Vocational Outcomes for Individuals with Significant Physical Disabilities: Design and Implementation of Workplace Supports

Despite the protection from laws such as the Americans with Disabilities Act (Wehman, 1992), individuals with physical disabilities continue to have a limited presence in the nation’s workforce. People who experience spinal cord injuries, cerebral palsy, or other physical disabilities usually are very challenged by work entry or reentry. Health issues, transportation, social security disincentives, and personal care needs all have been documented as impediments to employment for this group of unserved individuals (Wehman, Wilson, Targett, West, Bricout, & McKinley, in press). A closer look at some of these issues and how they effect the probability of work outcomes demonstrates many reasons that competitive employment has remained an elusive goal for large numbers of persons with physical disabilities. For instance, the physical capacity and ability to move within the workplace and perform tasks is one major challenge facing rehabilitation specialists who work with these individuals to find appropriate job matches ( Inge, Wehman, Kregel and Targett, 1996; Inge, Wehman, Strobel, Powell, & Todd, 1998). At the same time, managing travel arrangements and reducing mobility barriers becomes a major barrier to be removed, since transportation can be notoriously unreliable (Wehman et al., in press). Another issue is the disincentives associated with work for many people who are dependent on Social Security Disability Income (SSDI), Supplemental Security Income (SSI), and Medicare or Medicaid funding for health benefits. These programs place varying levels of restriction on one’s ability to work without losing benefits. Not surprisingly, when Congress held hearings on the barriers to employment, many beneficiaries reported that they were afraid to work for fear of losing medical and cash benefits. It has been estimated that 4.8 million people will receive SSDI benefits in 1999, and another 4.3 million will receive SSI (Croser, 1999). With the many health care needs associated with physical disabilities as well as assistive technology needs, the prospect of trying out a new job and subsequently losing benefits is not an Individuals with significant disabilities still face multiple barriers to accessing paid community employment. The national unemployment data for persons with disabilities clearly reveals that many are not achieving employment at the rate of their non-disabled peers. This paper reports the findings of one program that provided supported employment services to individuals with significant physical disabilities. Specifically, the workplace supports that were developed and implemented for a group of individuals with spinal cord injury, cerebral palsy, and other significant physical disabilities will be described.