Show 06 __ Best Practices for Employment in State Government
In this episode, Tajauna Dunning moderates a presentation by Chris Kuczynski from the United States EEOC, Anthony Fadale, ADA Coordinator for Kansas, and Greg Trapp from the New Mexico Commission for the Blind, on the topic of "State Best Practices for the Employment of People with Disabilities in State Government". The full-length webcast originally aired on January 18, 2006 and can be found at:
State Best Practices Webcast
The Southwest ADA Center Podcast, Show Number Six
(music)
Beth Case: Hello, I'm Beth Case and welcome to the Southwest ADA Center Podcast. In this podcast we bring you selections from the longer webcasts offered by the Southwest ADA Center. Listen to the podcast, then if you want more information, more detail, visit our website at www.ada-podcast.com and there you'll find al ink to the full webcast at the Southwest ADA center.
Today's topic is "State Best Practices for the Employment of People with Disabilities in State Government". The moderator was Tajauna Dunning and the main presenter was Chris Kuczynski, the assistant legal counsel and director of the Americans with Disabilities Act, ADA, policy division at the United States Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, or the EEOC.
Also with him where Anthony Fadale, the ADA Coordinator for the state of Kansas, and Greg Trapp, from the New Mexico Commission for the Blind. Unfortunately, I don't think you're going to hear Tajauna, Anothony, or Greg in the excerpts in this podcast, but of course you can hear then if you visit our website at www.ada-podcast.com for the link to the full webcast.
This show originally boradcast on January 18, 2006.
(music)
Chris Kuczynski: Now, what's in the report? There are five main sections. The first section discusses best practices related to the recruitment and hiring of individuals with disabilities, including efforts in states that made to reach out to disability groups, to individuals with disabilities to employ them in state jobs. The second part discusses ways that the subject states provide reasonable accommodations for qualified employees with disabilities. And although I know that there are many situations that come up with individuals with disabilities that are not reasonable accommodation situations, not everyone needs one, I think that in many respects this is sort of the meat of the report, the section on reasonable accommodation procedures and a lot of stuff state agencies are doing because the willingness to provide a reasonable accommodation and communicating that clearly to people with disabilities is key in, I think, increasing employment opportunities and the willingness of people to apply for jobs.
Part 3 describes what the states have done to ensure that once hired, individuals with disabilities have an equal opportunity for advancement in the workplace.
Part 4 describes state activities that although not designed specifically to create employment opportunities in state government do help to increase the employment of people with disabilities more generally and part of that does have an effect that people with disabilities have more job opportunities generally that may benefit them with respect to employment by the state as well. Part 5 lists some things that we talk about as being areas for further consideration by states. This sets this report apart from the interim report in which the interim report didn't focus on things which were potential barriers. The final report, we told the states, would focus on some of the barriers or some potential barriers, not necessarily illegal things that states are doing, but things that may serve as disincentives for people to apply for state jobs or things that may create problems if they're not properly implemented. And this was the section that we did not identify states associated with particular barriers. We told them that we would not do that, and we haven't done that. we talk just generically about what some of the barriers are and they are barriers that could exist, really, in any state; not just the ones we looked at in connection with this study.
And the conclusion -- there is a conclusion to the report that summarizes some of the most promising trends that we've seen in a couple of areas where we still have some concerns or where more information might be needed or more work might need to be done.
I want to go on to part 1 now. Recruiting and hiring people with disabilities, we looked at a couple of different things that states do with respect to recruiting and hiring. We looked at efforts that states make to recruit people into jobs that exist into the pool of applicants for jobs that exist and are available to the general public. We also looked at some efforts that states have made to hire people with disabilities specifically, for specific kinds of jobs open only to them. Now, in the latter case, those jobs are really job intended to give people training opportunity to learn about certain kinds of work with the ultimate goal of getting into a job that is available generally to people in the general public in state employment. So we're not talking about the second group of jobs for segregated work that goes on forever. We're talking about on-the-job training types of things where people have an opportunity to learn a skill that they can then translate into long term state employment in a job that's generally available.
