Able To Work

By Laura Koss-Feder

Former California Congressman Tony Coelho was prevented from becoming a priest in the 1960s--but not because of a lack of faith in God or a failure to keep his vows. It was on account of his epilepsy, which made him unfit for the priesthood, according to ancient canon law that viewed epilepsy on the same level as demonic possession. Though disappointed that he was not able to achieve his holy orders, Coelho went on to a career in politics and on Wall Street, and today serves as chairman of ICF Kaiser Inc., a Fairfax, Va., environmental-engineering company.

Coelho takes heart in the fact that the U.S. today is more welcoming than it used to be for an estimated 30 million Americans who, like himself, must struggle to overcome some form of physical or mental disability. "We now have a fighting chance in the work force, and we are demanding our rights," says Coelho, who serves as chairman of the President's Committee on Employment of People with Disabilities and was one of the primary authors of the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990. "There is still job discrimination out there, but the tide is turning."

Nine years after the passage of the ADA, which was designed to prohibit discrimination in the workplace against those with disabilities, the situation has changed for America's disabled--and for their employers. In large ways and small--but mostly small--American businesses have adapted themselves to make the disabled more welcome and productive. Such workplace accommodations often cost little and can be as simple as offering flexible work hours to an employee suffering from chronic depression, or buying a computer keyboard with all the control keys on one side for someone missing a hand. In general, most workplace accommodations cost less than $200 a person, according to James Geletka, executive director of the Rehabilitation Engineering and Assistive Technology Society of North America in Arlington, Va.

After voicing initial concerns about the potential cost, U.S. industry has shown itself more open to hiring people with disabilities--especially in the midst of the tightest labor market in memory. In 1994, the latest year for which U.S. Census Bureau statistics are available, some 3.7 million people with severe disabilities were at work, up from 2.9 million three years earlier. That said, there is still a long way to go. As the employment numbers also indicate, a large proportion of America's disabled population still has its nose pressed against the workplace window. Prejudice, lack of adequate transportation and physical barriers to employment are still common, contributing to a sense of discouragement among the disabled themselves. For instance, though exact numbers vary, experts cite a 1998 survey by Louis Harris & Associates that found only 30% of adults with disabilities to be employed full or part time, compared with nearly 80% of adults without disabilities. Nearly 6 out of 10 of those surveyed last year in Louis Harris' annual poll said the ADA had made no difference in their lives.

In a move to intensify the ADA's impact, the Federal Government is once again stepping in. Last March, President Bill Clinton created the Presidential Task Force on Employment of Adults with Disabilities, which presented its first report in December. "The report basically says that so much more needs to be done to help people with disabilities in the workplace," says Coelho, vice chair of the task force. The report's recommendations included tax changes to help people with disabilities pay for work-related expenses, a new program with the Small Business Administration to assist those who want to start their own businesses, a plea for passage of a Patients' Bill of Rights to assist in health care and a call to make the Federal Government a model employer of the disabled. In December, Vice President Al Gore announced an Executive Order approving two of the recommendations, those concerning the SBA and the Federal Government, says Becky Ogle, executive director of the task force. Putting these plans into action, says Ogle, will have a minimal cost, but no specific number can yet be attached to it.

Even without such incentives, however, some firms have been standouts in aiding the disabled to do their jobs. Marriott International of Bethesda, Md., has long been recognized for its efforts. One compelling reason for the company's stance: chairman J.W. Marriott Jr.'s son Steve, a Marriott vice president of employment marketing, is hearing and sight impaired. But Marriott executives emphasize that the policy has deeper roots than that. "Working with all people has just become a part of our corporate culture," says Brendan Keegan, Marriott's executive vice president of human resources. "We have found that people with disabilities are highly motivated and dedicated, with a strong element of job retention and less employee turnover."

Marriott project manager Preston Joyce, 36, who lost his right arm in a motorcycle accident at age 18 and wears a prosthesis, bolsters Keegan's assertions. Hired by the company in 1984, he is a technology specialist in the human resources department. He was one of the first in the company to get a computer with all the control keys on one side, plus small touches like a cubicle that organizes his equipment and supplies on his left side. "I'm looked at as an individual who does his job well, not as someone who is missing an arm," Joyce says. In the years he's been with Marriott, Joyce has received nine promotions and his salary has increased more than sixfold.

