Breaking Down the Barriers to Employment for People with Disabilities

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>> Welcome to Disabilities At Work Radio where every week we explore issues, ideas, initiative and innovations involving the employment of people with disabilities.  We feature employers that go beyond compliance in supporting people with disabilities in the workplace and elsewhere.  We bring you prominent members of the business community, service providers, government officials, researchers, educators and people who successfully manage their disability and careers.  Join us now for Disability At Work.
        
>> RAY ZARDETTO:  I'm Ray Zardetto and welcome again to Disabilities At Work Radio here on the Voice America Network.  Each week at noon Eastern Time Disability At Work explores the issues, ideas and initiatives innovations involving the workplace and people with disabilities and discuss them with the prominent members of the business community, government and disability community as well. 
        Disability At Work Radio is brought to you this week by two distinguished organizations dedicated to improving the lives of the disabled.  One is the Kesler Foundation and the other is the New Jersey Division of Disabilities Services and we will talk a little bit more about both of them later in this program.
        The issue we are going to explore today is workforce readiness and the disabled.  About a hundred years ago President William Howard Taft told Congress that he felt the country needed, in his words, a central national organization that would keep in touch with America's interests and different phases of commercial affairs.  Congress agreed and they established this organization which today we know as the U.S. Chamber of Commerce.  It is the largest business federation in the world.  It advocates the principles of free enterprise on behalf of over three million member businesses across the country.  
        And one key principle advocated by the Chamber is that a business or any business or any economy for that matter is only going to go as far as its workforce can take it.  And because the Chamber believes that the United States needs a competitive and a welltrained workforce it created a nonprofit, nonpartisan organization called The Institute For Competitive Workforce.  And all that is a longwinded way for me to produce my first guest, Karen Elzey, who is the vice president of the institute for a competitive workforce.  Karen, welcome. 
>> KAREN ELZEY:  Thank you.  It is a pleasure to be here.
>> RAY ZARDETTO:  Thank you for joining us.  I know that a lot of your work is focused on the people with disabilities, but before we get to that I just wanted to ask you in a very general sense from the position that you hold and from what you see, just how competitive is the America workforce today? 
>> KAREN ELZEY:  Well, I guess we can start discussing that by looking at a few key statistics.  First, if we look at our high school dropout rate, that average is around 30 percent nationwide and 50 percent for our low income, Hispanic, and AfricanAmerican students.  And that is where our greatest growth in our population is.  
        At the same time, if we look at our adult population, a workforce of close to 150 million in the United States, about 90 million individuals actually have low literacy skills.  And so as businesses look to grow the economy, add workers to jobs, they are looking at a labor pool in which many people do not possess the skills that they need to be successful in the workforce.  And we see that with an unemployment rate of 9.7 percent, and yet a number of individuals are not able to get jobs, even though there are job openings with businesses across this country.  So it is a serious problem when we look at our human talent.
>> RAY ZARDETTO:  I'm just curious also when you talk about some of the dropout rates and everything that you mentioned, um, where does that put us relative to other industrial nations?  Do you know? 
>> KAREN ELZEY:  Yeah.  When we look at some of those statistics where 15yearolds are measured against their peers internationally by the OECD, the United States out of 29 or 39 countries, depending on the assessment, ranks in the mid 20's; 24 something like mathematic, science, literacy and even such issues as problem solving were most people think that the United States excels in such things as entrepreneurship and solving problems.  So this is true even for our most highly gifted and talented students.  When you pull those out and compare those students against the gifted and talented students with the rest of the world, we are still not at the top of the list.  And the numbers have been declining over time.
>> RAY ZARDETTO:  That's what I was going to ask actually; we are headed in the wrong direction on this, aren't we?  
>> KAREN ELZEY:  Yeah.  We are actually headed down, with a downward trend, and it is one that we really need to figure out the different strategies to address if we are going to have a competitive economy moving forward and experience economic prosperity both in our local communities and as a country.
>> RAY ZARDETTO:  Now your organization, The Institute For Competitive Workforce, from what I understand, you are a liaison or a bridge in some ways between the business community and the educational community.  Is that right?  
>> KAREN ELZEY:  That's correct.  That is absolutely right.  We really look to ensure that our business members, that their voice is recognized and represented in key issues that focus on the development of human talent and from a policy level that is looking at such things as the Workforce Investment Act, which funds our job training system in this country, the Elementary and Secondary Education Act, more commonly known as No Child Left Behind, and how the business community as an end user of our education and training system, what do they really need and how do we help the businesses articulate their needs so that we can form more effective policy and hopefully more public private partnership.
>> RAY ZARDETTO:  I want to take it down a little from that point, because you have to deal with both communities and then you have to figure out a way to get the two communities to deal each other, I suppose.  Do you find it challenging to get both the business and the education community to see the same perspectives? 
>> KAREN ELZEY:  Yeah, there is definitely some work that needs to be done.  Especially when it comes to language and just making sure that people sit around the table and not blame each other for problems, but talk about what the challenges are openly and honestly.  And that involves really listening, to businesses listening to educators about the challenges that they are facing in the school environment and educators having an open mind to listen to the business community about areas where they may be able to provided expertise.  And if you look at a school system, for example, businesses do know a lot about some of the back office issues like procurement and human resources and staffing.  And there are other opportunities to learn from each other and create an open dialogue.
