CareerACCESS, a community-driven proposed program of reforms to SSI that will provide an alternative benefits program for youth with disabilities, has a new blog that features stories of youth with disabilities across the US and their experience with SSI.

One recent installment is called “Naming Ableism in Our Fight for Career Access” by NCIL Youth Fellow Allie Cannington. Check out Allie’s story below, and read more stories and take action at: www.ourcareeraccess.org/index.php/blog.

October’s Disability Employment Awareness Month may be over, but the struggle for equity and opportunity in the world of employment for people with disabilities continues. With abhorrently high rates of unemployment and poverty amongst the disability community, especially for young adults with disabilities, there are countless complexities to be understood, addressed and challenged by community members, leaders, advocates, and allies. Some of these complexities, as you know, fall within the Social Security disability programs, especially the restrictions under Supplemental Security Income (SSI) benefits. In order for individuals to receive SSI, they must prove that they are “unable to do any substantial gainful activity”. Moreover once individuals receive SSI, they are merely surviving: with somehow balancing financial assistance, health care, personal attendant care and accommodation requirements. Thus, poverty persists. And unfortunately, no matter how many employment efforts exist, transitioning off of SSI often means people with disabilities have even fewer supports in place for survival, let alone self-determination. This is due to the harsh reality that as soon as individuals work more than the capped amount, their benefits are removed. And so, there is this impossible, oppressive bind: even though folks receiving SSI can technically work, they are restricted in earning or saving enough to actually build assets.

So the realities are clear: there are systems in place that facilitate patterns of poverty and unemployment for the disability community. Yet, throughout existing discourse related to advocacy and reform, there is rarely mention of ableism and how SSI’s current state perpetuates ableism. To quickly define ableism: it is the societal dominance and power of able-bodiedness at the expense of people with disabilities. In other terms, ableism is the oppression of and against people with disabilities. When we are advocating for reforms such as CareerACCESS, we must name ableism as a clear reason for needing systematic change. When the disability community faces political, social, and economic injustice, our fight is at a loss when we don’t incorporate analysis, strategy, and action that name ableism. For example, our current Social Security disability programs’ strict requirements regarding who may be “unable to do any substantial gainful activity” perpetuates ableism. In part, this continues ableism because the criteria is based on able bodied terms of “productivity”.  Therefore, if a young person with a disability falls under such criteria, their ability to build assets and develop professionally is significantly limited. This, often arbitrary, measurement can be the determinant for someone’s quality of life and survival (e.g. access to Personal Care Attendants). Ableism further embeds the system because if you are deemed “fit” to work beyond SSI criteria, your benefits will be removed due to the assumption that other assets should cover disability accommodations and other needed supports. This is often untrue. It ignores the inherent diversity of disability and diversity of needed accommodations, especially in our society where ableism runs rampant.

In order to grasp the power of CareerACCESS, we must understand that CareerACCESS strategically disrupts ableism by securing young disabled people their SSI, through an alternative benefits program. This alternative program provides access to professional and personal development. Right now, this is not possible. Young adults with disabilities cannot receive their benefits while also in-depth exploring the world of work and professional development. This opportunity for young adults with disabilities to work and professionally develop, while still receiving their benefits challenges the policy’s ableist measurements. Therefore, the paths created by CareerACCESS facilitate greater opportunity for young adults with disabilities to develop workplace skills, experience and networks that can lead to greater anti-ableist economic equity.

CareerACCESS, a community-driven proposed program of reforms to SSI that will provide an alternative benefits program for youth with disabilities, has a new blog that features stories of youth with disabilities across the US and their experience with SSI.

One recent installment is called “Receiving SSI: Are You Safe? Or Suffocating?” by D’Arcee Neal. Check out D’Arcee’s story below, and read more stories and take action at: www.ourcareeraccess.org/index.php/blog.

Receiving SSI: Are You Safe? Or Suffocating?

By D’Arcee Neal

As I write this blog, I’m sitting in my first office that I’ve been at for almost a year now. Thinking about the path that got me to this place is one that is reminiscent for almost all millennials these days, but I’d add that for those of us with disabilities, the hardship is only magnified by systemic inadequacies and limitless red tape.

Social security is for many, a needed relief to help mitigate circumstances where too little money would put you on the streets, starving. In places like North Carolina where I used to live, it provided me a comfortable moment to breathe after school when I had lost my job. But I have cerebral palsy. I don’t drive. And SSI was making me lazy, and complacent in a place where I knew I could do better. After my first internship with NASA in DC, in a city providing me with autonomous transportation anytime, anywhere, I knew I could never go back to living in a place where I called friends for a ride just to leave the house. After studying abroad in Germany, traveling in Europe and completing my Masters in London, I never had any intention of staying in North Carolina, but for those of us who want to branch out after school, current SSI rules make that all but impossible.

