Jayme >> Good afternoon, and welcome to today's WISE webinar. My name is Jayme Pendergraft,
and I'm the communications and outreach director for the Ticket to Work Program. Thank you for joining us today.
It's my pleasure to introduce today's moderator, Patricia Van Nelson. Pat is the deputy director of the Ticket Program manager and
has over 30 years of related experience to bring to today's topic and discussion. Pat, over to you.

Pat >> Well, thank you, Jayme. Good afternoon, everyone, and welcome to today's webinar -- Reasonable Accommodations and
the Employment Process. As Jayme said, my name is Pat Van Nelson, and I'm a member of the Ticket to Work team, and I will be your moderator.
On behalf of Social Security and the entire Ticket team, thank you for joining us to learn about the Ticket Program and reasonable accommodations --
what they are, who they help, and how to request them. I expect that many of you are already familiar with some of the material we're going to cover. 

Somewhere along the line, I'm hoping somebody told you about your rights or you researched them yourself. Perhaps you've even educated
your family or friends about these subjects. As for me, I've learned a great deal since working at the Ticket Program and the folks at Social Security.
But before that, I was pretty clueless. Some of you are going to think this is really lame, but years ago, I was working on an Army 
base in a trailer -- one of my very favorite jobs, by the way, and I had the opportunity to work with a woman who was deaf. I was amazed to find that she
had a service dog who worked alongside her. At that time, I thought only people who were blind had service dogs, and I had no idea that there was a law that gave
her the right to that accommodation.

I know it seems old school now, because the public is so much better educated. However, there are still some employers who haven't quite mastered the full scope of what reasonable accommodations are and what their responsibilities are to provide them. Today, our goal is to make sure you are well-informed and
prepared when you enter or return to the workforce.

If you've joined us for a webinar before, you've probably heard me say that I think one of the best things about the Ticket Program is that it recognizes
that we're each unique, and every one of us creates their own path. In the context of today's webinar, what that means is that reasonable accommodations are
also unique to you, your disability, your work environment. In today's webinar, we'll give you some examples to help you find accommodations that will work for you. So let's get started. 

Before we jump into learning about the Ticket Program and reasonable accommodations, want to make sure you get the most out of the information we're going to share, so we have a few tips for using this webinar platform. First, there's the audio. You can manage your audio using the audio option at the top of your screen. The audio option is an icon that looks like a speaker. When you click on it, there's a drop-down menu. Choose "Select speaker" from the menu option, as you can see on the screen. Just a reminder, everyone who's attending will be muted, except for me and, of course, eventually our speaker. When it asks how you want to join the meeting's audio, pick "Device speaker" if you want the sound to come through your computer. And, of course, be sure to turn on your speakers or plug in your headphones.

If you'd rather listen by phone, you can dial 1-800-832-0736 and enter access code 418148 and then the pound sign. You can also use the "Join the
meeting audio" to receive a phone call, as you'll see on the image on the screen, and then just enter the same number and access code.
All right. Now let's move to cover some information about the webinar's accessibility. On the Adobe Connect platform you will notice different boxes
on your screen. Those boxes are called pods. We have the presentation pod, and this is where the slide deck is appearing. That's the largest portion of
your screen. Below that is an open space for placement of closed captioning. The top right corner is the Q&A pod, and below that is the Web links pod.
We'll talk about those pods in a little more detail in a bit, but, first, let's talk about accessibility. 

If you need assistance navigating Adobe Connect, an accessibility user guide that has a list of controls is available on the website at http://bit.ly/adobe-accessibility. A link to this guide is also available in the Web links pod in the bottom right of your screen. It's called Adobe accessibility user guide.
So if you want that one, you can go to the Web links pod and access it now. Real-time captioning is available and active and is displayed in the captioning pod.
You can show or hide the captioning display, and you can also choose the size and color of the text to best meet your own vision preference.
To open closed captioning, select the CC option from the top menu bar. The captioning link can also be accessed on the Web links pod under the title "Web
captioning." You can also access captioning online in a separate viewing window. The choice is up to you in how you want to see it.

If you're fluent in American Sign Language and would like support during today's webinar, please follow the link that provides instructions on how to
connect with an interpreter through the Federal Communications Commission video relay service. The ASL user guide is available in the Web links pod under the
title "ASL user guide." We're going to be pausing to answer your questions at two different points in the webinar. You can send your questions to
us at any time during the webinar by typing them into the Q&A pod. I'll then direct the question to our presenter during the Q&A portions of the webinar.
I'm going to do my best to get to as many as possible. If you're listening by phone and you're not logged in to the webinar platform, you can ask
your questions by sending an e-mail to us at webinars@choosework.ssa.gov. I've already referred you to the Web links pod a couple of times.
That's where you will find the links for all the resources we will cover today. Just select the ones that interest you to learn more.

If you're listening by phone, you can e-mail webinars@choosework.ssa.gov for a list of those resources. You can also look at your
confirmation e-mail that you received for today's webinar to see these resources. Just a reminder -- Social Security cannot guarantee and
isn't responsible for the accessibility of external websites. We're recording today's webinar, so if you miss something and you want to go back and listen
again, we'll be posting it within two weeks on the Choose Work website at https://bit.ly/wise_ondemand. This link is also in the Web links pod, 
called WISE Webinar Archives. We hope you have a good experience during this webinar and that your technology will cooperate. However, if you do run into
technical difficulties, please use the Q&A pod to send us a message, or you can e-mail us at that site I mentioned before, webinars@choosework.ssa.gov, and
our team will help you. In a minute, you're going to hear from my colleague and today's presenter, Derek Shields.

Derek's no stranger to the interception of disability and work. He's spent the past 28 years in the areas of disability
inclusion, employment, accessibility, and reasonable accommodations. Specifically, he spent nearly 20 years working with multiple federal agencies' reasonable
accommodation and assistive technology programs. Derek has a master's degree in management and disability services from the University of San Francisco.
And in addition to his contributions to the Ticket Program, he's also president of ForwardWorks Consulting and a co-founder and board adviser of
the National Disability Mentoring Coalition. I'll be back with you during the Q&A session, so remember to put your questions in that Q&A pod.
It's now my pleasure to turn the microphone over to Derek.

Derek >> Pat, thank you so much for the kind introduction and for your opening remarks and really setting the stage for everyone's success today with our webinar. It's exciting to be with you for our monthly webinar and today on the 33rd anniversary of the Americans with Disabilities Act to talk about the ADA and about reasonable accommodations. So it's great to be here for this topic of reasonable accommodations in the employment process. On the screen, we do have our five chapters for the content of the webinar today, we'll call them.