>> RAY ZARDETTO:  And do you find that is happening more frequently or not as frequently as would you like?  
>> KAREN ELZEY:  I think it is happening a lot more frequently.  I think across the board both the business community is really struggling with wondering where they are going to get their talent in the future, how they are going to upgrade their current talent that they have.  And the education community is struggling as well trying to address issues such as the high dropout rate and ensuring that their students are college and career ready upon high school graduation and that they have opportunities for success in both post secondary education and the workforce.
>> RAY ZARDETTO:  Well, that's a good segue to start talking about how you can focus your institute's work on people with disabilities, because as we have mentioned in previous shows, that is virtually an untapped worker pool that businesses really ought to consider a little bit more. 
>> KAREN ELZEY:  Absolutely.  When we talk to businesses, one of the things we find out is that there are a lot of opportunities out there and a lot of resources to assist businesses in tapping into that untapped labor pool of individuals with disabilities.  But one of the things they don't know is what those resources are and how they access them.  So here at the Institute For Competitive Workforce we really work some of our partners including The Disabilities Business Technical Assistant Centers around the country to make sure that our business entities know what these organizations are, how they can help answer questions about things such as compliance with the Americans of Disabilities Act, what are reasonable accommodations, any questions that a business might have, being able to tell those businesses here are resources that are available to you and let us help connect you to those resources. 
        RAY ZARDETTO:  Do you get a lot of questions from businesses in that regard?  Like what kind  or what are the costs involved in hiring a disabled person or what kind of, you know, um, programs or what other kind of, you know, access you have to give people with disabilities in order for them to get into the building were you have them working.  Do you get a lot of questions like that? 
>> KAREN ELZEY:  Yeah.  I think we get questions  the questions are really all across the board.  I think there are some questions that revolve around cost, there are questions that revolve around what are best practices, what are other businesses doing.  And so when you see organizations such as the United States business Leadership Network which has chapters in states across the country where businesses have come together to share best practices about how they developed strategies to better engage individuals with disabilities in the workplace.  Businesses want to learn from each other regardless of the size of company.  They want to come together and share those best practices and promising practices as well as talk about what the challenges are and what some of the solutions may be.
>> RAY ZARDETTO:  I think the word I was searching for before was accommodations, how you make accommodations for people with disabilities in the workplace.  I'm assuming you get questions like that and you also get questions about are there additional costs involved for that.
>> KAREN ELZEY:  Mmhmm.
>> RAY ZARDETTO:  What are the replies that you and your folks give to those specific questions?  What do you tell the business community? 
>> KAREN ELZEY:  So we would refer them to an organization who have an expertise in answering those questions such as JAN, which is a Job Accommodation Network, which has a telephone service in which businesses can call and get answers to any type of questions about accommodations and what are reasonable.
        I think we have to put that in a broader context because as our population ages and we get more and more Baby Boomers a lot of individuals are going to find they need some level of accommodation at work and figuring out what that is, how it can be provided at low and no cost.  
        So our role is really to be an intermediary between organizations that have the expertise on helping businesses or individuals who may have disabilities and translating that information and getting people to the right place. 
>> RAY ZARDETTO:  And so I guess the $64,000 question at this point is an interested business or businessman or woman could get a hold of you how?  What would be the best way for them to do that?  
>> KAREN ELZEY:  Well, the best way to get a hold of us at the Institute For Competitive Workforce is to give us a call at 2024635525 or to send an email to ICW@uschamber.com.
>> RAY ZARDETTO:  Great.  Alright.  We have been talking with Karen Elzey, the Vice President for the Institute for Competitive Workforce, a nonprofit, nonpartisan affiliate with the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. 
        When we come back we will move the focus of the conversation to the Midwest, specifically to Chicago where the Chicago Chamber of Commerce is running a number of programs designed to make it easier for people with disabilities to find jobs and have a more rewarding work experience.  So please stay with us.  We will be back shortly.  I'm Ray Zardetto and this is Disabilities At Work Radio. 
        
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>> Disabilities At Work encourages people with disabilities, their families and their supporters to patronize businesses that have earned the right to display the Disabilities At Work logo on wall plaques, window decals or websites.  By some estimates, people with disabilities control hundreds of millions of dollars in disposal income.  They can use that spending power to send a message to corporate America.  Become a Disabilities At Work business or a registered agency with the power to endorse supported businesses at the Disabilities At Work website, www.disabilitiesatwork.org.
        
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>> You are listening to Disabilities At Work Radio.  We welcome questions and comments from our listening audience, which you can send to us on Twitter at Disabilities At or on our Facebook site, Disabilities At Work.  Also visit disabilitiesatwork.org.  Welcome back. 
        
>> RAY ZARDETTO:  Welcome back to Disabilities At Work Radio here on the voice America Network, the show this week is brought to you by the Kesler Foundation and the State of New Jersey's Division of Disabilities Services.  
        I'm Ray Zardetto and I have been speaking with Karen Elzey the Vice President of the Institute for a Competitive Workforce, affiliated organization with the U.S. Chamber of Commerce.  And Karen and I are now going to be joined by Jerry Roper. 
        Jerry is the President and CEO of the Chicagoland Chamber of Commerce.  And Jerry, in fact, was once head of the Chicago Convention and Tourism Board.  So my guess is anybody going to Chicago for business or vacations, Jerry is the man to know.  Is that right?  
