Job Accommodation Network (JAN) Brochure

[Excerpt] JAN is the nation’s premier source for information on job accommodations. Started in 1983, JAN responds to more than 32,000 inquiries annually from employers, job seekers and employees with disabilities and their families as well as service providers in the community. Staffed by skilled and experienced professional staff, JAN’s “consultants” provide technical assistance on workplace accommodations, the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), and key community resources

Focus on Ability: Interviewing Applicants with Disabilities

[Excerpt] As employers well know, the job interview plays a critical role in the hiring process, allowing them the opportunity to identify the individual who possesses the best mix of knowledge, skills and abilities for the position available. Below is information that may assist employers in ensuring maximum benefit from an interview when the person being interviewed happens to have a disability

Cultivating Leadership: Mentoring Youth with Disabilities

[Excerpt] A mentor is a person who through support, counsel, friendship, reinforcement and constructive example helps another person, usually a young person, to reach his or her work and life goals. Mentoring relationships provide valuable support to young people, especially those with disabilities, by offering not only academic and career guidance, but also effective role models for leadership, interpersonal and problem-solving skills. Mentoring relationships may take different forms

Career-focused Mentoring for Youth: The What, Why, and How?

[Excerpt] When asked to describe an ideal employee, attributes such as being a hard worker, a team player, and a good communicator are frequently cited by employers as being even more important than technical expertise. According, however, to a recent survey of 461 employers conducted by the Conference Board, Corporate Voices for Working Families, the Partnership for 21st Century Skills, and the Society for Human Resources many new entrants to the workforce lack these important skills. These business leaders reported that while the three R\u27s are still fundamental to every employee\u27s ability to do the job, knowledge of applied skills is even more important. (Are They Really Ready to Work? Employers’ Perspectives on the Basic Knowledge and Applied Skills of New Entrants to the 21st Century U.S. Workforce (2006)). One remedy may be found in mentoring. Career-focused mentoring provides young people the opportunity to get a glimpse of the world of work that may not otherwise be available to them. It also allows them to gain and practice skills that are useful in professional and other settings, and to prepare for life as an adult

Advancing Opportunities: Accomodations Resources for Federal Managers and Employees

[Excerpt] Every day the nation benefits from the contributions of individuals with disabilities who serve in the federal workforce. Many of these individuals are entitled to workplace adjustments, or accommodations, in order to effectively carry out their duties. A variety of resources are available to assist federal managers in making these accommodations so they can hire, retain and advance qualified individuals with disabilities. An accommodation is a modification to a work environment or job functions to enable a qualified person with a disability to benefit from the same employment opportunities and rights afforded similarly situated individuals without disabilities. The following examples illustrate accommodations in practice in the federal setting

Opening Doors to all Candidates: Tips for Ensuring Access for Applicants with Disabilities

[Excerpt] The goal of the hiring process is to attract and identify the individual who has the best mix of skills and attributes for the job available. Ensuring that all qualified individuals can participate in the process is key to achieving this goal. By examining their hiring procedures and implementing some simple steps, employers can widen their pool of potential talent and ensure that they do not miss out when the best person for the job happens to have a disability

Diverse Perspectives: People With Disabilities Fulfilling Your Business Goals

[Excerpt] By fostering a culture of diversity, or a capacity to appreciate and value individual differences, in all aspects of their operations, employers benefit from varied perspectives on how to confront business challenges and achieve success. Although the term is most often used to refer to differences among individuals such as ethnicity, gender, age and religion, diversity actually encompasses the infinite range of individuals’ unique attributes and experiences. As the nation’s largest minority—comprising almost 50 million individuals—people with disabilities contribute to diversity, and businesses can enhance their competitive edge by taking steps to ensure they are integrated into their workforce and customer base

Advising Youth with Disabilities on Disclosure: Tips for Service Providers

[Excerpt] As a professional who provides services such as occupational skills training and job readiness training, you need to know how to help young people decide if they should share information about their disabilities. Disclosure is, by law, a personal decision that individuals with disabilities must make for themselves. As a person who works with youth, you may be in a position to assist youth with apparent and non-apparent disabilities to decide if, when, and how to disclose their disabilities. Understanding disclosure is especially important as youth transition from the K-12 education system to employment or postsecondary education systems. In this transition, they are leaving a system where they are entitled to receive services, and entering another where they may be eligible for reasonable accommodations if they make their needs known, and they are covered by the law

Entrepreneurship: A Flexible Route To Economic Independence For People With DIsabilities

[Excerpt] In recent years, changes in the global marketplace have significantly altered the character of the nation’s workforce. Trends such as downsizing, increased use of contingent, contract and temporary employees, and new ways of delivering goods and services have dramatically transformed the way we work. Also, the number of small businesses and their impact on the nation’s economy is on the rise. According to the U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA), there were nearly 23 million small businesses in the U.S. in 2002, representing 99.7 percent of the nation’s total number of employers. Collectively these businesses employ half of the private sector workforce, pay 44.3 percent of the total U.S. private payroll and generate 60 to 80 percent of new jobs annually. These shifts and the rapid advances in technology that accompanied them have made entrepreneurship an increasingly popular and practical option for many people, including people with disabilities. Today more than ever, small business ownership and other self-employment options have the power to lower the traditionally high unemployment rate among people with disabilities and help them achieve economic independence