WISE Ticket to Work Webinar
Reasonable Accommodations and the Path to Employment
July 28, 2021

Speakers: Sarah Hyland (Moderator), Ray Cebula & Wendy Strobel Gower (Presenters)

SARAH>> Good afternoon and welcome to today’s Ticket to Work webinar, Reasonable Accommodations and the Path to Employment. My name is Sarah Hyland and I’m a member of the Ticket to Work team, and I will be your moderator for today’s webinar. We are so glad you were able to take time to spend with us today to learn about Social Security’s Ticket to Work Program and how it can help you as you start on the path to financial independence through work. Each of us has our own path to follow and we hope that you can find some information today that will assist you in moving forward on your path to employment and financial independence.

Let’s go ahead and get started by going over some of the functions of the webinar platform so that you can interact and get the most out of today’s webinar. First, 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 microphone or telephone.

All attendees will be muted throughout today’s webinar. Thus, when presented with options to join the audio conference, choose Listen Only which appears at the bottom right in the audio menu. Clicking Listening Only allows the sound to be broadcast through your computer speakers or your headphones. Please make sure that your speakers are turned on or your headphones are plugged in. If you are unable to connect with audio with your computer or you prefer to listen to the webinar by phone, please dial 1-800-832-0736 and enter the access code 4189148#.

Next, we will share some information about webinar accessibility. You may have noticed that the Adobe Connect platform has made some updates since the last time we were together. These updates will not affect today’s webinar, but if you experience any technical difficulties, please use the Q&A pod to send us a message, or you can always email the Ticket to Work email address, which is webinars@choosework.ssa.gov.

On the Adobe Connect platform, you will notice that on your screen there are four boxes. These boxes are called pods. We have the presentation pod, which is where the slides appear. Below that is the closed captioning pod. In the top right-hand corner, you will see the Q&A pod. And below the Q&A pod is the Web Links pod. We will talk about these pods in more detail in just a little bit.

If you need assistance navigating Adobe Connect, an accessibility user guide with a list of controls is available at http://bit.ly/adobe-accessibility. This link is also available in the Web Links pod at the bottom right-hand corner of your screen and will be titled Adobe Accessibility User Guide.

Real-time captioning is available and is displayed in the Captioning pod, which is the box that appears below the slide that is on your screen right now. The captioning can be found in the Web Links pod under the title Closed Captioning.

If you are fluent in ASL and would like support for today’s webinar, follow the link below that provides instructions to connect with an interpreter through the Federal Communications Commission, FCC, Video Relay Service, VRS. The ASL User Guide can also be found in the Web Links pod and is under the title ASL User Guide.

We are here today to answer questions that you may have on the Ticket to Work Program. Please send your questions to us at any time throughout the webinar by typing them into the Q&A pod. We will direct the questions to our speakers during the Q&A portions of our webinar. Today, we will be addressing questions at two different points throughout the presentation. So, please go ahead and send in any questions that you may have. We will do our absolute best to answer as many of them as possible. If you are listening by phone and are not logged into the webinar, you may ask questions by sending an email to Ticket to Work. The email address is webinars@choosework.ssa.gov. 

Another resource available that we think you will find extremely helpful in connecting with the different resources mentioned today is the Web Links pod. You will find that at the bottom right-hand side of your screen. This pod lists all of the links to the resources presented during today’s webinar. To access any of these resources, please highlight the topic you are interested in and would like to connect to, and then select Browse To button at the bottom of the pod. You will then be taken to the website requested.

If you are listening by phone and not logged into the webinar or you don’t have access to the Web Links pod, you can email the Ticket to Work email, being webinars@choosework.ssa.gov, or reference the confirmation email that you received for today’s webinar for a list of available resources. Please also note that SSA cannot guarantee and is not responsible for the accessibility of external websites.

Today’s webinar is being recorded and a copy it will be available within two weeks on the Choose Work website, which can be accessed at http://bit.ly/WISE_OnDemand. This link is also available in the Web Links pod and it is titled WISE Webinar Archives.

We hope that everyone has a great experience on the webinar today, however, if you run into any technical difficulties, please use the Q&A pod to send us a message, or you can email us on the Ticket to Work email address, which is webinars@choosework.ssa.gov. As I mentioned earlier, my name is Sarah Hyland and I am a member of the Ticket to Work team. I’m very excited to be here with you today as your moderator. We are also delighted to have Ray Cebula and Wendy Strobel Gower with us today to share their knowledge of the Ticket to Work Program.

Ray received his law degree from the University of New Hampshire’s Franklin Pierce School of Law. He spent 23 years providing legal services to individuals with disabilities in their interactions with Social Security. He became part of Cornell University’s Work Incentive Support Center in 2000, and in 2005 he joined the staff of Cornell’s Yang-Tan Institute on Employment and Disability where he now serves as the program director of YTI Online, which is Cornell’s work incentive practitioner credentialing program. 

Wendy is the Senior Extension Associate and Program Director at Cornell University’s Yang-Tan Institute on Employment and Disability. She currently leads a diverse team of professionals in the development and testing of innovative approaches to culture change in organizations as it relates to inclusion of people with disabilities. Wendy is the project director for the Northeast ADA Center funded by the National Institute for Disabilities, Independent Living and Rehabilitation Research, and the co-director of the Employer Assistance and Resource Network funded by the Office of Disability Employment Policy. And with that, it is my pleasure to introduce Ray to start us off with the Ticket to Work Program information. Thank you, Ray.

RAY>> Thank you, Sarah. Hello everybody and welcome to today’s webinar. We are going to be discussing lots of good stuff today and I’m really happy to have Wendy with us today to talk about the ADA and reasonable accommodations. Before we do that, we’re going to talk a little bit about the Ticket to Work Program. Then we’ll move into the ADA, the Americans with Disabilities Act. Wendy is going to talk about disclosure, disability disclosure – when that is appropriate, when it is necessary. And then Reasonable Accommodations, and I’ll be back with some Reasonable Accommodations resources for you.

So let’s get quickly into that Ticket to Work, and we’re going to talk about your support that you can receive from the Ticket to Work on your journey to work. 

Two different programs that are administered by the Social Security Administration for folks with disabilities. The first one, as you can see on this slide, is Social Security Disability Insurance program, or SSDI. It is pretty much what it says it is. It’s an insurance program. You buy insurance by having FICA taxes withheld from your wages and, over time, earn enough credits to become insured for disability and retirement. So it’s a double-pronged program – two benefits from that one. 

