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Speaker 1: Hers as well, and she is the co-director of the Job Accommodation Network. The Job
Accommodation Network at West Virginia University is an absolutely wonderful resource. If you
don't know about the Job Accommodation Network, just Google JAN and Accommodations and you'll
get it. JAN and Accommodations you'll get everything you need to know about work disability.
Dinah Cohen is also with us here today. She is the Director of the Computer/Electronic
Accommodation Program at the Department of Defense, and that's a tiny little bit misleading
because it's not just Department of Defense pieces as you think about traditional Department
of Defense, but folks who work in a lot of different places. They are an outstanding
resource on work accommodations, and what you can do in technology, and in other ways
to accommodate people with disabilities. I absolutely love what they're doing, and so
she'll be able to talk a little bit more about that.
Rejoining us is James Rodriguez, who is the Director of Government Relations at BAE Systems,
but the additional duty that he told me that he only took this job on condition of being
able to keep doing was their Wounded Warrior Program, and the work on getting wounded warriors
into employment at BAE. I'm hopeful he can talk a little bit more about the disability
specific components of that. Then we have Daniel Sullivan who's going to
talk about some interesting pieces in ways that we don't traditionally think necessarily
about disability, and what some of those issues are, and we'll have an opportunity for question
and answer. We're going to keep these presentations to
about six minutes, give or take, to the extent that we can, and then we're going to go into
question and answer. A little bit might be a little longer where we need it, might be
a little bit shorter where we don't need it to go through this, but we want to be an interactive
panel, and be a resource to all of you as well, so I think you're primed from all of
the presentations, and all the talks that were here this morning to really engage. Anne,
I am going to turn it over to you, and answer the first question from the last panel. What
is an ADA requirement, and what is an ADA accommodation?
Anne: Starting with an ADA requirement. If an employer has 15, or more employees they're
covered by that law, which is a lot of employers in our country. As an aside, many states have
very similar laws, and that number can drop down to as far as one or three employees,
so just about every employer has some responsibility related to employment of people with disabilities
including returning service members who would happen to meet the definition of disability
set forth by the ADA. There is a separate definition. It is not a rating. There is not an extensive
list of conditions. There was an amendment act in 2008 that broadened
the definition of disability. You have to be substantially limited performing a major
life activity, have a record of impairment, or be regarded as having an impairment. You
have to be able to present information should your employer ask about what your medical
condition is, and how you're limited because of it.
The amendments act I said broadened the definition. There were some Supreme Court rulings that
went against the original intention of the Americans with Disabilities Act. If you have
a condition that goes into remission good chance you could be covered based on the limitations
you have when your condition is active. That's important for someone who may have PTSD. They're
not technically in remission, but if they are not showing any type of limitation at
that point in time if they can present documentation that they have it, and how are they limited
when it is active they very well could be covered by the law. What did I miss?
Speaker 1: I think you got that exactly right, so thank you. Can you tell me just a little
bit about the Job Accommodation Network and what you do.
Anne: Certainly. JAN has been around for ... we're going on 30 years now. We are funded through
the Office of Disability Employment Policy Department of Labor. We're a National service,
a free service, your tax dollar is at work. What we do is provide information about accommodation
options of all types, whether it's some type of equipment that could be used in the workplace,
whether it's a different method of approaching a task, flexible scheduling, all different
kinds of things related to accommodation. We do it on a case by case basis through telephone
consultation, through Internet chat. We started a text service not too long ago that I can't
believe people are using, but they are. It's all things accommodation. It's not just talking
about what the accommodation may be. More importantly, we educate both employers and
individuals who have health conditions about how to discuss their need for an accommodation
in the workplace even if there is one. Sometimes we determine ... like the gentleman at back
I have a health condition, but I don't really need accommodation. Sometimes it's convincing
the employer that that really can be the case. We also get into the technical aspects of
the ADA, and how the ADA might come into play in their situation. How if I'm the employer
do I approach an individual that I think might need an accommodation, and how to find the
individual. Do I approach an employer during that interview once I'm hired about what my
accommodation need may be, and why I think this employer should give it to me. The strength
of what we do is educate individuals and employers about responsibilities and rights, and the
accommodation itself. Speaker 1: Anybody have any questions specifically
for Anne at this point. Anything that you need further elaboration on? Terrific, so
Dinah. Dinah: First, I have to lower the microphone.
