Happy Birthday ADA

On July 26 1990 President George H. W. Bush on the south lawn of the White House, signed into law the Americans With Disabilities Act (ADA), the most sweeping civil rights legislation of all time. As we approach the 20th anniversary of the signing I am not struck by the enormity of the impact on American life for all Americans because of this important piece of legislation but I am still in awe of the leaders of the disability movement at the time and how I was and am still humbled by their courage and conviction. So while I reflect on Justin Dart, Evan Kemp, Judy Heumann, Ed Roberts, Pat Wright and others I can’t help but think of the pioneers and people who impacted my life in the Pacific Northwest. My uncle Art comes to mind first. Art Larson worked for DVR (the Division of Vocational Rehabilitation) for many years and rose to be fairly high up in the central office. I got my first taste of VR at the Seattle office in the old Orpheum Building adjacent to the Orpheum Theatre – the sight now of the Westin hotel towers. I remember it was just before the Monorail so that dates me somewhat so I’m guessing I was 12 or 13 years old at the time. He invited me to his office to show me around but got a great kick out of taking me across the street to the health food store to get a glass of carrot juice and apparently my expression revealed my instant distaste for the elixir and loved to tell the story of my experience. He swore by its medicinal properties. Uncle Art was introduced to DVR as a recipient of services. He contracted polio while attending the University studying to become a pharmacist. Following treatment VR assisted my uncle to find his first job working as a technician for KOMO radio. While touring his office he pointed out his rolodex that was brim full on names and he said that this was the envy of the Seattle office because my uncle had this tremendous collection of contacts in the business community. But what my uncle taught me was that people who were paralyzed had the same aspirations as everyone else and could do the work only they had to be super at the job and needed to put forth tremendous effort because of the physical challenges. I guess why I am so maudlin is that my uncle is celebrating his 97 birthday and is very ill and last weekend while visiting friends in Oregon I ran across a brief obit and invite to Margaret Reavis-Larson’s memorial notice in the newspaper. Margaret was the founder of Mid-Valley Workshop and Rehabilitation Centers program. I worked for them in the late ‘80’s and she was on the board when I worked there. She was a visionary who could motivate people to join in the effort. She was on the same caliber as Jan Loutzenhiser the first Exec of Morningside. Jan was a dear woman who was exceptional. A very bright woman who also motivated people to do their best and always thought first of the people we served. Evelyn McBurney, Mike Hatch the founder of Work Opportunities (an old boss of mine) and of course my father Ed ranks up there as a pioneer and visionary with the work he did at Custom Industries. My father would “invite” me to join him during breaks while I attended college to move some machinery or set up some work station for a new project at Custom. I suspect that is how I got involved in this unusual business. So here’s to the early pioneers both local and nationally who made it sure that people with disabilities could have the same opportunity as all citizens.

What ARRA you Buying?

Our auditor suggested that we seek ARRA (American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009) funds. Remember this is the federal program that distributed $787 billion in funds to boost our country out of the recession or to keep us from plunging deeper into recession. I replied to his suggestion by noting that funding for our programs is funneled through state agencies that have decided to put them to “other uses” than support or enhance existing services. For example, the Division of Vocational Rehabilitation chose to use the 8.8 million dollars to provide services to 1,000 new DVR customers with disabilities and assist them in finding jobs in high demand, high wage occupations and new green economy jobs. The new program is called Project H.I.R.E (Hiring Individuals with disabilities who are Ready for Employment). “The Goal: full-time jobs (35+ hours per week) with benefits earning mid-to-high wages ($15/per hour depending on the area) in demand occupations – such as health care, information technology, green jobs, energy, manufacturing, aerospace, international trade, other stimulus projects”


These new clients or customers as DVR refers to individuals with disabilities were to be freshly minted graduates from our trade and technical schools so new partners were engaged to work on this project. So where are we at? So let’s look at the scorecard.

Goal:                                                                             Results

June-December 2009 – 200 persons placed in jobs       Outcome 6 people placed – 93 clients in plan

January – June 2010 – 200 persons placed in jobs

July-December 2010 – 300 persons placed in jobs

January – June 2011 – 300 persons placed in jobs

The $15.00/hour has been lowered substantially as has the placement expectations and the target job areas. So while this program was ramping up (incidentally the second round of contracts was just let with yet another extended ramp-up period) to place these 6 people, Morningside placed 44 individuals into jobs, individuals who happen to be substantially more disabled than the Project HIRE folks.

With minor enhancements to our program and given additional tools we could have substantially added to our numbers – I suspect we could have doubled the figure.

Where would you place your money if given the choice?

Oh by the way DVR wants to expand the program….I am certain that President Barack Obama isn’t a follower of my blog and has no idea that these funds are being squandered but I would bet that he would be disappointed in how “Obama bucks” as the press terms these funds are not being utilized to the maximum extent possible and that the dream of 1,000 jobs being secured in demand occupations such as health care, information technology, green jobs, energy, manufacturing, aerospace, international trade, other stimulus projects was just that a dream.

