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Wayne Hobson
Supported Employment for People with Intellectual Disabilities
Supported Employment in Easy to Read.
Access to open labor market employment is crucial to the social and economic integration of people with intellectual disabilities. It allows people to earn a living and to participate more fully in community life. Meaningful work also promotes dignity and independence.
To address the extremely high level of unemployment among people with intellectual disabilities, it is necessary to develop policies and other measures such as vocational training, supported employment, incentive-oriented quota systems, loans or grants for small businesses, and tax concessions to companies employing workers with intellectual disabilities.
The employment section of the OSMHI web site presents the latest publications, reports and articles on promoting labor market inclusion of people with intellectual disabilities. The best practices section contains information on existing high quality employment services from different countries of the world.
What is Supported Employment?
Supported employment is a service that facilitates competitive employment in integrated settings on the open market for individuals with intellectual disabilities who have traditionally been denied employment and who need ongoing support to perform their work. There are a variety of ways in which supported employment services may be provided. These include individual placement, enclaves, mobile work crews and business arrangements. Supported employment services do not ever take place in sheltered workshops or in other segregated settings that serve solely people with disabilities.
Supported employment services provide assistance such as job seeking and coaching, transportation, assistive technology, specialized job training and individually tailored support and supervision. NGOs and/or government agencies that provide supported employment services offer people with intellectual disabilities intensive and individualized support to access and maintain jobs. They also offer ongoing support and consultation to employers and co-workers as well as other community-based support services that are assist employees with intellectual disabilities to succeed in their jobs.
The Key principles of Supported Employment:
Integration: Supported employment programs seek to place people with intellectual disabilities in mainstream workplaces. Supported employment aims at developing direct interactions between employees with intellectual disabilities and their co-workers, supervisors and employers.
Readiness presumption: The supported employment model assumes that people with intellectual disabilities can demonstrate "job readiness" without having worked previously in sheltered workplaces. The model assumes that meaningful employment can be located and/or modified to the needs of people with intellectual disabilities, provided they are offered the necessary supports.
Equity: People in supported employment programs are paid according to the quality and quantity of their work in comparable conditions, and with comparable benefits, to non-disabled employees.
Individualized approach: Supported employment is driven by consumer choice, with the service provider facilitating the exercise of meaningful choices for people with intellectual disabilities.
Comprehensiveness: Supported employment extends beyond the workplace. It is integrated with other kinds of supports (family and community, independent living, rehabilitation and health services) to ensure that people with intellectual disabilities have the opportunity to lead full lives in the community.
Continuity: Supported employment services should be available for as long as the employee with intellectual disabilities needs them.
Supported Employment in Practice
For Employers:
1. The Application and Interview Process
Reasonable accommodation for job-seekers with intellectual disabilities includes:
- Providing job announcements, application instructions, and interview-related information in easy-to-read or other accessible formats and distributing these to the relevant agencies, service providers or NGOs
Examples: Providing and distributing job announcements, application instructions, and interview-related information in audio or video format and in easy to understand language; accepting applications in non-standard formats (for instance, on tape); providing interview directions in an easy-to-read format including pictures of the location where the interview takes place.
- Modifying tests, policy manuals, or training materials to make them accessible for people with intellectual disabilities
Examples: Helping applicants to fill in standard questionnaires by reading out-loud and rephrasing questions, as well as helping to write the answers; providing ample space on forms that must be filled in by the employee himself or herself; presenting company policies (such as dress-codes, codes of ethics, norms of professional interaction) and training materials in flash-card format, using pictures.
- Adjusting the parameters of the interview process
Examples: Allowing more time for the interview; clearly signaling, in easy to understand language, to the applicant that he or she should ask the interviewers to rephrase questions if the applicant does not understand them; asking questions about concrete experiences rather than general, abstract, or hypothetical questions (for instance: "What work did you do at the bakery?" instead of "Tell me about your employment experience" or "When you worked at the bakery, what work were you best at?" "What are your greatest strengths?").
- Allowing someone the applicant has chosen to read or interpret application and employment related materials
Examples: Allowing a personal assistant or a job-counselor to interpret and assist with communication at all points during the pre-employment stage.
- Demonstrating, rather than describing, job requirements and job-related tasks
Examples: Showing the applicant exactly what tasks he or she is supposed to perform in the new job rather than providing a written or oral job description.