Of course, we're going to always cover Social Security's Ticket to Work program. And as I mentioned, being the 33rd anniversary of the ADA, we'll talk about the Americans with Disabilities Act and that civil-rights legislation. We'll get into disability disclosure, kind of what it is and give some tips about choices
that you might have. And then, of course, we're going to talk about reasonable accommodations -- you know, how to request them and different
types of reasonable accommodations, and then some resources that we'll have along the way that perhaps could expand your toolkit to give you a little bit more confidence when considering reasonable accommodations throughout the employment process.

So, we do have a lot to cover. We have the two breaks, so Pat can get your questions to me and we can have a dialogue on that. We look forward to that.
But without further ado, I'm going to jump in to make sure that we can cover our content today. This month, we're pleased to feature one of our success
stories, Matt. I'm going to be referencing Matt's employment process and pathway to employment and how he obtained self-sufficiency through work.
This is going to come throughout the webinar. It's a little bit woven into the content that we have, and we're going to specifically talk about
Matt's experience involving reasonable accommodations. So, really, without further ado, let's meet Matt. So, here's a picture of Matt on the screen.

He's a white male with a bald head, and he's wearing a plaid shirt with folded arms. Matt received Social Security disability insurance, or SSDI,
because he has hearing loss -- Matt's actually deaf -- and other different medical issues that were interfering with his ability to hold consistent
employment. And he was determined to have choices that really steady work affords individuals, and he knew from his previous intermittent experiences with work that he had value to bring. He had analytical skills, organizational skills, and he spent a lot of time working with spreadsheets, so he considered himself skillful there, as well. And as it's quoted on the screen, as we learn about Matt's story, he's quoted here as saying, "I always wanted and planned to work," and he wanted
to be productive, build a career, and earn more money. So with this in mind, Matt, early on, knew that he wanted to access guidance to help them do
just that and find that support as he considered his future. On this slide, we do have a link to Matt's success story, and if you're interested in that, you
could access that through the Web links pod, as Pat described. That's in the bottom-right corner, and it's going to be tagged as your item number 8.

And we'll be speaking about Matt's return-to-work experience throughout the webinar and, of course, his reasonable accommodations experience, both
as an applicant and as a worker in the workforce. So, Matt's journey starts out back in high school. And this is when he learned about state Vocational
Rehabilitation agencies. And these of VR agencies, as we call them, have programs that help people with disabilities who are interested in work go to work.
And Matt decided to -- remembering what he heard in high school when he was determined to access work while on SSDI -- he decided to contact his local VR agency for some support and assistance, really seeking that guidance. And the VR counselor then explained that Social Security's Ticket to Work Program could provide those -- the guidance and support, or, really, as we call them, the comprehensive employment services, that he needed.

And so, at this point, what I'd like to do is talk about Ticket to Work for a moment, and then we'll get back to Matt's story. So, what is Social Security's
Ticket to Work Program? Some of you might know, but I'm sure we have folks that are here that are interested in learning about that, and so we always
like to cover it. The Ticket to Work Program, first of all, is free and voluntary. This is important. There is no cost to participate. You know, to qualify, you do
need to be between ages 18 through 64 and individuals who are receiving Social Security disability benefits. That's either SSDI, the disability insurance I mentioned
earlier, or SSI. That Supplemental Security Income. Or you can receive both. And you have to want to work. And that gives you access to these free career development
services that we were mentioning. You know, if it sounds like that's something for you, there are those services, and they come through the employment team.
Some of those members of the different service providers that could be on your employment team through the Ticket Program including Employment Networks. We call them ENs for short.
And these Employment Networks provide services like career counseling and assistance with job placement, including helping people understand how benefits may impact work. And that's, of course, critical. So the Ticket Program can connect you to those free employment services and help you decide if work is right for you. If you do tap those services, like Matt did, you can help -- get that help in preparing for work, and that includes specific assistance in finding a job and services and supports that can help you succeed at work once you start the job. It's really a great program, and what we want to do now is see= how Matt tapped the Ticket Program with his experience.

So, back to Matt. It turns out that Matt's VR counselor connected him with a specific Pennsylvania-based Employment Network. This EN's called Community Integrated Services. And that group would remain by his side through each step from application to employment and actually beyond employment -- quite beyond, literally. But we will get to that in a little bit. Matt's story takes a turn where CIS comes back into his employment. First, though, Matt worked with a job development team at CIS, and those folks included a career counselor, a sign-language interpreter -- recall Matt's deaf, so he needed that interpreter to assist in communication with others. Matt also worked with a benefits counselor.
And a benefits counselor is a professional that's qualified to advise individuals -- in this case Matt -- about the impact that work would have on the disability benefits he was receiving -- SSDI. We have two links here if you're interested in learning more about CIS or about benefits counselors. You can find those -- CIS is link number 10 in the Web links pod, and the benefits counselor link is under item number 11. So check those out. You can select those during the webinar if you're interested. 

So, after helping Matt with his résumé and kind of crafting out "What kind of skills do you have?" and potential job leads that would match up for those skills, 
CIS helped Matt practice those interviews -- for those interviews. And all of us get a little bit nervous when we have a goal and we're trying to tell our story
and be able to act in an interview fashion. So this EN really assisted him there, and the career counselor actually advised him about reasonable accommodations along
with his legal rights under the Americans with Disabilities Act. Specifically for Matt, because of the ADA, he had a legal right to reasonable accommodations as
an applicant but also to perform his job duties. And this helped him become more confident about how he was going to be able to make his ask for those reasonable accommodations. So, thinking of the ADA and reasonable accommodations, let's use Matt's story now to explore these two important topics, the ADA and reasonable accommodations.

So, again, it's the 33rd anniversary of the ADA, going back to July 22, 1990. This is when the civil-rights law that prohibits discrimination based on disability was passed. And it prohibits discrimination in a lot of different areas. And the significant point of the ADA is really to enable people to live and work in their communities, specifically, people with disabilities to live and work in their communities like non-disabled individuals do. There are different sections of the ADA, and I'll cover them now, if you're not familiar with them, you know, briefly. Title I protects people in regards to employment. I'm going to talk a little bit more about that in a moment.
Title II of the ADA focuses on state and local governments. And this is like public entities, and this includes things like public transportation. It also includes, if you noticed and tracked this just yesterday, the Department of Justice provided some draft new regulations under Title II. If they would pass, it would increase accessibility requirements to ensure state and local government websites, places where you might apply for, oh, let's say, a driver's license or a fishing license or
something like that, those websites would have to meet higher accessibility standards. So, Title II is actually evolving now 33 years later. And Title III is under a public accommodation, Title III of the ADA. That's things like access to hotels and restaurants, buildings needing ramps or restaurants providing alternative menus, perhaps for somebody who's low-vision or blind.

