Advocates work to boost employment of disabled

By David Hughes
For ajcjobs

A recent research study of Atlanta employers goes a long way toward explaining why the unemployment rate for people who have disabilities hovers at 70 percent overall -- and 40 percent for college graduates who have disabilities.

Commissioned by the Bobby Dodd Institute in Atlanta, the study found that nearly half of the 200 human resources representatives surveyed in metro Atlanta said, "Disabled persons cannot adequately perform required work duties."

Nearly 90 percent of small companies and close to 75 percent of large companies don't employ any workers who have developmental disabilities. And nearly one-third of large companies and almost 60 percent of small companies don't employ any workers who have physical disabilities.

LEITA COWART/Special
Phyllis Craddock laughs with a co-worker at the Panera Bread Co. near Emory University. Craddock was trained at the Bobby Dodd Institute.

"To be unemployed and have a disability in the United States is to be one of the most marginalized people in this country," said Wayne McMillan, president and CEO of the institute. "So much of how people are defined is by their job."

The survey found that companies of more than 100 employees were more likely than smaller ones to have some recruiting strategy in place to include people who have disabilities. And they are more likely to provide managers with training in diversity hiring.

But, while these larger companies are more likely than small ones to employ people who have physical disabilities, that is not as much the case for those who have developmental disabilities.

Those who work to match people who have disabilities with employers say the developmentally disabled often face the greatest challenges, beginning with the decision whether to disclose their disabilities to prospective employers.

"Diversity is really beginning to open up to include people beyond race and gender," said Alan Muir, executive director of the Knoxville-based Career Opportunities for Students With Disabilities (COSD). "But there is a certain stigma attached to hidden disabilities. When you're talking about a learning disability -- or especially people with bipolar disorder -- there is a huge stigma."

The Bobby Dodd Institute, named for the legendary Georgia Tech football coach and longtime champion of employing people who have disabilities, serves about 800 people a year and helped 162 people gain competitive employment in 2005.

"Our goal is to get people off of public assistance and getting a paycheck," McMillan said.

The institute offers programs to prepare students for jobs in office environments, in grocery stores, as janitors and as phone system operators. Some work is contracted through the institute to government and private sector operations.

"We operate the switchboard at the Veterans Medical Center on Clairmont Road," McMillan said. "Some of those people are vision-impaired, but if you call you'd never know that."

McMillan said many students who have disabilities stay in special-education classes in high school until they're 22 years old -- without learning job skills. Georgia has about 185,000 special-education students in middle schools and high schools, he said.

The institute is trying to reach these students sooner.

"If we can get to them in their late teens, we can get them into a job earlier to save [them] three or four years of their lives," he said.

Muir will be in Atlanta in June for a conference geared toward finding employment opportunities for a slightly older group. He created COSD when he noticed a disconnect at the University of Tennessee between career services and offices set up to help people who have disabilities. At the Hyatt Regency on June 15 and 16, college administrators from across the country will join with corporate managers to discuss strategies for increasing the employment of people who have disabilities. Local sponsors include SunTrust Bank and Home Depot.

"We want talent wherever we can find it," said Katherine McCary, a SunTrust vice president.

The Atlanta conference is set to launch a survey at 50 universities to ask students who have disabilities about what they think is preventing them from getting internships and long-term employment.

Some people may be surprised that 40 percent of college graduates who have disabilities are unemployed, but those who grapple with the issue cite several contributing factors:

  • Some receive Social Security benefits, which are lost if the recipient makes too much money.
  • Parents sometimes have low expectations, and the student underachieves.
  • Some students who have disabilities shy away from activities that look good on resumes, such as competing on the debate team or editing the school yearbook.

    • "I've seen resumes with extremely high GPAs and nothing else," McCary said. "That's a key reason why students graduate and don't go anywhere."

    Muir said he hopes a new technological approach will help get some of those resumes in front of employers who are specifically interested in hiring people who have disabilities. According to experts, as the demand for labor in the United States strains supply in coming years, employers will tend to see people who have disabilities as part of the labor pool more often.

    This summer, Muir's organization is launching a Web-based service called COSD Career Gateway, a national database of resumes of college students who have disabilities. It will supplement the career fairs and other strategies students use to find work after college.

    "We still want students to go through traditional channels," Muir said. "But this will separate them to be sure they get noticed."

    The database will be listed on the organization's home page at www.cosdonline.org.

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