[comp.society] Disabilities in HiTech - How To Cope

patth@dasys1.UUCP (Patt Haring) (08/04/87)

Raymond Cheng asks:

> I am looking for information on a US databank service, the Job 
> Accommodation Network.

Here is an article that I picked up from the Equal BBS (FidoNet).
Thanks to Mike Bowen, the sysop of Equal, who has an impressive
set of files dealing with the handicapped.

Phone number for the Equal BBS is: (919) 851-6806

				Bill McGarry
				Bunker Ramo, Shelton, CT
				(203) 337-1518

     PATH:  {philabs, decvax, fortune, yale}!bunker!wtm

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                       Clearinghouse Helps Firms
                      Accommodate Special Needs of
                         Handicapped Employees

                          By Linda M. Watkins
                Staff Reporter of the Wall Street Journal

  Two years ago, a machine operator at Minnesota Mining & Manufacturing Co. was
almost killed in a car accident that left her paralyzed from the neck down.
Despite her condition, she is trying to return to work, with the help of a
unique nationwide clearinghouse.

  The Job Accommodation Network, based at the University of West Virginia in
Morgantown,helps employers determine what physical and other accommodations are
necessary to help a handicapped person perform a job. Officials have encouraged
3M, for instance, to place its employee of 13 years in a clerical position and
to install a chairlift for her.
  Federal laws have prohibited discrimination for years but George McGuire, the
network's director, maintains that handicapped people nevertheless may face
covert discrimination in companies that don't know how to accommodate the
disabled."About 80% of the calls we get are from companies that say, 'we've got
this handicapped individual but don't know what to do,'" Mr. McGuire says.
  The network was created by the President's Committee on the Employment of the
Handicapped. It's financed jointly by the National Institute of Handicapped
Research and the Rehabilitative Service Administration.  It employs only eight
people, but since it opened last July, it has helped more than 300 companies,
including Westinghouse Electric Corp.; Sears, Roebuck & Co,; Atlantic Richfield
Co. and Du Pont Co.
  The clearinghouse's computer data base includes almost 4,000 ideas for
accommodating the handicapped. It suggests placing a desk on cinder blocks so a
wheelchair can fit beneath it, training a mobility-impaired librarian to use a
computerized catalog system,and installing a flashing red ceiling light to warn
a deaf employee about an emergency in their room.  Two consultants help answer
inquiries from the network's toll-free numbers (800-526-7234 outside West
Virginia and 293-7186 within the state).
  Paul Scher, a Sears equal employment opportunity officer,called the toll-free
number recently to find out how a deaf employee could better use the phone
system.  The young woman, a supervisor in a department that corresponds
regularly with the U.S. Customs Service, had been using a device through which
she could type messages to the customs office.  The clearinghouse suggested an
additional feature that allows her to simulate a conversation by typing into a
machine that transmits verbal messages to a phone line.  The device, which fits
into a pocket, costs only about $500.
  Other special gadgets and devices that the network suggests include voice
synthesizers that play back what a blind person types in and three-wheel
bicycles to help workers with walking and heart-related problems conduct
business outside the office.
  The network's consultants seek to minimize stereotypes about handicapped
people by basing their suggestions on a person's functional limitations rather
than his or her handicap.  "We don't accommodate cerebral palsy, but rather an
inability to grasp," says Jay Rochlin, a clearinghouse founder and a human
resources manager at American Telephone & Telegraph Co.
  As a result of the clearinghouse, a Westinghouse engineering assistant who is
paralyzed in one leg was given a desk job that requires little walking, as well
as flexible work hours and an assigned parking space.  At Du Pont, a blind
computer programmer was issued a full-speech computer to echo her words.
  In most instances, clearinghouse officials say, handicapped employees need
only minor accommodations.  About 30% of the special devices cost between a
dollar and $500, and only 19% cost more than $2,000.
  The clearinghouse emplys only two consultants, and that could lead to a
backlog of cases.  So far, however, companies say they like the lack of red
tape, "It's the one place to go for resources without having to call 60 people"
says Prudential Insurance Co.'s Virginia Fleming, and equal opportunity officer
who is trying to get help for a walking-impaired employee.  The employee has
difficulty going through doors. The clearinghouse suggested a door buzzer to
notify building guards, a tip that cost much less than the company's original
idea of installing automatic doors, says Miss Fleming.
  Deborah McFadden, a college recruiting manager at Atlantic Richfield,says the
clearinghouse helps in the battle against job discrimination against the
handicapped.  Miss McFadden, who has epilepsy, a hearing disability and walking
problems,recalls numerous employers telling her she couldn't work after college
because she was in a wheelchair.
  "There's nothing I can't do,": she declares.  "I just do it differently."
Atlantic Richfield helped her perform her job better for less than $50 - the
cost of an amplified telephone and window blinds that she can lower when she
needs to lie down.

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