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As i mentioned at the start my name is Pat Van Nelson and I'm a member of the Ticket to Work team. We're especially pleased to have with us today two presenters who are experts in the field of disability employment. Our first presenter is Raymond Cebula. Ray received his law degree from the University of New Hampshire's Franklin Pierce School of Law spent 23 years providing legal services to individuals with disabilities in their interactions with Social Security. He then joined Cornell University's Work Incentive Support Center and in 2005 he joined the staff of Cornell's K Lisa Yang and Hock E Tan Institute on Employment and Disability. He now serves as the Program Director of Cornell's Work Incentive Practitioner Credentialing Program. Our second presenter is Wendy Strobel Gower. Wendy's the Thomas P Golden Director of Disability Inclusive Workplaces and employer fee for service initiatives at Cornell's Yang Tan Institute. Wendy is also the Project Director for the Northeast ADA Center which is funded by the National Institute for Disability Independent Living and Rehabilitation Research and she is the Co-director of the Employer Assistance and Resource Network which is funded by the Department of Labor's Office of Disability Employment Policy.

During today's webinar, Ray and Wendy will cover Social Security's Ticket to Work Program, the Americans with Disabilities Act, Disability Disclosure, Reasonable Accommodations and Reasonable Accommodations Resources. And now it's my pleasure to turn the webinar over to Ray for an introduction to the Ticket to Work Program. Over to you, Ray! Ray >> Thank you, Pat. Good afternoon everybody. Um, we're going to talk about the Ticket to Work Program, uh, briefly, before we get into all of the ADA and accommodation issues that we are going to spend most of our time on. I'm going to start out by telling you that Social Security administers two programs for people with disabilities. The first one is SSDI, or Social Security Disability Insurance, and it pretty much is exactly what that says. It's an insurance program that will insure us against the loss of employment because of a disability. It's funded by FICA taxes that are taken out of your salary and you're buying insurance over the work, over your work lifetime. If you are successfully insured you will be able to rely on SSDI if your disability prevents future work. The second program is SSI, Supplemental Security Income, and this is not an insurance program. This is a needs based federal welfare program and it requires people to have very low income and variable resources. It does not require that you worked in the past.

But it's okay, the good point about both of these programs is that it's okay to begin working after you have begun receiving benefits and we'll talk about that in a little bit as well. First thing you should do because knowing the type of benefits that you will receive is so very important, it's important to you just to have knowledge to control your benefits, it's important to everybody around you who is trying to help because we have different rules for going to work for each particular program you're on. We need to know exactly what benefit you're on and exactly how much you're receiving. One quick way to do that is to set up a my Social Security account. You know you can get online and set this up. There's some information you're gonna need so go in, read before you start trying to set up an account. It's very easy and I continually say, if I can do it, anybody can do it. That account's going to let you access your earnings history, your benefits information, it'll allow you to request a Social Security card should you lose one, it will get a proof of income letter, you know, which is a great thing. You can bring that to somebody like me and it will say exactly what benefit you're receiving and how much money you're receiving. It can give you an estimate of benefits, it stop, you can even start an application. So this doesn't require you to have a disability. Everybody should have one of these. You know when I set mine up, I get notices every April or so. It says check your wages from last year and I can go in see if that meets up with all of my pay stubs. And if it's good, that's great. If not, I can take steps to correct it and they've not gotten it wrong yet, not gotten it wrong yet at all. It also will tell me from my future what will happen when I reach retirement age of 62 what will happen if I continue to work until -- I'm 66 in four months or if I continue to work till I'm 70. Those are good figures to have to be able to plan for your future. So these accounts are well worth the time of setting up. Now let's start talking about making that decision to work. It's a big decision, it really is, and you're the only one that can make this decision. You know we can give you information as to how earned income will affect your benefits, affect your health care, affect other benefits that you may receive, but you're the only one that can make the decision to start the path to work. The information we're giving you is most certainly there to encourage you so that you will know what will happen before it happens. So why should you choose work? You know, we're going to give you all of that information, yeah and to be honest the disability standard for Social Security is really tough so if you are receiving benefits we have to recognize that you have a significant disability. Yeah, we have to recognize that you may not be able to earn a living through employment because of your capacity to work because of those issues that prevent you from working full time. That doesn't mean work isn't the right thing. Work will bring more money into your household, not every penny is considered by Social Security when they determine how to pay you.

And look at this next one, you know, you may have be anxious about this you may be very anxious about this and concerned about the benefits and more worried about your health benefits.

The services that we are here to give you are free. The supports that we're giving you are free. They're available to you because you want to consider work and you'll find that after you have all of the information that the rewards of beginning to work far outweigh the risks of losing benefits.

We're planning for your return to work, planning for that outcome as well and your plan will show you that if we continue with this plan even if you lose your cash benefits there's going to be much more money coming into the house every month. And I can assure you that losing your health care is really really, really hard. There are lots of great programs out there for you to switch categories of eligibility and we will project for you when that might happen, and it might be another 10 years from now.

