Employment First

Published January 17, 2009 @ 11:00AM PT

a man and a woman working together over a laptop computer I was sent an interesting memorandum in email, which I fortunately then found on a public web site so I can share it with y'all. The memorandum is from Neil Romano, Assistant Secretary of the Office of Disability Employment Policy (ODEP), part of the U.S. Department of Labor. And the subject reads, "'EMPLOYMENT FIRST' CREATING OPPORTUNITIES TO MOVE TO INTEGRATED EMPLOYMENT." The topic here being fair employment opportunities for people with developmental disabilities and high support needs--the ability to work for competitive (not sub-minimum wage) pay and benefits without losing access to the supports and services necessary to lead a healthy life. Goodness, if I could get that I'd stop most of my griping here!

The ODEP plan isn't an agency like vocational rehabilitation which I griped about earlier this week, but a policy approach called "Employment First," described on the ODEP site as, "under which employment is considered the first service provided to individuals with intellectual disabilities and the goal for all." For a summary of the core issues, be sure to scroll about half way down the page, to the text that is titled "Executive Summary" and read the sections "Introduction" and "Background."

The letter then points to another page with promises of more information, which unfortunately does not appear to have been posted yet (as of this entry). But I did find an example of an Employment First policy being considered in California which looks really good at first glance. Two huge problems in my life are the work-or-support Awful Choice and pitiful lack of integration between services (e.g. the work people not understanding how difficult it is for me to manage daily living, and the daily living people not taking into account the hours I spend coping with work, etc.). It seems at least some attempt is made to address both of these issues in the California Employment First policy. I was also very pleased to see a number of self-advocacy organizations in support of the policy.

Tennessee and New Hampshire (and possibly others) appear to have had success with the Employment First approach. I'm not going to shout "hooray all our employment woes are over!" until I've seen more come of this, but I will be continuing to research and watch very carefully for the keywords "Employment First" from now on.

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Comments (4)

I think the tech industry has a better model for employing people with autism spectrum tendencies than most sectors. The hierarchies are flattened out, dress codes and interaction standards tend towards the informal, and quality of work product is valued above all else.

When I worked in Silicon Valley tech startups, there were always at least a couple people in the engineering department who would have been unemployable in many offices, but were valued members of the team and received good salaries with benefits.

The post the other day about the 8% communication problem hit the nail on the head as to why this is such a difficult question, but a big help would be employer education. You have a competent but socially challenged worker, what do you do?

I think the most important thing to get across is that people with spectrum issues and low social awareness often appreciate constructive tips on how better to get along with others. They're explicitly not 'mind readers' who can figure out the rules intuitively or from real-time social cues, and so end up often feeling like they're missing something (which they usually are) but never being able to figure out what it is. The sort of hinting or subtle language that speaks volumes to other colleagues is often nothing more to the AS person than a confusing source of stress.

Giving them explicit behavioral algorithms to experiment with can lead to more positive responses, maybe even further opportunities for friendships than they'd have otherwise. Without being mean spirited, or assuming that difficult behavior is motivated by lack of concern for others, such advice can be a positive force in the life of someone who's probably been written off too many times in the past.

Anyway, that seemed to be a constructive tactic to take with people I've known in the software industry who were bright and valuable but tended to have a hard time with coworker interactions because of autistic-type tendencies. The support had to start from a recognition that AS folks honestly don't think like other people, or react like other people, and so the more typically socialized shouldn't jump to the conclusion that they're trying to be difficult, offensive or provocative.

Proceed from that sort of understanding and it can become actually easy (and rewarding) to support AS colleagues.

Posted by Natasha Chart on 01/17/2009 @ 10:32PM PT
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@Natascha: Not to say the social aspect and what you described isn't important, but for me (and probably many others), when it comes to work, getting that aspect right or finding a place that is less formal and values quality of work over all else is usually the least of my problems. I don't last in those settings either.

Posted by Norah vd Stel on 01/18/2009 @ 03:44AM PT
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@Natasha Chart, It is as important in my opinion to look at employment models that have worked for people on the spectrum as it is to look at what has failed.

Posted by Dora Raymaker on 01/18/2009 @ 10:53AM PT
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@Norah vd Stel, as one of those "many others" my biggest problem with work is not being able to manage work and self-care at the same time without a lot of support. Where I live, that support usually gets taken away from people if they work. Service agencies have a hard time seeing "the big picture" of a person's life. Where I live, I would like to see a move toward looking at employment as an integrated part of someone's life rather than some "activity" that can be appended to someone. Good work environment is only one piece of a whole.

Posted by Dora Raymaker on 01/18/2009 @ 11:01AM PT
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Dora is committed to improving quality of life for individuals on the autistic spectrum--including herself! She is Co-director of the Academic Autistic Spectrum Partnership in Research and Education and a member of the Autistic Self Advocacy Network's Board of Directors.