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Field Essay

CHAPTER 5

Advice to Service Programs: For Successful Inclusion

This section is a summary of the advice participants offered to service programs that want to successfully recruit, engage and retain participants with disabilities. Advice is organized into the following categories:

1. Outreach and Recruitment
2. Interview
3. Training
4. Host Site
5. Reasonable Accommodation
6. Disability Law
7. Etiquette

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Outreach and Recruitment:

Outreach· focusing on that community and saying to that community: "We want your participation. We believe that you have the skills that are needed to help other communities." Outreach is the key: to get out there and to notify every disability organization that you can think of, and not just notify, you need to develop relationships. The best way to get a community involved in your cause is to get involved in their cause also. [Service programs] not only need to do outreach and recruit people with disabilities, but they need to integrate themselves in that community. We need to be a part of that community.
Peter Anderson, Director, Vancouver Housing Authority Statewide VISTA; AmeriCorps/VISTA,1994-1996; Promise Fellow, 1999-2000

• Let it be known that you want to engage the abilities of people with disabilities.
• Develop relationships with organizations of and for people with disabilities. Examples:
• Centers for Independent Living
• Self Advocacy organizations
• Departments of Vocational Rehabilitation
• United Cerebral Palsy
• National Federation for the Blind
• Contact a Social Security administrator to discuss the impact of national service on disability benefits. Get information about work incentive programs. Consider including this information in recruitment materials.
• Develop materials in alternative formats.

Interview:

If someone identifies as having a disability before the interview, ask them if they need accommodation, what kind, and be prepared to provide it.

• See the whole person. Focus on identifying his or her talents and qualifications.
• Cultivate a calm, comfortable atmosphere so that you can get to know the person, and he or she feels comfortable self-identifying if they have concerns or need accommodation.
• Resist fear or nervousness. Ask the person to let you know if they need assistance when you are unsure.
• Develop and articulate essential service duties: be as clear as you can be about what essential functions are required.
• Ask appropriate legal questions, but don't be afraid to talk to the person.

Training:

• Let the trainer know before hand if training or training material needs to be adapted or modified for a participant with a disability.
• Example:
• A trainer in Maine gave a participant who is blind the handouts before the training so he had plenty of time to read using a scanner and read-aloud software and to make notes for himself with a Braille type writer.
• The ADD Corps selected a First Aid/CPR trainer experienced in working with people with disabilities. Members with physical disabilities who were unable to perform CPR were trained to give another person instructions on how to do it.
• Include disability awareness training for program staff and participants whether or not you have participants with disabilities in your programs. Include host sites in disability training.
• Hire experienced people with disabilities to conduct training.

Host Site:

• Consider transportation issues and accessibility when choosing a host site or placing a participant.
• Involve host sites in the development of essential service functions, disability training, and the process of reasonable accommodation.
• Partner with host sites that are accessible. Make sure that host sites are aware of, and adhering to, disability law.

Reasonable Accommodation:

• Consider accessibility and the possible need for accommodation for the interview, service, training, and any other activities in which the program participates.
• Once the position is offered to a person with a disability, then it is up to that person to clearly delineate what his or her needs are as far as accommodation.
• The sooner you clarify the essential service functions, the sooner you will be able to begin the process of accommodation if it is necessary.
• If equipment is required that is costly, the process can take some time. Aim to have accommodations in place by the time the participant begins service. When this is not possible, come up with a transitional plan.
• Consider Vocational Rehabilitation programs as a possible funding source for equipment and/or special training.
• Needs may change over the course of the service year. Check in with participant and host site periodically.

Disability law:

• Utilize the services of the Department of Justice; call their ADA hotline if you have questions.
• Make sure that host sites understand legal requirements. Facilitate a training if necessary.
• If an ADA issue comes up, address it right away.

Etiquette:

• See the whole person. Don't make assumptions about what anyone can and can't do.
• Consider the experience and sensitivity that people with disabilities can bring to the communities that you serve.
• Accept your humanness. It's okay to make mistakes and it should be okay to receive criticism also.
• Instead of worrying about saying the wrong thing, make an informed decision. Be intentional about the language you use and be open to criticism.
• Take some time to know what is legal and appropriate but understand that more than anything people want the opportunity to compete.
• Respect people's privacy.
• Do not expect any less or more of people with disabilities.
• Assume nothing EXCEPT that the person with the disability is the best expert about what they need and what they can and can't do. If you have concerns about safety, talk to the person about them.

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Go to another chapter in the Field Essay:

1. Introduction: Project and Methodology
2. Service & Inclusion: How Do These Concepts Relate?
3. Disability Awareness: Identifying Barriers to Inclusion
4. Reasonable Accommodation: Examples and Recommendations
5. Advice to Service Programs: For Successful Inclusion
6. Appendix

©The National Service Inclusion Project (NSIP) is a training and technical assistance provider on disability inclusion, under a cooperative agreement (#08TAHMA001) from Corporation for National and Community Service (CNCS). NSIP partners with the Association on University Centers on Disability, National Council on Independent Living, Association on Higher Education and Disability and National Down Syndrome Congress to build connections between disability organizations and all CNCS grantees, including national directs, to increase the participation of people with disabilities in national service.