So what's the Ticket to Work program? It's free and it's voluntary, and that's very important. You do not have to listen to us talk about work, you can if you want to or you can come in and talk to us about work. Let us determine what will happen and then decide whether or not you're going to move forward or not. We're here to give you the ability to make an informed decision the Ticket Program is going to give you career development services if you are aged 18 through 64 and you receive the cash benefit and want to work. It's that simple. You know, for the younger end of this remember that age, 18 year old who, is now an adult, needs to be determined to be a disabled adult,

the Ticket to Work program is going to connect you with free employment services and you're going to be building a team of several people, uh, or whichever members you decide you want to have or need to decide if working is right for you, You know, what's going to happen you know to your benefits, what's going to happen to you. You know, we want to know everything that we can know to put scenarios forward to you how to prepare for work, whether it's starting at a minimum wage job or whether you need some education to get a better job. Do you need to finish high school? That can be built into this plan. Do you want to go to community college, get some more education to start out with a better job? Do you need a four-year degree to do the job that you want to do?

There's a member of your team that can help you find a job. You know some of these members are based right in your community and they're going to know which employers are going to be hiring. They're going to know which employers are more helpful to people with disabilities and how others with disabilities have fared working. For that we're going to give you as much information as we possibly can and how to succeed at work. This part I think is absolutely fabulous because once we get you that job and you've gone to the interviews and decided to take a job we're not going away anywhere. We want to make sure that as you transition to work that everything's going right for you and we can continue to provide you with on-the-job supports or any other support that might be necessary to keep you employed. We want you to be the one that tells us, okay I've got it now. We're not going to shut the door on you. You can learn more at What is Social security's Ticket to Work Program. There's going to be a link in your weblink pod. Take a look. No one's watching you. It's free information and you can decide for yourself to make that next phone call or not. The Ticket to Work Helpline is also available to get you information about your benefits. They can give you a little information about the Ticket Program or help you find that first provider that you want to call. So you can contact the Ticket to Work Helpline Monday through Friday 8 a.m to 8 p.m Eastern time and their phone number is 1-866-968-7842

and the TTY number is 1-866-833-2960.

So Wendy, uh my colleague at Cornell, has joined us today and she's going to start telling us what this Americans with Disabilities Act is all about. So take it away Wendy. Wendy >> Thank you, Ray. Well let me just start by saying that the uh team is working on closed captioning and the link I will give you as soon as its available, I will just stop talking and tell you the link.

So, I want to just talk about the ADA and let you know that the ADA is civil rights law that prohibits discrimination based on disability in a lot of different areas. The point of the ADA is to enable people to to live and work in their communities. So Title I protects people in employment. Title II uh deals with state and local governments public entities public transportation um Title III is public accommodation so places like hotels and restaurants. Um Title IV is telecommunications. That's how you get um captioning on the telephone and Title V deals with things like uh if you wanna file a lawsuit, um things like that. So all that extraneous details, uh, the captioning link everyone is number 24 in your web links list, so go ahead and go to number 24. And I see Ray already advanced my slide good job, Ray! Um, so Title I deals with employment which is what we're talking about today. Um, Title 1 of the ADA helps individuals with disabilities access the same employment opportunities and benefits of employment as individuals without disabilities. So the ADA is not an affirmative action law, it doesn't say you get any special benefit because you have a disability. What it does say is people can't treat you differently or, or worse because you have a disability. You have the same right to apply to jobs to interview for jobs and to get hired for jobs but no extra rights. Um, but it does prohibit discrimination based on disability. Uh, please ask questions if you don't understand that distinction because it's an important one. You have to be qualified for jobs and you have to be able to do the essential functions of the job, the main parts of the job, um, essential functions are the reason the job exists., Um, it entitled, entitles qualified applicants and employees with disabilities to seek reasonable accommodations when needed and I'm going to tell you all about reasonable accommodations a little bit later, so, Ray, go to the next slide.

So one question under the ADA because I’m I said the ADA protects qualified individuals with disabilities is who is qualified. Um, and so there's two parts to this uh to be qualified for the job. Again qualified means that you can do the essential functions of the job and you meet the qualification standards. So um under the ADA you also have to be a person with a disability, right. Qualified individual with a disability. So a person with a disability is someone who has a physical or mental impairment that substantially limits one or more major life activities, has a record of such an impairment, or is regarded as having such an impairment. And I want to talk just a little bit about what does that mean, right. Um, so physical or mental impairment uh is you have a disability something that um makes your body work differently, makes you approach the life in a different way right because uh you have something either in a major, major bodily function like your endocrine system or breathing or learning that you do differently. A record of such an impairment might be something like when you were in high school you were in a psychiatric facility for treatment and someone who is interviewing with you knows that that would be having a record of a disability and then regarded as you may have say a facial disfigurement or you may look different and people treat you like you have a disability. So there's a whole lot of nuance I think the most important thing to remember is assume that you can let your employer know that because of a physical or mental or medical condition you're having trouble with a part of your job um so so when in doubt just ask for the accommodation. Let your employer know and ask there's a blog post in the web links that might help you so we encourage you to check that out all right next slide, Ray.

Are you guys able to hear me okay, Ray? we're getting a little bit of static um.

Ray >> Wendy, we are getting just a little bit of static. No I know but it might help to just back away from the microphone a little bit more. Wendy >> Okay, how's this? Ray >> That's not any better come back closer.

Ray >> We can hear you. Wendy >> okay, um yeah hotel room presentations never work that great so we're going to do our best. Um, so we want to tell you about the ADA National Network. The ADA National Networks provide information and guidance on the Americans with Disabilities Act so you can call us at 1-800-949-4232

and speak to someone about your ADA questions and you can ask it in plain language. You can tell them your situation and they'll help you kind of figure out um you know what's the best course of action, what do we recommend. We don't give legal advice. We don't refer to lawyers, but we do give you practical information about the ADA and how it applies to your situation. There's an ADA Center in every region in the country, so my region is Region 2, we cover New York, New Jersey, Puerto Rico and the US Virgin Islands, but wherever you are, you can call that 800 number and get your local ADA Center. So go ahead to the next slide.

