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Why is employment still lagging for people with disabilities when many other groups under the diversity umbrella are making progress? "Primarily it is the preparation of students with disabilities that has been lacking. They need more support to adapt their skills to industries that consistently hire in large numbers, like IT, financial services and other related segments," says Alan D. Muir, executive director of Career Opportunities for Students with Disabilities (COSD, www.cosd.org, Knoxville, TN). "But through the efforts of federal, state and local governments and private organizations like COSD, as well as universities and colleges around the country that have recently recognized this problem, things are starting to turn around.
"Historically the trend has been for companies to shy away from people with disabilities," says Muir. And old stereotypes have remained in the minds of the students themselves, lowering their own expectations of what types of careers they can pursue, he explains.
Internship programs that focus on engineering, IT and science students with disabilities, like the Entry Point! program (ehrweb.aaas.org/entrypoint/) of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), have helped to place bright students with disabilities "in great companies with the idea of converting them to full-time positions upon graduation," Muir reports. "IBM started this program several years ago, and other employers have joined to keep the program growing." NASA, Merck, Motorola and Intel are among the companies that support the Entry Point! program.
Gateway connects employers with students
"In all the employer contact I have had through COSD, with both public- and private-sector employers, there is a great interest in qualified college students with disabilities. The difficult part has been actually finding students," Muir points out.
COSD, based at the University of Tennessee (Knoxville, TN), is tackling that problem. It recently launched Career Gateway at www.cosdonline.org. Muir says it is the only nationwide recruitment system that focuses on college students with disabilities. Students can upload their resumes, browse job opportunities posted by COSD member employers, and communicate with potential employers through the system.
Employers can find students with disabilities who are good job candidates, and set up mutually agreeable interview times and places. "The main advantage to employers is that they will be able to find these students in one place, rather than having to hunt for them at all the campuses where they recruit," says Muir. "We're very excited at the impact this new system will have for employers as well as for students, who will now have the closest possible contact with employers."
Muir hopes Gateway will have a solid impact on hiring. According to recent studies, Muir says, between 33 percent and 45 percent of students with disabilities remain unemployed one year after graduation. And such students are eight to twelve times more likely to be unemployed at some point in their careers than are students without disabilities in similar fields.
Some industries are farther along than others when it comes to hiring people with disabilities. Muir says the financial services industry has advanced the most. In other sectors Home Depot, Cingular, Motorola, ExxonMobil, Procter & Gamble, Microsoft, IBM and Merck "all lead in their respective industries." Despite these standouts, "It's still been slow progress, particularly in high-tech industries," he says.
In spite of the challenges, students with disabilities do find internships, and jobs, in technical fields. Here are profiles of several of them.
Anderson Morais interns in HP's quality group
Anderson Morais, a materials engineering student at Mackenzie University (S‹o Paulo, Brazil), has been an intern with HP in Brazil for about a year. He is involved with ISO certification and customer surveys in HP's quality group. "My work demands statistical knowledge and is very computer intensive," he says. "I collaborate with mechanical engineers who are very experienced in the quality area. They all have been very important contributors to my development."
Morais has cerebral palsy that affects his movement and speech; he walks with difficulty. "There is an elevator in my building that facilitates my moving around," he says. "I feel HP considers very seriously the conditions necessary to include people with disabilities."
Morais grew up close to where HP is located in the S‹o Paulo metro area. He's been interested in mathematics and technology since childhood. "I consider exact science to be the most fascinating thing in the universe," says Morais. He expects to graduate in 2009.
He found the internship program at HP through a local organization that connects students with nearby employers. The most difficult thing was not finding the internship itself, he says. It was the rigorous selection process at HP. "The group assessment was the most difficult phase. They tested our creativity and initiative, and I was competing with many highly qualified candidates.
"I see a very important link between a company and its employees with disabilities," says Morais. "The company can provide opportunities to those who want to win despite a disability, and the employee can be a valuable asset to the company."
