Life on Wheels (102 page)

Despite passage of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, ensuring true access to education for children with disabilities remains a challenge. There continue to be reports of educators who resist full accommodation, frustrated by lack of training or demands on their time, particularly when communication or learning disabilities are involved.

When parents complain that the school nearest home does not offer needed programs, the school district often urges parents to send children farther away. However, the extra distance means extra travel time and prevents children from developing strong social networks with neighborhood children:

Children find themselves at a disadvantage in other ways in school. For example, they might miss the sex education often offered in physical education classes, which they do not attend. Accommodation is sometimes lacking in drivers’ education.

What matters is that children with disabilities are educated so that they can find their full potential and compete for good jobs. At present, many well-paying jobs are in the technology sector. Tony Coehlo, formerchairman of the President’s Committee on Employment of People with Disabilities (now the Office of Disability Employment Policy), once noted:

On the whole, education is opening wider all the time. From major universities to local community colleges to evolving Internet-based home study options, there are ways for you to learn, gain degrees or certifications, and pursue internships.

Even if you have to put up a bit of a fight, you can reach your goals, as James Post did to finish medical school. Medical educators doubted his ability to perform as a physician with spinal cord quadriplegia. They questioned his ability to feel a pulse or palpate organs during an exam without sensation in his fingertips. However, thanks to modern diagnostic equipment and the support of a mentor—a neurologist and polio survivor who faced similar obstacles in becoming a doctor—James Post graduated with honors from the Albert Einstein College of Medicine in 1997.
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Some people are truly unable to handle full-time work because of physical issues such as pain, spasticity, limited energy, or communication difficulties. But, if you feel that your disability precludes being able to work, pause to fully consider whether this is true.

Assistive technologies, discussed earlier in this chapter, have made dramatic gains, and the momentum remains strong. In this modern information economy, the capacity for physical labor is not an issue for a very large portion of the jobs to be filled. With advanced education more widely accessible than ever, jobs that are based on computer skills rather than lifting capacity can be performed by a worker with a disability just as well as one without.

If you feel that your health limits you, perhaps you have more potential for a pain-free, higher-energy lifestyle than you’ve fully explored. Before giving up on the notion of productive and profitable work, be sure to study all possible options for diet, exercise, and medical strategies that could extend your capacity to put in a full day on the job.

The very possibility of employment for people with disabilities expanded with the passage of Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973. The key provision almost went unnoticed. According to Joseph Shapiro in
No Pity
, it was “no more than a legislative afterthought,” stating that no federal agency, public university, federal contractor, or entity that received federal funding could discriminate “solely by reason of handicap.” As a result, the government and some of the nation’s largest employers and places of higher education found themselves required to provide wheelchair accessibility in their buildings.

For many people, the only reasons they could not perform certain jobs was because they simply couldn’t get in the front door or there was no restroom that they could use. With passage of the ADA in 1990, accessibility became a requirement in the private sector as well, unless “undue hardship” could be proven. The ADA should not force anyone out of business.

The ADA does not guarantee you a job. It simply protects you from discrimination based on your disability, allowing you to compete fairly with any other qualified workers for a job—or to stay in the one you had when you acquired your disability. You are entitled to “reasonable accommodations” to allow you to perform the “essential tasks” of the job (this being the language of human resources professionals). Ultimately, you have to do the job and accept your own responsibility for the commitments you make to an employer. There is a big difference between asking for the tools and environment you need to work and thinking that your disability allows you special status. That is a mistaken view of disability rights: these laws are not consolation prizes. The ADA is there to allow you to compete fairly. It also gives you the chance to fail if you do not commit to the same standards of performance and behavior as everyone else. That is what inclusion truly is.

Perhaps most of all, challenge your thinking if it is trying to tell you that having a disability equals not being able to work. It could be that fear and doubt are stopping you, not your disability itself. The proof is in the number of people with disabilities of all kinds and degrees who are out there doing it. Don’t pass yourself over without giving yourself every possible chance.

Unfortunately, there also appears to be some discrimination on the part of employers, overt or not. Journalist John Hockenberry—a wheelchair user—produced an investigative report shown in 1997 on
Dateline NBC
. He sent two young men to various employers asking for work. One was quadriplegic; the other walked. The resume of the chair rider was intentionally slightly better than the other decoy. Witnessed by hidden cameras, several potential employers used tactics to discourage the man with the disability. In one case, he was told that there were no application forms, although forms were produced for the walking applicant. In another case, the ablebodied man was invited into a preliminary training session not offered to the chair rider.

These prospective employers are at the least guilty of prejudgment without taking the time to ask how the applicant would adapt to the tasks of the job. In most cases, resistance is not a matter of hateful prejudice, but of simple ignorance. When you apply for a job, try to know something ahead of time about the tasks involved and be prepared to explain how you will perform them. You could also point a potential employer to resources such as the Job Accommodation Network, described below.

There are some tax incentives for employers who spend money on accommodations for disabled employees. The Disabled Access Credit (IRS Section 44) allows companies with gross receipts under one million dollars or with fewer than 30 full-time employees to take a tax credit of 50% of their expenditures for access, up to $5,000 a year. The Architectural and Transportation Barrier Removal Deduction (IRS Section 190) can be as large as $15,000. You might improve your chances if you arrive at your job interview equipped with information of this sort.

One of the greatest challenges to the ability to work is the current structure of the benefits system. Social Security disability benefits, for instance, are tied to a person’s income—and you are not allowed to make very much without risking the end of your checks or the loss of health and assistance coverage under Medicare. Similar income limits apply to stateadministered programs like Medicaid (MediCal in California), which serve people with low incomes. Some people with the skills and desire simply cannot afford to work. Changes are being proposed to reform Social Security to increase incentives for people with disabilities to work.

Deep disincentives are built into the way the Social Security disability system works, keeping people trapped in the system because it doesn’t make sense financially them to go off the program and work. The effort to resolve this issue resulted in the last piece of federal law signed by the president (Bill Clinton, in this case) in the 20th century: the Work Incentives Investment Act, also known as “Ticket to Work.”

The Ticket to Work program functions through employment networks—private organizations or government agencies—to provide a variety of services to workers with disabilities. People receive vouchers for vocational rehabilitation, help with job seeking, and possibly job-accommodation assistance. The program allows

Cash benefits to continue beyond previous limits

Medicaid and Medicare coverage to remain (possibly with a degree of “buy-in” depending on income

Coverage for some work-related expenses due to your disability

There is a nationwide network of One Stop Centers where people can access an array of assistance. Learn about their services and locate one nearest you at http://www.dol.gov/dol/topic/training/onestop.htm or by calling 877-US-2JOBS.

WIIA and Ticket to Work have gotten off to a slow start. Just getting the word out is a challenge; only 42% of Americans with disabilities had heard of WIIA as of the 2004 N.O.D./Harris poll, and only 26% knew of the existence of the One Stop Centers. There is some complexity and confusion in the actual implementation, and many people with disabilities are entirely unaware of the existence of the program.
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Plus, these services do not address the lack of accessible and affordable housing or the challenges with transportation that many people with disabilities face. Social Security reform remains in its infancy.