>> JERRY ROPER:  That's right.  Welcome to sunny Chicago.  Yes. >> >> RAY ZARDETTO:  Thanks for joining us, Jerry.  I know you have some programs focused specifically on people with disabilities and one in particular called Disabilities Work, which I understand is an initiative that began or originated in Mayor Daly's office, is that correct?  
>> JERRY ROPER:  Yes, that's correct.  Back in 2002, Mayor Daly has a really passion for focusing on the employment of people with disabilities and formed this task force which went on for about three years and at the end of that, which was about 2005, their recommendation was to form an entity to build collaborations with local chambers, businesses, state agencies, community service providers, which ended up being Disabilities Works housed at the Chicagoland Chamber of Commerce.  Because it was my position that in fact back in 2002, 03, 04 when the workforce issues were very competitive, we felt there was a group of people that were very well qualified as we found out in our study to fill some of these gaps that we had in our workforce and that was people with disabilities.
>> RAY ZARDETTO:  And that is something that you have taken to heart right in the Chicagoland Chamber of Commerce building, right?  
>> JERRY ROPER:  Yes.
>> RAY ZARDETTO:  Some of your own workers.
>> JERRY ROPER:  Yes, we have had over the past several years 13 people with disabilities working at our chamber.  And as you mentioned earlier, the accommodations that we have had to make for these individuals are virtually zero.  We, at times, didn't even really experience a big uptake in our expenses and working with people with disabilities is that they are  we look at their abilities and they are part of the family and doing extremely well.
>> RAY ZARDETTO:  And how many employees do you have at the chamber of commerce all together? 
>> JERRY ROPER:  We have about a total of 44.
>> RAY ZARDETTO:  And you say about right now you have 13 of them are people with disabilities? 
>> JERRY ROPER:  Yes, correct.
>> RAY ZARDETTO:  Okay, just out of curiosity, what kind of jobs do they perform for you? 
>> JERRY ROPER:  Everything from our key Executive Director of our Disabilities Works program, which is now a statewide program.  She handled that program from its inception and we have our Chicagoland Business Leadership Network which is a key position of working with all of the corporations on education around hiring people with disabilities.  That is a key management position.  The other key management position is our  what we call our Resource Coordinators throughout the state.  We have a total of eight of them.  He manages that.  So it is really very high level positions.
>> RAY ZARDETTO:  I'm just curious, um, the mayor's initiative you said started back in 2002.
>> JERRY ROPER:  2002, correct.
>> RAY ZARDETTO:  2002.  Did you have people with disabilities working in the chamber prior to that initiative or is this all part of an awareness that came about as a result of the mayor's initiative? 
>> JERRY ROPER:  It really came about as a result of the mayor's initiative.  I mean, obviously we have perhaps had one or two people that proclaimed their disabilities, but, you know, prior to that it was, you know, is was we hired people that just came in the door and to determine if they can handle the job.
>> RAY ZARDETTO:  Right.  So I was just curious, from your own point of view, as 2002 turns into 2003 and you started to look at this, did you have any doubts, reservations, consternations about hiring people with disabilities before you had actually done it? 
>> JERRY ROPER:  Um, not at all.  You know, in fact we have always had a strong diversity program with our board of directors and working with our committees of the chamber of commerce around diversity, which included people with disabilities.  So there was no hesitation on our part other than that we ramped it up so we could be walking the talk.
>> RAY ZARDETTO:  Well, I assume that you still have to face certain challenges in both hiring those people now and I assume from the perspective that you have of it now know there must be some challenges though involved in doing this.  What would you say they are? 
>> JERRY ROPER:  Well, I think the accommodations are when we have to have some people.  When we do events, for example, with around Disabilities Works we always bring in somebody that does some signing.  We have at least with one individual, issues with computer screens, making sure it is one that can accommodate someone that is sighted or has sight problems.  But other than that, we have not had any, you know, any major issues as all with the people that we have here.  And, you know, we do not  not all of them have declared their disabilities and in some cases, unless they do, we don't talk about it.
>> RAY ZARDETTO:  But I'm just wondering if people with disabilities don't declare their disabilities, I mean, how do you keep numbers or statistics that say, well, we are hiring more people with disabilities than we used to? 
>> JERRY ROPER:  Well, one of the things that we have done here at the chamber is that when you are hired for the Disabilities Work's Program, it is not necessarily that we ask you to declare, but it is pretty evidence when you are working within Disabilities Works that if you are hired you are probably a person with a disability and it is pretty obvious to some.  In this case of our executive director, she was blind and so somebody with a cane is pretty obvious that she has a disability.  
        So, you know, the key here is to focus on the person's ability and so where Karen McCullough, who is our executive director, when I have her present to the board of directors it is pretty obvious to the board that we have a person with a disability but when she starts to speak and the way she works, you would never know that Karen had any disability whatsoever.
>> RAY ZARDETTO:  Do you find for the most part that some people whose disabilities may not be as evident, um, as the ones you are describing there, that some of them maybe more reluctant to admit to the disabilities? 
>> JERRY ROPER:  I think there is some reluctance to that, but it never has become an issue here at this chamber of commerce at all. >> RAY ZARDETTO:  Now, do you also deal with other chambers of commerce outside of Chicagoland? 