Title V is telecommunications. That's how we get captioning on the telephone or other communications. In Title V -- I'm sorry -- Title IV is telecommunications, and Title V deals with things like how to file a lawsuit. So, those are the five titles of the ADA, all very important for everyone to know about and to use, and, in this case, for Matt, you know, as I said, Title I focuses on employment, and that's really what we're focused on today. And Title I helps individuals access the same employment opportunities and benefits as individuals without disabilities. So it's important to know that the ADA is not an affirmative action law.
It's just protecting specific rights, and it's not a special benefit. And what it says is, you can't treat people with disabilities differently or worse because of the disability.
In this case, you all should know, you have the same right to apply for jobs, to interview for jobs, and to get hired, and one way of doing that is through the
prohibition of discrimination and access to the tools you need through reasonable accommodation. So, in this case, Matt's counselor informed him he needs to be qualified for jobs, and you have to be able to perform the essential functions of the job. And it entitles qualified applicants and employees to seek those reasonable accommodations, when needed, to have a successful interview experience or to actually perform the essential job functions. So, got to be qualified to do the essential functions with or without reasonable accommodation. In some minor instances, if an undue hardship would be imposed on the employer, then the employer wouldn't have to provide that reasonable accommodation.
That's very rare, because when you think of a lot of these employers, it's not about one team or department's budget for undue hardship, it's the entire company or organization or employer.
And in most cases, undue hardship is not a path to take when, on average, 50% of accommodations don't cost anything, and the 50% that do, now, recent research shows, only costs an average of $300. Pretty hard to prove undue hardship these days. So, that's good news for applicants. It's good news for workers with disabilities who are seeking reasonable accommodations.

Okay. Moving forward with Matt's story. His counselor also let him know that, in general, the job applicant or employee with a disability is responsible for letting the employer know what they need an accommodation for, and that includes these three areas -- participate in application process, perform the essential job functions, and the third is to receive equal benefits and privileges of employment. And this is important. You know, I've mentioned application and the role of the applicant, and that's pretty straightforward.
If you need large print for forms when you're submitting an application, you have to make the request, if you happen to have low vision. As an employee, if you need
screen magnification software to read the information on your monitor, you have to make that request. The third area, if you want access to an employee assistance
program or if you want to attend a company's summer picnic and you're deaf and you need a sign-language interpreter to communicate with others, you need to make the request.
So, in all of these areas, you have the right to make the request, but it is incumbent upon you to do so.

Okay. Let's now cover the definition of disability. And then, after we do this, we're actually going to pause for our first break for questions.
So, it's an important understanding that we should have, who is qualified as an individual with a disability under the Americans with Disabilities Act, and it's what
we call a three-pronged definition. If you're not familiar with it, I'll go through each of the prongs. It deserves the description. The first one focuses on someone
who has a physical or mental impairment that substantially limits one or more major life activities. The second piece is, has a record of such impairment. And the third is being regarded as having such an impairment. And they're kind of nuanced, so let's walk through them. A physical or mental impairment means when an individual has a disability that perhaps makes you approach life and activities in a different way. This could include having a major bodily function, like your endocrine system or breathing or learning, that's done differently.
This includes things, also, like bending, lifting, reading, and concentration. These are major life activities, and if we do them differently because of a physical or mental impairment, then that qualifies as having a disability. The next prong focuses on having a record of such impairment. And so this gets a little different.
This might be something like, when you were in high school, perhaps you are in a psychiatric facility for treatment. And later on, somebody's interviewing you, and you're no longer receiving that treatment, but there's a record of that treatment. You're still qualified as an individual with a disability under the ADA. Another example of having a record of such an impairment is somebody who's had cancer, was treated for cancer -- so, cell generation, which is a major life activity -- it was different than people without cancer. Cancer went into remission. You were cured through treatment. You still have a record of having that disability. You're still covered even though you're living without cancer. And the third prong of the definition is "regarded as." Here, there's a couple of different ways. Like, an individual might have a facial disfigurement.
Well, that individual doesn't necessarily have a disability that rises to impact a major life activity, but society could view them as having a disability, so they're regarded as having such an impairment and covered by the ADA. And I also like to include this, you know, kind of like a watercooler talk, which is unfortunate but a reality, or some employers, there might be co-workers that view individuals as having disabilities, and yet there is no evidence of that, but that employer needs to understand that that's "regarding as others" and puts them at that risk, as well. So, these are the three-pronged definitions. If that was new to you, hopefully, you were able to, you know, add into your knowledge base.
If it was a refresher, then, here on the 33rd anniversary of the ADA, it's good to recommit to understanding these civil-rights protections all begin with that definition.

All right. So, now we've covered -- You know, we met Matt, we covered the Ticket program, and we covered the ADA and connection to reasonable accommodation and the definition. And I know Pat's going to be quite surprised, but we're right on schedule, Pat, and I want to kick it back to you to see if we have any questions coming in.

Pat >> [ Laughs ] Yes, I am surprised -- and pleased. Nice going, Derek. The first question is one we get on many webinars. So, let me just hand you the softball.
Says, "How can I find out whether I receive SSI or SSDI?"

Derek >> Thanks, Pat. This is Derek. Yeah, we do get it a lot, and it's an important one. Because if you're receiving it, then you can qualify for the Ticket Program. We really recommend discussing it with one of our Social Security representatives. And, like, if you want to ask in the chat here, this is a personal question, and we can't  answer those today. So we recommend, if you have questions about your benefits or the type of benefits you're receiving, you call the beneficiary support help line. And we'll say this a couple times, but I'll just mention it here. That toll-free number is 1-800-772-1213 or 1-800-328-0778. This is a Social Security help line that can help you from 8:00 a.m. to 7:00 p.m., Monday through Friday. We'll bring up this resource later on, as well. You can log into My SSA accounts. We're not covering that today, but if you access our WISE on-demand recordings, we frequently cover how to create a my Social Security account, and
if you have one of those, you can also look in there to see if you have -- or, are receiving SSI or SSDI, as well.

Pat >> Thanks, Derek. This is Pat again. One of our questioners noticed that you said that Matt worked with both his state VR agency and an Employment Network, and
they want to know how that really works.

Derek >> Thanks, Pat. This is Derek again. This is a really good question and an important one because when you have access to multiple service providers, you can get the value from them, but we have to kind of work with them consecutively, not at the same time. So you can work with both your state VR agency and with your Employment Network, as Matt did. Normally, what happens is, you work with the state VR agency first. You receive some Vocational Rehabilitation or training. Maybe you want to go back to school to get a degree from your community college that would better position you to be competitive for your career track. That happens, and then your ticket could be transferred from the state VR agency, they close your service over there, and they can transfer it over to an Employment Network who would then provide, perhaps, those ongoing support services -- a job coach -- helping you with reporting your earnings and helping you navigate kind of successful retention of employment. So it is very possible. We look at those as a continuum  of consecutive services, and we call that Partnership Plus. So, many states, you might run into that. In other states, they might not have formal Partnership Plus agreements, but you can still do both -- work with your state VR agency first, then ask them to transfer your ticket when your services close. You'll get the best out of both members of your employment team.

