Attitudes towards persons with disabilities biggest barrier in theirfinding work

GHN Staff News - While the nation faces an overall unemployment rate hovering near 10 percent, those who suffer most are those without the added resources to help themselves and are unemployed, namely those with disabilites.

A research project reveals the seriousness of the problem and how federal programs to assist those with disabilities are failing them.

Jean Hall and Kathy Parker of the Center for Research on Learning at the University of Kansas

looked at the programs of employment of those with disabilities, specifically two major federal programs, the Temporary Assistance to Needy Families program, which requires recipients to find employment within two years, and the Workforce Investment Act of 1998, which set up “One-Stop” centers to cluster services for the unemployed.

Researchers found both programs are inadequate in meeting the needs of persons with disabilities.

“The biggest problem is that these are one-size-fits-all programs,” said Hall, associate research professor in the Center for Research on Learning’s Division of Adult Studies. “People with disabilities, because they are a smaller subset, don’t get the kind of services they need. They are lost in the system.”

The consequences of the inefficiency of these federal programs is that 63% of persons with disabilities are unemployed.  One of the problems is that the counselors who are assigned to help them often have little or no training necessary to help individuals who have special needs related to mental or physical disabilities.

“When we spoke with the service providers who work in these centers they expressed a level of discomfort working with people with disabilities,” Hall said. “They really did desire training to learn how to do that better. It’s a matter of a comfort level and availability of training or information that they don’t have.”

Hall said that common barriers found among those with disabilities are gaps in work experience and the need for workplace accommodations.

“What we found is that people with disabilities who are in these systems, whether it’s welfare or trying to find a job, experience low self-esteem,” Hall said. “When they go into a center, the staff at the center is not well-prepared to address their particular needs. That response reinforces their feelings of disempowerment — that the system is not really there to help them.”

Researchers found, however, that attitudes towards persons with disabilities, is the biggest barrier towards these individuals finding work.  A study in 2007 found that despite the changes in federal legislation, not much has changed in reference to the employment of persons with disabilities.  Employers are concerned about the physical needs of those with physical disabilities and the problems involved in accommodation.  Many employers do not understand how to provide an accommodating workplace.  They are especially concerned about whether those with mental health problems will be able to fit in to the social milieu of the workplace.

Educating employers on a broad basis and providing counselors with specific training on the needs of persons with disabilities is the summary statement regarding what needs to be done to help the unemployed persons with disabilities be able to find suitable, gainful employment.