The Marriott family has assumed a national role in the effort to provide the disabled with good jobs. In 1989 it started the Marriott Foundation for People with Disabilities, which has placed about 3,000 disabled people ages 18 to 22 in paid private-sector internships lasting as long as three or four months. The foundation has worked with 1,150 employers in various parts of the country, says foundation executive director Mark Donovan. Almost 90% of these people received job offers after their internships ended.

"This program has helped me enter the work force, and it's helped me build up my self-esteem and character," says Carlos Pennix, 25, a clerical aide assistant with the Potomac Power Electric Co. in Washington. Pennix, who has spina bifida and uses a wheelchair, started with the power company as an intern in 1992 when he was in high school.

Smaller corporations have followed the Marriott example. Terry Neese, who owns a personnel agency with a staff of 14 in Oklahoma City, makes an effort to work with local training institutes in her area to help place people with disabilities in jobs. Neese's personal motivation: her granddaughter Emily, 4, does not have a fully developed left arm. "I know my granddaughter will grow up to have a brilliant mind and a willing spirit," Neese says. "But what kinds of opportunities will she find available out there? I want to set an example in my own company." For example, Neese has placed people who use wheelchairs in computer-data-entry positions. When working with potential employers, Neese will find out ahead of time if they can accommodate these people; if they can't, then she won't work with these employers at all.

High-tech firms and computer companies, with their easier access to and knowledge of new technology, are often in the vanguard of efforts to work with the disabled. Hewlett-Packard Co., for one, has educated its managers about devices that can be used to assist employees who are blind or deaf, says Maricella Gallegos, who manages the Palo Alto, Calif., firm's disabilities employment program. Workers with emotional problems who have trouble dealing with the workplace are offered the option of telecommuting.

Hewlett-Packard provides, among other things, Braille books, interpreters and text telephone (TTY) service--phone conversations in which an operator transcribes a hearing person's response that is transmitted and read by a deaf person on a text telephone screen. Patty O'Sullivan, 39, H-P's diversity project administrator, who has been with the company for 13 years, is an avid user of the technology. O'Sullivan, who is deaf, conducted her interview with TIME via TTY. Her employer also has an interpreter available if she is meeting with people in a large group and would have a hard time reading lips. "The company I work for values people and focuses on their abilities and strengths," O'Sullivan says. "This is why I have been here for 13 years."

H-P estimates that the cost of accommodation is $500 a person on average, Gallegos says. The payoff? "The benefit to the company of accommodating people is that we have a much richer pool of employees to choose from," says Emily Duncan, director of diversity and work life. "The investment we make in our people allows them to be more productive in the workplace. After all, talent comes in all kinds of packages."

Kansas City-based Sprint is another activist firm that has reached out to local organizations and identified qualified people with disabilities for a host of jobs, says Margaret Hastings, the company's human-resources manager. According to the communications giant, an estimated 385 employees out of a total of 51,000 have designated themselves as having a disability. The company tries to work with people where and when they need it, Hastings adds. "The company gave me an opportunity when I felt I didn't have any options," says Deanne Dirksen, 24, a department assistant based in Louisville, Ky., who is legally blind from multiple sclerosis. To enable her to do her job, Sprint supplied Dirksen with a computer-software program called ZoomText that magnifies the print on her computer screen, and she also uses a closed-circuit TV for written material.

One reason why high-tech firms are more open to the disabled--humane considerations aside--is that the price of accommodating them, at least in some areas, is rapidly falling. Henter-Joyce Inc., a St. Petersburg, Fla., software company, manufactures a program for blind and visually impaired people that has come down in price by almost half--from $1,500 to $795--since its 1988 introduction, notes president Ted Henter, who is himself blind. Called JAWS, an acronym for Job Access with Speech, the Windows-based program reads back in a synthesized voice whatever is typed into a computer. This voice also reads back e-mail and any information obtained over the Internet. Annual sales have jumped from $100,000 in 1988 to $7 million a decade later. "With less use of paper and a greater reliance on computers and e-mail these days, there are more opportunities for blind and visually impaired people to move ahead in their careers with the help of new software," says Henter. Almost half of his 45 employees are blind or visually impaired.