Pat >> Thanks, Derek. Here's a question from someone who says, "What happens after I hopefully get a job? I might have questions about reasonable accommodations that
might work for me or I might need ideas on what might help. Is there somebody I can talk to or who can help me then?"

Derek >> Thanks, Pat. This is Derek again. That's an excellent question. We all evolve, and we all kind of have a lot of different questions to answer along the
pathway to work, so where you're at today, you might not have this question, but tomorrow, you might. The first thing that I'd recommend, if you are receiving
benefits and you're interested in the Ticket Program, is to build your employment team. The Employment Networks can help provide you that support when you want it along that pathway to work and throughout the employment process. So the ENs could actually help answer your questions. You might not want a reasonable accommodation during the application process, and you might start work and find out, "Wow. To do that essential function, one of my main job tasks, the more I do it, the more I realize that I need an accommodation. You know, I can't sit as long as I thought I could to do this task." So then you could go to your EN to talk to them about how to communicate with your employer about making that ask at that point.

So, requesting accommodations, how to do it, communicating with your employer about that, communicating with Social Security and helping report your earnings, as I mentioned. ENs can do all of that. Now, there's also other resources that are out there, and so you could do your own research, and I know most of you like to do research, because we all pick up an Internet browser and start exploring things. If you're going to do that without your VR partner or your EN partner, I would really recommend the Job Accommodation Network. You can explore what they call JAN, and that's at askjan.org. And you can explore over 35 years’ worth of collected resources around individuals with disabilities, reasonable accommodations in all types of settings, sectors, and work tasks. So, askjan.org would be another resource that I'd recommend. And don't worry about that. We all evolve.
Some folks don't have disabilities, and you acquire a disability in the work, and then you have to stop work. And when you go back, you got to ask people. So, put your employment team together and use the Job Accommodation Network. If you like, you can also chat online with the Human Factor specialists at JAN. You could e-mail them, and they have a toll-free number.
It's all confidential, so you can ask all the questions you need to figure out how to best position yourself for the reasonable accommodation process.

Pat >> Thanks, Derek. The next question actually sounds like it's someone who wants to know about reasonable accommodations, but they have an invisible disability.
They say, "My disability isn't that obvious. I'm not able to stand for long periods of time, but you wouldn't know it if you looked at me. What if my employer doesn't believe me when I request an accommodation?"

Derek >> Yes. Thanks, Pat. This is Derek again. Unfortunately, this is not a question that is infrequent one. It's a frequent one. So, whether you call them invisible or non-apparent disabilities, this individual is about it's hard to stand. But the point about non-apparent disabilities, as I prefer to call them, is that, you know, about somewhere around 20% to 25%, 26% of our adult population in the United States has a disability. Seventy-five percent of us have non-apparent or invisible disabilities. So this question represents the majority of people with disabilities, because we can't see them. When it comes to that, you have the same rights as protected by the three-pronged definition of the ADA.
You know, standing is a major life activity. So is bending and lifting in these things. And if you're not able to do that, then you are able to, with protection, request reasonable accommodation.
If somebody doesn't believe you, what I would recommend is going back to the beginning of the request process and making sure that we're asking the right person.
Some companies have employee manuals. Look in the employee manual for tips about who to engage for the reasonable accommodation process. If there isn't really great
training, that supervisor or manager might not be really well-informed, but the human resources point of contact might be the one that would say, "Oh, I understand and confirm.
Are you requesting a reasonable accommodation?" and that would open up a dialogue with a trained member of the company that would not be able to ignore it, like the manager was trying to ignore it. Normally, it's a lack of training. Sometimes it is discrimination. Company would then have to deal with that internally with that manager.
There are so many options. I would also recommend looking at askjan.org. You know, go in there and say, "Well, here is the type of limitation that I have," and then
you'll explore the different options for alternatives. So, is there a way to do that work sitting? Could you potentially have a sit-to-stand desk that would allow for the same task to be done but have multiple standing and sitting options? So, couple things there. First is, find the right point of entry. Go to the person that you think has the right training.
Again, your Employment Network could also assist with that strategy and could also partner with you when talking to the employer. So if you're part of the Ticket Program, consider talking about that with your EN, as well.

Pat>> Wow. That's quite a mouthful of options there, Derek. Thanks. We probably need to move on to the next part of your presentation. I just want to remind folks that we will have another Q&A session in a bit, so if you would please keep those good questions coming, I'd appreciate it. Thank you. Back to you, Derek.

Derek >> This is Derek. Thank you, Pat, and thanks for the questions. Appreciate the different perspectives and trying to dive in more deeply to what folks are
looking for today. Speaking of diving in more deeply, that's what we're going to do now for the next section in looking at reasonable accommodation and what is
reasonable accommodation in more detail. So, on our first slide here for this section, it brings this definition up -- "Reasonable accommodations are changes to a
job, work environment, work schedule, or any other adjustment that makes it possible for an employee with a disability to perform a job for which they are qualified."
I think it's really important, those three things. Let's recall them. Job, the job task, the essential functions that we were talking about. Things that you would see in a job description. Or the work environment. This is, of course, where we're performing the duties of that job. And there might be a barrier to access the area where those essential functions or tasks would be done. Or the third area, the work schedule. And, of course, in this area, we think about needing an adjustment in the schedule or the hours that the work would be performed.

So, while I've been mentioning different types of reasonable accommodations throughout, let's now explore a few more examples, and then we'll see what Matt ended up requesting, as well.
So, on this slide, we have a list of different types of reasonable accommodations. And it's not a comprehensive list, and that's because there's literally thousands of different types of reasonable accommodations that can be made. But we can group them, and so we'll explore the groups, and I'll provide a couple other examples for those groups.
For the first group, we have the modified/flexible work schedule for appointments or breaks. Now, remember, we brought up those three areas. The third one was the schedule -- you know, when work gets done. So, an example here is, perhaps there's an employee who lives with an anxiety disorder, and that individual needs to take some medicine in the morning and might need to have a later start time.