- Conducting modified or expanded interviews
Back to TopExamples: Allowing applicants to demonstrate their skills instead of sitting for an interview or taking a test.
2. On the job
Reasonable accommodation for employees with intellectual disabilities includes:
- Allowing for a trainer/co-worker, or job-mentor/job-coach to conduct training at a pace and in a format appropriate for the employee; adjusting the format of the training and providing additional training for each change in the job
Examples: Converting instructions and other relevant materials into accessible formats (plain language, voice prompts recorded on tape, flash-cards with pictures); checking at each step that the employee has understood each task and repeating the information as necessary; allowing for re-training time with each additional change in job or equipment; using role-play scenarios and/or training videos to demonstrate tasks and appropriate behavior at work.
- Breaking tasks into sequential steps and using detailed schedules for completing them; providing reminders of each step in a particular task in accessible formats
Examples: Providing checklists breaking complex tasks into sequential steps; using a multi-set alarm watch to budget time for each task in a sequence as well as to keep track of breaks; providing a tape player with instructions or a detailed schedule containing pictures with directions and reminders of each step in a particular task; posting easy to understand reminders of particular tasks in the specific places they are performed.
- Restructuring job-related tasks
Examples: Reallocating non-essential tasks and functions between employees with and without disabilities (for instance, a co-worker can be asked to sign-in and sign-out an employee with mental disabilities who has difficulties remembering to do it every day).
- Making the work environment and equipment more accessible
Examples: Eliminating potentially distracting clutter and arranging items in the order they are used; using pictures on speed-dial buttons; clearly labeling items or color-coding matching items (for instance, boxes and the labels that go on them); using easy-to-read instructions, pictures and color-coding.
- Acquiring accessible equipment or modifying equipment to make it more accessible
Examples: Providing pre-counted devices (for instance, slotted boxes for the number of items the employee should produce/process in a given amount of time); marking measuring instruments like cups or tape measures; purchasing large-button phones or large-display calculators; using speech-recognition or touch-screen devices; acquiring alternative input devices for computers (for instance, trackball or joystick instead of regular mouse or keyboard, or speech recognition software).
- Redistributing work stations or rearranging equipment to allow employees with mental disabilities to be more efficient
Examples: Rearranging furniture and equipment to fit the needs of an employee with coordination difficulties; locating workstations in areas where noise or traffic levels are lower; providing space for job-coach or personal assistant; instructing cleaning staff to leave implements and equipment in the same place every time.
- Modifying work schedules
Examples: Allowing employees the flexibility to attend to their medical and rehabilitation needs; scheduling frequent breaks to avoid fatigue; allowing employees with intellectual disabilities and their job-coaches to make up for the breaks or to organize their work for the next day after regular working hours.
- Adapting evaluation and disciplinary procedures
Examples: Providing feedback in plain language; developing a positive reinforcement system to complement occasional negative feedback; using visual performance charts; providing tangible rewards; allowing employees to bring someone (job-coach/peer, or mentor/personal assistant) to explain job evaluations and disciplinary procedures.
- Providing co-worker mentoring
Examples: Pairing up an employee with intellectual disabilities with one or two employees without disabilities to provide on-the-job assistance; allowing employees with intellectual disabilities to work more closely with friendly co-workers with whom they feel more comfortable.
- Facilitating co-worker support
Examples: Conducting anti-bias and sensitivity training for all employees, factoring in cultural, social, gender, or other factors that might affect the process of workplace integration for employees with intellectual disabilities; ensuring that employees with intellectual disabilities are introduced to the unwritten rules of the workplace which might be not be obvious to them (such as selection of individual lockers or informal turn-taking patterns for coffee breaks); creating inclusive procedures for social interaction among employees during leisure time (for instance, by organizing celebrations or other social events in which all employees can participate and interact).
- Modeling appropriate social behavior for both employees with intellectual disabilities and their co-workers
Examples: Showing employees with intellectual disabilities where and when to take lunch breaks, who to ask if they need help, or how to address strangers who walk into the workplace; describing appropriate behaviors in measurable and observable ways, including events and situations which can predict occurrences or behaviors; modeling appropriate ways to interact for co-workers (for instance, the use of respectful and plain language, or the appropriate way to explain or show what must be done in a particular situation).
