Everyone Must Work

SPEAKER 1: Let's talk about work ROSEMARY: I've come to believe that everyone with a disability must be given the opportunity to work. Every one must work, regardless of the kind of disability, or the severity of the disability. But we get to define what work means. So work is the opportunity to make a contribution. If you think about what we all get from work, besides money we hope, is also contact with other people, structure, a sense of meaning to our lives. So it's a rich area that everyone must have access to, particularly after graduation from public school. So I think it's so important for families and students, and school staff, to be talking and thinking about work from early on, and how to promote opportunities to work. When I think about work for students with disabilities, I'm thinking about everything from volunteering in the community, or working an hour a week, all the way to competitive, 40-hour a week jobs. But that means there would be somewhere on that spectrum, for every student, to have that opportunity to make a contribution in the community. And I can tell you a little bit about my own story. My son, Will, when he was 20, had a one-to-one job coach through our school district. And very proudly they found him a job in a shoe store, still while he was in school, just stocking shelves and taking things out to a trash bin. But he had to walk through the shoe store to do his job, and he got fired. Within a week or two of doing this job, the shoe store owner said, no, we can't have this person here. And we were so unhappy, we were so distressed, we felt indignant, how can they fire person with a disability. Well it gave us a chance to take a step back and think, what is behavior as communication for Will in this situation. It meant that he didn't like this job. It wasn't suited to him. So we had to take a step back and think, what does Will need to be doing, and what kind of environment does he need to do it in. So for him, we developed a model, an entrepreneurship. So that means that Will, with this one-to-one assistant, or attendant, during the day, can go out and do work that suits him. So we've been through quite a few different jobs, but each of them takes him into the community on a regular basis. So several times a week, and he's doing something, even just for an hour at each place. He got a job at a seminary, delivering the mail once a week. It was a carved out job, that somebody else did routinely. But for him, it was a once a week, he came and delivered mail all over this campus, this small campus. And the campus people learned so much from Will, about how to interact with him, and he did gradually learn how to do that job very well. Another one that we started was delivering sandwiches on a school campus. So we found a campus that was very special ed friendly. And the school staff, once a week, could look at an order form, mark on a form what lunches they wanted, and put in a plastic baggie the money and the order form. My son would come, pick it up, take it to the deli, fill the orders, come back, and hand them to each staff person in that building, that had ordered lunch for that day. So they were getting lunch when they normally wouldn't get to have a special lunch from outside. That job has evolved into coffee run. And that is really working well, because people love their coffee. And so we discovered that many school staff, before the students arrive, would adore getting a really good cup of coffee. So my son and his assistant fill up a pot of coffee, a big carafe, before the school day, go in and go up and down the halls with their cart with their coffee. And the school staff can come, fill their mugs up, and Will can do that stage, and give him $1. And he enjoys that interaction, and he is making a contribution, because the school staff really wants their coffee. And they say, why can't he come every single day. So it's been an opportunity for him to spend time in the community, and to make a contribution. It gives his life purpose and structure, and keeps him from staying home, and doing nothing. Which is the worry we have for our students with disabilities. SPEAKER 1: Will of course, is an individual, has his own needs. And his parents and supporters have had to craft what that adult work looks like for him, in order to really fit him. But his story points up a model that applies to every kid with a disability, even the mildest disabilities. And for us, as parents and teachers, thinking about planning for their future and how are we going to plan educationally to support getting to a vision that suits that particular student, in that it's all about imagining, if you're in the planning stage, what broad needs will a person have in a work setting. Even for those of you parents and teachers, who are working with a student who is accessing general curriculum, and may be bound for a four year college. We still have to ask questions about, do they have the social skills that they need to hang onto a job. Are they going to be able to have that conversation over the water cooler, or in the break room with a colleague. Are they going to show up looking dressed and appropriate for work that day. If they are four year college bound, can they handle living in a dorm, or are they going to need certain types of supports for the living situation. Our kids are whole, well rounded people, and we want to be sure that even for those who are planning different types of secondary steps. Which could be anything from a vocational program, to a four year college. That the ultimate goal is that, as adults they're going to be asking themselves, and we're going to be asking of them, why am I getting up in the morning. And as Rosemary said in the beginning, it's because we get up and go to work. Whatever that might look like for that particular individual. ROSEMARY: And I think that schools and families job is to find the intersection of what the student is good at, likes to do, and what supports are needed. And then find the environment where those things can come together, the right place, the people who can support a person. Whether it's at a hotel, an office, a seminary, a school, wherever their work might be, that we're honoring what that student loves to do, is really good at, and then what supports are needed for that student. And then finding just the right environment for them to do those things in.