So that's a modified work schedule. That's a reasonable accommodation for a person with a non-apparent disability. And that is a frequently asked question for reasonable accommodation. It doesn't have to be every day of the week. Maybe it changes. Another person might need flex time for some medical appointments. So, perhaps -- I mentioned receiving treatment for cancer earlier. If you're working with cancer, and you need to receive treatment, and you would have a modified work schedule, and perhaps put in a request for "I need to have this day off. Is it possible that I work longer hours these other four days of the week to make up for that lost time?" The next category is working from home. This could be applicable to certain job types. Certainly, it's been more applicable in the last couple years than perhaps ever before. For some people, work from home quite simply allows them to work. There could be people who have significant mobility disabilities.
There could be people that are medically fragile, is a term that's sometimes used. Or individuals who have challenges accessing personal or care attendant services that allow them to exit their home. So, for those individuals, looking for work from home as an employment opportunity could come through the form of
reasonable accommodation. If a job is designated as
potentially hybrid, well, the request could be, "I can do that job, but maybe it can be hybrid. Can I do it from home the entire time? "Next, we have a list of equipment that some of you may be familiar with, different assistive technologies. I spent a great amount of time working in assistive technology centers. Here we have a short list of some sample equipment that can be used to perform essential tasks -- alternative keyboards or a mouse, different type of mice that are out there. If you have accumulative trauma disorder, like a repetitive stress injury from typing or from overuse of a mouse, you could get kind of a claw hand going. There's all sorts of different types of keyboards and mice that are available. Those are reasonable accommodations to change up from the standard designs. Headphones we have here.

If you work in a cubicle environment and have a hard time concentrating. Remember, concentration is a major life activity. If the noise from the cubicle environment is impacting your productivity, you could request headphones that would be noise-canceling headphones. Or if you have kind of a neck injury, you could use those headphones to also be like a headset, multipurpose, that would allow you not to have to hold a telephone up to your head for a long period of time. Screen readers are next. Screen readers assist individuals who are blind to access information by having it read to them by a speech synthesizer.You might experience speech synthesizers on different devices, as well. Well, we have a lot of blind folks to thanks for that, because that's where thetechnology generated back in the'70s.Screenreaders can also helpindividuals who have learningdisabilities, especially somesoftware packages that haveembedded screen readers with thetext on the screen, where people who are dyslexic can split text to have more space between lines and also hear the text read to them.

And last, voice recognition. This is becoming more commonplace, but speech dictation for individuals who are unable to type allows them
to interact with computers for things like e-mails or document creation, but also command and control of the actual computing environment. So, there's a lot of assistive technology out there.This is just a beginning example for you to consider. Next two areas are more about services. For individuals who are deaf, we
have sign-language interpreters. That's a service. Or closed captioning, like we have today being provided during this webinar. Both of those need to be set up in advance through a service schedule that allow individuals who are deaf to access communication and content in a preferred manner. For folks that know American Sign Language, that could be their language of first choice,and so it allows them to communicate more effectively using the interpreter. And last, we have job coaches, readers, or other assistance. A job coach, I mentioned earlier, could help in employment transition and retention, really in understanding sometimes the nuances at work, or communicating with supervisors or colleagues. 
Readers for a blind person. You could have a reader in order to access material that's not available in other formats. But those are some examples of reasonable accommodations. Hopefully, you're familiar with these or you've learned a couple more. Again, there is literally thousands of these. And recall that reasonable accommodations applies to all jobs. The tasks, the environment, and when it happens, too, in the schedule. So if you're interested in exploring the world's best database on reasonable accommodations, check it out online at askjan.org, Job Accommodation Network. I check it out about once a week. There's always good content there, and they're growing their lists of examples and recommendations. I highly recommend them. Okay. So, with those examples in mind, let's check back to Matt. Matt did secure employment. I know that's not a surprise because that's what our success stories are always about. And on the job, Matt's primary means of communication ended upbeing a keyboard.It was a slightly differentkeyboard, but that allowed himto communicate via e-mail.And, really, because he couldread lips, one-on-one meetings could be very productive, but in larger group settings, Matt needed a sign-language interpreter to help him participate fully. And also note that that also allows everyone to participate fully. So a sign-language interpreter wouldn't be needed if everyone knew American Sign Language. So this isn't a burden that Matt was placing. It was creating an environment for everyone to communicate together. So with this in mind, let's now transition to Matt's decision on how he was going to request these reasonable accommodations. And this gets into the topic of disability disclosure. So let's talk about it a little bit. So, disability disclosure can go in a lot of different directions, and I hope to increase your confidence around what is it and your choice to choose to disclose. Let's think about Matt first. As a job seeker who's deaf and needs accommodations, Matt wasn't sure about applying for a job.
Like, "Would it work, or would that employer discriminate and say, 'Mm, you know, we're going to go in a different direction? We've never had a deaf employee before.'" So, at first, because of that mindset, he was reluctant to ask for anything at the beginning of the process. He was wondering, you know, "Would they know about those accommodations?" and whether it would take him out of the running for that job?