- Raising awareness of anti-discrimination and anti-harassment laws and policies
Examples: Posting information and conducting in-house training on anti-discrimination regulations in the workplace in easy to understand language, or other accessible formats; developing internal anti-harassment mechanisms that draw on the available legal protections for people with disabilities.
For Supported Employment Service Providers
Supported employment services may include:
1. Pre-employment
Developing relationships with potential employers
Examples: Developing awareness-raising programs (sensitivity trainings, presentations of supported employment services and/or of government policies and incentives) for local businesses in order to identify potential employers; researching employment market trends in order to identify opportunities for employment of people with intellectual disabilities; maintaining close relationships with employers where people with intellectual disabilities have already been (successfully) placed.
TIP: Presenting potential employers with information on their legal duty to employ people with disabilities is rarely productive. Experience shows that employers find ways to avoid legal provisions and/or policies if they feel that these interfere with their business interests. Emphasizing the support that the supported employment services provide to both employers and employees is crucial. Service providers have an important role in assuring employers that the support services are there to ensure the smooth and efficient operation of businesses.
- Providing vocational training and career counseling to people with intellectual disabilities
Examples: Conducting vocational training courses that prepare people with intellectual disabilities for specific jobs; assisting people with intellectual disabilities to identify rewarding fields of work and types of jobs for which they have, or can acquire, the relevant qualifications.
TIP: Discuss the vocational aspirations of each individual job seeker, and list all possible jobs that match his or her strengths. List as many jobs as possible, not excluding jobs that may seem too difficult to adapt. Creativity is important in order to overcome obstacles and is often the key to finding a good job match.
- Offering job placement services
Examples: Matching potential applicants with specific job openings; developing a database of progressive employers who may be approached by qualified candidates with intellectual disabilities; distributing vacancy announcements in accessible formats to people with intellectual disabilities.
TIP: When presenting job-seekers to employers, focus on abilities, needs, and the accommodations available to overcome obstacles rather than on conditions or diagnoses.
- Providing accommodation solutions for both job seekers and potential employers
Examples: Evaluate the strengths of individual job-seekers, listing all relevant qualities an employer may look for in an employee; discuss possible barriers and devise possible solutions to them, presenting solutions to the employer.
TIP: Come prepared to a meeting with a potential employer knowing as many of the obstacles as possible and having as many solutions to them as possible. This gives employers confidence that your agency/NGO can provide the necessary support for employees with mental disabilities while understanding the employers' need for a smooth and efficient workflow.
- Assisting applicants with intellectual disabilities throughout the application and interview process
Examples: Adapting procedures and materials to the needs of applicants with intellectual disabilities; providing on-site assistance during the interview, training, and contract finalization period.
- Communicating with families and friends of people with intellectual disabilities
Examples: Providing information to family members of people with intellectual disabilities on supported employment and how it will work in practice; assessing the non-work needs of individual job seekers, such as the role of their ethnic or religious background in their lives, their preferred styles of learning and communicating, their transportation needs, etc.
TIP: No detail is too small to be recorded. Integrating information on the employment and personal profiles of clients with intellectual disabilities is often the key to finding solutions when problems and obstacles arise.
2. Training and Introduction period
- Providing job-coaching
Examples: Providing a job-coach to assist on-site with job training, to identify reasonable accommodation needs and strategies, and to assist with on-the-job communication such as developing relationships with management and with other employees; monitoring job performance and phasing out job-coaching if/as necessary for the fullest unhampered integration of each employee in the workplace.
- Providing sensitivity training in the workplace
Examples: Developing training sessions and/or social events to introduce anti-bias concepts and to develop a better understanding of mental disability for all employees.
TIP: While job-coaches are often the key connection between employees and their employers and co-workers, some service providers aim to gradually phase out job coaches and work to support the development of other natural supports such as sympathetic co-workers and supervisors. These natural supports can be more effective aids to long-term job retention and job success.
3. Continuing supports
- Providing assistance with strategies for workplace integration
Examples: Translating information into the appropriate accessible formats; assisting with the development of communication supports, memory aids, and other accommodations relating to the work or the social context in which an employee with intellectual disabilities functions.