IBM's Mike Squillace promotes product accessibility
Mike Squillace is a software engineer in the Austin, TX Human Ability and Accessibility Center (HA&AC) of IBM (Armonk, NY). He's primarily involved in software development, but he's also a team leader and a co-designer/co-architect.
One of the HC&AC's primary missions is to ensure that all IBM products and services are accessible to people with disabilities, including the elderly. An example of a product developed at the Center is a tremor-resistant mouse used by people with motion or coordination impairment, like stroke victims. "We do a lot of consulting and marketing for IBM," says Squillace. "And we work hard to make products, documentation and services accessible."
Squillace, who is blind, uses a screen reader to do his work. The software runs in the background and reads aloud what's on his computer screen. It also allows him to use the keyboard instead of a mouse to navigate.
He joined IBM about five years ago as a co-op, doing software development. He advises students with disabilities to be persistent and line up internships or co-ops as soon as possible. "The IT industry right now is very, very competitive, so you have to get as much experience as early as you can. You learn a lot more as a co-op than you do in school," says Squillace.
He frequented job fairs and campus interviews while a student at the University of Texas (UT) at Austin, where he graduated in 2004. "Start looking right away," he advises. "In my freshman year at UT, I was already looking for co-op opportunities."
He also recommends getting certified in Microsoft applications, the .Net framework, Java, networking and SQL. "I'm Java-certified, and IBM said that the certification was one of the reasons I was hired. Just because you've written a few programs at your house doesn't mean you know Java."
Squillace says that students should be comfortable talking to employers about their disabilities. "Make sure you know what you need to do the job," he says. "Companies know they're obligated by law to provide it, and they really want you to succeed."
NASA resource analyst Sophia Qian overcomes challenges
As a recently hired resource analyst at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center (Greenbelt, MD), Sophia Qian, who is deaf, says her challenges involve social ability, communication and phone calls. "I need to find more ways to communicate with supervisors and co-workers."
Toward this end she's recently requested a webcam and an alert light for her computer. "I believe that will make it easier for people to reach me through video phone calls." she says.
Like her twin sister, Frances, who also works for NASA, Qian was born in China, then migrated to the U.S. with her parents. She grew up in Illinois, and graduated in 2006 from Gallaudet University (Washington, DC), which serves deaf and hard-of-hearing students. She majored in accounting and mathematics.
She found her job through the career center at Gallaudet, with help from the AAAS Project on Science, Technology and Disability. "My search wasn't difficult, because I had good advisors," she says.
Qian believes students should begin looking for co-ops, or even jobs, as early as sophomore or junior year. Her advice to job seekers is to prepare a resume carefully and professionally, develop good references, and "ask for necessary accommodations before you start work, so that your employer has time to make arrangements."
Frances Qian develops databases for NASA
At Goddard, Frances Qian, who is deaf like her sister, is a computer scientist who specializes in developing databases. She began working there in 2001 as a student intern. She later became a co-op and then a full-time employee. "As a deaf person I sometimes have communication barriers with my co-workers," she says. "Usually I communicate with them using my computer or with paper and pen."
Frances Qian graduated from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. She got her BS degree in computer science there in 2003 and her MBA in 2006. She decided to pursue a technical career, "because my math was quite good, and I wanted more technical knowledge."
Like her twin sister, she found her NASA internship via AAAS. She says internships and co-ops are crucial, because "They help students get a foot in the door and give the student a chance to evaluate prospective employers. The employer can look at the student without making expensive, long-term commitments. They also allow the company to better evaluate a student's long-term potential in the organization."
Frances Qian says that "All students with disabilities should consider applying to the AAAS Project on Science, Technology and Disability. This project really offers many opportunities for students. Keep in mind that social networking can be useful as well. And don't forget to ask for accommodations when you need them. Sometimes people don't know what you need unless you tell them!"
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