>> JERRY ROPER:  Yes, we have over 330 chambers of commerce in our region.  And so we work them.  And also what we did with our state wide Disabilities Works initiative in partnership with the Illinois Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity, we conducted this past summer, um, a sessions in ten chambers of commerce across the state bringing in employers, service providers, and walking them through the various issues around hiring people with disabilities. 
>> RAY ZARDETTO:  And are these all in the Chicago area or throughout the state of Illinois? 
>> JERRY ROPER:  They are throughout the entire state of Illinois, as far south as almost to St. Louis, north to Wisconsin, as far west to the quad cities.  You know, so we cover the entire state.
>> RAY ZARDETTO:  What kind of reaction do you get? 
>> JERRY ROPER:  You know, at first, um, it was a little difficult driving traffic to an event around this and I think that the big issue is that people are not hiring today.  And so we did have more of the HR people that came.  We wanted to make sure that you get at many CEO's to these events because it is important that the people at the top understand how, in my estimation, how easy it is hiring people with disabilities and working with people with disabilities.
>> RAY ZARDETTO:  So you do target the more senior management at the companies when you do these kinds of things? 
>> JERRY ROPER:  Absolutely.  That is where it has to really start.  And quite frankly, that's the reason for the U.S. business leaders network which we have a strong Chicagoland business network which is chaired by people from McDonald's and Walgreens, et cetera. 
>> RAY ZARDETTO:  And so just in a very quick summary, what would you say to a room full of senior executives who have come in for this discussion that you have?  What are two or three main takeaways that you would want them to remember? 
>> JERRY ROPER:  Well the key is grounded in a study that we did with DePaul University that shows that people with disabilities are extremely loyal and possess the capabilities to handle the jobs that the company hires them for.  
        The other thing is that it is very important, and Karen McCollough used to say this, can you fire a person with disabilities?  The answer is yes.  I mean, people with disabilities are treated the same as everyone else in organizations and as long as you are working with individuals with their proper performance views, et cetera, you should have no problems whatsoever.  It is when companies fall asleep on their performance issues and they start to distance themselves from employees, whether they are abled or disabled, that's when they go awry and it is very easy to do, the are very easy questions to answer. 
>> RAY ZARDETTO:  Alright.  Great.  I have been speaking with Jerry Roper, he is the President and CEO of the Chicagoland Chamber of Commerce.  When we come back after this next break we will expand the conversation some more, both Karen Elzey and Jerry have talked about some of the benefits involved for employers who are going to hire people with disabilities and I want to expand that discussion a little bit more in the next segment to talk about some of the those benefits in the real language of business, which is the language of the bottom line.
        So we will take a short break, however before we do that, let me invite everyone listening to our show today to join our Twitter team, our tweam, at Disabilities At.  And also friend us at Facebook at Disabilities At Work.  We will be back in a few moments.  I'm Ray Zardetto and this is Disabilities At Work Radio. 
        
>> Uptodate business and financial news, call now and get the financial information you need.  8664725890.  8664725790.  The experts are here.  Voice America Business Network. 
        
>> Disabilities At Work encourages people with disabilities,
their families and their supporters to patronize businesses that have earned the right to display the Disabilities At Work logo on wall plaques, window decals or websites.  By some estimates, people with disabilities control hundreds of millions of dollars in disposal income.  They can use that spending power to send a message to corporate America.  Become a Disabilities At Work business or a registered agency with the power to endorse supported businesses at the Disabilities At Work website, www.disabilitiesatwork.org.

>> From the boardroom to you, Voice America Business Network.

>> You are listening to Disabilities At Work Radio.  We welcome questions and comments from our listening audience, which you can send to us on Twitter at Disabilities At or on our Facebook site, Disabilities At Work.  Also visit disabilitiesatwork.org.  Welcome back.  

>> RAY ZARDETTO:  We are back on Voice America Business Network, this is Disabilities At Work Radio and I'm Ray Zardetto.
        Today's show is sponsored by the Kesler Foundation which is dedicated to improving the lives of the disabled.  It does so through the rehabilitation research done by the Kesler Foundation Research Center and also through the work of the Kesler Program Center which prepared the disabled for the demands of the workplace.  And for more information please visit their website www.keslerinstitute.org.
        Also sponsoring our show today is the New Jersey Division of Disabilities Services, part of the state of New Jersey Division of Human Services.  The division focuses on helping people who are become disabled as adults so that they can live more independently in their communities.
        And Disabilities At Work Radio thanks both the Kesler Foundation and the New Jersey Division of Disabilities Service for their consideration in sponsoring this week's show.
        I have been speaking with Karen Elzey and Jerry Roper so far.  Karen with the Institute for a Competitive Workforce and Jerry the Chicagoland Chamber of Commerce.  And joining us now is Judy Young.  She is from Cornell University where she manages the National Technical Assistance Policy and Research Center for employers on the employment of people with disabilities.
        Judy, I hope I got that right.
>> JUDY YOUNG:  Yes, you did, Ray.  Thank you.
>> RAY ZARDETTO:  Thank you for joining us.  It is a mouth full, so from this point on I think we will just call this the Center if that's alright.  And why don't you tell us what the Center is and what it does.