Supplemental Security Income, the second program, SSI, is a needs-based program, and that is paid to folks that have not worked long enough to be insured or folks who haven’t had the opportunity to work at all. And it is based on a federal maximum benefit. It is a low-income program, so it’s very sensitive to other income and resources that you have. Why am I talking about this? Because you need to know what benefit you receive. The work incentives in both are wonderful; however, SSDI work incentives apply to SSDI, and Supplemental Security Income work incentives apply to SSI. It’s very important that you pick up a notice that you’ve received, create a My Social Security account on Social Security .gov, and figure out what benefit you have. That will get us a step forward real quick.

My Social Security Accounts – I hope most of you have them out there. I know I have one, and I just got my annual notice from Social Security to check it to make sure that my earnings are posted properly and everything looked good. It’s available at SSA.gov/myaccount (one word). You’ll need some information to log in and create an account, but you’ll then be able to tell what benefits you have, how much they are. When I look at mine, it tells me how much I’ll receive if I retire today, if I become disabled today, what types of benefits are available to my family members, and how much I’ll receive if I retire at full retirement age, or even longer than that. A lot of really good information that you’ll need. Even you only have a minimal work history, set up one of these accounts if you’re receiving a benefit. It will help everybody. It will help your planners. It will help your employment networks get the information they need to put information together that’s related to the benefit that you have. 

So, starting your journey to work. This is the sort of the mantra that we want to hear through the entire experience of returning to work. Only you can decide if work is the right choice for you. Benefits planners, state VRs, employment networks, everybody else who’s going to be providing you with support is providing you with information so that you can make a choice. You know, we can present you with ways to test your ability to work; but ultimately, taking a job is your decision.

We hope you’re going to choose work. I hope you’re going to choose work, at least give it a shot. And why should you do that? We know that some people may not be able to earn sufficient amounts to support themselves, and they need benefits. That really – I’m going to speak personally – doesn’t matter to me. If you want to work, working to your maximum capacity still leaves some benefits to you – I think you’re a success story. I think you’re a success story. And you’ll get all of the other benefits that come along with your paycheck. I think once you understand the free services and the free supports that we can provide to you through your Ticket before you start working, you’ll realize that the rewards of taking this journey are going to outweigh the risks. We’re talking about financially being better off. We’re talking about maintaining healthcare in many cases. There’s really nothing to lose. And you know, since these services are voluntary and free, what’s the risk and harm in trying? At least maybe I can convince you to give it a shot. 

What is that Ticket to Work Program? Again, it’s free and voluntary. It’s a program that exists within the Social Security Administration. It was created by the Ticket to Work Act that was signed into law in December of 1999. It’s been around for a while. What can the Ticket offer you? Career development, a career path, get you training so that you can start working; and it’s available to people age 18 through 64 who receive a disability benefit, SSDI or SSI, and want to work. We’ll provide you with everything you need to ultimately come to that decision. Again, we all hope that it is to give work a try. 

That Ticket connects you with free employment services. You might not know what you can do. You may not have an idea about what you want to do. But there are people that can provide you with support services to decide, is working right for me? I don’t’ know what I can do, maybe you can help me prepare for work. I need to finish high school, I would like to get an associate’s degree at a community college, or I need to finish up that advanced degree in order to get a better job. There are providers such as VR agencies and employment networks that can help you find a job. These folks are on the ground in your community, and they know who is hiring and what those jobs entail. Notice this last one is very important: success at work. Once we find a job for you and you begin working, it’s not over yet. We’ll be able to provide you with ongoing, on-the-job supports to make sure you’re able to succeed. We’re not going to leave you at the door of your employers and say “Good luck. Goodbye.” We’re there for the duration, so basically you tell us, “I’ve got it from here, Ray. Leave me alone.” You can learn more about this program – it’s a great program – at https://bit.ly/ttw-program. There’s a web link in the pod that’s available to you to find that as well.

The Ticket to Work Help Line, great place to start. If you don’t know where to start, here’s a phone number for you. There’s really no wrong place to start but this is a good one. It helps verify – look at this – verify your eligibility. If you don’t have a social security account set up yet, what you might want to do is call this number to get some verification. What are you receiving? It still explains to you how this Ticket Program works and answers some basic questions. If your questions go beyond what they should be telling you, they’ll refer you to a benefits planner or an employment network, or to your state agency – state rehab agency. You can call that Ticket to Work Help Line Monday through Friday, 8:00 A.M. to 8:00 P.M. Eastern Time. I’m going to read these numbers to you. 1-866-968-7842 and 1-866-833-2967 for TTY users. 

Okay. We’re going to move now into the Americans with Disabilities Act, otherwise known as the ADA. And I have the great pleasure of introducing Wendy, who is a colleague of mine and a dear friend. I am very happy to be here with her today. Wendy, take it away.

WENDY>> Thanks, Ray. So, we’re going to talk about the Americans with Disabilities Act. You might have noticed that it’s the ADA’s 31st birthday. Two days ago, we celebrated that. So, happy birthday, ADA. Oops, I went the wrong way. I told them I was bad at this. So, we’re going to do our best, people.

Okay. So, most of you probably know that the ADA is a civil rights law for people with disabilities. It really focuses on nondiscrimination in all areas of life. Title I deals with employment. Title II deals with public entities and public transportation. Title III is about public accommodations, so hotels and restaurants, and all the places that you go to purchase services in your community or, you know, get food, all that kind of stuff. Title IV deals with telecommunication. It established the relay line for people with disabilities. And Title V deals with things like protection from retaliation, sets some limits around lawsuits and things like that, and all that really exciting stuff that everybody wants to run to and read.

All right. So, we’re going to talk most about Title I because we’re all here to talk about work. Title I outlines the employment provisions of the ADA, as I said. It helps individuals with disabilities access the same employment opportunities, the benefits of employment as individuals without disabilities. So, this is really where the nondiscrimination comes in. It promises that you will have the same opportunity to apply for positions, the same opportunity to be considered for positions, but no affirmative action. The ADA does not provide any affirmative action that would say because you have a disability, we are giving you preferential treatment. 

So, the other thing that Title I really lays out the requirements and the information about reasonable accommodation and how someone should go about getting those. It outlines things like questions you can and can’t ask in hiring. So, all the details around employment rights and employment responsibilities are outlined in Title I. Okay.

So, the first thing we’re going to talk about is the definition of disability. So, we all know that the ADA has a three-pronged definition of disability. So, you have a physical or mental impairment that substantially limits one or more major life activities, or a major bodily function, such as the functioning of your endocrine system or any of those big bodily systems, if you have a record of such an impairment or if you’re regarded as having such an impairment.

So, I think I’m supposed to tell you that there is this link in the Web pod. So, check out the Ticket to Work blog post “ADAat30: What is the Americans with Disabilities Act?” And I’ll use Ray as my model and read the link to you. It’s https://bit.ly/ADA-blog. How’d I do, Ray?