Next we're going to talk about disability disclosure and that is basically telling your employer that you have a disability. So go to the next slide we'll get into it.

So when you decide that you want to tell your employer that you have a disability that's impacting your ability to do your job that is disclosing a disability and people disclose disabilities for different reasons. Most commonly they do so to ask for a change in the way they do their work. To get that reasonable accommodation they might also do it to receive the benefits or privileges of employment let's say that your employer is hosting a training or an in-service and you'd like to go to improve your skills and you need a sign language interpreter or you need captioning, you might say in order to participate in that training I need you to to get um closed captioning for me so I can so I can read the screen. That would be considered a disability disclosure at work. You might also disclose a disability to explain an unusual circumstance. Um so let's say that you needed to work at home while the company air conditioner is being repaired because you have a disability that makes you uh unable to tolerate heat. So you might say um because my medical condition gets worse when it gets hot I’m going to need to work at home or you're going to need to give me a cool space. But any of those is letting your employer know that you have a disability at work. All right go to the next slide.

You can disclose your disability in a lot of different ways. You can write it down in an email or an a note to your boss you can go to your boss verbally and explain what you need um, but the point is you have to say because of a disability or medical condition I'm having trouble with my job duty so I need a change in the way that I work because of a medical condition or disability. So it's a relatively simple formula. Um

so one thing to know if you disclose your disability to the human resources office or to your manager they are able, your employer is able to ask you for medical documentation. One thing I would like to note that I would change on this slide is that your co-workers do not get to know that you disclosed a disability. That is not something that your manager should share with them. It is not something that the company should share with them when you disclose your disability you do so to your manager or to human resources and that information is confidential. So it doesn't go farther than that. If anything is said to your co-workers it should be something like Joe needed a change in the way that he works so we're gonna go ahead and make this change to your schedule. Let's say that you were unable to come in mornings but your co-workers don't get to know that you have a disability. So I don't want you guys to worry that that's like going to be a known thing and everyone in the office is going to know because that's not how it works. But when you speak to your employer they can say well I can't tell that you have a disability by looking at you so I need some medical documentation and what they get to know is what's the nature of your disability. So that is why is your job, hard for you, what limitations are involved so what's hard and how your disability affects you in the workplace. So what might help? So it's why is it hard? What's not hard and what might help? Those are basically the three things that you need to talk to your employer about. If you go to the next slide.

When disclosing a disability don't get don't get fancy. They don't need to know your full diagnosis you know you don't have to give them the name of your particular eye disease or the type of cancer that you have you. Just need to say because of a disability or medical condition I'm having trouble with my job. So very plain language. You're going to get into what's called an interactive process where they will get more details from you but you don't have to start with everything, you can start the beginning. Your employer may follow up with you and ask you to put that request in writing and I honestly always recommend after you make a verbal request you follow up with an email to protect yourself, right, so uh you go to your manager and say because of x medical condition I'm having trouble with why job duty and then you follow up with an email. As we discuss I, I let you know that I'm having trouble getting my paperwork in on time because of my medical condition so can you let me know what the next step is and getting an accommodation and then it's on them to follow up and it kind of um insulates you uh should, should your manager not notice that you disclose the disability or not understand that that's what was happening. Um so you formalize that request and the employer sometimes will initiate that that documentation as well so it's, it's a really a good idea to do that. It does protect you in the end. Make sure you're talking to the right people. It doesn't matter if you tell your co-worker that you have a disability they aren't responsible to do anything. But if you go to your supervisor or someone in a HR or an ADA Coordinator at your, at your company, those people have to then take action. Okay they're what's called agents of employers so they have a responsibility to move that request forward where your co-worker does not. Okay again there's another blog post that we want to point you to in web links but you don't look sick so you can review that for additional information. You go to the next slide.

We're just going to play with Ray for a minute and see how he does on a little quiz. All right, ready Ray? Ray >> Yep. Wendy >> You got to tell me if this is disclosure or not disclosure. I feel really tired today, I think my allergies are kicking in. What do you think? Yes or no? Ray >> Oh my guess is that's unknown because I'm thinking if you have, you have the allergies would have to be pretty bad to raise the level of inability. Wendy >> Yes, so if you go to the next slide, you'll see if you're right.

And and let me change it up just a little bit because people are always like but what if your allergies are really bad and you're right if if I said I had to leave work and go to the hospital because I couldn't breathe because of my allergies that answer is a yes. But a little tired is, not does not rise the level of disability. Okay all right, one more quiz question, Ray. You ready? You gotta go the next slide so I know what that question is. I’m sorry I had to leave the meeting earlier, I had some problems with my insulin. What do you think? Ray >> I think that's a disclosure. Wendy >> I think you're right. Go to the next slide. So you are clearly saying that you are taking insulin which is something that you take to control your endocrine system and the ADA amendments Act very clearly states that uh major bodily functions and and uh the functioning of major body systems such as the endocrine system is a disability and there's an immediate work consequence, right. You had to leave a meeting earlier so what you have said is because of x medical condition or disability I’m having trouble with why job duty you see how that works.

All right, go on to the next slide. Ray got 100 on his quiz and we're all very proud of him.