So, while Matt has a disability and it becomes obvious or apparent when talking with him, it really isn't known at first and certainly not in the application process. You know, if it's an online submission, nobody would know that he was deaf unless he disclosed it in that application. So that was the first choice if he would disclose that he would need a sign-language interpreter during the interview and then later on, when he was employed, in those larger group meetings. And there would be an opportunity to follow up and request those accommodations later on. So, let's cover this a little bit more. When we think of Matt's situation and we think about disability disclosure, specifically, what is it? For Matt, he knew he wanted to disclose for those specific reasons.
And we'll cover them shortly. But, in general, 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 all the time for a lot of different reasons.
But normally, it comes down to, "I want to be productive." So, if we think of reasonable accommodations really in terms of being the most productive contributor for that employer, then we start to think about this not as a problem but as being an effective solution. We do think about it for different reasons, in terms of the nature of the disability. We have to think, "What's the disability? Is it auditory, sensory, or mobility?" as examples. And then, the limitations that are involved.
"The disability doesn't allow me to do something," okay? "I'm unable to hear, see, or lift." And then how that affects my ability to perform an essential job function or task. What's the gap? 'Cause then we could suggest the reasonable accommodation would close the gap and allow for productivity again. When we think about this, then we say, "Well, do I have to disclose?" And the short answer is no. Disclosure is definitely your choice, and you're not required to disclose when you apply, you're not required to disclose during employment. And if you don't need a specific accommodation, you can choose not to disclose your disability
forever. And that's not only your right, but many people do that. That said, if you do require accommodations or other types of employment supports that will facilitate your success in the application process or on the job, then you're likely going to need to disclose because you're going to ask for a reasonable accommodation.
And if employers receive that, they have the right to require documentation of your disability in order to provide that reasonable accommodation. So, it is your choice, but you may need to come up with a disability disclosure plan that says, "If I require reasonable accommodation, this is what I'm going to do." So you're not caught off guard, and you can do this with your employment team. Remember those ENs or remember going to the Job Accommodation Network or the state VR agencies?
They're all great partners to go through the planning process with.
I recommend a few steps in advanced preparation. Sometimes it can come down to a single sentence. "Can I frame how I would disclose if I want to ask for a reasonable accommodation in a sentence?" "I have this disability that impacts my ability to do this task, and I request a reasonable accommodation of, you know, fill in the blank, in order to allow me to perform that essential job function." That's really easy for me to say. I've been doing this for 28 years. But if you can work with an employment team, you would think about, in advance, how to ask for it.
You would be reminded of your legal protection against discrimination and right to reasonable accommodation and that it would help you reduce your stress and build your self-advocacy skills before asking. Also mention here that, for anapparent disability, it might be different than a non-apparent disability, meaning, if you have an apparent disability, as a wheelchair or scooter user or somebody who's blind that perhaps uses a white cane for navigation, these are apparent disabilities, and you don't really have the ability to choose to disclose them. The employer does have the right, if you have an apparent disability, to ask how you would perform an essential job function with or without reasonable accommodation. So if you have an apparent disability, you may take a slightly different tactic. Many colleagues that I know would have disability pride and come out and say, "You know, I've got my college degree, and I've had this disability for a long time. I know exactly what I need, and I can do this job. This is what I need. Do you have any questions? "And if that employer is not discriminating and looking for a diverse talent pool, they're going to say, "That's a person with confidence, who has the required skill sets. Average cost of accommodation for half of those that cost something like $300? Let's go."
So think about that if it's apparent or non-apparent and use your employment team to prepare. All right. So we're going to dig in a little bit deeper on three reasons you might choose to disclose. Mentioned these throughout, but I just want to reinforce them here. They're listed here, one, to ask for the jobaccommodation.Two, to receive the benefits orprivileges of employment.And, three, to explain anunusual circumstance.So, just to go back throughthose, the first one, to ask for a change in the way you do work, that gets the reasonable accommodation. And we talked about so many of those. To receive the benefits of privileges of employment, let's say there's a training program at work, and you're working there, and you'd like to go to improve your skills, and you need a sign-language interpreter or you need captioning. That would be something that you would need to disclose in order to request the reasonable accommodation. It's not doing your job, it'saccessing that in-service training that's available to alle mployees. That's a benefit of employment as opposed to kind of your medical-type healthcare benefits that are a privilege. It's something that you should consider. You might also disclose to explain an unusual circumstance. Something might be --Maybe there's construction at work and that is causing something in the air to impact your medical condition to worsen. And you can say, "Well, while this construction is going on, I either need to be moved to another office, or I'd like to work from home." And the employer could say, "Well, could you give me documentation from a medical professional that supports that request?" But that's an unusual circumstance. If the construction wasn't happening, you wouldn't be asking that. 
So, remember those three reasons 'cause normally we fall inside one of those when asking for reasonable accommodation and choosing to disclose. All right. We've covered a lot, and here we are at "Making the ask." When we think about making the ask, we have these five different tips about how to do that during the job search. The first one is, consider your timing. Knowing when to disclose your disability and ask for reasonable accommodation, frankly, it can be a little tricky, and it's highly personal. Some people want to let the recruiter know early on in an initial screening while others prefer to kind of wait later into the process or at point of offer or after point of offer. That choice is yours. You need to consider your timing and come up with your plan. 

The second one ask questions about the hiring process. Don't be afraid to get the information you need so you can know what to expect and make your informed decision about disclosure and asking for reasonable accommodation as you go through the process. You can do that if it's a company that has a talent acquisition or recruiting team. That's a bigger business, you can ask them, "Tell me the whole process. I'm here. What are the next stages? Am I going to have an interview with a panel? Will I have several phases of interviews? After the interviews, what happens?" That way, you can plan in advance. The third one, be specific about your needs. And this one is -- it's key. It's up to you about what you require in order to be really at your best productivity --productive self. Sorry about that. To perform the essential job functions optimally is what we all want as workers. And so you will only know, "Do I really need to disclose and ask for those accommodations to perform optimally? Or can I get to a high productivity rate without reasonable accommodation?" Talk to your employment team about that. Have them help you think that through. Number four, frame your request positively. I mentioned this before when an individual was requesting it with pride to turn this around to say, "Yes, I am going to disclose, but I have the skills and the training, and I'm qualified. My reasonable accommodation is, you know, these things, and the reason I need them," in the back of your mind, is because society wasn't designed without barriers.
They didn't design this job or this workplace for everybody, and reasonable accommodation is bridging that gap. And I know if I can have that tool, I can be productive and be part of the mission that that employer is delivering. And the last one, know before the hiring process begins how much you are comfortable sharing. Now, this is that advanced preparation. You don't need to disclose in detail. And share only what's relevant to the success of the position. An employer doesn't have a right to know your diagnosis. An employer only needs to know the specific disability-related condition as it ties to an essential job function, period. So, create the contained information that you're comfortable sharing and have that framed in advance.That will allow you to discuss it with confidence and without divulging information you don't want to share.

All right. So, we have the reasons, and now we have three key tips for requesting reasonable accommodations.
The first one is, keeping it simple. I mentioned you don't have to talk about the diagnosis, but you don't also need to get fancy. You don't have to know the specific language I've used. What you have to do is to say, "In order to perform that function I need something else, and I'd like to have a discussion about that." Well, the employer didn't hear "disability," maybe didn't hear "medical condition," but heard "I'm having trouble doing my job, and I'd like to talk about it." That's very plain language. And that, under the ADA, means you just requested a reasonable accommodation, and the interactive process would begin. It's incumbent upon the employer to handle those next steps. Second, while you don't need to put a reasonable accommodation request in writing -- it's not required under the ADA. All you have to do is verbally ask -- it can help you document your request, and if you are in a position where you're unsure the employer is going to respond to it, we do recommend putting it in writing.That way, it can be more formally reacted to. And last, the third tip, talk to the appropriate people. We mentioned this before. If you ask a supervisor and you're not getting a good response, this might be somebody else in the organization --the human resources representative. Larger employers -- very largest employers now have accommodation teams which you would engage with for your request. It could be an ADA-type coordinator.
And I know some employers that actually now have assistive technology directories where you don't request reasonable accommodation, you just go in the directory, and like you're ordering a new computer, you order assistive technology. Each organization will be different. Research who's the right person to be talking to around making that reasonable accommodation request. Important tip there. All right. So now let's look at what did Matt do? Let's find out. Thanks to the ADA, Matt could consider and request adjustments to the job in the application process. I'll say that again. Thanks to the ADA, that was possible for Matt. Without this legislation 33years ago,this would not behappening for Matt, nor forothers around the country.So Matt and his counseloridentified those accommodationsthat we talked about were essential and could demonstrate that he could offer the employer during the application process, and they agreed to an approach that Matt was going to disclose his disability and request reasonable accommodations. And all of that it made him more comfortable in approaching thatjob. Well, Matt landed first a part-time job. You know, and that part-time position as an administrative assistant, and he was performing those functions at a nonprofit. That nonprofit supported people with developmental disabilities, and he had a variety of administrative assistant tasks. Of equal importance was also his self-confidence grew. And he felt good making a contribution, but he also knew that he had more to offer. So he reconnected. You know, he had this interest in full-time work, and so he reconnected with his Employment Network.

