ATLANTA — The improving unemployment rate is giving new hope to advocates for people with developmental disabilities, triggering a new campaign to encouraging hiring.
“Our state is in the midst of an economic recovery, but for people with developmental disabilities, finding employment can be extremely challenging,” said Kathy Keeley, executive director of All About Developmental Disabilities.
AADD is calling its campaign HireAbility Georgia to focus on the benefits of employing people who were once regarded as mentally retarded.
Georgia’s unemployment rate of 7.7 percent in October is an improvement from 8.1 percent in August and 10.4 three years earlier.
Nationally, the rate is 5.3 percent. The jobless rate for people with disabilities is 11.3 percent, according to the U.S. Department of Labor, and that’s only counting the one in five people with a disabled actively seeking work despite surveys showing 78 percent would like a job.
In 1992, Congress passed the Americans with Disabilities Act, making discrimination on the basis of discrimination illegal, within practical bounds. But the challenge is in showing employers that those practical limits are more narrow than they might believe, according to human resources experts.
“They don’t even know it’s possible,” said Cheri Sale, vice president of the Savannah chapter of the Society of Human Resource Management.
She said too often those doing the hiring will include a credit check, a driver’s license and a college degree or high school diploma as routine qualifications for every position, even when the actual job doesn’t require them, such as restocking shelves.
And she says those making hiring decisions need a major qualification of their own in fitting the person to the actual job.
“You have to be creative,” she said.
But the payoffs can be worthy, Keeley said.
Research shows that people whose mental development may have stalled at some point turn out to be more loyal, punctual, have reduced turnover and absenteeism and that having them around boosts the morale of their coworkers.
“Employers worry that these employees will not be able to keep up with the pace or that their customers will disapprove. Yet, in fact, the opposite is true,” she said.
AADD is pushing its HireAbility Georgia campaign with a website and other efforts to raise employer awareness. That includes a media campaign, speakers bureau and training for interested employers about drafting job descriptions, hiring and tapping into various tax credits.
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