Tuesday, November 09, 1999
Job programs match disabled adults with employers
BY SUE MacDONALD
The Cincinnati Enquirer
Sharon Givens sits outside the Chick-Fil-A restaurant in the Tri-County Mall, awaiting the call.
It comes, radioed to her via the headset that's part of her uniform. Sharon hits the hand lever that controls her wheelchair, glides to the hallway door that leads into the restaurant kitchen and waits patiently while someone loads her carts with chicken sandwiches, fries and drinks.
And then, she's off.
“When she gets an order,” says Heather Scheidt, the store manager and owner, “she puts it in high gear and she's outta here.”
In the everyday world of everyday jobs, this might not be such an extraordinary event.
Except that Sharon Givens has had cerebral palsy all 44 years of her life.
She's never gotten around on her own, except in a wheelchair.
She never attended school.
And this is her first job in the community.
To look at the the width of the smile that spreads across her face is to measure the significance of this and the joy she felt when she received her first paycheck.
“It was nice,” she says, her speech slow and deliberate but her spirit undaunted by the nerve and muscle-control problems common to people with cerebral palsy. “If I have deliveries, I get tips every day. I bought my uniform pants. This is the first outside job I've had. I've been in workshops all my life.”
Ms. Givens' first-time job is what happens when an employer with a specific need meets up with a disabled woman who has refused to let disabilities interfere with her goals.
Surveys indicate that 70 percent of U.S. employers support hiring people with disabilities, but the likelihood of a disabled person not working has actually increased since Congress passed the Americans with Disabilities Act in 1990.
Despite a robust economy, The Center for an Accessible Society estimates that 75 percent of disabled people who want to work do not have jobs.
Ms. Scheidt actively sought a disabled employee for deliveries shortly after she and her husband, Markus, took over the Chick-Fil-A franchise at Tri-County Mall. They'd had success at hiring disabled workers when they owned a similar restaurant in Lexington, and among Ms. Scheidt's first new-owner tasks was a survey of mall employees.
“We found that everybody here wanted a restaurant that delivered, and I felt Chick-Fil-A really wants us to do something and reach out to the community,” Ms. Scheidt says. “This helps the mall workers and also gives Sharon an opportunity to work in the community.”
Ms. Scheidt contacted the Evendale Center, one of four job programs for disabled adults sponsored by the Hamilton County MR/DD (Mental Retardation/Developmental Disabilities) Board.
Ms. Givens had worked at the Evendale Center about 10 years doing light assembly and packaging work with other disabled employees. One of her goals was to land a job in the community.
Jim Hellyer, an MR/DD employment consultant, recommended Ms. Givens for the job and helped coordinated the training and adaptations that made her work possible.
It seemed logical, he says, to link the delivery job with someone in a wheelchair who had the commitment, attitude and desire to work.
“We try to match the applicant's goals and skill levels with what's available in the community,” he says. “It can range from fast-food to light assembly to mail-room work. As counselors, we don't leave the scene until the employee and the applicant are satisfied that the job can be done.”
Other agencies and organizations pitched in to make the arrangement work. An Access bus provides transportation for Ms. Givens to and from the mall. The radio headset alerts her to incoming delivery orders and also allows her to stay in contact with the food-court restaurant while she wheels through the mall.
Adaptive engineers at MRDD and Clovernook Center for the Blind built a special wheelchair tray that holds food, straws, condiment packets and other necessities. Because Ms. Givens can't read, Mr. Hellyer color-coded the mall as part of her training to orient her to different areas and stores; she now knows her way around by landmarks and memory.
This day, the first lunchtime call comes from manager Garry Horn at Journeys, a shoe store. He orders a sandwich and fries.
Ms. Givens guides her wheelchair to the front of Journeys and waits out front. He comes out to retrieve his lunch and deposits money into an envelope. (Exact change is required; anything extra is considered a tip for Ms. Givens). From a specially built compartment on her wheelchair tray, Mr. Horn grabs a few packets of mayonnaise and ketchup.
Then Ms. Givens does a 180 turn and heads back to the restaurant where another delivery — this one to Elegant Expressions — awaits.
“There's a lot of stores,” says Ms. Givens, a Forest Park resident who's been doing this job for three months. “I've made a lot of friends. They all look for me, and whenever I'm off, they ask me where I've been.”
Mall employees are grateful for the delivery service. Some of them now call the restaurant and ask directly, “Is Sharon delivering today?”
“I use it at least two to three times a week,” says Mr. Horn. Most mornings he works by himself, unable to leave the store for lunch.
“It's wonderful,” says Lynn Cummins, owner of Elegant Expressions. “I'm usually here alone three days a week — that's why I call Sharon at lunch time.”
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