KAILUA-KONA — Dr. Alette Coble-Temple rolled up to the speakers’ table Friday at the Workforce Empowerment Breakfast at the Kailua-Kona VFW Post and got straight to the point.
“I’m going to be blunt and politically incorrect here,” she said. “When we hear disability it automatically invokes fear.”
Coble-Temple, a clinical psychologist in California, is Ms. Wheelchair America 2016 and was in town encouraging employers to hire people with disabilities during the event attended by several dozen people, including business, advocates and others.
“When you hire someone who has successfully navigated their disability, they come to you with the experience of problem solving,” Coble-Temple said.
She says that from experience. While performing her residency, she ran into repeated questions about her ability to interact with patients and staff, despite her excellent grades.
“I don’t consider it a speech impediment, I call it a cerebral palsy accent,” she said.
According to the U.S. Department of Labor’s most recent labor force characteristic report for persons with disabilities issued in June of 2015, people with disabilities had a higher rate of unemployment than those without, regardless of education. Disabled people had an unemployment rate of 12.5 percent in 2014, versus 5.9 percent for those without a disability.
Changing those statistics to include disabled people in the workforce can start at the hiring process.
“(Employers) should be asking every employee what can we, as an employer, do for you to be successful in your job,” she added. That will help everyone’s productivity, she said, and reduce concerns about determining what accommodations are necessary.
Coble-Temple struggled to learn that as a young adult.
Although claiming she was receiving sufficient support at work, the reality was she was not eating, drinking or using the bathroom for eight hours.
That changed as she matured. When she began her assistant professorship at John F. Kennedy University in California her employer added five hours of a personal assistant a week. That’s beyond what the law requires.
“They did it because my productivity went through the roof,” she said.
A number of accommodations that are free or wind up benefiting the company because of tax credits can be taken, said Coble-Temple. Physical changes can include raising a desk or making a bathroom accessible.
Many of the most effective are related to work hours, she said. Instead of a 9-to-5 shift, it may work better to have an employee work from 8 a.m. to noon and 2-6 p.m. to give them additional time they need over lunch.
Another powerful option is telecommuting, said Pauline Aughe, a disability advocate who was born without arms or legs.
In the modern age, employees can be effective while never appearing in the office, she said. Working in Hollywood from Kailua-Kona is entirely possible, she said, relying on video calls and distance work.
“As people who are disabled, we’re not offended by being asked how we will do the job, it’s by not asking,” she said.
Several organizations on the island, including Full Life and the Arc of Kona, provide services to connect employees and employers. The state also provides vocational rehabilitation services to community members who experience barriers to employment because of a physical or cognitive disability.
Aughe suggested contacting those agencies with available positions creates another avenue for hiring skilled employees.
That way the agency can create a binder or similar tool and the potential employee can sort out what they would be best-suited for, she said.
Looking to people with disabilities helps expand a shrinking workforce, said Jeani Navarro, vice president for program and vocational services at the Arc of Kona. Hiring people with disabilities can also bolster business traffic by bringing in family, friends and supporters.
Penny Alcoran, a job placement specialist at the Arc of Kona, said one of her best connections was finding a job for a man who was a cook by training. When they connected him with a company in Hilo, he became one of its best employees.
She said the owner told her “you brought class to my place.”
Info:
Full Life: 895—5353
Arc of Kona: 775-1090
Big Island Workplace Connection (Hilo): 981-2860
Big Island Workplace Connection (Kailua-Kona): 327-4770