After a 1988 car accident left him paralyzed, Gilcrist, who had been an extruder operator for Quaker Oats, went back to school through The Office of Vocational Rehabilitation, to learn a new marketable skill — accounting. Gilcrist says the only accommodation needed for his job was having his desk raised to fit his legs under it. “I also wear a clip on my index finger that holds the pen or pencil so that I can write,” says Gilcrist. “I can’t make a fist, but I’m lucky to have all my triceps and biceps — most quads don’t have that,” he said.

Since the signing of PL 101-336, The Americans With Disabilities Act, on July 26, 1990, public perception about disabilities has slowly begun to rally. But Americans with disabilities still face gaps in finding jobs, education, accessible public transportation, and in many other areas of daily life. In a 1995 National Organization on Disability(NOD)/Harris Survey of Americans with Disabilities, 73 percent of employers agreed that people with disabilities represented an untapped potential. Comparably large numbers of employers also said that their employees would support policies to increase the number of people with disabilities.

More recently, in a 1998 NOD/Harris Survey of 1,000 Americans with Disabilities aged 16 or older, the most significant gaps between those who are disabled and those who are not were still in employment. Only three in ten working-age adults are employed full or part-time, compared to eight in ten non-disabled adults. Of the disabled of working age who were not working, 72% say they would prefer to work.

Alan Reich, president of NOD, believes the only way we can begin to eliminate these gaps is by focusing on the abilities, not the disabilities, of every American.

As employers define essential job functions and think creatively about the abilities of their staff, they can often identify reasonable accommodations that weren’t initially apparent. Although many times the accommodations are minor and on the average cost between nothing and $300, according to the NOD survey, twice as many managers today as compared to 1986 believe the average cost of employing a person with a disability may be prohibitive, or much greater than employing a person without a disability.

“Sometimes it takes a little extra patience and time to bring a worker with a learning disability up to speed,” admits Barry Horner, general manager of Perkins Family Restaurant and Bakery in Camp Hill, “but it’s great to see a student able to get out and learn something other than what they do in school — to have the opportunity to learn a job.” A recent busboy hire and senior in the Life Skills class at Cedar Cliff High School is currently in training at the restaurant. He is part of a co-op program that evaluates and places students with disabilities in work locations close to their homes.

Dave Roseman, Transition Coordinator for the West Shore School District, visits the co-op students in the workplace each week, sometimes talking to managers, sometimes posing as a customer, to sample the student’s progress.

“It’s important to talk to the managers who work the most with our students,” he said, “I like to get first hand information so that we can adjust their academic program to incorporate some of the skills they need to work on.” Roseman works exclusively with the students who have Individual Education Plans (IEPs). These students may have mild to severe physical, mental, or emotional disabilities, and their IEP acts as a roadmap to guide them through transitions from school to work to adulthood, assessing progress and adapting to individual academic, social, and environmental needs.

Hopefully, as educators focus on transition planning as a component of the total plan for students with disabilities, quality of life gaps will begin to close. The Harris Study found only one-third of adults with disabilities as being very satisfied with life in general, compared to 61% of the non-disabled population.

Often because of the external and internal challenges faced by people with disabilities, they are a rich source of untapped talent, able to contribute innovative and resourceful thinking to the collective knowledge of the workplace and their communities.

The Aurora Club in Harrisburg has served over 325 people aged 18 and above with mental disabilities in the last year. The grass roots agency, founded in 1962, is open seven days a week and provides support services through several programs with the common goal of improving quality of life for their clients. “We provide a foundation in the community for a lot of people who seem to get lost in the (mental health) system,” said Cathy Barbush, executive director of the Aurora Club. The center has recently hired six of their members to work in the drop-in center. “Many people with mental illness can’t work at regular jobs, but can be productive for short periods of time. We utilize their strengths and empower them as much as possible at our facility,” said Barbush. “It just makes sense that if it’s a member drop-in center, not a staff drop-in center, members should be making the decisions about what we do here.” Programs include a wide range of socialization activities including educational speakers, excursions, computer classes, and accompaniment to a hockey game, and church suppers.

Programs like Chariot Express, a group that plays wheelchair basketball, address quality of life for the adult group members and area students in wheelchairs, delivering a positive message about social and recreational outlets.

“Before my car accident, I played basketball and baseball,” said Gilcrist, a member of the 12-person Chariot Express group. “But we don’t just play basketball,” says Gilcrist, “we travel to the local schools, seeking out kids in wheelchairs and talking to them about their education and options.” Chariot Express is funded by the Hershey Rehabilitation Center.

Advocacy groups, such as Association for Habilitation and employment of the Developmentally Disabled (AHEDD), a private, non-profit organization founded in 1977 often initiate projects to assist businesses in hiring and training persons with a disability.

One such project is the Volunteer Interview Network of Employers (VINE). Through VINE, employers such as Bill Gaskins, District Human Resources Representative for United Parcel Service in Harrisburg, conduct practice interviews and provide written feedback to persons with disabilities. Gaskins says he also works closely with advocacy groups in the workplace. “When a disabled person needs extra help getting started, someone from the advocacy group will come in and work with them for a day,” said Gaskins. “We have someone we call often as an interpreter for our hearing impaired employees.”

According to a report from the Job Accommodation Network, a service of The President’s Committee on Employment of People with Disabilities, Pennsylvania callers requesting specific accommodations or ADA information from their office have increased from 760 calls in 1988-89 to 2,226 calls in 1997-98. The types of disabling conditions for which requests were made varied with motor impairments (e.g., grasping, lifting, bending) accounting for 46% of the calls; neurological impairments (e.g., spelling, organizing, remembering), 22%; and sensory impairments (e.g., seeing, hearing, feeling), 18%.