Opportunities are growing for people with disabilities to learn job skills and find permanent employment.
By Jennifer M. Rodriguez
Paralympian skier Beth Livingston got her job at Home Depot as part of its program to employ Olympic and Paralympic athletes. (Photo by Sean Sperry, courtesy of The Bozeman Daily Chronicle)
The Home Depot
The Home Depot (www.homedepot.com), through the U.S. Olympic Committee’s Olympic Job Opportunities Program (OJOP), allows U.S. Olympic and Paralympic athletes and hopefuls to work part-time in exchange for full-time compensation and benefits.
“The program helps to accommodate the athletes’ busy training and competition schedules while offsetting our expenses,” says Elizabeth Livingston, a former member of the U.S. National Paralympic Ski team and author of Action’s “Growing Pains” column. Livingston has been employed by The Home Depot for three and a half years as a kitchen design specialist. “It has been a wonderful opportunity to be able to work in such a team-based atmosphere,” she says. “The structure of the building in terms of daily tasks is a great environment. I was worried about feeling like a handicapped person at work. But I found it to be an incredible job, with lots of spirited members who are willing to lend a helping hand.”
Merrill Lynch
Merrill Lynch’s Disability Awareness network has several programs to assist and support people with special needs both at the company and in the larger community. Initiatives range from mentoring partnerships with public schools and vendor fairs to having employees train and assist disabled runners in the New York City Marathon.
The Disability Awareness Professional Network helps attract and recruit persons with disabilities to partner with Merrill Lynch. The network works with employees with disabilities through mentoring and training to retain them as contributing employees of the firm. The network also reaches out to other organizations like United Spinal to benefit employees or family members of employees with disabilities.
For more information, visit www.ml.com and go to About us.
Marriott
In 1998, Marriott (www.marriott.com) joined forces with the National Federation of the Blind to become partners in “Job Opportunities for the Blind” (JOB). And in 1999, Marriott established its “Pathways to Independence” program to teach persons with visual impairments and veterans the skills to obtain and retain a job.
According to the Marriott Web site, “this preemployment life and job skills training program is designed to assist individuals with barriers to employment transition into the workforce. Classroom and job-site training are combined to teach fundamental work skills.
Marriott has also established the “Bridges . . . from School to Work” program to give young special education students an opportunity for employment. The program is currently in operation in Atlanta, Chicago, Los Angeles, Philadelphia, San Francisco, and Washington, DC.
Microsoft
The American Association of People with Disabilities (AAPD) and Microsoft Corp. (www.microsoft.com) have established an 11-week, paid summer internship at a federal agency in Washington, DC, for college students with disabilities who are interested in careers in information technology (IT).
Each intern receives a stipend, free accessible housing in apartment-style dormitories at George Washington University, and free transportation. The internships also cover the costs of any reasonable accommodations interns may need. In addition, Microsoft employees with disabilities offer the interns career advice and Microsoft recruiters provide tips on interviewing and creating winning résumés. The federal internship program is open to any college or university student with a disability who has demonstrated an interest in and IT career. For more information about Microsoft’s opportunities for people of all abilities, please visit www.microsoft.com/enable/.
Mitsubishi
There are many work-based experiences or internship opportunities available for students with disabilities, and in 2002, the Mitsubishi Electric America Foundation and the American Association of People with Disabilities (AAPD)–created the AAPD Congressional Internship Program to provide an opportunity for students with disabilities to work on Capitol Hill for eight weeks while acquiring work experience.
According to the AAPD Web site (www.aapd-dc.org) the program is designed to:
- • Allow students with disabilities to obtain first-hand knowledge of the legislative and political processes by working on congressional offices.
• Enable students with disabilities to acquire valuable work experience that will enhance their academic studies and career prospects.
• Demonstrate to Members of Congress, their staff, and fellow interns the talents that students with disabilities can bring to a professional work environment.
• Introduce students to member of the Washington disability policy community and to national disability leaders through a series of seminars and special events such as the anniversary observance of the passage of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA).
If you are an employer who wants to learn more about employing people with disabilities, what the employment issues are, and how to market and communicate to people with disabilities, visit the U.S. Department of Labor’s Office of Disability Employment Policy at, www.dol.gov/odep.
Jennifer M. Rodriguez is Public Affairs officer.