Here we go. It's a true pleasure to be here with all of you. I'm standing up because I
want you to see my slides. My name is Dinah Cohen, and as you have heard I'm the Director
of what is known as CAP. I need to see hands of my Federal managers and leaders. The rest
of you are private sector? Okay, well this is still very appropriate, and interesting
for all of you. We were established in 1990 as a centrally
funded program in the Department of Defense to make sure that any of our employees with
disabilities had the assistive technology they need to be competitive. As we started
to grow and become quite good at what we did we were expanded by law to serve all of Federal
government, so as we try to place people with disabled veterans back into employment, our
wounded warriors, not only do I do it for all of DOD, I do it for 68 other Federal agencies
including my colleague at the VA, so if you're going to place one as an employee at the VA,
and they need an accommodation, I'm your girl. We changed the law to make it possible for
me to serve the rest of the Federal government. The very first time President Bush came to
the Pentagon as our commander-in-chief was to see me was to see the assistive technology
for employees with disabilities, and that was June 19, 2001. The second time he came
to the Pentagon was September 12, 2001. Very different day. Very different reason. At that
moment in time I realized that we have all this technology for people with disabilities
that were going to be used more by our wounded warriors than our employees.
I started to think how can I support them, and they said, "You can provide accommodations
while they're active duty, but they have to give it back to you when they separate from
active duty," and I said, "I don't want this back." He goes, "It's against the law," and
I go, "Let's change the law," so we did. In my youth I used to break laws now I just change
them. We changed the law so any accommodation I provide to any of our wounded warriors while
they're at one of our military treatment facility they get to retain it starting their recovery
and rehabilitation process a little sooner before they even get to the VA, because we
want to make sure that that wounded warrior who was born with that computer chromosome
will be able to stay connected because that's how they stay connected is using technology.
We wanted to make sure they had that technology. Since our inception we have filled over 123
thousand requests for accommodations, and over 34 thousand just for our service members
to fill our mission, and that is to make sure that employees with disabilities, and our
wounded warriors have equal access to the information environment and opportunities,
and Department of Defense, and throughout the Federal government. What do we do. First
and foremost we provide the assistive technology. We want to level the playing field. We want
to make sure that when a manager says, "I want to hire that disabled veteran. I want
to hire that warrior. I want to hire them, and I know they need some accommodation who's
going to pay for it?" and we're going to say, "Who you're gonna call? You're gonna call
CAP." We want to make sure that that is not an issue for any manager, so we do that first
and foremost. For our wounded warriors we do a lot of needs
assessment. When you're that able-bodied marine why would you even know about assistive technology.
Where do you even start to think of what you need. We said let's make sure we take care
of that. We do a lot of disability training. We talk about the ADA schedule, all the appointment
authorities as we go around the country. I think I give incredibly good sessions along
with JAN especially in the west Coast and Hawaii. Just saying, but we want to make sure
people understand their roles, their responsibilities. To really put this all into place I want you
to see a short little video of one my warriors, and how they use assistive technology.
Matthew: Welcome to CAP's interview with Matthew Staton, Staff Assistant to the Secretary of
the Army. My current job is I'm the staff assistant
to the Secretary of the Army. I handle ill, injured, and wounded soldier issues on behalf
of the Secretary. I help assist him, and senior Army leaders in understanding what a wounded
soldier goes through, through the medical board process, and through just life issues
as a wounded soldier. I grew here in central Virginia, went to Virgina Military Institute.