>> JUDY YOUNG:  Well, I'm going to focus on what the Center does in terms of assistance for employers.  We have heard from Karen about the [inaudible] that also provide technical assistance for employers.  Our organization has been awarded a plan October 1 by the U.S. Department of Labor, the Office of Disabilities and Employment Policy to have this national technical assistance center with a hotline and also a website as well as an email capability that employers can call in for any kind of question that they may have regarding hiring people with disabilities.
        Let me just very quickly give the address for you.  The website address is www.enworks.com. Phone number is 8663276669.  And our email address is en@enworks.com.  So by looking at our website, calling in, or sending us an email you will be able to provide to your constituencies any information that they may need for hiring, accommodating, retaining, employer disabilities including veterans with disabilities.
>> RAY ZARDETTO:  I was talking earlier  I'm sorry.
>> JUDY YOUNG:  Yes, go ahead.
>> RAY ZARDETTO:  I was going to say earlier in the show I was talking to Karen about some of the kinds of questions that come in most typically from employers who are looking to hire people with disabilities or at least looking for more information about it.  And you seem to get a lot of questions or they seem to get a lot of questions around how many it costs and what kinds of accommodations there are.  I was just wondering from your perspective, how do you answer those questions? 
>> JUDY YOUNG:  Well, typically when we have questions about the accommodations we site the fact that based on search that was done by the Java Accomodation Network, that also Karen had mentioned, a typical accommodation for a person with disabilities is about $600.  I know that Jerry spoke a little bit about the accommodations for people who may be visually impaired where the cost may be higher, but that is balanced by accommodations that cost practically nothing for other individuals with disabilities. 
        For example, if a person is a wheelchair user and they cannot access their desk, all it may need is to put up a desk on a couple of blocks in order for the person to role their chair under it.  So this balances all the high end to the low end of the accommodations for an average cost of about $600 with regard to accommodations.  
>> RAY ZARDETTO:  And that figure, that $600 or whatever it is around there, that is a onetime charge, right?  That is not something they are paying on an ongoing basis.
>> JUDY YOUNG:  No, it would be  absolutely, it would be a onetime charge.  In order to encourage businesses to hire people with disabilities there are a lot of benefits to companies, both large and small.  And they come in the form of tax deductions or tax credits.  So if you don't mind, I'd like to run down a couple of those in order to familiarize your listeners about the benefits.
>> RAY ZARDETTO:  Please do.
>> JUDY YOUNG:  In terms of a tax credit, the WOTC which is called in acronyms is the Work Opportunity Tax Credit.  This is designed to provide incentive to employers for hiring job seekers that face the most significant barriers to employment.  
        There are actually twelve categories now, which was expanded in February of 2009, but I'm just going to focus on the tax credits for people with disabilities.  So they include $2,400 per year of qualified wages for an individual, like an adult with disabilities, and actually for a veteran with a disability, that amount goes much higher and includes $4,800 that can be claimed each year.  So that is a tax credit. 
>> RAY ZARDETTO:  Before you go on, now are those tax credits, is any business eligible for those tax credits regardless of its size or number of employers or anything? 
>> JUDY YOUNG:  That's correct.  That tax credit is available to any size business.  And although businesses are always afraid of the paperwork, but there is a relatively little paperwork that goes along with this.  There is an IRS form, and that is also at DOI, the Department of Labor actually from their employment training and administration, that is another short form.  So there are only two short forms to be filled out.
        One needs to be filled out at the time the person is offered the job and the second page of that IRS form needs to be filled out on the day the person starts the employment.  All of the forms together, including the employment and the training administration forms, need to be filed by the 28th day of the person's hire.  But they are all relatively simple forms and particularly for small businesses, we believe that these tax credits are very valuable.
>> RAY ZARDETTO:  It certainly sounds like that.  I'm just wondering before we go on, Karen and/or Jerry, does this kind of information resonate with employers when you are talking to them? 
 >> JERRY ROPER:  This Jerry, the answer is yes.  In fact, one of the earlier incentives that were discussed is how we purchased the computer for an individual that was sighted here as at the chamber.  So we talk about the $9,400 per year recently with our member Aon Corporation focusing and veterans, we have been also talking about that $4,800 tax credit.
>> KAREN ELZEY:  This is Karen, I would agree with Jerry.  Information about tax credits, employees respond very well to that.  The question is how do we better get that information out to them.
>> JUDY YOUNG:  I agree with Karen on that, because a couple of years ago the IRS considered [inaudible] the tax credit because they felt it was not widely used.  So I think anyone who can provide this information to employers, what is available, will facilitate further employment of people with disabilities.  Absolutely. 
>> RAY ZARDETTO:  Are there other benefits? 
>> JUDY YOUNG:  There are other benefits.  One is actually targeted for small businesses.  And small businesses is defined as one that it one million dollar or less in earnings or has less than 30 employees in the previous year for which the tax credit is asked for.  And that is a tax credit for providing various accessibility features.  For example, building a ramp or making doors wider, restrooms accessible for people with mobility impairment and there can be up to $5,000 of annual deduction in terms of disabled tax credit.  And that is only designed for small businesses.
        On the other hand, for larger businesses, there is barrier removal tax deduction, that is a tax deduction versus a tax credit.  This is also to encourage businesses of any size to remove architectural or transportation barriers to individuals who have mobility impairment.  When we talk about transportation barriers, particularly if a company provides, for example, a van, whether it is to transport customers or employees, they can qualify for $15,000 per year in tax deduction. 