Phoenix of Funding

Out of the ashes (cigarette ash more likely according to the new tax) funding for employment services for students with developmental disabilities transitioning to adult services from high school arose. So what does the tax on a can of Budweiser beer or pop (soda for non-natives) yield - well it means that around 1,000 students graduating from special education will have employment services available to them when they graduate. This $4.5 million infusion of funds is a huge relief after the “regular 09-11 budget” session slashed any funding for students hoping to work after high school. The governor and the majority of legislators calling for reasonableness in fiscal approach protecting the state’s most vulnerable indeed supported funding for adults with developmental disabilities. If the rallying cries of “jobs are the way out of the recession” then the legislature heard the call and stepped up to the plate on this and backed their rhetoric with action. The proposed cut of general employment services by another 3% also was rescinded. Before you get all hopped up (pardon the pun) over forking out extra denaro for your precious MGD to preserve funding remember that the state slashed 3% from the funding last year and since agencies such as Morningside had only received 2.5% COLA in the last 10 years we were looking at funding levels used to support individuals at 1995 rates – trust me it will be difficult to support at year 2000 rates given all the increases over the last 10 years (I think our health care cost alone had doubled in that time). So all-in-all I am quite pleased. I am pleased for the students and their families who now have hope instead of despair.

Quiet Bill Yields Huge Change

In my blog I have revealed the fact that I have been in this field a number of years now. Over the course of those years I have seen a lot of change. It’s the change prompted by self-advocates that have always caught my attention. That change was fought in a variety of ways - from the sit-ins during the 70’s to push for rights associated with the Voc Rehab Act of 1973 to the campaigning for total civil rights in the late 80’s to push for the adoption of the Americans With Disabilities Act to become a reality (the 20th anniversary of the signing will be this July 26th). And most recently in the Washington State Legislature this past session with the passage and subsequent signing of HB 2490 Respectful Language Bill. No there were no sit-ins or mass demonstrations and if you weren’t careful you would have missed this effort because huge problems like severe service cutbacks seemed paramount in many people’s minds.


However the people with significant disabilities I talked to at the legislative reception held in January the conversation was around this respectful language bill. Why was this important – well it was for respect and acceptance in my opinion. Personally not having been tagged with a label (well other than the most recent geezer) I can’t relate to being called a derogatory name – but I have experienced repeatedly in the presence of individuals with disabilities and other minorities groups name calling and many, many forms of discrimination and derogatory references. So while it may not seem like much for those of us who are not of a minority group – this is huge and I applaud the legislature, the Governor and the countless advocates and self-advocates who worked on this bill and to Representative Jan Angel the bill sponsor – well you deserve a huge thanks and much gratitude for taking this on. I have copied a piece of the bill below.

The code reviser is directed to avoid all references to: Disabled, developmentally disabled, mentally disabled, mentally ill, mentally retarded, handicapped, cripple, and crippled, in any new statute, memorial, or resolution, and to change such references in any existing statute, memorial, or resolution as sections including these references are otherwise amended by law. (b) The code reviser is directed to replace terms referenced in (a) of this subsection as appropriate with the following revised terminology: "Individuals with disabilities," "individuals with developmental disabilities," "individuals with mental illness," and "individuals with intellectual disabilities."

Who knows why at this time such a law passed? Maybe the legislature thought well we will “toss them a bone” and give them this because in the budget we are cutting their dental benefits, or they will be out of a job because we are going to lop funding. Or maybe this was an easy thing to pass - something concrete because the huge unanswered budget question was too large and took an extra session to address. Or just maybe everyone thought that in law it isn’t respectful to have words like cripple when we mean individuals with disabilities or retarded when we mean individuals with intellectual disabilities. I’d like to think the latter after all everyone deserves respect even in outdated, obscure laws.

Pizza Hut National Claim Proven Locally

At the Lacey and Thurston County Chamber Forum’s that we sponsored I highlighted a statistic we use in regards to lowering turnover that was supplied by the Pizza Hut Corporation. They report that entry-level turnover is 250% annually; among its employees with disabilities, the rate is 32%. Adding a mentor component brought turnover down to a stunning 2%. That statistic in all probability is being played out in the Pizza Hut on Pacific and Carpenter Road in Lacey with a client that we support who has been working there since 1992. One of her job duties is to make pizza boxes at during the busiest times Thursday, Friday and Saturday late afternoon and evening when the whole business is in a frenzy as pies are flying out of there as fast as frisbees at an “Ultimate Frisbee” match. She has seen managers, pizza makers, delivers, and front counter staff come and go throughout her tenure there – she is the most senior staff I suspect – and she is there day-in and day-out making those pizza boxes so there is no bottleneck in the production. Similarly, I recently took an old photo I took of the entire staff at a local Olive Garden restaurant when we awarded an Outstanding Employer Award to them a few years ago and asked the current shift manager who was there to identify any person still employed in the picture – she pointed to the person we support. Want to lower your turnover, want to improve morale; want consistency and dependability in your company please consider Pizza Hut and Olive Garden’s experience and give us a call.

Lemonade out of Lemons

Have you ever been presented with terrible news only to be followed by events that not only changed the situation but it turned into the best possible outcome? We were notified that an office we clean in Port Angeles was changing janitorial companies. This is a national firm and apparently a directive came that discontinued our service. We were devastated as clients had worked there for 15 years and for some this was their only job. We were frantic and in the process of planning on working through the problem. The company that took over the contract (apparently they were awarded the janitorial service contract for multiple cities in Washington) contacted us and as a result hired all our clients. Of course this is the ultimate outcome we wish for all our clients to work directly for a company - we are thrilled. 

Great Thurston Chamber Forum

Wow what a positive response to the forum on Wednesday March 10th about hiring people with disabilities. John Evans did an outstanding job and the audience response to Morningside clients and employers was heartfelt. See the article in The Olympian http://www.theolympian.com/2010/03/11/1168384/businesses-hailed-for-jobs-for.html#Comments_Container