So again here's just a summary of what you need to know about disclosing a disability to have a really productive meaningful um you know discussion with your employer or your potential employer. The part of your job that you're having difficult with because of your disability, your medical condition or your pregnancy related condition, why these tasks are difficult for you, what is the functional limitation that makes the, the task difficult um, and by function limitation I mean the way that the, the disability is impacting you, um, and then recommendations for potential solutions. So what',s what's hard, why is it hard, and what might help. That's the easiest way to remember that equation; go to the next slide and I will ask if anyone has any questions.

Pat >> Thank you Wendy. This is Pat.

Did um Ray, I hope you're not too tired because we have a few more questions for you. We also have some for Wendy. We'll try and we'll try to get to as many of the questions as possible but if we run out of time and your questions aren't addressed you should consider calling the Ticket to Work Helpline that Ray mentioned earlier in this presentation. So Ray,

do I need to pay to participate in the Ticket Program? Ray >> Absolutely not, um, this is free and it's voluntary. There's, it's just a service that Social Security is making available to you because you have decided to explore work. Pat >> Got it. I've also heard also, for Ray, that I'll lose my benefits right away if I go back to work. What if I can't work full time? Can Ticket to Work still help me? Pat >> Absolutely, absolutely. The first thing I want to say is that you will not lose your benefits right away if you go back to work. There are all kinds of work incentives that are in place. One allows you to work as much as you want if you're an SSDI recipient for the first nine months and not lose your benefits. They will not be reduced either. Um you know working part-time is a great start for everybody, you know most of us did that as we progress towards work. Yeah working part-time is acceptable and we have to understand that because of the nature of the disability programs that definition of disability that's used by Social Security is really tough, yeah, and I think we all need to understand that if somebody has been found disabled by Social Security that part-time work may be the greatest capacity that you have that doesn't mean we need to leave you behind that means you can participate in this program too.

Pat >> Thanks, Ray. Wendy, we've got a couple questions that came in for you as well. Wendy >> All right, I'm ready. Pat >> Okay what if the employer directly asks me if I have a disability how should i respond?

Wendy >> So employers are prohibited from asking any question that would elicit information about a disability before you are hired for a job. Okay so at the interview stage if they ask you that question um do your best to wiggle out of it, I usually recommend that people respond with are you asking me how I plan to be effective in this job and then proceed to tell them why you're going to be great at the job um so that is one really effective way to handle it because they should not be asking you at the interview stage at all. Um there are some limited enquiries that are, are possible, uh before you started in a position, after you've been hired, before you started, um, so make sure that you are aware of what those rules are you can do that by calling the Ticket to Work Helpline or by calling the ADA Centers. Um but mostly employers should not be coming to you and saying do you have a disability um they can say uh in in a situation like this um it's, Sean, I see you're going to a meeting next week I wondered if you need anything to, to participate in that and that's a perfectly legitimate question because they didn't say Sean, I think you have a disability tell me what you need. So they're just offering some kind of a solution to a problem that you might have that they aren't really saying why. But for the most part employers should not be asking you about your disability. That was a long answer to a short question so I apologize. Pat >> Well we have one that's kind of similar. It says some online applications now ask do you have a disability in the questionnaire. Should I disclose then or wait to speak in person during an interview? Wendy >> So again in in an application do you have a disability is not a legal question the only thing they can ask you is can you perform this job with or without a reasonable accommodation and that is a yes or no question. So I frankly would skip that question. But there is one caveat, um, that there are self-identification forms which are very different from disability disclosure forms. Self-identification forms are separate from the application but they're a form that the employer will give you and ask you to fill out that say do you self-identify as having a disability? And that is not tied to you as a person. What it does is it's a data point that helps the company know how many people with disabilities they're interviewing and how many they're hiring. So that is a separate issue. So make sure that you're aware of the difference are they asking you in the same place that they say um why are you qualified for this job or are they asking you in a separate form that just says would you like to self-identify as having a disability. So, so you should know the difference between those two because it's a very different question. Pat >> Thank you. Um one related thing is the question actually came out is am I required to disclose my disability but I think you when you were talking about the, the response previously there isn't a requirement to disclose unless they wanted an accommodation, is that, is that correct? Wendy >> Yeah disclosing a disability is a legally protected choice that is your private information you can choose to disclose your disability to your employer at any point during the employment process. So you can tell them when you interview you can tell them after you start you could tell them five years in the. My best advice to you is tell your employer you have a disability when you need to do something different on the job to be successful. So if you need a an accommodation to participate in the interview and to really shine let your employer know that because of a disability you need a change. If you can do the interview just fine but in order to start work you name accommodation you should tell them then and if you don't you can work just fine and you want to see how you do in the job before you tell someone. Then when you start to have performance issues or when something starts to be hard for you or when you think it will be so much easier if you just had this one thing then you disclose your disability. But it is always a choice for you. Pat >> Thanks. Oh here's a tough one. You ready? What should I what should I do if my supervisor doesn't follow up or rejects my medical documentation for accommodations? Who should I talk to then? Well the best thing to do in that case because in the supervisor's defense um companies don't always do a really good job training their managers to recognize disability disclosure. So if I'm a new manager and someone comes to me and says you know Bob I'm really sorry I had to leave the meeting earlier because I had, I had to adjust my insulin. Sometimes managers don't catch it right they just say oh no problem no, no worries, we're good. Um so if your manager doesn't do something even after you sent that follow-up email you go to HR. So make sure that you go up the chain. I always tell managers and my work with employers that you should never ever deny a reasonable accommodation request without first speaking to HR. Um, so don't stop with your manager is the short answer that i said after an hour of talking.