Remember, CIS? Those connections have been going really strong, and CIS heard he wanted full-time work, and the staff there really appreciated his skills and what he brought to the team. And, of course, Matt knew that they could provide reasonable accommodation. They're doing the business of placing people with disabilities into work environments. So when he expressed that desire, it happened they had an opening on their human resources team, and CIS offered him full-time work as a human resources assistant, and Matt was delighted. His path of independence and financial self-sufficiency was being realized starting with part time work in a nonprofit, moving to this Employment Network. 
And he commented, "I am in a supportive environment and a position that works well for me. It feels good to be productive. And now I can afford things I could not have before." So because of the ADA, thos ecivil-rights protections, because of the ADA, Matt could ask for reasonable accommodations, and because of the Ticket Program, Matt was able to transition through part-time to full-time work and feel good about where he is and what he's doing. So, positive experience for Matt. He's thriving now. He traded the SSDI benefit for his paycheck and expresses his satisfaction. And his work gives him the fulfillment and stability to continue building his future. And we hope Matt's career doesn't stop there. We know that he received one promotion since and is doing more work on that human resources team for the Employment Network. So congratulations to Matt and to CIS for seeing the talent that's there. 
Accommodations did enable Matt to be productive, and they enabled that productivity to be with the nonprofit and now with CIS. So there's good on both sides there, for sure. The Ticket program made it possible, and we're proud of that, but Matt made it happen with the right accommodations, and we encourage you to find out the right accommodations that may help you, and to do that, we would like to now focus on what's the next step for you, putting this information together, if you are motivated and interested to move forward. So with that in mind, we cover this notion of choosing work. Like, why choose work? We covered the civil-rights legislation.

We've talked about reasonable accommodation. And if you're sitting there contemplating, "Is this right for me?" we like to say that work works. It's a pretty simple saying, but work does work for people. It gets individuals out of poverty. It gives people the ability to make their own choice. It also, when you have more choice, if you're working and earning than you may have when you're receiving benefits. So that's going to give you some excess money. And, in that sense, work can be great, but it also allows you to attach to a mission. You know, we're working, potentially, with a team. We're collecting a paycheck, and we have a sense of achievement. We could also work inself-employment, deliver aservice, and find that sense ofachievement.So we know that earning, livingthrough employment, is notsomething that everybody can do. That's why the Social Security benefits exist. But it is available for you to consider, like Matt did. Once you understand the services and supports from the program will bring for you and the support they bring for you, then people often decide that the rewards outweigh the risks. And again, today's session hasfocused onreasonableaccommodations and disabilitydisclosure and the theme about"only you can make that choice."Well, the same is here.Choosing work, only you can make that choice, and it's completely up to you to see if that's the right choice for you. We do talk about Matt with the Ticket program and employment team, andsurrounding yourselfwith those team members iscritical.It helped Matt find his pathway.And, in fact, he became anemployee at the very EmploymentNetwork that served him. There are the Employment Networks and the state Vocational Rehabilitation agencies. Let's also mention members of the employment team that could help through the Ticket Program, the Work Incentives and Assistance Projects, or the WIPAs. That's where you access the benefit counselors.They can help you think about the impact work has on your benefits. And the other entity, we call them the PABSS, the Protection and Advocacy for Beneficiaries of Social Security. Those PABSS are really like your legal adviser, if you have any discrimination.

So, all of this is under the Ticket Program. Again, for individuals ages 18 to 64 receiving disability benefits from Social Security and want to work. So, all those employment team members, of course, can help with providing advice around requesting accommodations, job coaching, résumé guidance, interview preparation, and many more services and supports. It's a good option and something for you to consider, for sure. If you're unsure of where to start, we highly recommend reaching out to the Ticket to Work help line. The Ticket to Work Program’s beneficiary support help line has staff -- they're called beneficiary support specialists-- that are there to answer your questions about what benefits you're receiving but also to help you connect into where to start.They can give you a list of Employment Networks. They can point you to other resources to help answer your questions. And you can reach them Monday through Friday, 8:00 a.m. to 8:00 p.m., Eastern time at 1-866-968-7842 or via TTY at 1-866-833-2967. So definitely keep them in mind, and I urge you to reach out. If you're considering choosing work, it's a great place to begin. And with that, it is now time to ask Pat to come back for our second round of questions. Pat?

Pat >> And we do have some, Derek. Let's start. The first one says, "A lot of descriptions for jobs have requirements like the ability to lift 20 pounds or needing to travel a certain amount of time, so I just don't apply for those jobs. Is there some way I can find out if any of these requirements are actually essential to the job or if they may be able to accommodate me if I'm not able to do them?"

Derek >> Thanks, Pat. This is Derek. You know, this is challenging. And I work with employers that list this, and part of the reason they're there is, sometimes job descriptions become outdated. So I'm going to provide several answers because I don't think there's a single answer here. One is, if you really want a job and it lists in there an essential function, but you can do all of the others, I would encourage you to apply and/or speak to the recruiter or the employer about the significance of that bullet in the job description. Perhaps it hasn't been refreshed in years, or, more importantly, perhaps the employer is open to a reasonable accommodation. There is an approach if lifting 20 pounds on a regular basis is required, but it's only required for a small amount of time. What percent of time is it done? And is there a way to switch? If it is an ability to switch with another employee, then that could happen. Or if it's around work schedule switch. I'm familiar with employers that schedule people to work hours that are unable to lift. Those hours happened when the lifting tasks are not available to be done. But say you're receiving a shipment and it only comes in on Tuesdays and Thursdays, your hours could be working around those shipment arrivals. That's one approach I've seen employers take. Another one I've seen is, if the lifting isn't an essential job function, it's a nonessential function, that you could switch. It's a form of reasonable accommodation for a nonessential job function, and so you would take on a task that another employee who can lift would give to you and they would take the lifting. So, there's a couple tactics there. The third piece of this is, if we don't go after the work that we want, then we will never know if we can get it.
Using your employment team with your career plan, your individual work plan in place, you should have pride in who you are and going after the work you want. So if we don't apply and we don't ask, we'll never get to where we want to be. So while we don't know if the answer will be yes, it doesn't hurt to ask, and it doesn't hurt to push those employers to consider. You know, a quarter of our population has disabilities, and a lot of people are unable to lift 20 pounds. Let's rethink how lifting happens, and collectively, we'll see that technology is trying to impact that in a reasonable accommodation, before long, could be available for everybody.

