ON THE FRONT LINES: Q&A ON WORKPLACE SUPPORTS with Michael Callahan, M.Ed.

What types of supports do people with disabilities generally need in the workplace?

The critical starting point for employment professionals involves customizing a job description with employers and explaining and negotiating a support strategy. Next, people with disabilities typically benefit from having a support person conduct a job analysis, essentially a cultural discovery of the workplace, before an employee begins to work.

Job site facilitation and supports typically fall into several categories: providing feedback and support to co-workers and supervisors, offering support to employers for modifying and adapting the worksite, providing fill-in training and supervision when natural supporters are not available, and facilitating a communication channel between the employer and the supported employee.

How should professionals go about assessing and planning the supports needed by each individual?

I recommend starting with the concept of discovery. Discovery starts by using a set of strategies that enables the employment professional to answer the question, "Who is this applicant?" Discovery also provides insight into the person's conditions, preferences, and potential contributions and provides the informational foundation for effective, customized employment planning.

The planning phase of discovery must be conducted so that the applicant, rather than the labor market, directs job development efforts. Discovery is also used in relation to the work place in which a job is developed. Rather than focusing solely on the applicant's needs, discovery allows support personnel to learn about the unique work cultures where supported employees may be employed.

How should supports be coordinated between employment specialists, employers, and co-workers?

The starting point in designing a strategy for communication and understanding must start in job development. Job developers too often focus solely on getting the job and neglect to explain and negotiate support roles. An understandable and effective concept for support roles and communication should be agreed to by all parties before a job developer accepts a job for an applicant.

Job analysis also provides an additional opportunity for support coordination. By discovering how companies provide support to all new employees, employment specialists can negotiate the roles of co-workers and supervisors in relation to outside supports. After employment begins, the employment specialist must take the responsibility of initiating conversations about supports so employers can solve problems with assistance instead of merely assuming the employer's role.

How often should the effectiveness of supports be evaluated?

The most ideal strategy is to negotiate a system of continuous evaluation of supports by having each decision made in this area considered in relation to the natural systems used by the company. A model for this is the Seven Phase Sequence for balancing natural supports and individual employee needs as described in "Keys to the Workplace."

However, it is prudent to have targeted "inspection points" throughout active job site facilitation. I recommend that, during the first month of employment, the employment specialist meet with the employer and appropriate natural supporters at least weekly to evaluate the effectiveness of supports. After the first month, the meetings should be at least every other week until the employer feels that supports are no longer needed.

Mr. Callahan is a co-author of "Keys to the Workplace: Skills and Supports for People with Disabilities," a hands-on manual for employment specialists and job coaches on specific, step-by-step instructions for helping people with developmental disabilities find appropriate and fulfilling employment.

Copyright (c) 2002 by Paul H. Brookes Publishing Co., Inc. All rights
reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.