Categories

Order of Selection: Who Comes First?

| WORKING WORLD

By Tamar Asedo Sherman

Are You Job Ready?

| WORKING WORLD

By Tamar Asedo Sherman

Kessler Event: Empowering People with SCI to Compete in Today’s Workforce

Here’s an even at Kessler Foundation that should be of interest to United Spinal members in the Greater New York City area

DOL Launches Online Tool to Promote Nondiscrimination of Employees with Disabilities

WASHINGTON — The U.S. Department of Labor today unveiled a new tool to help America’s employers ensure their employment policies and practices do not discriminate against qualified individuals with disabilities.

Is She Really Ready for Work?

| WORKING WORLD

By Tamar Asedo Sherman

Patty brought her Ticket to Work to the agency where I work several months before I started working with her. She had good skills: a recent certificate in phlebotomy and an earlier certificate as a medical assistant. Health care is the one field where there is always a demand for workers, and medical assistant is one of the top jobs, since they are replacing RNs in many doctors’ offices. There should be no problem finding a position for her, I thought. Why then, was she still looking for a job?

Intractable Unemployment: Why Don’t the Numbers Change?

| ADA at 20

If the ADA can’t change the employment picture for people with disabilities, can anything?

By Tamar Asedo Sherman

Ticket to Work Is 10!

| WORKING WORLD

By Tamar Asedo Sherman

Ticket to Work Is 10!

The Social Security Administration is marking the 10th anniversary of the enactment of the Ticket to Work and Work Incentives Improvement Act (Ticket Act) by launching the Choose Work web site (www.choosework.net).

Stick to It

In this economy, think hard about leaving that job you don’t like. [...]

Meaning and Purpose

| Ask The Coach

By Scott Chesney

Here are some stats from the U.S. Census Bureau to encourage and discourage anyone: People with a disability are 70% more likely to stay in a job five years or longer than an able-bodied person. That’s encouraging, right?

What’s discouraging? There are 11.8 million Americans with disabilities who are unemployed and 18% of people with disabilities who live at or below the poverty level. This must change, and only we can change it.

Why Is Success the Exception, Not the Rule?

Attitude is the biggest barrier to employment, only it’s often on the part of people with disabilities, more so than [...]

Dismal Economy Stimulates Return to Work

People who have been out on disability or retired for many years are attempting to return to the work force under mounting pressure from the economic crisis. What steps can they take to get back to [...]

Independence on Exhibit

United Spinal’s Independence Expos put consumers in touch with products, services and [...]

Work Incentives Planning and Assistance (WIPA)

| WORKING WORLD

By Tamar Asedo Sherman

For most of us, our greatest concern in thinking about going back to work is losing our benefits, whether they come from Supplemental Security Income (SSI) or Social Security Disability Income (SSDI) or both. Surely you can take a part-time job without losing your benefits, but then you wonder, how much can you earn and keep your benefits, and at what point would it be worth it to go over the $980 monthly limit and actually lose those benefits? It might seem overwhelming to try to figure these things out for yourself, but there is [...]

Job Seeker Beware: Work from Home Scams Abound

Looking to work from home? Tamar Asedo Sherman gives you the heads up on how to dodge the too good to be true work from home scams that are lurking in wait for [...]

Opening New Doors to Equality

An overview of the Obama plan to empower Americans with disabilities.

By Tom Scott and Peggy Hathaway

Barack Obama’s historic presidential victory has ignited a new sense of optimism within the disabled community. There are high expectations that the present challenges facing Americans with disabilities, from health care and employment to accessibility and education, will be addressed with renewed vigor.

The Obama administration promises to make it a high priority to provide affordable, accessible health care for all Americans and to require coverage of all Americans regardless of pre-existing conditions. For a closer look at the health care picture under the [...]

Why Should You Work?

The system often seems stacked against people with disabilities who want to work. Is that a good enough reason not to look for a job?

By Tamar Asedo Sherman

Why work with a disability?

It’s not only about the money, although that certainly helps. It’s hard to live on Social Security Disability Income or Supplemental Security Income. We can all use a little extra, especially in the current fiscal climate. But there are strong disincentives that give many of us pause at the thought of possibly losing health insurance benefits and a monthly payment of $1,000 or more.

We might have [...]

Why do I work?

Just because we can’t walk, it doesn’t mean we can’t talk or think or work or participate in society. Tamar Asedo Sherman digs into being more than your [...]

WORKING WORLD: Readers face discrimination in employment

By Tamar Asedo Sherman

Despite guarantees promised us by the Americans With Disabilities Act way back in 1990, many Action readers feel they are being discriminated against because of their disabilities. A couple of letters reprinted here are good representatives:

One came from a woman I’ll call Ann (not her real name), who wrote:

“Discrimination?

“I am an avid Action reader, I had some questions regarding ADA in the workplace. Being on probationary status (new hire) at work, if I am fired while being sick and out of the office due to my disability, do I have any rights?”

To answer her question, I consulted with a [...]

WORKING WORLD: Before They Ask, Tell How You Can Do the Job

By Tamar Asedo Sherman

Employers cannot ask anything about your disability, even if it is obvious that you have one, when you arrive for your job interview in a wheelchair. All the employer is permitted to ask is if you can perform the essential functions of the job. If the job you are applying for is a sedentary office job, your only concern might be if the workstation is large enough to accommodate your wheelchair, if you can get into the building, and if there is a wheelchair- accessible restroom nearby.

But if you are applying for something that requires more physical [...]

WORKING WORLD: The Push to Employ People with Disabilities

By Tamar Asedo Sherman

The percentage of federal employees with targeted disabilities has declined each year since 1993 to the lowest participation rate in 20 years, despite the enactment of the Americans with Disabilities Act in July 1990-18 years ago-which specifically prohibits discrimination against people with disabilities in regards to employment.

Under the aegis of the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), the Offi ce of Federal Operations (OFO) undertook a review of federal agencies to determine what barriers exist to the hiring and advancement of People with Targeted Disabilities (PWTD), a category which includes deafness, blindness, missing extremities, partial or complete paralysis, [...]