Steps for Providing the Adaptive Tools Your New Employee Needs to Do the Job
A Longstanding Effort at the Social Security Administration
Pitney Bowes Has a Sensible Approach
Related Content
Steps for Providing the Adaptive Tools Your New Employee Needs to Do the Job
In the eSight Careers NetworkTM article, "Steps for
Providing the Adaptive Tools Your New Employee Needs
to Do the Job", we outlined several steps employers
can take to ensure their workers can achieve top
performance.
The steps, outlined in more detail in the article,
permit an employer to:
- Know what tasks require adaptation.
- Know what adaptations can be made.
- Know how to make these adaptations.
- Implement and review the adaptations.
As we have often reported on eSight Careers
Network, workers with disabilities are a valuable
addition to your workforce. The U.S. Department of Labor
addresses many of the myths that employers have about
why hiring people with disabilities can be a disadvantage:
higher insurance rates, higher absenteeism, expensive
accommodations, and higher accident rates -- to name
a few. The fact is that statistically disabled people
are equal to or superior to non-disabled workers in
terms of performance. The anecdotal evidence, our
conversations with employers, fully supports those
statistics.
Hiring qualified disabled people for competitive jobs
is just one part of a plan savvy employers are using
to their competitive advantage. Retaining workers who
become disabled through accident, illness, age or
other causes saves you the cost not only of replacing
them but also helps you take advantage of the many
productive years they already have and will put in.
It all boils down to succeeding with accommodation,
and a practical approach for doing just that is
networking within the business community -- learning
from other employers what has or has not worked for
them. I recently contacted two employers who have
accommodated blind employees. They are reaping, as a
result, the rewards of having hard working, bright and
personable employees on their staffs.
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A Longstanding Effort at the Social Security Administration
Jim Burkert is a supervisor in the Spokane, Wash.,
Social Security Administration office. He's acquainted
with a visually impaired intake specialist at the
office. I will call him Vic. Vic is only one of the
reasons why Burkert characterizes his experience with
workers who have disabilities as "excellent." The
Spokane office has several, all of them top
performers.
While Burkert was not in his current position when
Vic was first hired, he is well-acquainted with the
process the office followed in accommodating Vic. Vic
was brought to the SSA by a hiring authority which
serves the SSA as a federal agency. This authority
approaches community agencies and colleges, seeking
qualified disabled people for positions where they are
underrepresented -- and can do so without observing
the usual arduous federal hiring requirements.
SSA, which administers the Social Security Disability
Insurance program, Burkert points out, "recognizes its
obligation to help people get off SSDI and SSI."
However, he also adds, "...We never hire the disabled
person because he is disabled. We hire the best person
for the job."
Vic was one of those people. He was hired to do
personal interviews with visitors to the northeast
Washington State office, using a computer and other
tools to help sort out and address their needs.
With SSA's firm commitment comes a well-practiced
procedure for making appropriate accommodations. A
hiring manager needs only to contact the accommodation
experts from the central SSA office in Baltimore.
Adaptive aids experts from that department flew to
Spokane to assess, equip and train Vic on the tools he
would need to be productive. The first step was to
provide Vic with a reader during the required 12-week
training.
Burkert describes the tools Vic uses. "Mostly Vic
interviews people and pulls up records from the SSA
database," he says. "His computer has a larger monitor
and also has a screen magnifier and screen reader
installed. Vic also uses hand magnifiers a lot. We had
no trouble with compatibility. Vic uses the same
database and software everyone else in the office
uses."
Any snags? "The only problem Vic runs into," Burkert
continues, "is when someone comes in with a print
document. He can read it with his magnifiers, but he
is impatient with himself and frustrated that it takes
him longer to read."
Here's how Burkert describes Vic's role in achieving
accommodation: "We asked him what he would need to
access the computer. At first, he only had a bigger
monitor. We needed to follow up with him when that
became obviously insufficient. He should have let us
know sooner, but, if I had it to do again, I'd follow
up sooner and more often with the new employee."
Burkert believes that Vic's performance more than
outweighs any extra time or equipment he needs. His
other workers agree and found that any shifting of
tasks to accommodate Vic work in their favor as
well. "Vic is very good with people," Burkert
says. "He is positive and well-liked. He is loyal and
reliable. And he sure has the desire."
Drawing from his own experience, Burkert offers this
advice to employers: "Don't be turned off by a
disability. The disabled applicant won't always be the
best person for the job, but sometimes he will be.
Since the cards are often stacked against them,
disabled people who find work stay. You won't have a
turnover problem with them."
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Pitney Bowes Has a Sensible Approach
Terry Besenyody, human resources manager at Pitney
Bowes' Spokane office, couldn't agree more.
"I've found the disabled people we've hired are among
our top performers," she says. One of her call center
workers is definitely one of those. I will call him
Steve. Partially sighted as a result of diabetic
retinopathy, Steve has been with Pitney Bowes for 10
years.
Steve was easy to accommodate. "At the beginning,"
Besenyody points out, "he brought his own access tool,
a glasses-mounted monocular." (A monocular is like a
small telescope but for close viewing.) For some
time, Steve was able to see the text on his monitor
with just the monocular.
But, even when Steve's eyesight worsened and he
needed to go to software that magnified what was on
his monitor, "He was still very easy to work with,"
says Besenyody. "He knew exactly what he needed,
where and how to obtain it, who would install it and
how long it would take. He even found a way for us to
share the expense with Services for the Blind."
Besenyody has a very practical view of how a human
resources manager should approach hiring a person with
a disability. "You hire a person for what he can do --
not what he can't. "
Besenyody has advice for both employers and disabled
job seekers. For the employers, she recommends,
"Relax. Don't be put off by the disability. It's not
your job to tiptoe around or to compensate for it.
It's your job to find the best person for the job.
I believe my job is to tell a candidate what the
job involves. It is the candidate's job to tell me
whether he can perform the tasks. And he has to sell
me on his being the best choice. If a disabled person
does that, I'll hire him."
Steve exemplifies what Besenyody prescribes for job
seekers with disabilities. "Well, first of all," she
explains, "you have to be a strong applicant. Be
confident. Sell yourself. Want the job."
Knowing what tools you need to perform the job's
tasks is a big plus, according to Besenyody. "If I
have to figure it out, I'll be lost," she admits. "You
should be the expert and figure it out for me. Then I
can just go ahead and help you get what you need."
Do you have experience with accommodating a blind or
visually impaired worker? I'd love to hear from you!
Drop a note to .
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