I graduated from VMI, then left there, enlisted in the US Army in 1999, and was stationed
in Vicenza, Italy. I became a second lieutenant, and then went to Fort Carson upon there, and
deployed immediately in O1F1 to Balad, Iraq, and from there was injured, and then medically
retired in August of 2007. I have multiple blasts exposures with mild
traumatic brain injury, and PTSD from those events. Then I also have a gunshot wound 29
of January 2004, where I was injured, shot six times ... the ballistic armor works, stopped
five of the rounds, but unfortunately the first round was below the vest. Entered my
left leg, and tore up the thigh, and upper part of my hip. The blast injuries were over
a period of time. This was back before we knew the effects of exposures to IEDs. Some
of those blasts were controlled blasts where we found the IEDs, and we would detonate them,
but some of them were detonated on my vehicle. That doesn't include RPG attacks, and other
machine gun rounds going off on my Bradley. My abilities have been affected with memory,
short-term memory specifically, in that sense, agitation in the irritability arena. I'm very
irritable. I've learned to manage a lot of these, but it's through the assistive technologies
that I've really been able to master and be able to maintain, and somewhat control the
triggers that give me issues. CAP was made aware to me I believe it was through my nurse
case manager. She told me about it by saying, "Hey, you've been diagnosed with mild traumatic
brain injury, and PTSD. Let's see if we can get you a PDA to help assist you, specifically
with your job." That's how I found out about CAP.
CAP's provided me with a PDA, a digital voice recorder, Dragon Naturally Speaking, a scanner
to help assist with reading technology, and if I'm having issues with migraines, or assist
me allowing me to download images onto a computer, and being able to view them at a better rate.
I was the Post-it note king without these technologies. I had stuff written down everywhere,
and I would constantly lose it. Sometimes I could spend an hour looking for a single
piece of paper on my desk, and with that the technology has ... it reduces my frustration
level. It makes me feel like I can still be productive, where otherwise I would be going
cuckoo for Cocoa Puffs, otherwise. My most positive experience with CAP has been
the sense that I'm now a productive individual. These devices that have been provided give
me the opportunity to continue to serve, but yet at the same time help me get past the
residual effects of my injuries. To learn more about how assistive technology
helps people succeed in the workplace visit www.cap.mil.
Dinah: Go back to the slides. He kind of said it all. When you look at the kind of technology
we provide. We provided in four different kind of categories dealing with dexterity,
vision, hearing, cognitive, and what he says is it doesn't matter what category I fall
into, the blending of the technologies is what he benefited from. We spend a lot of
time doing those needs assessments. We realize that the technology for someone with a dexterity
disability like he said voice recognition is very valuable for someone who may have
a cognitive issue, because of the frustration. I may really know what I want to say, but
it's hard for me to write it down because it's just ... I don't know there's a connection
there that just doesn't work quite as well. We took a lot of the technologies from our
level of expertise working with a wide variety of people with disabilities, and put that
category of technologies together to support Matt.
We have all this technology at our technology center at the Pentagon which is across from
the Hall of Heroes, I think which is extremely appropriate. I encourage any of you who are
in Washington, DC, or come down the next time to make an appointment to visit our assistive
technology because it really puts everything into perspective. Our website - we have a
great website that puts a lot of this, so if someone wants to put in their CAP request
they can do it directly Online. Those who want to browse a different technology solution
can do it. I made sure that as I get older I like things
really simple so my website is cap.mil. I tried to get it to as fewest letters as possible.
We are on Facebook, so I'm asking you be my friend, sign up. We tweet because I have a
lot of young people [for me 15:18] but the thing that I also think was really important
is that we had a CAP app, because we know our population is very mobile.
The last thing I want to say when I talked to Matt, and we talk about retention rate
I've heard that a couple of times. When I gave a presentation last year at a National
conference with Matt someone asked me, "What was the most important accommodation you got
to stay in your job?" Obviously, he has the credentials. He's got a great work history,
da-da-da. He said Telework. The reason we're not doing a better job of retaining them is
because we don't always offer that disabled veteran, the wounded warrior, the flexibility.
For him there are days that coming into the office ain't so great, but he can work, so
if he can stay home that morning, and do it from home, you're going to keep him. If you
don't provide that flexibility to our wounded warriors chances are that's probably one of
your biggest challenges when it comes to retention. I'm thrilled to be here, and I'll be here
to answer questions, but I challenge all of you to join me as we welcome home our soldiers,
our sailors, our airmen, our marines. Thank you.
Speaker 1: There are incredible resources which are available to you both from JAN and
from CAP, and they're available in terms of information to anybody inside or outside of
the Federal government, and to our wounded Vets, and particularly in the government with
CAP. I would encourage you to make use of these, and I see that they have pamphlets
here. Please come up and take these, and work with your colleagues in HR, and in other places.