Pat >> Thanks, Derek. Next question is, "I recently applied to work with a food-service company that's also a federal contractor, and they gave me paperwork asking if I have a disability. I didn't think employers were allowed to do that. Can they do that?"

Derek >> Yeah, thanks, Pat. This is a great question, yeah. And, you know, federal contractors represent such a large portion of the employment in the country. Yes, they can do that. It falls under a requirement from section 503 of the Rehabilitation Act. That actually requires federal contractors and, in some cases, subcontractors, all these businesses that are doing work for the federal government, they're required to take affirmative action to recruit, hire, employ, promote, and retain qualified people with disabilities. So, they don't have a choice. If they're not doing it, they're going to get in trouble with the federal government. They would do this. It's called self-identification, which is different than disability disclosure. But they would ask a job candidate, just like you're filling out an application form, at that same time, they would ask you to fill out a self-identification form.

Pat >> What's on the form?

Derek >> Ha! This is Derek. Yeah, so the self-identification, as opposed to disclosure, self-identification is more about a checking of the box. Really like that way of thinking about this. You voluntarily can identify as an individual with a disability by checking a box. So a federal contractor gives you a form, they're mandated to use all of the required content on the form. And then they'll ask you --Basically there's three boxes. You can identify as a person with disability, identify as not being a person with a disability, or choose not to respond. You don't have to identify what the disability is. So that's what the form is about. It's trying to allow the federal government to know, "Is there affirmative action?" meaning, is the federal government watching the way they spend their money? And are the businesses that are receiving payments from the federal government partnering with talent sourcing agencies to interview applicants with disabilities? So, in this case, if a department is working with business, and that business could partner with, oh, let's say, Employment Networks, to get applicants who are beneficiaries that are ticketholders, they would see self-identification rates on those forms go up. Does that help?

Pat >> It does.Thank you. Well, it helps me. Another questioner says, "I have a mental-health condition. What are some accommodations that could help me on the job?"

Derek >> Yeah. So, this is a great question. This is Derek. Mental-health conditions normally are non-apparent, so it goes back to that discussion we had earlier around, if we're going to disclose, how we would do that, and then thinking through that advanced preparation, the types of accommodations -- flexible work schedule, a space, perhaps, where we have the ability to focus on our work. These are a couple examples. Like the noise-canceling headphones and taking breaks. Normally, the recommendations, as you see through askjan.org, the Job Accommodation Network, will look at, like, executive functioning and kind of breakout different types of behaviors or work, and then look at how different forms of mental-health conditions could receive those flexible schedules. Things like depression, anxiety disorder are common in the workforce and impact 90% of us as workers. We either know somebody with a mental-health condition in our family or in our neighborhood or in theworkplace.
So these forms of reasonable accommodation are actually quite common. Specifically, there's so many examples out there. You asked what are some other examples, I would really recommend visiting two organizations -- Mental Health America. You can google them. If you're not connected with them and you're living with a
mental-health condition, it would be a fantastic resource. If you're a service provider or an employer and you're not getting information from Mental Health America, I wouldrecommend that, too. And, of course, the Job Accommodation Network. On both sites, search for "reasonable accommodation," and they've given great advice coming from the community itself. I think that's the key -- what works for people with mental-health conditions? Reasonable accommodation experiences will be listed there.

Pat >> Thanks, Derek. Clearly, the askjan.org is one of the premier organizations that people can turn to for advice, and personal consultation, actually, it sounds like. Unfortunately --

Derek >> Yeah, this is Derek. Absolutely.

Pat >> Go ahead, yeah. Go ahead.

Derek >> Absolutely. Yeah. I mean, they're part of the Department of Labor's technical assistance center to support both business and individuals with disabilities, to kind of bring everyone together. They are a fantastic resource. Just wrap up and say thank you, Pat, for everything, and Happy ADA to everyone for joining us.

Pat >> Happy ADA to you, too, Derek. I know what we've gone through is going to be useful for people, whether they're thinking of working, looking for work, or if they're already working. Now, Derek told you about the Ticket to Work help line. But because this is such an important resource, I'm going to repeat that information. The help line has trained and certified support specialists who can give you information about your personal situation. We can't do that on a national webinar. So please take the time and give them a call at 1-866-968-7842. OR you can reach them via TTY at 1-866-833-2967. The lines are open Monday through Friday, 8:00 to 8:00, Eastern time. You might also want to look at our website at choosework.ssa.gov. You'll find many more details on the website about reasonable accommodations, too. In fact, I did a quick search this morning and found more than articles, blogs, documents that specifically reference reasonable accommodations. If you'd like to learn more about our monthly webinars, think about subscribing to oure-mail updates. That way, you'll find out about each month's topic and be among the first to register. The link will take you to a page where you can sign up. You might also want to subscribe to our Choose Work blog. We blog weekly and share information about the Ticket Program, Work Incentives, service providers, and other topics. And there's still another way to get information about the Ticket Program. You can opt in to receive our text messages. Just text "Ticket" --T-I-C-K-E-T -- to 474747. Standard messaging rates may apply. You can opt out at any time.

It's important to note that if you need to contact Social Security's Office of Employment Support, that's the offices that manages the Ticket to Work Program. Please do it electronically rather than by postal mail. You can e-mail them at support@choosework.ssa.gov. And just a reminder -- please don't include any personally identifiable information, like your Social Security number. And, of course, you can always call the help line. We'd like to have you join us for our next webinar, which is "Five frequently asked questions about working while you receive disability benefits." It'll be on August 23rd, from 3:00 p.m. to 4:30 p.m., Eastern time. Registration is now open at choosework.ssa.gov/wise. Or you can call the Ticket to Work help line to register. 

I'm guessing that many of you are using or would like to use the Internet to look for jobs. We want to make sure you're aware of a program that can help you access the Internet if you need financial help to do that. The program is called the Affordable Connectivity Program, and it's sponsored by the Federal Communications Commission, FCC. That program helps ensure that households can afford the broadband that they need for work, for school, for healthcare, for any number of things. It provides eligible households with a discount on broadband service and connected devices. It provides a discount of up to $30 per month toward the Internet for eligible households and up to $75 a month for homes on qualifying tribal lands. To find out if you're eligible for the program and discover how to apply, go to fcc.gov/acp. Also, it's important to note that individuals who receive SSI
are prequalified for eligibility.

Finally, these webinars are for you. If you have ideas for future webinar topics, let us know. You can provide your feedback by taking our survey. A link will pop up after the webinar, or you can find the survey in the Web links pod or by visiting the Ticket Program website at choosework.ssa.gov/surveys/wise. I want to thank you for taking the time to be with us today. I hope we've given you some information you'll be able to use in your own situation. This concludes today's webinar.