For the next two years and some change, I was unemployed and harder still, I lived in DC, on SSI. Being restricted on income is hard enough without a sufficient work history to support you. But when you’re trying to live and find work in the second most expensive city in America? You learn quickly about what my friends and I call “The Struggle.” I lived off a medium suitcase, and a twin bed in a shared room on the edge of the metro where my rent was 85% of my check, because if you wanted to be mobile in the city, you had no choice. I made $20.00 last two weeks for food and giving up 8 bucks for a Netflix account was my only luxury, because if not, I would’ve went crazy. But SSI was there, and I made it work until I worked enough temp jobs and internships to get myself hired to a corporate position. But without the money to save, I calculated trips, planned out resources and depleted myself of a social life completely. This works for some people, but I knew what I wanted out of my life and being tied to SSI was strangling me emotionally.  [Read more…]

• Wednesday, September 24, 2014; 3:00 – 4:30 p.m. Eastern
• Register online

A growing number of Centers for Independent Living are providing employment services to meet the needs of their customers and to improve the employment and economic advancement outcomes of individuals with disabilities. Join us to learn about findings and tools from a LEAD Center Demonstration Project completed with five Centers for Independent Living, the National Council on Independent Living and the National Association of Workforce Development Professionals to improve collaboration and coordination between the CILs and AJC management and staff.

Target Audience: Workforce Development Professionals, Policy Makers, Individuals with Disabilities and related stakeholders.

Please note: This webinar will be captioned and a link to download the presentation will be sent to registrants prior to the webinar. To request any other reasonable accommodations, please contact Brittany Taylor at [email protected] within 48 hours of the webinar.

• Wednesday, August 27, 2014; 3:00 – 4:30 p.m. Eastern
• Register online

Disability management and prevention is an important component in retaining talented employees and reducing turnover costs. In 2013, the LEAD Center studied a large successful U.S. Corporation to learn about and document effective retention and return-to-work policies and practices. This is a major focus for the U.S. Business Leadership Network as well as the Families and Work Institute, which just published their 2014 National Study of Employers. Join us for a review of lessons learned including:

• Employer retention and return-to-work best practices.
• How workforce professionals can partner with employers to promote employee retention and return to work.
• How to identify employers with policies that support customized employment.
• Target Audience:
• Workforce development professionals, employers, policymakers, individuals and related stakeholders

Please note: This webinar will be captioned and a link to download the presentation will be sent to registrants prior to the webinar. To request any other reasonable accommodations, please contact Brittany Taylor at [email protected] within 48 hours of the webinar.

For Immediate Release
Contact: Anita Howard
July 15, 2014
Phone: (800) 706-2710
[email protected]

WASHINGTON, DC (July 15, 2014) – The US Business Leadership Network^® (USBLN^®) Executive Director Jill Houghton and National Council on Independent Living (NCIL) Executive Director Kelly Buckland have signed a strategic alliance agreement to formalize their mutual collaboration to drive disability inclusion awareness and to advance, improve and expand employment outcomes for individuals with disabilities.

The USBLN is a national 501(c) (3) non-profit, non-partisan business-to-business network that helps business drive performance by leveraging disability inclusion in the workplace, supply chain, and marketplace. The USBLN serves as the collective voice of nearly 50 Business Leadership Network affiliates across the United States, representing over 5,000 businesses. It provides business members with opportunities to network with other businesses and to gain information and valuable resources on disability inclusion practices across the entire business, to enable them to:

• Recruit and retain the best talent regardless of disability;
• Broaden their supplier bases to include diverse supplier groups, such as Disability-Owned Business Enterprises (DOBE^®s), including service-disabled veteran-owned businesses, certified through the USBLN Disability Supplier Diversity Program^® (DSDP), the nation’s leading third party certification program for disability-owned businesses; and
• Increase their companies’ share of diverse established and emerging markets.

“The USBLN alliance with NCIL strengthens our commitment to work together to support the employment and advancement of people with disabilities; the preparedness for work of youth and students with disabilities; marketing to consumers with disabilities; and contracting with suppliers with disabilities through the development and certification of disability-owned businesses. We are confident that our collaboration with NCIL will move the needle forward in working with employers to recognize the value and talent that people with disabilities bring to the workplace, supply chain and marketplace,” stated Jill Houghton, Executive Director, USBLN.

The National Council on Independent Living is the longest-running national cross-disability, grassroots organization run by and for people with disabilities. NCIL represents thousands of organizations and individuals from every state including: individuals with disabilities, Centers for Independent Living (CILs), Statewide Independent Living Councils (SILCs), and other organizations that advocate for the human and civil rights of people with disabilities throughout the United States. There are currently over 700 physical locations across America actively providing Independent Living services to people with disabilities.

“NCIL and USBLN have been discussing this Strategic Alliance for some time and I am very excited to see it become a reality. USBLN is such a strong force in increasing employment for people with disabilities and NCIL is proud to be working with them,” said Kelly Buckland, NCIL Executive Director. To learn more, visit: www.ncil.org.

About the US Business Leadership Network (USBLN)

The US Business Leadership Network (USBLN) is a national non-profit that helps business drive performance by leveraging disability inclusion in the workplace, supply chain, and marketplace. The USBLNserves as the collective voice of nearly 50 Business Leadership Network affiliates across the United States, representing over 5,000 businesses. Additionally, the USBLN Disability Supplier Diversity Program (DSDP) is the nation’s leading third party certification program for disability-owned businesses, including businesses owned by service-disabled veterans. www.usbln.org

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CareerACCESS, a community-driven proposed program of reforms to SSI that will provide an alternative benefits program for youth with disabilities, has launched a new blog that is featuring stories of youth with disabilities across the US and their experience with SSI.

The first installment is called “Uphill Climb: SSI and Finding Employment” by Erin Tatum.

Growing up with cerebral palsy, I always thought of my disability as a set of physical limitations that I had to overcome. Determined to prove that kids with disabilities could do everything that their able-bodied peers could do, I attended mainstream school and never had an aide in class. [Read more…]