Okay. I want to mention a resource to you. So, as Sarah mentioned, I work for the Northeast ADA Center, and we cover New York, New Jersey, Puerto Rico, and the U.S. Virgin Islands. But there is an ADA center in every region of the country, and we all kind of work together under this umbrella known as the ADA National Network. It started right in the beginning. So, since the ADA has been around, the ADA National Network has been around. It only took them a year to get us started. And our job is to provide information and guidance to employers and to individuals with disabilities whose rights are protected under the ADA.

So, our stakeholders are anyone who has rights or responsibilities under the ADA. So, we can provide information and guidance. You can call our 1-800 number and speak to a person and ask them questions about the ADA. We provide factsheets and guidebooks and information about the ADA. We can link you to some of the guidance documents that the EEOC provides around employment and explain what those mean. We also do a lot of training and outreach. So, the 800 number is 800-949-4232, or you can visit ADATA.org, that’s the website. And then to get the email, it’s adata.org/email. So, that should be relatively easy.

Okay. So, the next thing we’re going to talk about is disability disclosure. Am I doing that right? Yes. Okay. So, this is letting your employer know that you have a disability. First thing I want to let you know is that disclosing a disability is a choice. It’s a legally-protected choice. So, you’re not required to disclose your disability. You’re not lying if you don’t disclose your disability. You’re just exercising your rights if you choose not to disclose. But there are times when disclosing your disability is a good idea.

So, one of the tenets in Title I of the ADA is that in order to be eligible for an accommodation, you have to have disclosed your disability. You have to tell your employer that “I have a disability and this is why I need this accommodation.” Otherwise, the employer is not expected to know because they can’t assume you have a disability. So, you actually have to say to them, “I have this medical condition or this disability that impacts my ability to do my job.”

You might also tell your employer to receive the benefits of privileges of employment. So, let’s say that your employer is doing a training and you want to go to that, but in order for you to participate you need to have captions. So, you might tell your employer that you have a disability so you can have that accommodation of captioning for the training. It may also be something like the employer has a gym and you want to go to the gym, and so you disclose your disability so that they can have gym equipment that will work for you. There’s a whole lot of different reasons why you might do that.

You might also use it to explain a request for different working conditions. For example, let’s say that the company air conditioner goes out and you have a disability that makes you sensitive to heat. You might go to your employer and say, “Because of a disability that I have that makes me sensitive to heat, I can’t work here when it’s this hot and I have to work at home.” So, in all of those cases, you are saying to your employer, “Because of a disability or medical issue, I need to do something differently,” and that is pretty much what disclosure is. 

So, the ADA says that you can use plain language and disclose a disability verbally. So, going to a manager and saying, “Hi, manager, I need to talk to you about something.” But I will say it’s a really good idea to follow up in writing because then you have documentation that you’ve asked the employer. So, even if you have that conversation with your manager, “Hi, manager, I have this medical condition or disability that makes me need something different at work,” follow up with an email after you get back to your office and say, “As we just discussed,” and say the exact same thing again. That gives you the documentation you need to say I did disclose my disability, they did know, should anything negative occur.

So, one condition of disclosing disability when you’re asking for a reasonable accommodation for some aspect of your work, if your disability is not obvious, let’s say you have a mental health disability or you have a disability like diabetes or any of those not obvious disabilities, your employer can ask for medical documentation. And this is a limited medical information ask; right? It’s not your full history. And the purpose of that documentation is to establish the need for the accommodation and to demonstrate to them that you do, indeed, have a legitimate condition that needs to be accommodated. I hope that makes sense. I can’t see your faces, so I just don’t know. Okay.

Really, when you’re disclosing a disability, keep it simple. Don’t try to use medical terms. You don’t even have to say, “Here’s what my diagnosis is.” You can use plain English and say, “I have this medical thing, a disability, that makes me need a change in my work,” right? But you do want to follow up in writing, as I said. That is very important. I will say it over and over again because it protects you because if the employer ever says, “They did not disclose the disability, I didn’t know they had a disability,” you have that paperwork to back up that you did disclose it and you have the email you can print and say, “I disclosed on this date and here’s what I said.”

Make sure that you are talking to the right people in your organization. You have to talk to what is known as an agent of the employer. So, a supervisor, a manager, an HR representative, a leader, an ADA coordinator. Telling your colleague that you have a disability, someone who is not in a position to do anything with that information doesn’t matter. That is not disclosure. That’s sharing personal information about yourself with a coworker. It has to be someone in a position of authority. So, check out the Ticket to Work blog post, “But You Don’t Look Sick,” to learn more about disclosing a disability. And there’s a link here, that’s bit.ly/invisible-disability, and I bet it’s in the Web Links pod.

All right. So, now we’re going to do a couple of examples. And I don’t know if you have chat capabilities. I’m going to ask Ray to be my guinea pig so I have some interaction. Okay, Ray?

RAY>> I’m with you.

WENDY>> Okay. So, is this disclosure of a disability? “I feel really tired today. I think my allergies are kicking in.”

RAY>> Huh. As somebody who’s severely allergic, I’m going to say it should be, but I don’t think it is.

WENDY>> No. And I’ll say, Ray, this one always gets people because if I – if you said to me, “You know, I’m sorry I left the meeting. I couldn’t breathe and I had to go to the hospital because of my allergies,” that would be a disability. But millions of people have seasonable allergies and most of those don’t rise to the level of disability. So, there’s on expectation that the employer would interpret a statement that’s that benign, “My allergies are kicking in and I’m tired,” to a significant issue in the workplace that needs to be accommodated. Do you see the difference?

RAY>> I certainly do.

WENDY>> All right. Thanks for being my guinea pig. You’re going to do it one more time. 

RAY>> Oh, all right.

WENDY>> Okay. So, “I’m sorry I had to leave the meeting earlier. I had some problems with my insulin.” 

RAY>> Oh, I’m going to say yes to that.

WENDY>> Yay, you’re right, and that one is. So, that is linking an endocrine problem, right, that’s what insulin regulates, with a work issue. You had to leave a meeting. So, that is very clearly a disability disclosure. It might not have been the person’s intent that they were going to disclose through this statement. They were explaining a work problem using medical information, but it’s the same thing. That’s a disability disclosure. If they would have said to their manager, “Manager, sometimes if my blood sugar gets too high or too low, I may need to unexpectedly exit a meeting,” and that would also be disclosure. So, either way that happens, it’s disclosure.

Okay. I think this is still me. So, really, the things that you need to know to have a productive discussion with your employer or potential employer around disability disclosure is what’s going to be hard for you, what are you having difficulty with or what do you expect to have difficulty with because of your disability, medical- or pregnancy-related condition?