Pat >> Thanks. Okay, we're going to give you a break and go back to Ray for a minute. Wendy >> Great. Pat >> Ray, what if I start working and I have to leave because of my disability? Ray >> Yeah absolutely it when we're looking at the Ticket Program, the Ticket Program has built that contingency in. Now it may very well be that you have guessed you can work 20 hours a week and you can't after a month you found out that you can't do you cut back or do you need time to recover from what work has put upon you and wait a while to start again at a lower number of hours or do you just want to say that's enough for now? You can take any approach that you want and you know because you haven't been terminated from benefits they'll switch back on if your benefits, in the SSI situation, are reduced. We do the math again and pay you the maximum that you're entitled to receive because that income has stopped. So that is built in yeah um and most in most cases um you know even if you have a PASS Plan, a Plan to Achieve Self-Support from Social Security, everybody's going to give you that time you need and we're just looking at the decision you've made, are you going to continue or is your work effort over right now. Yeah and we do whatever you want. Remember that you are you are the boss of us. If you're going to continue to work, we'll help you do that. If you need a break we'll give you that break. If you want to say no more, no more, and we'll just do what we need to do to put everything back together.

Pat >> All right thank you so much both of you. I think we need to turn back to the presentation at the moment. We'll have another chance a little bit later to answer more questions so please keep submitting them in the Q and A pod. Wendy, I think it's over to you to talk about reasonable accommodations. Wendy >> All right my turn again. Ray can you go the next slide?

All right, um, reasonable accommodations are uh super helpful and important to people with disabilities. They allow you to approach the same work that your co-workers do in a different way. The legal definition of reasonable accommodation is a reasonable accommodation is any change in the work environment or in the way things are customarily done that enables an individual with a disability to enjoy equal employment opportunities. Just to be clear, equal employment opportunity is the opportunity to attain the same level of performance or to enjoy equal benefits and privileges of employment. So to access your company meetings, to access your company, um, wellness facilities, things like that. Um so again reasonable accommodations allow you to approach the same work in a different way a way that works for you. If you go to the next slide.

Um you can request reasonable accommodations at any point in the employment process. Okay so the application process, if you need help with the interview or to fill out the paperwork for you know before you start to perform the essential functions of your position or to enjoy the equal benefits and privileges of employment in order to get an accommodation. Though you do have to tell your employer that you have a disability. So you just can't go to your employer and say employer I want to do my work differently. What do you say you have to give them a reason why they should provide that reasonable accommodation and that reason is disability disclosure. Go to the next slide.

Um a few examples of reasonable accommodation and really this is not a comprehensive list. There are so many different ways to get reasonable accommodations. You can modify the facility accessibility you could ask for one of those automatic door openers, you could ask for uh a desk and a more enclosed space if hearing or concentration, um, you know was an issue for you. You can uh ask for non-essential those marginal job functions to be reassigned. You could talk to your employer about restructuring a position, um, that worked for you. That's not something they have to do but it's something that they could do. Flexible scheduling, so let's say that your medication that you take for your disability makes you drowsy in the morning and you are able to flex your schedule from working from 8am to 4pm to working 10 from 9am to 5pm or you needed to change your break schedule, all of that is possible. You can get new equipment you can get assistive technology, you can get stand desks. An employer might provide qualified readers or interpreters for you to help you do your job and you can also modify application and testing procedures and training materials. So let's say you start a new job and they say you have to watch this video and the video is not captioned. You can say in order for me to watch this video and hear it I need a closed captioning, I need a sign language interpreter or I need someone to go through the information with me with one of those things but I can't watch this video, it's not captioned, because of a medical disability. Um so if you go to the next slide,

Ray, don't make me fire you,

and i have to do it myself. Ray >> Aren't I Wendy >> Okay, I can do it. Okay, you did it. Um, there are a few things that are typically not reasonable accommodations. Employers never have to eliminate essential job functions and remember essential job functions are the reason that the job exists. It's driving for a driver, it's stocking shelves for someone who is a stock person operating the cash register for a cashier the employer should have defined what those essential job functions are they never have to change those functions so if let's say that presence in the workplace you're a customer service rep and you work directly with the public in a retail kind of situation you would never you could say to them because of my disability I'm having trouble coming in person to work but if that presence in the, in the workplace is an essential function they can say I’m sorry then you're not qualified. You can look at options like what else might you do to make it work, but they never have to take away that essential function. Production standards that are applied to all employees do not have to be reduced, everyone must meet the same production standards. So there's no obligation for an employer to say well because you have a disability you only have to do five widgets an hour even though everyone else has to do 10 widgets an hour. The production standard is the production standard. What they can change is the way that you approach the work to meet that production standard. Employers don't have to provide personal use items, they don't have to get you a wheelchair or a scooter or a hearing aid or glasses or anything that would traditionally be considered durable medical equipment. Changing an employer supervisor is not a reasonable accommodation, so you can't say my supervisor's a jerk and he stresses me out and I want a new supervise because new supervisor because it exacerbates my anxiety. So you can't say you got to give me your new supervisors, that is not a reasonable accommodation. What you can say is the way that my supervisor speaks to me makes me anxious so I wondered if I could ask for written communication in advance of our meetings so I know what's going to happen when I go sit down with him and that is a perfectly acceptable accommodation. But a change in your supervisor is not considered reasonable um employers never have to excuse a violation of uniformly applied conduct rules.