        And this is typically for expenses that would typically be capitalized.  Now, as far as small businesses are concerns, they could actually utilize the disabled tax credit, which is up to $5,000 in conjunction with the barrier removal type deduction, which is $15,000 on top of their actual work opportunity tax credit.  So in one year for qualified expenses, they could actually get a tax credit worth about $17,400 and a tax deduction of 15,000. 
>> RAY ZARDETTO:  And they would be, the employers would be eligible to take these deductions for each of the disabled workers they hire, is that correct? 
>> JUDY YOUNG:  The work opportunity tax credit is for each person that is hired.  As far as the architectural barrier tax deduction or the disabled tax credit, that is a one lump sum, not per hire, but per year.  So the $15,000 would be per year, and so would be the tax credit of $5,000.
>> RAY ZARDETTO:  Alright.  We are coming near the end of the segment, but I'm just curious, I'm going to reverse the question a little bit here.  Judy has ably described a number of the bottom line benefits that employers can realize for hiring people with disabilities, but I'm just wondering if any of the three of you want to take a shot at this question.  Does it really ever come down to the dollars and cents that way with employers when they talk about want trying hire people with disabilities? 
 >> JERRY ROPER:  This is Jerry Roper in Chicago.  You know, we have not been  we have not had that type of a challenge from any of our employers at all because, you know, the biggest issue that exists out there is that employers, they do not collect data for a host of legal reasons.  And so I think that they are missing the boat, if I can say it that way, but, you know, I have had this discussion, it would be interesting to open it up to the rest of the panelist on this issue.  Large employers do not ask people if they have a disability unless it is declared and so probably very few people that I know of in our companies are taking advantage of these other than the one on the architectural design or the barrier tax credit.
>> RAY ZARDETTO:  Well, if anybody wants to try to respond to that we have about one minute.
>> JUDY YOUNG:  Well, this is Judy Young.  There are quite a few individuals with disabilities who can be recruited through sources that would provide that information to their employer and also help them in qualifying for these tax questions or tax deductions.  These are individuals who are from the state vocational rehabilitation system.  And you mentioned, Ray, the New Jersey Vocational Rehabilitation System is actually sponsoring your program.  So a person who would be coming through that organization would practically come with the paperwork along.  Also with individuals are recruited through the veterans administration, that would be part of their disclosure and therefore companies will be able to qualify for the tax question.
        So my advice to companies would be utilizing these resources, communitybased, vocationbased organizations, state rehabilitation organizations, and veterans administration.
>> RAY ZARDETTO:  Alright.  We have to leave it there; we have to take another break.  And we come back we will add to the discussion a couple of Jersey guys, actually.  One of them is a high school teacher and one of them is a deli owner.  And they are doing some of the things that Karen and Jerry and Judy have talked about through the first few segments of this show.  So stay with us.  Very interesting discussion coming up.
        I'm Ray Zardetto and this is Disabilities At Work Radio.
         
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>> You are listening to Disabilities At Work Radio.  We welcome questions and comments from our listening audience, which you can send to us on Twitter at Disabilities At or on our Facebook site, Disabilities At Work.  Also visit disabilitiesatwork.org.  Welcome back. 
        
>> RAY ZARDETTO:  And welcome back to Disabilities At Work Radio.  And remember that Disabilities At Work area can be heard each Wednesday at noon eastern time, on voice America's business network. 
        I'm Ray Zardetto and for the next segment I want to talk for a moment about Mainland Regional High School.  It is located in Lynwood, New Jersey, and John Capasso is a special needs teacher there.  He is a former state Deputy Attorney General and John has created a program he called Mainland Enterprises to help special needs and atrisk students be ready to take the next steps in life, meaning whether it be college, trade school, military service or fulltime employment, it is a program to help ease students through the transition from one to the other.
        And, so, John, welcome to the show.  We appreciate having you on.
>> JOHN CAPASSO:  Thank you, Ray.  It is nice to be with you.
>> RAY ZARDETTO:  And just as a start, Lynwood is located where in New Jersey? 
>> JOHN CAPASSO:  It is about eight miles south of Atlantic City.  
>> RAY ZARDETTO:  So you are on the Jersey Shore?  
>> JOHN CAPASSO:  Yes, sir.
>> RAY ZARDETTO:  And how many students are at Lynwood High School?  
>> JOHN CAPASSO:  We have will about 1650 students grades nine through twelve. 
>> RAY ZARDETTO:  Alright.  And you started this program I just described, Mainland Enterprises, about low long ago? 
>> JOHN CAPASSO:  It is been developing over the past nine years.  We have been adding to it as time goes on.
>> RAY ZARDETTO:  I'm curious why you started to start the program.
>> JOHN CAPASSO:  Well, at the time Mainland was just starting to admit students with disabilities, more challenging disabilities, than let's say specific learning disabilities.  They were started to admit students with downs syndrome, autism, some forms of cerebral palsy.  So they really needed programs to get these students ready for post high school.  We had to have a longrange transition plan for these students and work with a big part of it. 
>> RAY ZARDETTO:  Is this a program specific to Lynwood high school or is this also instituted in other high schools throughout New Jersey or the country, do you know?  