Why are these tasks difficult for you? So, what is the functional limitation that makes it difficult? Using the example of heat sensitivity would be an easy one. It’s difficult for you because if you get hot, then you start to lose function in your body, or whatever the end consequence is for you. So, very practically, what’s the problem; right?

So, I’ll make up a different example so we can talk about one. So, let’s say that you need written instructions in order to follow multi-step directions because you have either an intellectual disability or a mental health condition that makes it difficult for you to follow multi-step directions. You would say to your boss, “You know, it’s really hard for me when you do a flyby and say, ‘Could you do this, this, this, and this, and I need you to talk to this person and this person and this person.’ It would be really beneficial to me if we could follow up those flybys with a written request so I make sure that I get everything you need. And the reason that I need this is because I have an intellectual disability that makes it difficult for me to process all of that information at once. So, I will hear one or two things, and I will not hear all of them.” So, just a real practical explanation of what the problem is, what would help, and why; okay?

The recommendations for a potential solution is super helpful. No one knows your disability and the way that you work better than you. So, get in there with your suggestions. I will tell you that the employer will make the ultimate decision as to what gets implemented, but make sure that you put in your vote for what’s going to work for you. All right. So, this is questions and I’ll shut up.

SARAH>> Thank you, Wendy, and thank you, Ray, for kicking us off with the Ticket to Work Program, ADA information, and disability disclosure. As Wendy said, we’re going to pause here for a few minutes and address some of the questions we have received from the audience about the Ticket Program. The first question I have is, “What is the benefit of using the Ticket to Work Program compared to not using it?” And I will direct that to Ray.

RAY>> Okay. You know, there’s absolutely nothing wrong with just finding your own job and going back to work. However, there are lots of services you may miss. If you haven’t worked for a while, you might need help putting your résumé together. You might need some interview practice. And those types of services can be provided when you’re using your Ticket. Again, there’s no cost to you and no one’s saying you have to use your Ticket, but if you do get into that job and you were experiencing some kind of difficulty or, as Wendy said, you need some extra assistance, you’ll have a team behind you who can talk to you, like Wendy did. Let’s talk about what you need to make this work and how we can approach your employer. Or even if it’s just on-the-job supports that don’t require a disability disclosure. So, there are extra services that are available to you to help you get that job and help you keep it if you use the Ticket.

SARAH>> All right. Thank you for that response, Ray. The next question I have is for Wendy. “Wendy, what should I do if my supervisor does not follow up or rejects my medical documentation for accommodations? Who should I talk to?”

WENDY>> Yeah, and that’s a really question because managers don’t always recognize disability disclosure. They’re like, “Oh, that’s too bad,” and then they do nothing else. So, I think an important next step is then to go to HR, human resources, because human resources has to understand the laws that kind of govern how your work works. So, going to the HR and saying, “You know, I spoke to my manager and I said this, and nothing happened, and now I’m coming here. And here’s the email documentation of this request that I made to him, and he didn’t respond. And now I’m coming here to make the same request so that something actually happens.” So, give them your documentation and disclose your disability to them, and ask for specifically what you need to move it forward.

SARAH>> All right. Thank you, Wendy. I have another question for you. “How can I find out who to talk to at my organization about disclosing my disability?”

WENDY>> Well, there’s not too many people to go to; right? It has to be one of those people in a position of power, your manager, your supervisor, a leader at your organization, someone in HR, an ADA coordinator. So, it has to be someone who has the authority to act on your information. A lot of times, if you don’t know where to start, the organization will have policy that kind of lays it out. You want to go and talk to the right person the first time, you can go to your organizational policy on reasonable accommodation and see who it says to go to, but there’s really, just like for a Ticket to Work, there’s no wrong door, there’s no wrong door in disclosing a disability either. Each of those people has an obligation to move it forward. So, you can start with your manager if you’re comfortable with your manager. You can start with HR if you’re worried your manager is going to react negatively. Either of those things are fine.

SARAH>> All right. Thank you, Wendy. I do have another question for you. “Who can help me if I feel I am being discriminated against?”

WENDY>> Well, I hope that doesn’t happen to you. I think a good first step to go to when you do have that kind of negative experience is human resources. They’re the people who are really in the best position to help you and to support you. Now, let’s say that you go to HR and there’s not a lot of resolution around that. I would identify the next step in the chain, so whoever is the boss of that HR person and so on and so forth. Some organizations have an ombudsman that can kind of be a neutral mediator for you.

And if you just want to talk it through with someone and say, “Here’s what happened and I don’t feel good about it and what do you think,” you could call the Job Accommodation Network. You could call the ADA National Network. They don’t know – they’ll only hear your side, but they can just give you, “Here’s what the regs say” or “A good way to approach this might be,” “You can go to your EM or whoever is your Ticket holder” – that’s how I would say it, I think – “and talk it through with them.” But if you actually want action, it’s got to be someone within the organization.

SARAH>> All right. Thank you so much, Wendy. The next question I have is for Ray. “Ray, I had a Ticket to Work years ago. Do Tickets expire and, if so, am I able to get a new Ticket?”

RAY>> Tickets do not expire. You know, they – it’s your choice to use it. So, you can hold onto it as long as you want to. If you have used a ticket, then you’re going to need to take that ticket from the person that holds it and assign it to somebody else, some other agency. So, you get one Ticket per period of disability. And to end a period of disability, you would have had to have been terminated and have another disability started. There has to be a break there. And that ticket, if it’s sitting on the shelf, if you lost it, it doesn’t matter. You don’t need the document. All you need to do is give that 1-800 number that we discussed a call and breathe some life into it.

SARAH>> All right. Thank you for that response, Ray. I have a question for Wendy this time. “Wendy, where can I find a list of questions employers should not ask during the interview process?”

WENDY>> Well, if you really enjoy reading regulations, you can go to the law. The Equal Opportunity Employment Commission – Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, EEOC, has guidance documents that kind of lay out all of the “Okay to ask,” “Not okay to ask,” “When can you ask that,” “What should you not ask in the interview process,” “What can you ask after you offer me a job,” all that kind of stuff. The best place to get that information is from the ADA National Network. So, call that 800 number and they will pull the guidance document for you and they can highlight the parts that you’re worried about. That’s probably the easiest way to get it.

SARAH>> All right. Thank you so much, Wendy. I have another question for you. “Could you clarify. I have a disability and receive benefits. How do I know if I’m eligible for Ticket to Work and how do I get started?” And I apologize, that question is actually for Ray, not you, Wendy. I misread.

WENDY>> I’m very happy about that.