All right someone is talking, someone is talking,

or maybe it's me, I don't know. Um so if let's say that you have a no violence policy at work and um someone with a disability uh has a meltdown and they just get super fed up and they can't take all the sensory stimulation, but they end up hitting a co-worker, that person then could be let go because they violated a uniformly applied conduct rules of no violence at work, uh. And then the last thing is um if it's gonna if the accommodation you're requesting would cause an undue hardship. So if I need if I say I need to take leave and I'm going to take me for nine months I, you know, I'll do my best to get back but it's nine months. Your employer says I can't have you out for nine months. I could do three but nine is too much. That's an undue hardship and then they'd have to verify that but so they do have a protection in that undue hardship requirement. If you go to the next slide.

Here's an example that we can go through quickly and Ray you know you're on the hook. Terry was recently hired as a warehouse assistant in a distribution center for a large pharmaceutical retailer a week after she started Terry told her supervisor that she had diabetes and would need to take an immediate accommodation of one extra 10 minute break during the day to monitor her condition. Terry's supervisor now wants to fire Terry because she lied during the interview by not telling about an accommodation need. So if you go to the next slide, Ray, you can see your options, um, A is transferred Terry to another job within the firm, B is fire Terry because she failed to inform the employer of an accommodation need when she was hired, C is begin the interactive process to put a reasonable accommodation in place, and D is educate supervisors about accommodation rights and responsibilities. So, Ray, are you there to answer my question or should I answer my own question? Ray >> I am, can you hear me? Wendy >> what do you think?

Ray >> Um, I like some of these but the ones

I want to begin that interactive process to get that accommodation in place. Wendy >> Yes, yes now we know that Terry can choose to disclose at any point during the, the employment relationship so she should not be fired. She exercised a legally protected choice. So if you go to the next slide.

Ray is absolutely right, you should begin the interactive process to find a reasonable accommodation that works and you should make sure that you've educated your supervisors about accommodation rights and responsibilities so that the supervisors knows what to do. Go to the next slide.

Then here's another example for us Susan is a manager in a large retail chain. Until recently Ellen a sales associate had been a model employee but for the past month Susan has noticed a change in Ellen’s job performance. First Ellen last shouted at a co-worker when there was a mistake on the cash register, then she stormed out of the store after she received a text message leaving a sales floor unattended for a brief period. Finally Ellen insulted a customer who was returning merchandise. Susan and Ellen have been friends for a long time so Susan knows that Ellen has bipolar disorder and suspects that Ellen has gone off her medication but Ellen has not yet said anything about her job issues she. Go the next slide. I’ll give you your options, Ray. Uh, Susan, A is, Susan should have a private performance discussion with Ellen to ask her if she went off her medications. B, Susan should have a private performance discussion with Ellen to discuss her recent performance issues. C, Susan should not discuss this performance issue at all with Alan because she would risk an ADA charge. Or D, Susan should document her suspicions about Ellen’s bipolar disorder along with her condition how her condition seems to be impacting her job performance. What do you think, Ray. Ray >> All right um I'm thinking that I may like D but that's not the right thing to do because Susan and Ellen haven't had any discussions about work and disability. So I’m going to pick B, I should have a discussion of discussion. Wendy >> Yeah and B is absolutely right. Anytime someone is not doing their job a manager should always say here's what I noticed. What can you tell me about this performance issues. Managers should not ever, ever, ever document suspicions about disabilities. If we think back to the definition of disability that I gave you there's that regarded as clause right so when you make an assumption about a disability then you have triggered that clause in the ADA and you may give someone protections of the ADA who might not otherwise be eligible for them because you've regarded them as having a disability. So always address the performance issue and, and that's really a gift that a manager gives you when they say I've noticed that you because then you can get advice and you can improve and you can get better and, and then you're going to keep your job and it may be when your manager says to you I’ve noticed this performance issue you can take that as an opportunity to say you know let me tell you that because of this disability or medical condition I’ve been really struggling with anger issues so I would like to be able to tap out occasionally and let my coworker know that I need to step away for a minute to take some deep breaths and calm myself down and because we always have two people on the floor I’m hoping that that will be an acceptable solution and then you negotiate with your employer but use that performance discussion as a gift as the gift that it is to adjust your performance and to let your employer know that something isn't working or you need to do something different on the job. If you go to the next slide.

All right, Ray, I’m doing it myself, oh you did it too. I'll go back, oh okay, let's look at some reasonable accommodation resources with Ray.

Ray >> Hello Wendy, I did have a question for you Wendy.

I’m I’m wondering you know because Susan and Ellen were friends outside of work and they've been soaked for a long time. Wendy >> Susan’s really gotta try real hard not to mention that disability in her role as an employment supervisor yeah I mean people's private business is their private business right so managers and their role as an agent of the employer are put in kind of a precarious position they get to know information about, about the people that they work with that others don't get to know so you know someone might tell you something like i have a psychiatric disability or I have cancer and as a person you want to be like oh that's terrible did you hear about this co-worker and don't we want to do something for them but there is a confidentiality layer that the manager has to maintain that that is personal private business if the person with a disability chooses to share with their co-workers that's different that is their right to do so but the manager cannot make that decision for people.

Ray >> Okay, thank you.

