Work works

That’s the message from visiting United States disability employment expert Dr Susan Daniels at a Wellington seminar recently.   Current research findings on what improves employment outcomes for disabled people shows that high school students who work while in their last two years of school are three times more like to gain employment.

Other points made by Dr Daniels included:
• The message to stay at work because the majority of disabilities start after the age of 50 years and if people remain employed at the onset of disability they are more likely to stay in work longer. Dr Daniels spoke about a hierarchy of success with the highest predictor being the same job, the same firm through to different job, same firm through to same job, different firm through to different job, different firm.
• The idea that work is therapy. People who suffer mental health problems who are in work get better, regardless of diagnosis, prognosis and severity of symptoms. Bad spells (acute episodes) and shorter and less severe for those in work. People “must work to get better”.
• Computer literacy as opposed to tertiary education is the key skill underpinning the ability of people with disabilities to make money. Those with computer skills always make more money than those without.

Dr Daniels spoke at a seminar in Wellington hosted by DPA, People First, IHC, CCS Disability Action, Foundation for the Blind and Workbridge. She has held several senior Federal positions in the United States and was the architect of the Ticket to Work and Work Incentive Improvement Act that created employment incentives for people with disabilities in the United States. She initiated a programme to assist people with disabilities to become homeowners and published the first ever book in the States on disability and sexuality.

The visiting expert favours employers talking to other employers about their experiences of hiring people with disabilities as opposed to “do gooders”. She also has a new twist on the notion of reasonable accommodation when the cost of that is raised as a barrier to employment. She says the costs of accommodating non-disabled people in the workforce, such as costs of offices, chairs, tables, lighting are all costs that employers meet to accommodate non-disabled people.