Now, with respect to recruiting people generally, and to those jobs that are generally available to people who want to work for the state, there are different kinds of strategies, obviously, that states have employed. The state of Maryland, which we talked about in the last webcast, and this may have been mentioned, they have in their office of budget and management a coordinator of special outreach and employment programs. And this is someone who assists agencies throughout the state that fall under the office's jurisdiction. That's most of the agencies in the state of Maryland, assist them in recruiting a diverse workforce, including people with disabilities. I'm excited about an effort in New Mexico that -- and one of the reasons that I'm excited about it is that it is something that has been taken on by the governor of the state. And I think that one theme that we'll see come up over and over again, and it's mentioned in our report, is that efforts that are initiated from the top down have, I think, the greatest success -- the greatest chance of success and evidence the greatest level of commitment by the state. It's one thing for an agency to do something, that's great. But when the governor says go out and do this, it's going to happen. And I hope my colleague from New Mexico will talk a little bit about this, but governor Bill Richardson established an executive task force on disability employment, and what that's going to do is look at -- it's, first of all, a recognition that we can do better in the state than we're doing in terms of -- and this could be said of every state that we looked at. Indeed, the federal government. We could be doing better. We're going to look at certain things that may be barriers to employment to enable, and this commitment comes right from the governor, to enable people with disabilities to be recruited and hired at a greater percentage than they currently are. And New Mexico has some other initiatives as well.
In Vermont, this may seem like a relatively small anything, but it's important, again, because it comes from the governor. Governor Jim Douglas took the time in 2004 in connection with Disability Mentoring Day to record a series of public service announcements that specifically promote the idea that people with disabilities should apply for jobs with the state. This is important when the governor says that we are welcoming people with disabilities into our state work force.
Vermont also does something kind of interesting. They have a -- they offer a mandatory interview to people with disabilities with qualifying -- that is ADA disabilities -- who express an interest in a job. They'll allow them to have what's called a mandatory interview for that position. Not a guarantee that they'll be hired, but certainly an opportunity to be considered.
And the last thing I wanted to note with respect to hiring for jobs generally available, is that Washington State's affirmative action program specifically includes individuals with disabilities. Again, how significant is that? I think it's quite significant because I think that things are changing with respect to how we think about affirmative action, how we think about diversity. To be honest about it, I think until quite recently those issues were seen as primarily being about race, gender and ethnicity. More recently, we're hearing more things about religious diversity in the workplace and disability is really becoming a part of the discussion that we're having about affirmative action and about diversity and it's significant that Washington's program includes a reference to disability because it means that the state then is going to take certain actions to try to increase the pool of qualified applicants with disabilities for state jobs.
I just wanted to note with respect to jobs specifically designed for people with disabilities, that Washington and Vermont, it's noted in the report, have programs like these. And the only thing that -- at least they specifically reported them to us and other states may have them as well -- but what's significant about them is, again, that these are jobs that ultimately are to lead to full, stable employment in state jobs and mainstream employment within the state; not situations where somebody is expected to work in these jobs forever and ever when they are with the state.
Let me talk about job announcements, job applications because what job announcements and job applications have to say about the job may have an impact on whether people with disabilities will apply for work with the state. If a job is defined in such a way, for example, as to make a physical requirement -- you know, let's say it says the applicant must be able to communicate orally -- make oral presentations. Well, that could have an effect on someone who is deaf and who uses sign language who may be disinclined to apply for that position. Other ways that jobs define their functions in terms of certain physical characteristics may get in the way as well. In precision of identifying essential and marginal functions could be a problem. States -- you need to make these distinctions because marginal functions are functions that people with disabilities are not required to be able to perform in order to be considered qualified. So it's really critical that job announcements, job descriptions, applications carefully delineate what the actual and the requirements of the job are.
Several states reported on the efforts they made to identify essential and marginal functions, and I won't say too much about that beyond what I've said, except to say that we've seen examples of that in the state of Kansas. We've seen examples of what states do with respect to Florida, with respect to Utah, other states have done it as well. They take specific kinds of measures, but I think that the more important than the specific measures that they undertake is really the fact that they are making significant efforts to really get supervisors and managers and people who know about these jobs to carefully identify what the requirements are so that they're not screening out people unnecessarily because there is some marginal function that's been misclassified as essential. So that's very important.