Um so let's talk about these reasonable accommodation uh resources a lot of these are great and this first one the Job Accommodation Network or JAN can provide you with free expert and confidential guidance on workplace accommodations and disability employment issues to job applicants, if you're considering working and have applied for a job you're in employees, employers, other service providers family members can call and ask JAN for information and individuals pursuing self-employment, self-employment is a very unique situation, both for the worker and potentially business owner who may be the same person as well as for Social Security. It's a whole different ball of wax but to reach JAN you can give them a call at 1-800-526-7234.

or if you use a TTY 1-877-778-9403

or visit the JAN website or email jan@askjan.org.

Both of those links are in your web links pod. If you're working with a Ticket to Work service provider that service provider can offer you guidance and support so that you can apply for jobs and transition into the workplace you know I if you have a gap in your resume what do you do with that well the Employment Network who would be one of your Ticket for Work service providers can help you fill that gap when you were sitting at home you weren't just sitting at home you were doing things. Did you have hobbies, were you babysitting, you know your son's children while he was working. We can fill that gap and it's up to us to do that so that you don't have to explain anything that's uncomfortable. Okay and resources to choose on the Choose Work website. These are all in your pod too, talking about the disability disclosure, that can be scary and it can be very uncomfortable. We can run some scenarios by you put you in some role plays to see how that will work how that plays out how about to request that accommodation you know it's not like you're going to walk into your supervisor's office and say I need this this and this I have a disability. You need to provide them because when they said it sets up a dialogue you know it's kind of a negotiation. So you can request an accommodation is when denoted giving little information is possible to start that process rolling. And how about low and no cost accommodations. Employers don't necessarily react well to being asked for a reasonable accommodation because they think they're going to be expensive and I think the average is still around 500 it's not expensive at all. So we need to know when we start this discussion that what you want may not be what you'll get but it needs to be enough to allow you to do the job.

So we've got some success stories, love sharing these success stories with you because it shows you real recipients, what they've gone through to get to work and how they felt about the process. So we're going to talk about Angel, he suffered from back and neck injuries he sustained during his two tours of duty with the U.S. Air Force. With the help from his Ticket service providers he received free benefits counseling information about the work incentives, confidence to transition to move forward because he knew what was going to happen, and reasonable accommodations to help him succeed in his job. What did Angel have to say about this? Being back at work has had a positive impact in so many areas of my life. I've been able to show my children the rewards that can go with perseverance and resilience, the job has helped me build confidence, maintain good mental health, and regain a sense of income accomplishment all vital for the next chapter in our lives I think he just nailed it you know not only was he teaching his children a lesson he learned some lessons and became a more confident worker.

And we have Matt today. He was receiving SSDI because of a hearing loss and other medical issues that interfered with consistent employability. Matt worked with a career counselor to set him up with resume preparation and that's, you know, if you've been out of the workplace for a few years, resumes change if I had to get a new job right now i need someone to help because the resume i used 20 years ago to get to Cornell, doesn't look like that anymore identify job leads practice interview skills. Interview skills are incredibly important so let's role play a few interviews it will take the nerves away and it will allow you to present better to the people you're trying to convince to hire you and he received advice about the reasonable accommodations that he would need you know this was a great thing Wendy brought this very case up. If you're having a staff meeting, if you're having a staff training maybe having it captioned would be something that matt would need to participate as a job seeker who is deaf and needs accommodation matt was uncertain about his prospects. At first he was reluctant to ask for anything from a prospective employer right out of the gate. So Matt’s counselor identified the accommodations that were essential for him demonstrated what he can offer during the application process agree to an approach for disclosing his disability and requesting those accommodations that's a good plan to make this transition to work that was comfortable for matt matt's work gives him the fulfillment and stability to continue building the future he envisions in 2019 he purchased a home an achievement that seemed very remote to him and the Ticket to Work made it possible. Matt made it happen that's a great success story when i hear about people buying their first home it just really makes me happy and able to get up again and do it again tomorrow. Right,

so we're back to questions. Pat, do we have any uh questions oh i think we can i think we have a couple over

Pat >> Let's start with Wendy.

Wendy, are you there? Wendy >> yes. Pat >> you are, okay, is the need is the need to work part-time considered an accommodation?

Wendy >> um it's more of an employment condition I mean uh there are plenty of part-time job opportunities available you might work full-time and then say I need to go part-time and that is a legitimate ask right for your employer generally speaking not many jobs have the requirement to be full-time as an essential job function so you could negotiate that certainly as a as a a reasonable accommodation but you could also look for a part-time job.

Pat >> Thanks. What do I do if an employer declines to provide a specific accommodation if the one that they offer doesn't really address my needs? Wendy >> Right and there's a rub, right, with a reasonable accommodation so you, when you disclose your disability you say um here's what I need here's why I need it and, and here's what I think would work. That is opens up a negotiation process it is your employer who decides the accommodation that gets put into place. So you give them information they talk about what you need with you but they decide what accommodation they're going to put into place the rule is it has to be effective that accommodation that they choose to put into place has to work for you so it might be that they initially say okay we're going to try this and you try it and it doesn't work you have to give them that feedback and they have to try again um so it's not as simple as i want this and they give it to you it's this is what I this is, what I need, this is why I need it, here are some things that I think I might work. They say oops my watch is talking sorry. They say we think this will work within our the way our business operates and then you see if it's effective for you or not if it's not you go back to the drawing board with them does that make sense.