For the VSO's who are out there these are probably some of your key resources because
when a manager says, "I don't know how to do this," you can tell them they already do
know how to do this. You don't have to know. You just have to know who to know, and these
are two of the folks. There are a whole staff of works who work
with Anne. Dinah, I have no idea what the size of your staff is, but they're a whole
group of folks who will spend time, and work on all of these pieces that are really great.
Questions for Dinah? Anything that you want to talk about now abut accommodations now
that you've seen, and had a little bit of thought stimulation about new types of accommodations,
or combinations of accommodations. Yes please. Speaker 4: This kind of goes back to the question
of what's a disability. Who gets those accommodations? Speaker 1: So the question is what's a disability,
and who gets those accommodations, and I'm repeating it so that it's on the volume for
the video. Thank you. Dinah: For the CAP purpose in our wounded
warriors we work through the military treatment facilities, and the case managers. Any of
the individuals that go through any of our MTFs, any of our hospitals, any of our case
managers, WTUs, whatever organizations they go through through their services that have
been identified as probably benefiting from assistive technology get referred to us. We
don't need a percentage because if they have a function limitation they could benefit from
assistive technology, that's what we did. When we changed the law they could retain
it we had to do what is known in Department of Defense instruction, and we kept it that
way. It's determined by the medical professionals as they go through recovery and rehabilitation.
They tell us when they think that person is ready to be introduced to assistive technology,
and not be overwhelmed by it. Speaker 1: That goes a little bit also to
some of the definitions that we talked about. Functional limitations, activities of daily
living, major life activities. All of these kinds of things go into that. Are there other
things that you want to add in terms of definitional issues?
Anne: Just in terms of who gets the accommodations too. We have an extensive website and our
veterans page lists a lot of the same conditions. We have information fact sheets related to
accommodations for individuals with burn injuries, hearing loss, vision loss, PTSD, some of the
signature injuries that we're hearing about. We deal with anything emotional, psychological,
physical, and sometimes it's a combination of those. As to whether they could be covered
by the ADA the most important thing to do is to go to our website, look it up like James
was saying, or have that one-on-one conversation to help that individual understand best how
they can be a better self-advocate for themselves should they need this information.
Speaker 4: I have another question and that is, you're our contacts, but we don't have
any of your contact information. Speaker 1: We're actually going to share all
of that. They're be an announcement towards the end of the day today about how and what
we're going to do so hold that question. I'm going to step back, and away from the law
for a second, and away from the legislation for a second, and I'm going to talk about
accommodations because this is one of the things that we've learned in all the disability
work that I've done, and work that I did for the National Organization on Disability Jonathan
Kuniholm is a member of ... I'm sorry for NCD, for the National Council on Disability.
Going back to that, and that is that employers provide accommodations to everybody all of
the time, and it's not just for people with disabilities, although that's a legal term
related to the ADA for people with disabilities. Flexible work of any type is an accommodation.
The ability to leave work early, to take a kid to a doctor's appointment is an accommodation.
On-site daycare is an accommodation. There are many things that we do for our employees
to enable them to be their most productive. I'll give you a couple of other examples.
One of my favorite examples is from a company that I did some work with, and a disabled
ask somebody when they came into the office to his desk where he was sitting in a wheelchair,
That's the kind of thing, and the kind of thinking that I think can lead to that same
kind of thing that we're talking about when you're talking about accommodations, and the
get your best work out of your employees. Are you going to provide a mobile phone because
to some of your employees, particularly your graphic designers. Maybe they're going to
That's how I like to think about accommodations as we're going into these is what do you need
Wounded Warrior Program and BAE Systems, and maybe he can talk a little about it from the
much every company, I shouldn't say majority of them, most every company has these programs
fact that now you're going to be associated yourself with wounded warriors, but it doesn't
things we were doing already in our business when we created the Warrior Integration Program
them for our wounded warrior population, so part of that was the education.