SARAH>> Ray, would you mind taking that question? Thank you.

RAY>> All right. So, we have a disability and we’re looking for a Ticket to Work? When I heard Wendy, I wasn’t paying attention. Can you read that one more time, Sarah?

SARAH>> Yes, you – I tricked you because I said Wendy’s name first. “Ray, could you clarify? I have a disability and receive benefits. How do I know if I’m eligible for Ticket to Work and how do I get started?”

RAY>> Okay. The first thing you need to know is that you need to be between the ages of 18 through 64, and if you’re on that younger side you need to have been determined to be an adult with a disability. If you’re in that age group, you pretty much can be sure you have a Ticket. They are mailing them. Social Security is mailing them to people again, but as I said a little earlier, it’s not necessary that you have the physical ticket. And if you want to find out for sure if you have one and get started on this journey to work, give that number, the 1-800 number from the Help Line, which is in your Web Links pod, a call, 8:00 A.M. to 8:00 P.M. Eastern time, and they’ll get you started.

SARAH>> All right. Thank you, Ray. Wendy, this question is really for you this time. “I have some gaps between my jobs on my résumé. How should I handle explaining them if I want to wait to disclose my disability?”

WENDY>> Yeah, I think that’s a really good question. It’s a reality for a lot of people. I think the most important thing to do is keep the cause short and sweet. You don’t want to go into a lengthy discussion of how you got sick and you had to go in the hospital and then this happened and then that happened. Be very matter of fact and say “I had a medical concern,” or maybe something like, “I wanted to refocus my career.” You know, focus on the positive stuff around the gap that just basically says “I took some time off of work to address a medical issue,” “I took some time off of work to refocus my career,” “I took some time off to work to get some additional training.” You know, whatever it is, just short and sweet. Don’t give them all the gory details.

SARAH>> All right. Wendy, I have another question for you. “Some online applications now ask ‘Do you have a disability’ in the questionnaire. Should I disclose then or wait to speak in person during the interview?”

WENDY>> So, there’s an important distinction here that we need to make. So, organizations that are federal contractors or federal employers will ask you to self-identify of having a disability. That is separate from your application. That is a piece of information that is never given to a hiring manager. It goes to the diversity, equity, and inclusion people and no one sees it. Self-identification is perfectly okay in the context of applying for a job because it’s not tied to you personally. It goes to the company as a data point.

If, however, you are filling out a job application and in the mist of that job application it says, “Do you have a disability,” that’s not cool; right? That’s an illegal question. So, if I were you, I would skip that question. Or if they wouldn’t let you skip it, I would say no and then I would say I wanted to raise an issue, and I would say that “I understand that you want to get someone who’s right for the position, and I appreciate that. I was a little surprised, though, that you asked right in the application whether or not I had a disability because I didn’t think that was allowed, but let me tell you why I’m good for this position.” You know, so kind of spin it away from the illegal question. And then after you fill out the application and you have that discussion with them, you can file a charge in the EEOC and say they’re doing something illegal.

SARAH>> All right, Wendy. Thank you very much. I have one last question in this session for Ray. “Ray, can I only use my Ticket to Work once?”

RAY>> Pretty much, you know, you get one shot at using your Ticket and getting all of the services. That’s not to say that you can’t take a break if you need to, or change providers. If you’re working with an employment network and you’d rather work with VR, you can make those types of changes. But once you have used your Ticket and found a job and have pretty much told us “I’m done, I’m good,” you know, “We don’t need you anymore,” then your Ticket is gone. You know, it’s been successfully used. So, you get one shot with the Ticket. Again, if you have another period of disability, there would be potentially another Ticket.

SARAH>> All right, Ray. Thank you for that thorough answer. And Wendy, yours as well. We do have more questions for both of you which we will address later in the webinar, but we’re going to stop and turn things back over to Wendy who will share information about reasonable accommodations. Wendy, thank you and I appreciate it.

WENDY>> I better unmute myself. That would be helpful. Okay. We’re going to talk about reasonable accommodations really quick here. So, just to go over the definition of reasonable accommodation, reasonable accommodation is any change in the work environment or in the way things that are customarily done that enables an individual with a disability to enjoy equal employment opportunities. So, that’s a very legal definition. That is straight from the law. 

And just so you know, equal opportunity is the opportunity to attain the same level of performance or to enjoy the equal benefits and privileges of employment. Practically, what this means is a reasonable accommodation allows you to approach work in a different way because of a disability issue. So, very simply, it’s a change in the way you work because of your disability; okay? There’s a lot more detail where we’re going to talk about it, but that’s the basics.

So, you can request an accommodation at any stage in the employment process. You can ask for an accommodation when you apply. You can ask for an accommodation during the application – or the hiring process. You can ask for an accommodation to do the essential functions of your position. You can ask for an accommodation after you’ve been there 47 years and never said a word about needing anything, you can ask then. You can ask for an accommodation to get those equal benefits and privileges of employment that we talked about earlier. So, at any point in the employment life cycle, you can say to your employer, “Because of X medical condition or disability, I need – am having trouble with Y job duty and here’s what would work for me.” So, there’s a lot of freedom, I think, for people with disabilities in that.

There are plenty of examples of what’s considered to be reasonable in the accommodations category. You might ask that they put a ramp in and modify facility access so that you can move around the building. For example, you might say, “Wow, these cubicles are really close together and I don’t have room to navigate my wheelchair through these aisles. Do you we could move them a little bit?” You might ask for job restructuring. This could be as easy as job share, where you split a job with another person. It could be removing marginal job functions that aren’t essential to the position. You can ask for flexible scheduling.

You might ask for them to get you a piece of software or a piece of hardware that makes it easier for you to work. Voice-activated software is an excellent example. You might ask for qualified readers or interpreters to help you access the information associated with your job. You might ask for them to modify application or testing procedures during the hiring process, or you might ask them to caption training videos or provide you with an ASL interpreter during training so that you get all the information that you need. So, there are lots of ways that you can change your job so that it works for you, that are considered perfectly reasonable.

So, there are things, though, that are not going to be reasonable and they’re not considered to be reasonable accommodation. So, employers are never required to eliminate essential job functions. And essential job functions are those functions which are considered core to the reason that the job exists. Driving a bus for a bus driver would be a really good example of an essential job function. Answering the phone for someone who’s a receptionist. Interacting with the public for someone in sales and customer service. Those things are why the position exists, so those will never go away. Employers, if they’re doing their job well, have a list of what’s essential in a job function so that you can make decisions about what is and is not possible.

Production standards that are applied to all employees can stand. Employers never have to lower their production standards. They might loosen them for a period of time while you get used to a new accommodation, or during a training period, but once you’ve been there and you have what you need to be successful, if everyone produces 50 widgets, you also have to produce 50 widgets.