The availability of reasonable accommodation, and making that known to job applicants, is critical. If an applicant knows that accommodations will be provided, that person is more likely to apply for a position than if there is no notice of the availability of accommodations. It's important that the -- whatever information is communicated about the availability of accommodations, both for the application process and on the job, is communicated somewhere prominently on the job application. Florida's employment application states at the top of the form that applicants can notify an agency's hiring authority to request accommodations. The Kansas employment application clearly announces the state's obligation to provide reasonable accommodations to applicants and gives a telephone number for requesting accommodations. Very important, provide information -- it's important to provide information not only that accommodations will be provided, but how does the applicant know to whom the request should be made? So part of that -- part of the advertisement for the job or the announcement of the job, if it's going to include information about the availability of accommodations, needs -- and it should -- needs to include information about who to contact. Missouri -- the state of Missouri public defender's office informs applicants that if they need assistance with any phase of the application process, they should notify the human resources director. That's another way that a state has handled it. So providing both a clear statement of the availability of reasonable accommodation and clear information about a contact person who can provide applications for the application -- provide accommodations for the application process. Very important.
The last thing I wanted to talk about with respect to recruiting and hiring, very quickly, is that one of our observations in the report is that there seems to be an adequate amount of training -- more than adequate amount of training made available. I won't do through what specific of what states are doing, but they are providing a lot of training to supervisors, managers, to anyone involved in the recruitment process concerning the job interview process, reasonable accommodations for the application process, and specifically with respect to interviewing, there are certain questions that people are not allowed to ask about one's disability during the application process. It seems as if people involved in the interviewing and recruiting process are aware of these kinds of rules and others because of the availability of training. And I guess the last point that I would mention has to do with providing mentoring, mentoring programs. Two states, Maryland and Vermont, specifically -- many of the states participated in international Disability Mentoring Day, but two states specifically Maryland and Vermont told us that part of their mentoring experience on Disability Mentoring Day are specific workshops or other specific activities that are designed to introduce people with disabilities to state employment.
I think part 2 is -- although it's not the -- certainly recruiting and hiring is very important, and equally as important I think are what states are doing with respect to providing reasonable accommodations for applicants and employees with disabilities. And the first thing that we do in this section is we set out four -- what appear to be four models that we have seen emerge in the states for how they go about providing reasonable accommodations, the procedures specifically that they use.
One model is -- and it occurred to me in looking over my notes just before this teleconference that maybe one of the reasons it works Dick particularly well is because of the small size of the workforce in Vermont. In Vermont's procedures, they are statewide procedures. There is a statewide policy with attending procedures that apply to all agencies within the state. And that may make sense in a state where there are about 8,000 employees. And there is a chart in the back of the report that shows the approximate number of employees in each state. You know, so maybe that's the type of -- set of procedures, a very centralized process that is appropriate for a smaller state. Maybe it's appropriate for a larger state as well, but it struck me that the smallest of the states that I think we surveyed in terms of workforce have that kind of centralized policy.
Other states do something a little bit different. The state of Washington has something that is similar to what I think the federal government does. Agencies have adopted their own procedures, but they are subject to review by the state. We do something like that. Federal agencies develop their procedures and EEOC reviews them and provides input on them.
The third kind of -- the third type of procedure is there is no centralized system, and there is no -- there is no requirement for submission to some sort of statewide body that would review them, but two states, Florida and Kansas, have individual agencies that have the discretion to adopt their own procedures and have a fair amount of flexibility, it's my understanding, and perhaps Anthony will correct me if I'm wrong, to create procedures that work for their states. They are not necessarily subject to review by the states, although it is possible, I suppose, that in these cases that the agencies that need assistance could get assistance on, say, from a state ADA coordinator in putting their procedures together.
And the fourth model is what Utah employs. There is no specific set of procedures to live by, but there is a lot of training and there is a very centralized -- there is a sort of centralized process for providing accommodations in the sense that the accommodations go through the state ADA -- the various ADA coordinators. They are charged -- they are the ones who handle, rather than the individual supervisor, manager or individual office, the ADA coordinators for the various agencies handle all aspects related to the requests and people are educated and trained that if they get a request, it goes to the ADA coordinator. So four somewhat different models.
I want to focus on section 4 just to pull out a few things from that section. What other kinds of things are states doing? I think that some of the things that states are doing to promote employment generally, and not just in state government, some of the ones that are significant are things had a happen at the executive level, the level of the governor or at the legislative level. For example, in the legislature in Florida created a new agency in 2004 called the agency for persons with disabilities. Now, it's particular focus is on individuals with developmental disabilities in particular, but that sends a message, again, from the top, from the legislature that this is an important issue.
