This story is based on excerpts of WXXI’s new Move to Include podcast on disability self-advocacy. The series launched on Jan. 12. Find it wherever you get your podcasts.
What does it take to get a job – and keep it – in a world that wasn’t built for you?
For people with disabilities, the barriers can be systemic, but they also can be harder to see.
“I know the world isn’t great right now, but people with disabilities need to be appreciated more,” said Maggie McCrumb.
McCrumb, who has autism, said she knows she’s capable, but finding the right job and the right environment hasn’t always been easy.
“So, say someone looks at me and they're like, ‘Oh, you have a disability,’ and they use the ‘R word,’ sometimes they might not say it, but they might think like, ‘Oh, you have a disability? Yeah, you can't do that, right?’” McCrumb said.
Negative attitudes about people with disabilities can shape everything from hiring practices to how someone is treated by their coworkers.
That takes on added significant with labor force participation among people with disabilities at an all-time high, according to the lasted employment report from the Kessler Foundation.
But for McCrumb, one of the biggest barriers has been getting to work in the first place.
“I just recently got my driver's license,” she said. “I got it in October, and I got that through community habilitation.”
Community habilitation is a Medicaid-funded program for people with intellectual and developmental disabilities. It provides services to teach people life skills to help live independently.
Getting around can be a common obstacle, especially in rural areas. In McCrumb’s case, overcoming that meant learning how to drive through community habilitation services, which opened up new opportunities.
“Transportation is definitely a huge barrier for being able to get a job or build your independence,” said Charis Happ, McCrumb’s former job coach. “I'm sure there are things you want to do that you don't want mom and dad to necessarily go with you. You want to be able to do things independently.”
Happ is the director of transition services at The Arc of Monroe. Part of her work is about helping people with disabilities get into the workforce, and stay there.
And those access issues don’t disappear once someone is hired, Happ said. They just change.
For McCrumb, one challenge is anxiety.
“I have this necklace that, when a lot of people look at it, at first it looks like a whistle, but it's actually an anxiety necklace,” McCrumb said. “It helps with my breathing — to calm my heart rate down and my breathing. And that way I'm not all panicky.”
Accommodations like that can be simple if employers know what’s needed, Happ said.
“A lot of times people are willing to make the accommodation if they just know that they need to,” Happ said. “So being able to speak up for yourself and say like, ‘Hey, fluorescent lights give me a headache,’ then a lot of places are willing to help make adjustments, if they can.”
But the biggest barriers aren’t always external. Sometimes the internal struggles are what can get in the way of someone living a full life, Happ said, like a mental checklist of what it means to be employable.
“Either in your mind or your support’s mind,” she said. “ ... and if you can't do all of those things, then there's this mindset that you're not ready to work,” she said. “We don't believe that's true. We say everyone is ready to work,” she said. “It's just a matter of finding the type of job that's the best fit for you.”
Sometimes it takes trial and error.
“Maybe we realize that customer interaction is hard. Okay, there are lots of jobs that don't have customer interaction. Or maybe we realize that the location of that job wasn't a good fit because you had a hard time getting there. Or maybe it started too early in the morning,” she said. “We can make adjustments.”
McCrumb’s first job was in childcare, but she eventually realized it wasn’t what she wanted. Still, she said, the experience taught her something.
“You need to learn how to be more patient with people sometimes,” McCrumb said. “You never know what they're going through, because they could have had a hard day at work or whatever. So you just got to be patient and polite.”
Now, McCrumb is looking for a job in retail or food service, which is work that lets her do what she likes the most.
“I enjoy making people happy,” she said. “And I love to put a smile on people’s faces.”