Those with psychiatric disabilities have had a much harder time being accepted by corporate America. A big reason is that mental ailments are often still kept under wraps. An employer may not even be aware that someone has a mental illness until a difficulty arises on the job. But the biggest problem remains old-fashioned fear. "There is still an enormous apprehension in hiring people with psychiatric disabilities, for fear that they will go out of control," says Ellen Gussaroff, a New York City psychoanalyst who estimates that about one-third of her patients have had problems on the job. "But there are people with chronic mental illness who are very capable of doing good work with the right accommodations."

To address this, the Equal Employment Opportunities Commission in 1997 issued guidelines to help employers define mental disabilities under the ADA and provide them with assistance. But some critics say these were not enough. "The guidelines did not help clear up the confusion that's out there, and did not really apply to what goes on in the real world," says Michael Lotito, managing partner in the San Francisco law firm of Jackson Lewis, which represents management in labor disputes. EEOC Commissioner Paul Miller counters that the guidelines did raise awareness of psychiatric disabilities on the part of employers but were not intended to offer specific remedies.

For those companies that know how, accommodating employees with a recognized mental disability is often easy and cheap. Phil Kosak, owner and president of Carolina Fine Snacks in Greensboro, N.C., spends nothing to ease the adjustment for the three of his nine employees who suffer from various mental illnesses or learning disabilities. Kosak had noticed, for example, that one of his employees on a production line would panic if he was not reminded each morning of everything he was supposed to get done that day. So the boss posted a bulletin board with the daily production tasks and goals. "This was simple, cost nothing and improved my company's production overall," Kosak says.

Kosak has hired people with both physical and mental disabilities since 1988, when he attended a job fair sponsored by a local vocational-rehabilitation agency. "When someone has a disability, there is often too much of a focus on what they cannot do," Kosak says. "I like to focus on what someone can do." These employees work on the assembly line and receive the company's average salary of $8 an hour.

For many people with disabilities, the entrepreneurial atmosphere of the 1990s has taken them where so many other Americans are going--into business for themselves. Theodore Pinnock, 36, a San Diego civil rights attorney who has cerebral palsy and uses a wheelchair, started his own four-person law practice in 1991. The corporate legal world, he found, was less than welcoming. "The fact that I had a disability and that I am an African American made it very difficult for me to get where I wanted to be in my career," Pinnock says. "I had to work harder than most to gain the respect of my colleagues. But now I have a reputation and a name for myself, and clients know to come to me." In order to set up his practice, Pinnock spent more than $100,000 on various modifications, including a special device he created for his computer keyboard, a wheelchair-accessible van for transportation and a driver for out-of-town trips. He has at times had his executive assistant accompany him to court to help clarify his garbled speech. Back in 1992, Pinnock worked with a rehabilitation expert to help him adequately accommodate his office to his disability.

To help others reach Pinnock's goal, the presidential disabilities committee has created a new tool: a Job Accommodations Network, which starting last October began offering help to those who want to become entrepreneurs. JAN offers free advice on how to obtain financing, purchase office equipment and help a business accommodate a disability, says Dale Brown, the service's program manager. A website with more extensive information is expected to be up and running by the middle of 1999. So far, the service has helped 51 disabled people with questions on how to start a business. The goal is to reach 500 this year.

Even with such promising new services and techniques, the battle to integrate the disabled more thoroughly into regular working life is far from over. Formidable obstacles remain. In the U.S., one of the most difficult issues involves health care. "What happens if you get a job that doesn't have health insurance?" asks EEOC Commissioner Miller. "You lose your Medicare benefits, which you greatly need once you get that job, and then you can't purchase a separate health plan because of a pre-existing condition." The answer, he feels, is possibly to amend the Medicare and Medicaid system regarding eligibility, so that if a disabled person gets a job, that person would not lose benefits.

While the ADA has heightened awareness that discriminating against the disabled is illegal, there has been a backlash from some less enlightened employers, sources say. "Because of a greater awareness of the law, sometimes companies are afraid to hire people with a disability. They fear that they'll be sued if that person is fired for any reason," says Patricia Veal, a human-resources placement specialist with the North Carolina division of vocational-rehabilitation services in Greensboro.

To face some of those problems, deeper changes in American attitudes are required, which will take time. "My sense is that things will really change maybe another generation or so down the road," says Mark Donovan of the Marriott Foundation for People with Disabilities. Others are far more pessimistic. "Give it about another 100 years," says lawyer Pinnock. "Maybe then you'll see some real difference in attitudes." But as Pinnock himself has shown, no one need wait so long to carry the struggle at least a small distance forward.