Minutes of the Model Employer Meeting with the ENC
July 13, 2011
Present: Owen Doonan, Marie Hennessy, Sandra Copman, DeAnn Elliott, Andrew Forman, Bill Henning, Sandra Borders, Barbara Lybarger, Myra Berloff, Maria Gonzalez, Paul Dietl
In September, the Commonwealth will roll out a mandatory e-learning training program in disability awareness for the 44,000 employees in the Executive Branch. The one-hour interactive program, which can be completed from the desktop for most employees, consists of four modules that are captioned and accessible with JAWS and Dragon. Employees answer a series of questions and can print out a certificate of completion. The training liaison for each agency is responsible for tracking the number of employees who have completed the training in order to meet benchmarks. Managers must complete the E-learning training program before they can participate in a second manager’s course, which will be instructor-led and offered in September. ADA Coordinators will need to complete the E-learning, Manager’s training and the ADA Coordinators training.
On June 10, the Massachusetts Office on Disability offered a training to update ADA Coordinators on recent changes to the law.
Owen asked about ways to assess the amount of material retained, and Paul D. liked the idea of surveying employees 3 years later to see what is remembered. In next two years, the Commonwealth will have a grievance tracking system that will permit managers to track “hot spots.”
The Reasonable Accommodations Capital Reserve Account (RACRA) finished its second year. All 35 requests were honored this year for a total of $114,000 in expenditures. Barbara L. stressed that it is the agency’s responsibility to provide most of the funding for accommodations, but agencies often operate on limited budgets and RACRA funding is available to help bridge the gap when accommodations can be expensive. The fund was enhanced this year by $14,000 in additional funding that came from a source originally designed to provide services to speakers of English as a Second Language that was under-used. The largest expenditure this year was $77,000 for resurfacing a parking lot. 67 percent was for barrier removal. Some was used for transportation (equipment, not services) technology and equipment upgrades, etc.
The application is a simple one-page form and is designed to make it possible for departments to hire and retain employees with disabilities. There were applications this year from new sources, meaning that word is getting out and smaller agencies are seeing it as a way to obtain financial support for their staff. Employers may be more likely to know what they don’t know and seek information from outside sources, which may make it more likely that they will feel comfortable hiring a candidate with a disability. Information on RACRA is available on the website of the Massachusetts Office on Disability under ADA Compliance.
Although the fund met 100% of need and did not become depleted this year, there may be other ways to fund requests when the fund has more requests than can be accommodated. ADA Coordinators are ultimately responsible for ensuring that reasonable accommodations are made. When requests are made late in the year and the fund has already been depleted, more creative solutions are explored to bridge the gap to the next fiscal year.
The Executive Branch had a net loss of 1600 jobs during fiscal year 2011, but managed to maintain a 2.8% rate of employees with disclosed disabilities. Our ability to maintain the disability gains we have made was a critical factor during the various reductions in the workforce for fiscal year 2011. It was also noted that 4.3% of all promotions during the third quarter of fiscal year 2011 were self-identified employees with disabilities.
The Task Force provides tools to new Commissioners to assist in creating an inclusive workplace; since many new hires do not self-identify during the hiring process. HRD encourages agencies to extend the invitation to self-identify at a minimum of twice per year. As on-going developmental opportunities for state ADA Coordinators, the Mass Office on Disability offers monthly conference calls around a disability issue.
Internship programs have no federal stimulus money, but the MRC and MCB are doing internships out-of-pocket. There were 35 internship positions this year, up from 25 last year.
The Dialogue newsletter goes to all state employees. The next issue will focus on the Segway, which is protected by the ADA as a mobility aid and is being promoted by agencies such as the Veteran’s Administration for its usefulness by individuals with spinal cord injuries who may not need a wheelchair but do not have the ability to walk long distances. The Massachusetts Office on Disability recently issued its policy on Segway use in the Commonwealth. There was initially some concern that the Segway would bump into walls in historic buildings, weigh down elevators, or run over people’s feet, but those things don’t happen, especially when operated at a normal walking speed. The ENC is interested in scheduling a tour of the tech lab, which was featured in the last Dialogue newsletter, perhaps later this summer or for the October meeting. DeAnn and Sandra B. will set something up.
DeAnn updated the committee on recent ENC activities. The Vendor Employment Bill (HB 982) will have a hearing on July 19 and seeks to require vendors who compete for multi-year contracts with the Commonwealth to recruit and report on the hiring of PWD as a way of creating some system of accountability and record-keeping. There was a lively discussion about the Supplier Diversity Office and the ENC’s inquiry into ways that self-employment opportunities might be increased through certification of disability-owned businesses in much the same way that minority and women-owned businesses receive certification that can be used as a point of differentiation when competing for state contracts. Barbara, Myra, and Maria had many years of experience working on the issue. Changing the law seems to be legislative and would require an expensive longitudinal study to prove that PWD had been discriminated against under the current system. Since this finding would open the state to some liability, there was not a huge incentive for the state to seek out this information. Sandra C. asked if a university study would be good enough, and members of the Task Force thought probably it was not, unless they accepted the study’s findings as equal to a larger study, which was unlikely. The ENC was advised to consider carefully if this was an area where it could have an impact.
At the recent ENC strategic retreat, there was a desire to form closer ties with the Model Employer Task Force, and committee members agreed to exchange email addresses. The ENC can send announcements to the state’s ADA coordinators, and Barbara L. invited the ENC to send information about the ENC to the MOD for inclusion on their resource page. The ENC offered to post Model Employer news on the ENC website. The ENC and Model Employer Task Force may partner in October for Disability Employment Awareness Month.
Sandra B. brought equipment for a demonstration of the new e-learning module for a demonstration, but the sound was not cooperating. She will set up a time in one of the labs next week for members of the ENC to view it before it goes live.
Members of ENC expressed appreciation for the Task Force’s work in implementing the Plan this year, and members of the Task Force said they appreciated the continuing role of the ENC in implementing the Plan, as it provided insight and kept them working towards their goals.
The meeting was adjourned at noon.
Minutes submitted by DeAnn Elliott, 7/17/11.