>> JOHN CAPASSO:  Well, I think the exact form is unique to us.  Although, I talk with a lot of directors of other programs here in South Jersey and sometimes in other states through email and we all seem to have roughly the same components and exactly how we deliver it can vary from school to school.  But generally the components are there.
>> RAY ZARDETTO:  Why don't you describe for us some of the components and exactly what you do with this program.
>> JOHN CAPASSO:  Okay.  Well, there are four parts to our program.  An academic component concentrates on personal assessment, career exploration, and development of skills employers look for in new employees, what is called the soft skills; being on time, showing up at the appointed day and time.  If you have a call out or if you are going to be out you got to make sure you call.  You got to be able to get along with your coworkers, take criticism from your boss.  And just learn to be a better employee as a result of it and basically try to revolve conflicts as well.
        There is also a schoolbased work program that we have.  Generally that runs our students are in it for about two years.  And we have jobs for them to do about the school.  We try to make it as realworld as possible, not busy work.  For instance, our workers do the school recycling.  We make sure that the entire school is recycled for paper and bottles everyday.  We weigh how much we have got and we keep track of how much we have been recycling all year and that it gets dumped in the proper receptacle outside for pick up by our local utilities authority.  That is one big job.
        The other thing we have going is a support the troops effort.  Every three or four months we try to collect necessary or comfort items that our troops in Afghanistan and Iraq would like to have but don't have access to because they are not near a PX or anything like that.  So we collect them, we put out a community drive.  We collect the stuff here at the school.  We pack it.  Ship it.  And send it to various units in Iraq and Afghanistan.  So we try to combine a little bit of community service in there as well.
        And then another component is communitybased job training, which is exactly what the terms imply.  The students go out in the real world and get a job.  The job training includes paid employment.  It can be unpaid or volunteer work experiences.  It can also experience job shadowing or job sampling where the students may go for a couple of days to one or more sites and just watch what is being done and given jobs or careers.  And they may have even participate to some extent within the job. 
        And finally job tours.  We will take a group of students out to a company and have their human services department or other personnel talk about what the company is, what it does, what kind of education you have to have to fulfill some of those positions.  So the kids start to get an idea of what is out there and what might be possible for them.
>> RAY ZARDETTO:  So I suppose it is in this last segment of your program that you link up with some of the local businesses? 
>> JOHN CAPASSO:  Right.  The key to that component is the establishment of partnerships with local businesses.  And a lot of times we form them and there is this thing through referrals from other high school staff, from parents.  We are connected to our local workforce investment board.  And we have a local business organization, the Northfield Lynwood Kiwanis Club; it is a group of local businessmen and women who happen to be dedicated to our youth development.  And we have a good relationship with them and we get a lot of referrals through them.  As a matter of fact, that's how I got introduced to Bill.
>> RAY ZARDETTO:  And the Bill that John is referring to is Bill Hurst, who the owner of one of these local businesses in the Lynwood area.  It is called Fitzpatrick's Deli and, Bill, is it in Lynwood? 
>> BILL HURST:  Hi, how are you doing today? 
>> RAY ZARDETTO:  Good.  How are you?
>> BILL HURST:  Great. 
>> RAY ZARDETTO:  Good.  So is Fitzpatrick's Deli actually in Lynwood?
>> BILL HURST:  It is right on the border of Summers Point. 
>> RAY ZARDETTO:  So you are in the basic area near the high school, I assume?
>> BILL HURST:  That's correct.  Yeah two miles, three miles down the road. 
>> RAY ZARDETTO:  And how did you link up with John Capasso and his program?
>> BILL HURST:  One of the members from their Kiwanis Club is my insurance man.  So as John was in there one day he introduced himself and John, the other John, John Dunn was there for insurance and me and John, the other John, started talking.
>> RAY ZARDETTO:  And the next thing you know? 
>> BILL HURST:  And he asked me if I would mind giving a tour for the kids.  I said, sure, come on in.
>> RAY ZARDETTO:  And so.
>> BILL HURST:  As they came in we show them different stations.  They came in they were going to have lunch.  So as they made their order we showed them the hostess station and how the hostess seats people.  Showed them how the waitress takes the order and then walked it back to where the waitress would go into the computer, punch in their order and then the order would leave the waitress station and go into the cold food and hot food area.  And we walked around and we seen different sandwiches being made in different areas where it was basically their lunch being made for them. 
>> RAY ZARDETTO:  So about how large is your deli?  How many customers do you normally serve there? 
>> BILL HURST:  Well, it is 135seat deli.  And we do anywhere from five to seven hundred in a day.
>> RAY ZARDETTO:  And how many employers do you have working there?  
>> BILL HURST:  Total about 2630 employees.  Not all at once.
>> RAY ZARDETTO:  Right.  But different times during the course of the week, I assume.
>> BILL HURST:  Right. 
>> RAY ZARDETTO:  And so about how many of John's students have you had come through on your deli tour?
>> BILL HURST:  The first tour was about 15, I guess.  
>> JOHN CAPASSO:  Actually closer to twenty. 
>> BILL HURST:  Twenty?  Okay.  
>> JOHN CAPASSO:  Yeah.
>> BILL HURST:  And then the next time we had Jonathan come through.  He wanted to be a dishwasher and he wanted to see the operation of dish washing.  And he was  
>> JOHN CAPASSO:  Here is where we got into some job shadowing.
>> BILL HURST:  Right.
