Working for people with disabilities

While New England has posted record low unemployment and enjoyed new levels of wealth and opportunity, not all segments of the region's population are experiencing the same buoyant times. And though countless companies cite growing pains due to

a shortage of skilled workers, many New Englanders who want to work are without jobs.

People with disabilities are particularly limited in their access to employment. Just 30 percent of people with disabilities participate in the labor force, compared with 80 percent of the general population. Not surprisingly then, people with disabilities also are more likely than others to live below the poverty level. Meanwhile, the very technologies that are driving New England's dynamic economy can be used to help expand the workforce by creating opportunities for people with disabilities to pursue a range of careers that were once inaccessible to them.

That's the premise behind a new initiative launched by the Institute for Community Inclusion, a research and training center affiliated with the University of Massachusetts Boston and Children's Hospital, with the New England Council as a subcontractor. Funded with a $250,000 grant from Microsoft Corp., the project, called "The Office for the Future: An Opportunity for Today," aims to demonstrate how computer technologies and job accommodations can help more disabled adults enter the workplace.

Workers needed

During the 1990s, the U.S. population expanded at roughly five times the rate of New England's. In fact, without an influx of immigrant workers, Massachusetts, Connecticut and Rhode Island would have seen their labor forces shrink in recent years. New England's business and education communities are looking for creative ways to expand the region's pool of workers. One way is to use computer technologies, specially designed equipment and job accommodations to increase the numbers of adults with disabilities entering the workforce.

Working with the council, the UMass researchers will develop Web-based materials for employers, disabled people and public agencies to document successful employment of people with disabilities through computer technology.

The project will also provide direct technical assistance to 20 companies across New England, helping them develop individualized strategies for their workplace on the use of technology to access these workers. The institute will determine the employers' needs and match the skills and interests of workers with disabilities to those needs.

The project could help one company introduce a headset on the telephone for someone with mobility problems. Another might reprogram a computer keyboard so someone who is able to use only one hand can carry out functions using one keystroke rather than two at a time. Or a company could introduce language-predictive software for people who have learning disabilities or reengineer computer screens so people can see them better.

It's not the first time the institute and the nation's oldest regional business group have teamed up in an effort to bring more people with disabilities into the workforce. Last year, the two collaborated on an initiative funded by the National Institute for Rehabilitation Research and Training to bring public and private sectors together to develop a comprehensive approach to employing people with disabilities

Untapped talent

An analysis by Richard Burkhauser of Cornell University's Rehabilitation and Training Center for Economic Research on Employment Policy for Persons with Disabilities reveals that people with disabilities (those who tell the U.S. Census Bureau that disability prevents them from working or limits the work they can do) participate in the labor force at lower rates than people without disabilities, and their participation actually declined from 1987 through 1997. While the labor force participation rate for men without disabilities dropped slightly from 96 percent in 1987 to 95 percent in 1997, the rate for men with disabilities sank from 44 percent in 1987 to 36 percent in 1997. And the rate for women with disabilities dropped from 38 percent to 32 percent even as the rate for women without disabilities grew from 77 percent in 1987 to 81 percent in 1997.

Moreover, the 2000 National Organization on Disability/Harris Survey of Americans with Disabilities found that while only 32 percent of 18-to-64-year-old people with disabilities work full- or part-time, compared to 81 percent of the non-disabled population, more than two-thirds of those not employed said they would prefer to be working.

People with disabilities often work in entry-level and low-paying service jobs, according to nationwide data gathered by Andrew Houtenville, also of the Cornell research center. Houtenville found that the mean annual income for a person with disabilities was just $17,928 from 1997-1999, compared with $34,466 for someone without disabilities.

People with disabilities are far more likely than others to be poor. About 6 percent of men without disabilities and 10 percent of women without disabilities live in poverty and the figures have changed little since 1987, according to Burkhauser. By contrast, 26 percent of men with disabilities lived in poverty in 1997, up from 24 percent in 1987, and 32 percent of women with disabilities lived in poverty, up from 30 percent a decade earlier.

Education crucial

The impact of education on labor force participation is well documented. But educational attainment has an even more powerful impact on whether people with disabilities are working. Census data indicate that with each level of education, labor force participation rises more dramatically for people with disabilities than for people without disabilities.

The Harris Poll suggests that the share of people with disabilities who complete high school has grown from six in 10 in 1986 to seven in 10 in the recent survey. But the trend at the college level has decreased in recent years. In 1985, two in 10 people with disabilities reported that they had a college degree. Today, the figure is one in 10.

Spurred on by passage of the Americans with Disabilities Act in 1990 and attendant federal technology grants, New England colleges and universities have launched a wide range of programs to make education and training more accessible to disabled students and established research centers to explore policy issues related to disabilities. Some campuses have become key players in the development of so-called "assistive technologies" that help people with disabilities live and work independently

Hampshire College's Lemelson Assistive Technology Development Center, for example, works with public agencies and academic institutions to identify needs for assistive technology, and undergraduates design products that companies and nonprofit organizations, in turn, make available to people who need them. Lemelson students have designed a computer mouse that better conforms to the hand and computer icons that make touch screens more usable for people who cannot control hand movements. They have also designed a mounting system for a power pack and throttle to make additional power available as an added feature on tricycles specially designed for people with balance difficulties.

The University of Maine's Center for Community Inclusion in Orono offers interdisciplinary undergraduate and graduate programs in disability studies, conducts applied research and policy analysis on disability issues and provides community education and technical assistance programs.

Vermont Technical College's Rehabilitation Engineering Technology degree program prepares technicians and technologists to provide and modify special products incorporating assistive technologies.

The New Hampshire Assistive Technology Partnership Project at the University of New Hampshire develops UNH courses on assistive technology and operates programs such as a Refurbished Equipment Marketplace in Concord, N.H., which fixes up donated equipment such as wheelchairs, walkers and communication devices, and makes them available at low cost.

A Community College of Rhode Island program that helps students with disabilities overcome barriers to education and employment has become a national model.

Assistive tech

Fortunately, assistive technologies can be used to help people with disabilities access the higher-paying and faster-growing segments of the New England labor market, including scientific and engineering occupations, particularly in the information technology sector where employment is expected to grow by more than 90 percent over the next 10 years.

Computer technologies are opening new doors for people with disabilities to pursue opportunities in back-office retail and service industries such as finance and insurance. A worker who is visually impaired may be able to access a job just by having a computer that includes an enlarged cursor or a different color screen and icons. Other software programs read screen text aloud, eliminating the need to read off the screen.

People with learning disabilities can customize their computers with a variety of programs to target their individual needs. For workers who have a limited range of motion, head sticks can be used to maneuver a keyboard, while a specially designed mouse can be controlled by foot. Or voice-activated systems may allow workers to avoid using a keyboard and mouse altogether.

The rise of telecommuting expands opportunities even more profoundly. The Harris Poll reveals that people with disabilities are almost three times more likely than others to say that inadequate transportation is a problem. Working from home eliminates that major obstacle.

In short, computers have the capability to level the playing field for all workers, thus Microsoft's interest. With little population growth projected for New

England, it is increasingly critical for the business community, educators and government leaders to explore ways to enhance and grow the existing workforce. By better utilizing the creative force behind our economy, we can close the gap between those who want to work and the growing number of vacant jobs. Our future economic growth truly depends on the success of such initiatives.

James T. Brett is president and CEO of the New Wngland Council.

Copyright New England Board of Higher Education Fall 2000
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