Likewise, there have been a number of executive task forces created in Florida and elsewhere. In Maryland, the legislation in Maryland elevated the office on disability to cabinet level status. I think that's very important that when you have an office in your state that reports directly to the governor, that has direct access, is accountable directly to the governor of Florida dealing with disabilities issues, that sends a message that this is a -- that disability issues are a priority, a cabinet level priority for this state. I think that's tremendously important, and governor Ehrlich of Maryland was recognized with a -- one of chair Dominguez and EEOC's freedom to compete award because of the recognition that this office has tremendous -- this is an award established last year, and I think this has recognized that it has a tremendous effort to raise the profile of disability issues and getting things done in Maryland.
There are -- perhaps Greg can talk for a moment or two about the New Mexico use act and changes to it that are reported in our report. Some other things that I think states are doing that are significant in terms of promoting employment more generally around technological issues. Three states, Florida, Kansas and New Hampshire, reported to us that they have a commitment statewide to make their state websites compliant with federal -- with standards that govern the federal government. Under Section 508 of The Rehabilitation Act, federal governments need to make their electronic and information technology, including their websites, readily accessible to and usable by individuals with disabilities. Those standards don't apply to the states, but the fact that at least three states have taken on that responsibility and said we want to step up and provide that level of access is significant. And I want to note here that according to a Brown University study, that the state of Kansas was ranked second among states in the accessibility of -- the number of accessible websites it has. New Hampshire was ranked fourth. And again, Florida has made the same commitment, you but I think it's very significant, access to state websites means that more people looking for state jobs who have disabilities will be able to find them. It means that people will have access to more information from the state concerning their rights and responsibilities as individuals with disabilities concerning services related to employment that the states may provide, concerning a whole array of things that may have an impact on their employment prospects.
We learned from the state of Maryland about an internship program that it has in which the quest program that pairs students with state agencies for the purpose of getting internship training. According to information that they receive a stipend for the period of internship. They receive the training that is provided by their work with the state agencies, and they are being prepared for jobs in both state and -- state and other public services. State and local governments or for the private sector. At least 50 percent of quest interns so far who have obtained full-time employment in either the state or in the private sector.
I want to mention just a couple of other things. Very quickly, there are things that states are doing to try to reduce disincentives to work. When people are in danger of losing benefits, losing all of their benefits if they earn even a small amount of money, that can prove a disincentive to work. The Florida freedom initiative is a program that allows individuals to earn more than they would normally be permitted to earn and still receive their -- certain disability benefits that they receive from the federal government. Likewise, in Vermont, they are involved in a pilot program where instead of losing all of one's SSDI or SSI benefits after a certain threshold is reached in terms of earnings, there would be a one to two reduction, a one dollar reduction for every two dollars earned above the federal limit. So there wouldn't be what is sometimes called the cash cliff, but it would be where the person once they are earning enough money, loses all benefits, but rather they would lose only a portion there and is thought that this might -- and it would also allow them to keep certain other kinds of benefits. This is thought that this may help to reduce the disincentives to work that some people with disabilities face.
And New Mexico -- and I think that this is the last -- well, I'll mention two other things. New Mexico has a Medicaid buy-in program for individuals who earned more than would -- if I have this wrong, I'm sure Greg will correct me -- more than they would normally be able to earn and still receive Medicaid benefits. They can earn more and then buy into the Medicaid program. And, again, it's thought that this will help to reduce disincentives to work by reducing the fear that medical benefits will be lost when someone goes back to work and leaves the benefit roles.
The last thing are Vermont and Maryland -- you know, the Workforce Investment Act established these one-stop career centers that are available to everyone, available at the community level. They are through a grant with the Department of Labor. Vermont and Maryland have had disability navigator programs, individuals who are available at one-stop centers who can help people with disabilities literally navigate or get around the workforce investment system, the one-stop system and can assist people in making -- perhaps making connections with businesses that have needs that fit their interests and skills of the particular individual with a disability. And that's, again, funded through a labor department grant.
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Beth: As always, there's a lot more good information in the full webcast, and you can find the link to that on our website, www.ada-podcast.com. Until next time, I'm Beth Case with the Southwest ADA Center Podcast.
