supports to adapt to new
disabilities and/or recover. During the process, employers and insurers
work intensively to assess and restore their employees' work potential.
Consequently, private sector disability insurers ask ``what can you do
and how? '', rather than require individuals to prove work incapacity.
Employer-based disability management can reduce pressure on the
Social Security disability rolls by enabling employees to remain
connected to the workforce. Because disability management can reduce
Federal income support expenditures, the Federal Government should play
an active role in supporting and encouraging private-sector efforts. In
fact, Unum, a disability, group, and term life insurance company,
commissioned and released the following report, Financial Security for
Working Americans: An Economic Analysis of Insurance Products in
Workplace Benefits Programs. (July 27, 2011).
Question 2. How well aligned are Federal career, education, and
training programs for individuals with disabilities?
Answer 2. Federal career, education and training programs are
marginally aligned for individuals with disabilities. Obviously there
are exceptions, but generally the One-Stop Career Centers authorized
through the Workforce Investment Act, school systems (elementary
through post-secondary), and public training programs do not
effectively coordinate services, lack innovative staff training, and do
not prepare individuals with disabilities for the current or future job
market. Innovative and successful model programs such as Career
Opportunities for Students with Disabilities (COSD), High School/High
Tech, Project SEARCH, Emerging Leaders, TransCen and BLNs struggle for
funding and are seldom embraced by the traditional academic, training
and employment systems.
Question 3. What must be done to improve the coordination between
employers and agencies, including the Vocational Rehabilitation
programs that serve as resources for hiring individuals with
disabilities?
Answer 3. From an employer's point of view, for coordination to
work at the local level, coordination must start at the Federal level
and Federal agencies need to be held accountable. Not only is it
critical that the Social Security Administration and the Departments of
Labor, Education, Transportation, and Housing & Urban Development are
at the table, but also Health and Human Services and its many
components including Centers for Medicaid and Medicare Services,
Administration for Children and Families, and the Administration on
Developmental Disabilities must be included. A holistic, coordinated
and simplified service delivery system must be created that can
incorporate innovative and successful programs in every State's current
delivery system.
Employers, especially small and medium size companies, do not have
the time or resources to deal with the various programs that serve
individuals with disabilities. Neither do employers have the time or
motivation to deal with the competition that exists among the service
agencies nor the complicated and confusing requirements that the
different agencies must follow to qualify for their funding.
The key to improving coordination between employers and agencies
including the Vocational Rehabilitation programs is to strengthen and
grow the U.S. Business Leadership Network (USBLN) network of
affiliates. Businesses respond to their peers and the USBLN is the
national disability organization that serves as the collective voice of
over 60 Business Leadership Network affiliates across North America,
representing over 5,000 businesses. The USBLN helps build workplaces,
marketplaces, and supply chains where people with disabilities are
respected for their talents, while supporting the development and
expansion of its BLN affiliates. The USBLN recognizes and supports
best practices in the employment and advancement of people with
disabilities; the preparedness for work of youth and students with
disabilities; marketing to consumers with disabilities; and contracting
with vendors with disabilities through the development and
certification of disability-owned businesses.
While the USBLN movement was created by employers to reach their
peers each local BLN is a non-profit entity that requires a stable
public-private partnership to launch, expand and sustain itself. A
strong BLN is the ideal link between government programs, community
service providers and the employers.
Response to Question of Senator Enzi by Amelia Wallrich
Question 1. During your testimony you shared your personal
experience with the individualized education program (IEP). Please
share some suggestions for how we might be able to foster a positive
environment for individuals with a broad range of disabilities--
particularly those with intellectual disabilities--so that the process
can be positive, not adversarial.
Answer 1. I think the IEP can be very useful, but it needs to be
broadened to include more aspects of the educational experience. My IEP
was helpful in procuring accommodations inside the classroom, but could
have provided more support for transition planning and extracurricular
and community activities. As I demonstrated in my testimony,
extracurricular and community activities provided me with important
training for future job skills. The broad goal of the IEP should be to
implement a plan that helps a student with any type of disability use
their education to obtain employment. The IEP should look for ways
students with disabilities can explore their talents in a variety of
arenas, the same way students without disabilities do. Part of the IEP
process is an annual meeting that reviews a student's accommodations,
their progress in the classroom, and their needs for the upcoming
school year. The discussion about progress should also include how the
student is involved in school activities outside of the classroom and
how these activities can help the student prepare for a future. The
discussion about needs for the upcoming year should be held in the
broader context of whether a student with a disability is being
adequately prepared for the workforce and, if possible, higher
education. Furthermore, the discussions about transition plans and
preparing for employment should start at the beginning of a student's
education, not as he/she is about to graduate.
In terms of students with intellectual disabilities, allowing them
to identify different community programs, jobs programs, or specialized
higher education programs, will allow them to test many avenues for
their development. However, it is key to have this focus early on in
the IEP process so students and support staff have adequate time to
identify programs and use their education to prepare them for the
programs. Moreover, opening extracurricular and community activities to
students with intellectual disabilities will prepare students without
disabilities to work in a more inclusive environment, and eventually a
more inclusive workforce.
At a very basic level, the IEP should expect students with
disabilities to be preparing for the workforce, just as our school
systems are preparing students without disabilities for permanent
employment. The IEP can help students with disabilities meet the
expectation of employment by providing support and accommodations for
community/extracurricular activities, by discussing transition plans
early in a student's education, and by focusing the IEP as a tool for
helping a student with a disability use their education to obtain
employment.
Thank you again for the opportunity to speak on this issue.
[Whereupon, at 11:37 a.m., the hearing was adjourned.]