Employers don’t have to provide personal use items. So, they don’t have to give you a wheelchair. They don’t have to give you hearing aids. They don’t need to give you a communication device like a Dynavox or other device that would talk for you. Those are medical devices and those are something that you have to get for yourself, however you’re going to do that.

They never have to change your supervisor, and this is a highly contentious one, right, because supervisors play such a big role in people’s success. So, if I say, you know, “I have PTSD and my supervisor reminds me a lot of the reason that I have – of the person who interacted with me who resulted in me having PTSD.” What they might do is ask that you and your supervisor meet over the telephone or have someone else present when you and the supervisor meet together to make you more comfortable. But they don’t have to give you a whole other supervisor. I hope that makes sense. That’s a really kind of difficult one for some people because sometimes we think, “Oh, it would be so much easier if I just had a different boss,” but employers decide that and employees don’t get to.

So, employers never have to excuse a violation of a uniformly applied conduct rule. Let me go over what that means a little bit. So, let’s say that there is a rule in the workplace that – let’s see what’s a good one. This is a hard one. Ray, feel free to jump in if you can think of something I should talk about. Let’s say that there’s a rule in the workplace that anytime you yell or scream at a colleague in front of customers, if that happens, then you will get fired. It’s a 100 percent, can never happen, should never happen rule. And you have a disability where, whether it’s anxiety or a psychiatric disability or an intellectual disability like autism where you may have an outburst, regardless of the disability issue, if it’s a uniformly-applied conduct rule, you can still be fired. I hope that makes sense because it’s a big one. So, there’s no reason that they have to change the rules just because it’s a disability that causes the problem. Okay.

So, the other thing that doesn’t have to change are things that would cause an undue hardship for employers. And undue hardship happens in two ways. First is cost, so something is too expensive. They can’t change it because it’s too expensive. Because most employers have lots of resources, that’s not a route that employers know a lot of times. They might try to go there and someone will say, “Well, here’s how undue financial burden is determined and maybe you don’t want to say that.” If they have good HR, they will say that.

So, instead, they would say, “This would be an undue administrative burden.” Let me explain what that means. Let’s say that you say every day at 3:30 I have to leave the office and go to dialysis, and you work at an office with three other people in the same role. And one person handles all the telephone calls and one person closes the business until the next morning. And then you have the shift that’s, like, 8:00 in the morning until 5:00 at night. And there’s no way that they can get another person to cover your shift. That would be an example of an undue operational burden and they say, “Well, I’m really sorry about that. So, that’s not possible for us to do administratively.” So, your option might be switching your shift with a person who does the later shift or moving your dialysis appointment so that it works within your schedule. But they don’t have to do something that’s going to cause an undue hardship, and that’s a really important thing to note. 

All right. So, I will go onto the next slide. Before I do, there’s a couple other things I want to say about reasonable accommodations. So, I’m going to take a minute and indulge myself. I hope that that’s okay. One thing I think that’s really important to know is that every time you disclose a disability and you ask for a reasonable accommodation, you go through what it known as an interactive process. So, that means that you and your employer have a conversation about what’s difficult and why, what you need support in, what accommodations might work, and what are the operational difficulties that your manager is going to have to overcome.

So, that interactive process involves both of you. So, it starts with disclosure. It may be followed with documenting your disability, if it’s a non-obvious disability. And then the conversation starts about, okay, so based on the information you provided to us, we understand that you can’t use a standard keyboard to enter information into the computer. So, what we’re proposing is that we get voice activation. And then you say, “Well, because of some practicing difficulties, voice activation is also hard for me to use, but I really like letter prediction because it – word prediction software because it lets me minimize my reliance on the keyboard but it also increases my typing pace. And then they say, “Well, you know, we’re okay with that, just make sure you don’t pick the wrong one,” right? So, it’s a process where you guys talk about what’s going to work.

Anytime you go into an employer and you say, “I must have this particular accommodation and no other. It’s the only one that works for me,” you’re kind of putting the employer in a pickle. The employer is the one who decides what accommodation gets put into place. So, I would say you can go ahead and say “I need a different chair and here’s why,” but don’t say, “Here’s the model I picked out and it’s the only one I’m going to take.” So, just be sure that you understand that it’s a discussion, it’s a dialogue, it’s a negotiation. It’s important that everybody goes into it with really good intentions, that you both want to solve a problem so that you can be productive at work. Okay. Thank you for letting me get on my soapbox and talk about that. Now we’ll do the scenario.

Okay. So, Ray, you know you’re my guinea pig, so be prepared to answer. Here’s the scenario. 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 an accommodation of one extra ten-minute break during the day to monitor her condition. Terry’s supervisor now has to fire Terry because she lied during her interview by not telling her about the accommodation. So, Ray, here’s your options. What’s the best option for this example? A, transfer Terry to another job within the firm. B, fire Terry because she failed to inform the employer of an accommodation needed when she was hired. C, begin the interactive process to put a reasonable accommodation in place. Or D, educate supervisors about accommodation rights and responsibilities. What do you think, Ray?

RAY>> All right. 

WENDY>> There may be more than one right answer.

RAY>> Oh, thank you so much. That helps. I’m kind of looking at C as my primary answer, but I like D.

WENDY>> Yes, C and D are the right answers.

RAY>> Yes.

WENDY>> It’s really important to know that Terry did not lie. She exercised a legally-protected choice. So, the manager really has no reason to be upset. He should say, “Terry, great, help me understand what it is you need and when this break would have to occur so that we can negotiate where to put that into your schedule.” A lot of times when it’s a break issue, you can – like, normally, under labor laws, there are mandatory breaks that you have to take during the day. And let’s say that you get one 30-minute lunch and you get two 15-minute breaks. You could break up your two 15-minute breaks into three ten-minute breaks so that you’re not really impacting the schedule. You’re just reworking your schedule to make sure that you get what you need related to your disability. So, yes, Terry’s manager needs some training.

Okay. Let’s go to the next one. Susan is a manager at a large retail chain. Until recently, Ellen, a sales associate, had been a model employee. For the past month, Susan has noticed a change in Ellen’s job performance. First, Ellen lashed out at a coworker when she – where there was a mistake on the cash register. Then she stormed out of the store after she received a text message, leaving the sales floor unintended for a brief period of time. Finally, Ellen insulted a customer who was returning merchandise. Susan and Ellen had 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 issue.

All right. Here’s your options, Ray. A, Susan should have a private performance discussion with Ellen to ask her if she went off her medication. 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 Ellen because she would be at risk of an ADA charge. Or D, Susan should document her suspicions about Ellen’s bipolar disorder along with how her condition seems to be impacting her job performance. So, what do you think?