post-traumatic stress, those type of things. If you have them busy, if you have them occupied
If we are providing employment opportunities we're also helping them with their disabilities,
done is we've had wounded warriors that were on day shift, and because of the fact that
able to put them on a second shift, or third shift, and that helped with bringing in the
to school so they were able to now because they were on a different shift they were able
and because we were engaging with them we knew why they were not coming to work on time,
Some parts of our business, actually about three-quarters of it probably, we have what's
appointments around those off Friday days so they wouldn't have to miss work and use
Fridays that they had to go to appointments we worked around that schedule as well. Our
and Steve mentioned this earlier. OFCCP requirements for the Federal government contractors. You
what we were doing for our veterans and wounded warriors, and we started reporting more effectively
our veterans and wounded warriors. One of the things as many companies have is
wounded warrior on that council, so that wounded warrior serves as our advocate for the rest
council, and I'm a member, but I'm not a wounded warrior. That individual brings a different
twice in the last two years. He's living proof that things that are working well those individuals
for proposals, you bid on contracts. We write our programs into our contracts. This is what
because what that allows us to do is to remain focused on those veterans and wounded warriors.
Those things allow us to be compliant, and also with our OFCCP requirements.
have read about how some veterans with post-traumatic stress lose their clearances, and fortunately
the top secret clearance review through the whole thing again, and on there it says if
What used to happen is if you had post-traumatic stress, or things like that, you didn't have
I should say, so we're encouraging people to do that so we can actually use that as
they are actually maintaining their clearances. Those are just some of the things we've done,
do have, and the ones that we do hire, so being able to do these type of things allows
about here is tapping into your existing resources, and your diversity and inclusion initiatives.
of things, others keep them outside of that. There are a variety of approaches to that,
The other piece that I think sometimes is very useful is in the affinity groups, and
and inclusion practice, in your accommodations practice, and in other places. They often
You know, I've used this device. I've used this app. I've used this program, and those
or improper training is discontinued use, so those peer supports where it's okay to
things can make a big difference. James: I'll add something to that. We actually
on to this veterans networking share site and they share things. Originally it was just
were sharing doctors' names, and information based off of the disabilities that they had,
They were sharing information that was obviously vetted, but it wound up working out to our
to be on that site. That permission actually comes through me, so we get to know who are
shared. It's not an advertisement resource whatsoever. It's a veterans networking site
of that they share internally. Speaker 1: Incredible resources. Questions
different than maybe what we've traditionally thought of in this area, but are very important,
Dan: Thanks very much. My name is Dan Sullivan. I'm president of the Sergeant Thomas Joseph
I hope I'll do a good job of that, and I'm glad to have this opportunity to share this
is a non-profit organization named in memory of Sergeant Thomas Joseph Sullivan who was
he struggled for a diagnosis in Military health care trying to figure out what was wrong with
In framing this presentation I'd like to ask you to think for a minute how it might be
rather than accommodation for a person with a disability. If you have to go to your HR
psychosomatic illness, and that's very difficult. I want you to know what these types of illnesses
eight to ten times a day having passing bloody stool. He had chronic pain that was debilitating,
passed away. His autopsy revealed widespread physical health problems that were quite terrible,
founded. We founded this in his memory because we had a sense that something was wrong, and
right now to share a little bit starting with an individual story, and then I'll get into
try to assess the causes which are generally at this point the causes are most likely some
it's sort of what's happening here today. It's part of Woodruff's mission as well which
have information about what we're all doing so we can make sure that people don't fall
War illness, Gulf War syndrome, or chronic multi-symptom illness. The Institute of Medicine
of a spectrum of chronic symptoms experienced for six months or longer in at least two of
members since at least 1991, and at this point there is no known explanation for what causes
probably by exposures, but can be detected by emerging medical tests. For example, some
after so many years of debate demonstrated that you can do a brain scan on Gulf War veterans,
I think what we need is we need to figure out a way to talk about these illnesses in
a way to look at them in terms of perhaps an exposure injury, or a particular price
your attention to was that the number of people that are impacted by this particular cluster
illness, or Gulf War illness. The estimates that are coming out of the VA and the DOD
post 9/11 War, so that could be as many as 800,000 people who have developed, or are
What I hope you can take from what I said today which I feel is somewhat incoherent,
is that we need to help service members, and veterans develop a language that they can
these types of illnesses when they see them in their employees, and perhaps provide educational
We need to include in all materials that address traumatic brain injury, and post traumatic
which for lack of better terms today I will call exposure injury.