TIP: Employers often need to be reassured that making job accommodations for people with disabilities is worthwhile in the long run. One common misconception is that accommodations cost too much. On the contrary, in the case of people with intellectual disabilities, the costs of the vast majority of accommodations are minimal, and many accommodations cost nothing. Those accommodations that do cost employers some money are usually a one-time investment which in many countries is reimbursed by state subsidies. Finally, it is worth pointing out to employers that people with intellectual disabilities in successful, supported employment arrangements tend to have high job retention rates, which in the long run saves companies human resources and training costs associated with high turnover rates.
- Periodically reassessing the appropriateness of workplace adaptations and accommodations
Examples: Recording at regular intervals, following a consistent methodology, the time each task takes and where adaptations and modifications are relevant to completing job-related tasks; consulting employees with intellectual disabilities, their co-workers and their supervisors on the effectiveness and overall impact of workplace adaptations and modifications; phasing out or redesigning accommodations together with each individual employee with intellectual disabilities.
TIP: Eliminating workplace accommodations and adaptations that are no longer necessary or replacing them with natural prompts and supports can significantly contribute to long-term job success. All workplace accommodations and modifications should facilitate integration as naturally and unobtrusively as possible. As employees with disabilities become more familiar with their job routines, phasing out some accommodations can increase productivity and help them acquire self-management skills.
- Facilitating off-site counseling and the provision of medical treatment as necessary
Examples: Making psychological and other types of counseling available to persons with mental disabilities outside the workplace; ensuring that people with intellectual disabilities have access to, and can undertake, necessary medical treatment.
TIP: Since the initial training and adjustment period is often the hardest on any new employee, and particularly on employees with intellectual disabilities, it is especially important to make sure that clients have access to counseling and support for handling stress, should they need it, during this first period on the job. Additional support may also be needed when changing job routines, when receiving a promotion to a more challenging position, or for preventing burnout.
- Integrating supported employment with other community-based supports
Examples: Complementing supported employment with assistance with independent living, inclusion in peer-support groups, and organization of leisure-time activities; coordinating with personal assistants; linking employees with disabilities, their families, and their support network directly to employers, supervisors and co-workers and supporting their engagement in self-advocacy.
TIP: Families and friends of people with intellectual disabilities may fear that their loved ones are subject to discrimination and stigmatization in the workplace. In order to ensure their full support, it is important to keep the lines of communication open and to involve them at each stage of the employment process.
Selected Sources
The Job Accommodation Network's Accommodations for People with Mental Retardation or Other Developmental Disabilities provides specific examples of accommodations available for people with intellectual disabilities under the U.S. disability and employment laws (available at: http://www.jan.wvu.edu/media/ment.htm).
The US Equal Employment Opportunity Commission's Questions & Answers About Persons with Intellectual Disabilities in the Workplace and the Americans with Disabilities Act provides examples of types of accommodations available for people with intellectual disabilities under the Americans with Disabilities Act (available at: http://www.eeoc.gov/facts/intellectual_disabilities.html).
Mencap's WorkRight brochure (2008) provides information about a scheme which supports people with a learning disability into genuine work opportunities with national UK employers.
Susan Hemmings and Jenny Morris' Employing People with Learning Disabilities is a detailed, step-by-step guide to the process of employing people with intellectual disabilities (available at:
http://www.jrf.org.uk/bookshop/details.asp?pubID=632).
Zana Marie Lutfyia, Pat Rogan and Bonnie Shoulz's Supported Employment: A conceptual overview provides an overview of the principles and practices of supported employment (available at: http://thechp.syr.edu/workovw.htm).
Paul Wehman and John Bricout's Supported Employment: Critical issues and new directions looks at the more sensitive areas of supported employment and proposes solutions (available at:
http://www.worksupport.com/Main/downloads/article1.pdf).
Lisa Waddington's Implementing and Interpreting the Reasonable Accommodation Provision of the Framework Employment Directive: Learning from experience and achieving best practice analyzes the legal concept of reasonable accommodation under EU law (available at:
http://europa.eu.int/comm/employment_social/fundamental_rights/pdf/aneval/reasonaccom.pdf).
The European Commission's Country Reports from Independent Legal Experts on the Implementation of Anti-Discrimination Laws provides an overview of anti-discrimination laws covering disability and employment in fifteen EU member states (available at:
http://europa.eu.int/comm/employment_social/fundamental_rights/public/pubsg_en.htm).