>> JOHN CAPASSO:  We had one of my students, he had taken the original tour and was very intrigued with the dishwashing job.  So he wanted to come back.  He asked if he could come back and maybe watch and try some things out.  So we had them there for a couple of days shadowing the dishwasher.
>> BILL HURST:  He did well.
>> RAY ZARDETTO:  And how long would he stay there to shadow in the job?  For a couple of hours?
>> BILL HURST:  Probably the six hour a day workday, I guess you would say, for him.
>> JOHN CAPASSO:  I believe it was two days for John.  So he was there on, I guess, what would be a near fulltime shift for two days. 
>> RAY ZARDETTO:  And what was his reaction afterwards? 
>> JOHN CAPASSO:  (Laughter).  Well, I got to tell you, John is a big guy, about six one, some slight cognitive delays, he is an avid reader and he loves to eat.  Those are his two big things.  And I think he was tickled to be at the deli and to be part of the team.  He really enjoyed that.  Bill, you can tell them, I think he had his eye on the food most of the time.
>> BILL HURST:  (Laughter).  Well, one thing he didn't understand was, you know, as is a lunch house, obviously it's going to get busy, the busiest is around twelve o'clock.  Well, he wanted to just sit down and have lunch at that time.  So, but, you know, we got through that  
>> RAY ZARDETTO:  Sometimes it is those little details that really help people get ready to be an effective member of a workforce, no matter where it is or for what it is.  
>> JOHN CAPASSO:  Right. 
>> RAY ZARDETTO:  So, John, what other kinds of businesses have you been able to get your students to either tour or to job shadow in?  
>> JOHN CAPASSO:  Let's see, boy, we have had a bunch of them.  We have a Coast Guard facility down in Cape May, which is about 40 miles or so south of us.  And they were nice enough to give us a tour of the entire facility and talk about careers in the Coast Guard.  We have gone to the local electric company, Atlantic Electric, to talk about careers with the electric company in terms of either administrative type jobs or, you know, the lineman and what they do and what kind of training they have to have.
        I have had students placed in other restaurants.  As a matter of fact, I have a student we placed in his junior year in high school and I was going to talk about him a little later.  It's been six years and he is still employed at the same place, working the same hours, and doing the same job, but he loves it and they love him.  And he is doing a great job.
>> RAY ZARDETTO:  Let's get to this part just in case, so, John, if someone wants more information about your program, what's the best way for them to do that?  
>> JOHN CAPASSO:  Well, they can contact me by logging on to the school website.  I'm listed among the faculty and they can email me and my telephone number is available.  They can call me.  It is probably better to email me because I'm in and out all of the time.  It is hard to keep up with my phone messages.  But the school website is kind of long, its mainlandregional, all one word, dot net, net.  If they log on to that, click on faculty, my name will come up, Capasso.  I would be glad to share any information about the program exchange ideas. 
        A lot of times I pick up things from other people, finding out what they are doing and I think, wow, that's a good idea, maybe I can kind of use that here, you know? 
>> RAY ZARDETTO:  Yeah.
>> JOHN CAPASSO:  So we share ideas, we steal ideas, but we are all here for the same reason, which is to get our kids to lead useful and productive lives.
>> RAY ZARDETTO:  About how many students do you have in the program now, John? 
>> JOHN CAPASSO:  Total combined, and that is the academic component, the schoolbased component and communitybased, it is about 75.  And I have 14 of those are out in the community right now. 
>> RAY ZARDETTO:  And one last question for you, Bill.  I'm just curious why you decided to do this.  Why did you decide to get involved with this?
>> BILL HURST:  Well, just seemed like a real easy thing to do and maybe I could help somebody at the same time.
>> RAY ZARDETTO:  And, John, I assume you are going to continue the program going forward?  
>> JOHN CAPASSO:  Oh, absolutely.  As a matter of fact, I'll be calling Bill, I have a young lady in mind, you know that we can maybe do something with in terms of job shadowing for a few days.  A young lady with downs syndrome, very motivated.  
        And the thing I wanted to say about Bill in particular, but small businesses in general, the goal  my goal in hooking up with them is obviously to get my students some work experience, but that is where they learn a good work ethic as you kind of indicated with Jonathan.  He had to learn when the right time was to take a break, usually when it is not busy. 
        In addition to a good work ethic a lot of times I get them thinking being their own businessman.  They see Bill has a small business; I want them to start thinking about the possibility of perhaps starting their own business some day.  There may be no reason why that can't be possible.  If they have an idea and the drive, we try to encourage that.  And you get that more from a small business than the much larger ones, that's more readily apparent. 
>> RAY ZARDETTO:  Thank you, John.  Thank you, Bill.  Congratulations.  It is great work that you are doing.  Keep it up.
        I want to thank John, Bill, Karen, Jerry, Judy, all our guests who were on the show today for, I think, a great discussion and a very stimulating discussion.  We will be back again next Wednesday at noon eastern time with another edition of our show.  Until then, this is Ray Zardetto and this is Disabilities At Work Radio.
        
>> Thanks for listening to Disabilities At Work.  Become part of our tweam on Twitter at Disabilities At.  And friend us on Facebook at Disabilities At Work.  Check out our website at www.disabilitiesatwork.org.  And join us next week on Wednesday, nine a.m. pacific, noon eastern time, for the next Disabilities At Work Radio show. 



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