which I'm basing my presentation, and statements today please either email me, or go to our
may not have it, VA health care providers who may not have it, and private health care
related to the accommodation piece is that there are a variety of disabilities that have
fatigue syndrome, and others which were not at the time, and have not maybe still been
or undiagnosed illnesses can access. I'm going to ask Anne and Dinah to talk in just a moment
without firm understandings of what the disabilities are, but do understand what the work limitations
that no matter what the diagnosis is you have to always be looking forward, and understanding
to understanding how it's going to impact the work. A lot of the accommodations related
think that this person needs to know something, and for some people with cognitive, psychiatric
a set time where issues are discussed, and perhaps do it in person, face-to-face as opposed
typed and said. Looking at the way supervisors approach supporting an employee as opposed
that says, "could you put up a video on this." Another one that says, "how come I haven't
you're talking about is centralize those. Maybe a once day email, or a once a week meeting,
of those, because that can be an accommodation. You're not talking about emails related to
done, or what needs to be done. Speaker 1: Thank you. Dinah.
When they come to a CAP tech we'll start with what we call the 20 questions. Tell me what
task or that task, and try to flush out where the impediments may be. We really don't care
Just as you heard from Matt all the accommodations he mentioned there's only one piece of technology
scanners for reading. These are not things that you necessarily say, "Oh that's a typical
goes, "Tell me what you do in a day-to-day, and what seems to be some of the issues you
the way you get your job done. Some can be a piece of technology. One of the things we
that a lot for people who have hearing loss. As we get older a lot of us have hearing loss.
my husband's voice at all, but we know that a lot of the folks are coming back because
one voice they need to focus on versus all the other stuff that may be going on, so that's
the challenges you're having, and see if we can put together some easy solutions because
feel like I'm on my own, and we've noticed that if we go into it with finding out what
solutions. Always working with the employee, the wounded warrior, the soldier, and the
start to see if there's anything we can do to help out.
that is one of the main things I wanted to mention. I'm sorry and the discussion of accommodations
as medically unexplained physical symptoms. There are researchers around the country who
who conducted wedge lung biopsies of a number of service members who had some pulmonary
in function. Through a wedge biopsy this doctor was able
which reduces the ability to run, and ultimately over time is terminal. There's not any particular
a diagnosis they basically have to fly to experts like Miller, and other doctors out
who's suffering from a chronic multi-symptom illness complex would be permission for that
important, and it's absurd that I forgot to say that in my opening statement. Thank you.
ability to Telework, or flexible work. When I'm flying all over the country to do various
work remotely and mobily. Same kinds of things can be done as accommodations for travel to
because you know that those health care needs may be important, and by doing those kinds
see your workplace as some place that's friendly to what they want to work in, and that helps
way. Thank you Steve. Steve: Thanks Dan. I happen to have the numbers
Dan: That's gone up. I think it was only 400,000 a little while ago, so you can see this is
now is the time for all of us to come together, and say let's deal with this, let's deal with
so far, and that is that there are physiological reasons for many of the disabilities which
instance, and by the physical changes in the brain, the physiological reactions to that
because they think it's psychosomatic because they don't understand that there's a physiological
piece. Steve: And the accommodations are relatively
needs the help, and the employees are certainly willing to do it. I'll give you an example
have to get involved, and that we train your managers not to be diagnosticians, but to
trends coming out of Iraq and Afghanistan. What are the top five diagnoses that are coming
We had a veteran who was falling apart performance wise, and his manager didn't know what to
screened?" We found out that all of his performance issues were related to undiagnosed TBI, and
and it was a matter of orientation. In other words, that he oriented his desk the way that
on him. He was able to adjust the halogen light to the intensity that he wanted, and
Anne: I'd like to make comments just on your fine comments. Another thing we do at JAN
right. We've been doing this for years, and that's were James and I first met. Currently
figure has remained stable. We started this research in 1999.
population, unfortunately, but that's in the general disability population about 82% are
once it is in place. I think that's really key we heard this morning.
because people change, the way we do work change, supervisors change. All of that could
population, and the traditional disability population is exactly what Anne said, that
it's different. It's about the new employees who are coming in, and I think that this has
as we demonstrate that isolating out what the accommodations are at the beginning can
going to transition to lunch. I think Ray is ready to make an announcement in the back,
but thank you everybody on our panel.