Pat >> mm-hmm one last question for you Wendy. Where can i find a list of common job accommodations for my particular disability? Wendy >> Well Ray gave you the the Job Accommodation uh Network link in the web link pod and that is an amazing resource because you can go to the type of disability that you have and it gives you a whole bunch of ideas about what might work for you, what you might try, um, but don't discount your own experience. If you have approached a task in your life the same way that or that that you have to approach at work you can say here's what works for me at home. So I worked with people who had significant um physical disabilities at one point and asked god a lot of the way she got stuff done was home because she didn't have good grip strength was with a spatula that had been adapted and she could pick up so many little tiny things with that spatula and so we said i just need the spatula with this special handle and I'll be good and and it's cheap and the employer was um you know willing to try it so don't discount your own experience as well as looking at JAN.

Pat >> Thanks Wendy. Ray, can employer make me buy my own equipment?

Ray >> If the employer should be purchasing equipment for you as a reasonable accommodation no i think we should turn that around because as Wendy said the employer makes the decision about that accommodation um and they're going to tell you what they can give you and you may be as the employee able to say well yeah this screen reader or this computer program that you're going to give me is good, but how about we negotiate one step further and i can pay for the extra fifty dollars to get the perm that I’m used to that might fit into the bill then we would use that fifty dollars as an impairment related work expense to offset the social security understood.

Sometimes employers make decisions about what's what they're going to try based on their operational need. So you let's say have always used jaws and jaws works for you and you know how to work it um but their systems let's say their HR management system isn't compatible with JAWS, it only works with Window Eyes. The reason that they're making the choice for the other software may be that for you to access their systems they have to give you that one and in that case they're not going to agree to the switch that they recommended right. They're going to say we'll send you for training but it has to be this one so there are some exceptions when a business is making operational decisions um that I just wanted to raise that as a you don't always get what you want oh absolutely, absolutely I agree. There are always exceptions are always circumstances that are beyond everybody's control um just so the lawyer in me came out and the reference to the rolling stones is also good.

Pat >> yeah so I'm afraid that we're out of time for more questions I'd really like to thank Ray and Wendy both, both of you for providing us this great stuff on the ticket program on the ADA disclosure and of course accommodations there's a we covered a lot of content and i think it's going to be helpful to the folks that have been listening to us before we end the call though i want to take a couple minutes to share some ways that we can all stay connected and people can stay up to date with the ticket program itself we've got a variety of ways to stay in touch like if you want to know more about our monthly wise webinars you can subscribe to our email list or sign up to receive text messages to learn more about the Ticket Program you can subscribe to the choose work blog get our weekly updates sent directly to your inbox both of these links can be found in the web links pod under wise webinar subscription and choose work blog subscription.

If you're ready to get started on your path or you just want some help to continue to expand your search the ticket program has a variety of service providers and resources first, you can contact the Ticket to Work Helpline at 1-866-968-7842

or for TTY 1-866-833-2967

Customer service representatives are available Monday to Friday from 8 am to 8 pm Eastern time another option is to visit us on the Ticket to Work website anytime that's choosework.ssa.gov.

There will be more details on that regarding the topics we talked about today and there's the discover the find help tool that was described earlier that can help you find a service provider of course you can find us on Facebook and Twitter subscribe to the blog or email updates by visiting choosework.ssa.gov forward slash contact forward slash index.html this link will also appear in the weblinks pod under Ticket to Work contact information.

Yet another way to get advice and encouragement and read stories about the people who achieve financial independence like the two success stories that ray talked about is to opt in to receive our text messages if you're interested just text TICKET t-i-c-k-e-t to 4-7-4747 standard messaging rates may apply and you can opt out at any time.

It's also important to note that if you need to contact Social Security's Ticket to Work Program which is managed by Social Security Administration’s Office of Employment Support. We ask that you do so electronically instead of by postal mail. You can email us at support@choosework.ssa.gov and remember please don't include any personally identifiable info information like your Social Security number, date of birth or home address, or you can contact the Ticket to Work Helpline that we talked about earlier which as I said was available Monday through Friday 8 to 8 eastern time.

We also invite you to join us for our next wise webinar on August 24th from 3 o'clock to 4 30 once again Eastern time. The topic will be Think Beyond the Office, there, will focus on types of jobs that include blue collar and apprenticeship jobs. Registration is now open at choosework.ssa.gov forward slash wise or call the Ticket to Work Helpline and I'll repeat the number one more time

or for 1-866-968-7842 1-866-833-2967.

Another program we want to bring to your attention is the Affordable Connectivity Program that's an effort to help more households get access to broadband services. That program is a Federal Communications Commission benefit program that helps ensure that households can afford the broadband they need for work for school health care and more the program provides eligible households with a discount on broadband service and connected devices it also provides a discount of up to thirty dollars per month toward the internet for eligible households and up to seventy five dollars per month for homes on tribal lands. to find out if you're eligible for the program and discover how to apply please go to fcc.gov forward slash acp.

Finally we want to know what you think so we can plan future webinar topics we ask that you provide your feedback by taking our survey to take the survey you can follow the link that pops up after the webinar or you can find the survey link in the weblinks pod or you can visit the Ticket Program website at choosework.ssa.gov forward slash surveys forward slash wise. I'd like to take this moment to thank you for attending today to learn about the ticket program and the services and supports that are available on your journey to employment please know there are services and supports and people ready to help you and we encourage you to reach out to begin your journey. This concludes today's webinar Thank you for attending.