RAY>> Well, I think there’s only one right answer here and that one is B. 

WENDY>> Yay, Ray wins. Okay. And let me tell you why the other ones are bad. So, managers should never say to someone anything that would imply that the reason they’re having performance issues is because of a disability issue. If the person is not disclosed, what that does is trigger [inaudible] having a disability, which no employer wants to do. So, you always want to start with the performance problem. “So, I noticed that you are having the following performance problem at work. What can you do to help me understand the situation, and is there anything I can do to support you,” is a great way to have any performance discussion with an employee and hopefully what your managers would do with you so that you have, A, an opportunity to explain what’s happening, and B, an opportunity to disclose a disability and discuss a reasonable accommodation, should that be necessary. Okay. I think that is it for me, Ray, and it’s all you.

RAY>> Take myself off mute. Okay. We are going to share some reasonable accommodation resources with you so that you can do some research and spend some time like Wendy and I do all day. The Job Accommodation Network, known as JAN, is truly a wonderful resource. You can get free expert and confidential guidance on workplace accommodations and disability employment issues if you’re a job applicant, an employee, an employer, service providers, family members, or somebody who’s pursuing self-employment. They are really almost a one-stop shop. I mean, they’re really, really good. To reach them, you can reach out to 1-800-526-7234. And if it’s TTY, that’s 1-877-781-9403. They have a great website, AskJAN.org, or you can email and get a response that way at jan@askjan.org. Really, truly a wonderful place.

Ticket to Work and reasonable accommodations. The Ticket to Work is providing you with an option to get all kinds of support services. And the providers, state VR and the employment networks and the workforce employment networks are all there and pretty well-versed in reasonable accommodations. And I know some of us just call Wendy and say, “Well, what about this?”

You can go to their websites, Talking About Disability Disclosure at bit.ly/disability-disclosure-blog. How to Request an Accommodation, bit.ly/accommodations-blog. And the Low and No Cost of – let me do that again. The Low and No Cost of Reasonable Accommodations at bit.ly/accommodations-cost-blog. All of those are great ways. If you’re not really sure you want to talk to anybody yet, explore the websites. It will give you some information and maybe that will lead to discussion with somebody at one of those sites or at JAN to have a fuller discussion about getting ready to request an accommodation.

And I always – this is one of my favorite parts of all of these webinars. Success stories are just really great. Angel suffered from neck and back injuries that he sustained during two tours of duty with the U.S. Air Force. With help from his Ticket Program provider, he received free benefits counseling, information about the work incentives, confidence to transition from benefits to the workplace, and reasonable accommodations to help him succeed.

Now, the important thing is what Angel thought about all of this. He said, “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 accomplishment, all vital for the next step in our lives.” That’s a great testimonial; you know? All of those – some what he’s experienced, some of those are the nonmonetary things that come with work.

And we have Matt today. He was receiving SSDI because of a hearing loss and other medical issues that interfered with consistent employment. He worked with a career counselor to help him prepare a résumé – we mentioned that – identify job leads, practice interview skills – never underestimate practicing interviewing – and to advise him about reasonable accommodations. As a job seeker who is deaf and needs accommodation, he was uncertain about his prospects. At first, he was reluctant to ask for anything from a prospective employer right out of the gate. Matt and his counselor identified the accommodations that were necessary for him, the essential accommodations that he needed to be a success. He demonstrated what he could offer during the application process, something I think Wendy told us about, and agreed to an approach disclosing his disability and requesting accommodations.

His work gives him the fulfillment and stability to continue building the future he envisions. In 2019, he purchased a home, an achievement that seemed so remote for Matt. I love this. This is the key here. The Ticket to Work made it possible. Matt made it happen. You can go into the Web Links pod and see Angel and Matt’s success stories, and there are a bunch of others in there, too, some of them are really, really great. Okay, Sarah, we’re back to you.

SARAH>> All right. Thank you, Ray, and Wendy, of course. We are going to go back and ask some of the questions that we received from the audience right now. The first question I have is for Wendy. Wendy, how long should I expect to wait for a reasonable accommodation request to be addressed?

WENDY>> So, the ADA says expeditiously, but they don’t give a timeframe. So, basically, usually it’s around two weeks but you always expect that the process is moving forward. So, if you disclose your disability, then the employer responds to you in some way within two weeks and says, “Thank you so much for letting us know that you need a reasonable accommodation. We are looking into getting you the forms that you need to fill out us to move this request forward.” And then a week after that, you get the forms. And then that means that you should do something with the forms you got within two weeks and to respond to that to move the process forward again. And then your employer should respond. So, generally speaking, it should be moving along at a smooth rate. If you submit a request and you hear nothing after a month, you should go back to your employer and say, “Um, where are we on this one,” because obviously you’re not performing at your best while you don’t have the accommodation that you need.

SARAH>> All right. Thank you so much, Wendy. The next question I have is for Ray. Ray, how does work affect healthcare coverage?

RAY>> That’s a real good question, and that’s one of the biggest questions that most people have. Healthcare coverage is going to be with you for a very long time. The way Medicare works for the SSDI population, we’re looking at a nine-month trial work period and then a period of seven-and-a-half years where you will have access to Medicare services. If you’re not receiving a benefit, you need to know that that premium can’t be withheld by Social Security, so you’d be responsible for paying that out of pocket. But remember, there’s a lot of money in your pocket before you lose those cash benefits.

On the SSI side, Medicaid is absolutely wonderful. You know, if you have a dollar of SSI, you’re still covered by Medicaid. If you zero out your cash SSI benefit because of earned income, you’re in a status called 1619b where you still get Medicaid benefits at no cost until you earn, in some states, 40,000 or 50,000 dollars a year. After that, if you’ve reached that threshold, you are then in a position, in 45 states, to access a Medicaid buy-in, and you have sliding scale premiums to keep your healthcare.

You know, it’s important to understand with Medicaid, you could be getting a lot of services that aren’t provided by private insurance or Medicare, and they’re very necessary for you to work. So, you have a lot of time before you worry about healthcare. And I usually tell most of the clients I work with, don’t worry about your healthcare yet; worry about becoming the worker that you want to be. And a few years from now, then we can talk about what will happen to healthcare.

SARAH>> Thank you, Ray. The next question I have is for Wendy. Wendy, am I only able to request a certain number of accommodations?

WENDY>> Well, I mean, that’s a really – it’s kind of a weird question. So, I’m trying to think of how best to answer. So, there’s not a limit to how many accommodations that you can ask for. Usually, it’s good to understand what it is that’s the function limitation, what’s getting in the way of you working well, and to ask for that to be addressed in a way that is a package; right? So, you’re not one-off going, “Oh, I need word prediction. Well, I also want a large screen. Well, I also need a different mouse.” While it’s perfectly okay to do that, you’re going to wait a long time to get everything that you need to be successful.

So, if you notice that you’re starting to have trouble interacting with a computer, you can say that, “You know, I have this disability that is a degenerative disability, so it’s impacting a few different things like my vision and the way that my fingers work. So, there’s a couple of things that I need in order to be successful,” and kind of making – giving yourself an opportunity to look at that all at once.

Now, sometimes that’s not going to be possible. Say you address all the computer access needs that you have, but then you find out you also have some medical appointments that you have to go to. You can go and ask a totally separate request that says, “I need to get physical therapy every day at some point. So, I was thinking I would flex my schedule and come in a little earlier so I can leave a little earlier to go to PT.” That can be a totally separate request.

I think the important thing is to take a comprehensive look at what you need to be successful in your job for what you know at the moment and ask for what you need. If things change, then you explain that things have changed and now here’s what you need. But try to think through your whole employment life and what’s going to be impacted. There is absolutely nothing that says you have to go in with that whole list. It’s just easier on you and easier on the company. You don’t have to go through the documentation process every time and you don’t have to go through the negotiation process every time. You can just kind of get it all taken care of. I don’t know if that’s helpful, but that’s what I said.

SARAH>> Wendy, that’s very helpful. Thank you for your response. And I do have another question for you. Can I appeal if an employer declines to provide a specific accommodation if the offered option doesn’t adequately address my needs?

WENDY>> So, the issue that I have I guess with that question is “appeal.” You can go back to your employer and say, “This accommodation isn’t effective for me. It doesn’t work for what we need it to do and here’s why. So, this isn’t effective.” And remember, whatever accommodation the employer puts in place, it has to be effective. So, if it’s not effective, you certainly go back to your employer and say, “This isn’t working and here's why. We need to do something else.” And then the process starts again to find something that is effective. So, it’s not necessarily like you have to formally file any paperwork or anything like that, you just have to let your employer know that the solution that was put in place isn’t working and you need to try something else, and here’s why it didn’t work and here’s what you think might work.

SARAH>> All right, Wendy, thank you very much. The next question I have is going to be for Ray. Ray, I am only able to work part-time. Can the Ticket to Work Program help me find part-time opportunities?

RAY>> That’s another big question. You know, there are lots of people who are in that situation where part-time is either desired because they want to test their ability to work or they are working at their maximum. The Ticket to Work providers, the employment networks, the workforce ENs, and even vocational rehabilitation, are generally looking to see people work at what’s called the substantial gainful activity level. And it may be a little difficult to find an employment network to help you if you’re not able to do that.

The services that you could still receive – you could still receive benefits planning services, which would let you know what’s happening to your benefits and when that’s going to happen. But if there’s – the providers are paid based upon your work activity, and there are certain levels. There are some levels that are payable for part-time work, and it depends on the employment network. You’d have to talk with them about it. I’m not saying it’s not possible. It might be a harder sell.

SARAH>> All right. Thank you, Ray. And I have another question for you. Ray, can employers make you buy your own equipment?

RAY>> Well, they shouldn’t. I mean, it is – if you request an accommodation – let’s use Wendy’s example of a large screen, a large monitor because of a visual impairment. It should be the employer’s responsibility to buy that and provide it. If I look at my own benefits planning history, I may look at that and say, “Well, if the employer provides it, you get it, and that’s great.” But if you pay for it, you know, we can use that as an apparent related work expense to boost the benefits situation. So, you need to discuss with the benefits planner which way is more advantageous. And you may decide to pay for it, but right off the bat, if you need the accommodation, it’s the employer’s responsibility to pay for that screen. That right, Wendy?

WENDY>> Yes, the employer has an obligation to provide a reasonable accommodation, and that is the employer’s responsibility. Yeah.

RAY>> Yep. Thank you.

SARAH>> All right. Thank you both. Unfortunately, we are out of time for questions for today’s webinar. I want to thank the audience for sending in all of your questions. We hope that we provided answers to your questions about the Ticket Program. And, of course, many thanks to Ray and Wendy for being with us today and sharing their knowledge of the Ticket to Work Program. Ray, Wendy, thank you both very much.

RAY>> More than welcome.

WENDY>> Sorry. Couldn’t find mute. You’re welcome.

SARAH>> No worries. Thank you both. All right. If you would like to know more about our monthly WISE Webinars, we encourage you to subscribe in order to find out about our upcoming topics and be amongst the first to register. To learn so much more about the Ticket Program, employment services providers, and other topics, please subscribe to the Choose Work Blog. You’ll get weekly updates sent directly to your inbox. Both of these links can be found at the Web Links pod under WISE Webinar Subscription and Choose Work Blog Subscription.

Social Security’s Ticket to Work Program has a number of service providers and other resources ready to help you get started. To get a list of providers in your area or to get answers to questions that you may have about the Ticket Program and other work incentives, you can contact the Ticket to Work Help Line at 1-866-968-7842 or, for TTY, 1-866-833-2967. That will be available Monday through Friday from 8:00 A.M. to 8:00 P.M. Eastern Time. Or you can visit the Ticket to Work website at ChooseWork.ssa.gov. You can also find us on social media or subscribe to the blog and email updates by visiting ChooseWork.ssa.gov/contact/index.html. This link appears in the Web Links pod under Ticket to Work Contact Information.

To get advice and encouragement, and also read success stories from people who have had success with the hep of the Ticket to Work Program, you can receive text messages. To receive text messages from the Ticket Program, text Ticket – T-I-C-K-E-T – to 474747. Standard messaging rates may apply and you may opt out at any time.

Please join us for our next WISE webinar, Understanding Ticket to Work: How to Help Your Clients and the People You Serve, which will be held on Wednesday, August 25th, 2021 from 3:00 to 4:30 P.M. Eastern Time. Registration is open and we look forward to having you attend. To register online, please go to ChooseWork.ssa.gov/wise, or you can call 1-866-968-7842 or, for TTY, 1-866-833-2967.

Your feedback is very important to us. It helps us plan for future webinars. Please provide your feedback and tell us what you think about today’s webinar by taking our survey. To take the survey, you can follow the link that will pop up at the end of the webinar; or you can also visit the Ticket to Work website to complete the survey. The survey can also be found in the Web Links pod. 

I want to thank you again for attending today and learning about the Ticket to Work Program. Please take this opportunity to reach out to any of the resources we discussed today and take the next step in your career path.

This concludes today's webinar. I hope you have a wonderful evening. Thank you.