The Southwest ADA Center is a program of Independent Living Research Utilization at TIRR - Memorial Hermann in Houston, Texas, and is funded by the National Institute on Disability and Rehabilitation Research. If you have questions about disability law or would like to request materials or training, please call 1-800-949-4232. The Southwest ADA Center Podcast is protected by the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial No-Derivative-Works 2.5 License. For more information and transcripts, visit www.ada-podcast.com.
(music)
Beth Case: Hello, I'm Beth Case and welcome to the Southwest ADA Center Podcast. In this podcast we bring you selections from the longer webcasts offered by the Southwest ADA Center. Listen to the podcast, then if you want more information, more detail, visit our website at www.ada-podcast.com and there you'll find al ink to the full webcast at the Southwest ADA center.
Today's topic is "State Best Practices for the Employment of People with Disabilities in State Government". The moderator was Tajauna Dunning and the main presenter was Chris Kuczynski, the assistant legal counsel and director of the Americans with Disabilities Act, ADA, policy division at the United States Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, or the EEOC.
Also with him where Anthony Fadale, the ADA Coordinator for the state of Kansas, and Greg Trapp, from the New Mexico Commission for the Blind. Unfortunately, I don't think you're going to hear Tajauna, Anothony, or Greg in the excerpts in this podcast, but of course you can hear then if you visit our website at www.ada-podcast.com for the link to the full webcast.
This show originally boradcast on January 18, 2006.
(music)
Chris Kuczynski: Now, what's in the report? There are five main sections. The first section discusses best practices related to the recruitment and hiring of individuals with disabilities, including efforts in states that made to reach out to disability groups, to individuals with disabilities to employ them in state jobs. The second part discusses ways that the subject states provide reasonable accommodations for qualified employees with disabilities. And although I know that there are many situations that come up with individuals with disabilities that are not reasonable accommodation situations, not everyone needs one, I think that in many respects this is sort of the meat of the report, the section on reasonable accommodation procedures and a lot of stuff state agencies are doing because the willingness to provide a reasonable accommodation and communicating that clearly to people with disabilities is key in, I think, increasing employment opportunities and the willingness of people to apply for jobs.
Part 3 describes what the states have done to ensure that once hired, individuals with disabilities have an equal opportunity for advancement in the workplace.
Part 4 describes state activities that although not designed specifically to create employment opportunities in state government do help to increase the employment of people with disabilities more generally and part of that does have an effect that people with disabilities have more job opportunities generally that may benefit them with respect to employment by the state as well. Part 5 lists some things that we talk about as being areas for further consideration by states. This sets this report apart from the interim report in which the interim report didn't focus on things which were potential barriers. The final report, we told the states, would focus on some of the barriers or some potential barriers, not necessarily illegal things that states are doing, but things that may serve as disincentives for people to apply for state jobs or things that may create problems if they're not properly implemented. And this was the section that we did not identify states associated with particular barriers. We told them that we would not do that, and we haven't done that. we talk just generically about what some of the barriers are and they are barriers that could exist, really, in any state; not just the ones we looked at in connection with this study.
And the conclusion -- there is a conclusion to the report that summarizes some of the most promising trends that we've seen in a couple of areas where we still have some concerns or where more information might be needed or more work might need to be done.
I want to go on to part 1 now. Recruiting and hiring people with disabilities, we looked at a couple of different things that states do with respect to recruiting and hiring. We looked at efforts that states make to recruit people into jobs that exist into the pool of applicants for jobs that exist and are available to the general public. We also looked at some efforts that states have made to hire people with disabilities specifically, for specific kinds of jobs open only to them. Now, in the latter case, those jobs are really job intended to give people training opportunity to learn about certain kinds of work with the ultimate goal of getting into a job that is available generally to people in the general public in state employment. So we're not talking about the second group of jobs for segregated work that goes on forever. We're talking about on-the-job training types of things where people have an opportunity to learn a skill that they can then translate into long term state employment in a job that's generally available.
Now, with respect to recruiting people generally, and to those jobs that are generally available to people who want to work for the state, there are different kinds of strategies, obviously, that states have employed. The state of Maryland, which we talked about in the last webcast, and this may have been mentioned, they have in their office of budget and management a coordinator of special outreach and employment programs. And this is someone who assists agencies throughout the state that fall under the office's jurisdiction. That's most of the agencies in the state of Maryland, assist them in recruiting a diverse workforce, including people with disabilities. I'm excited about an effort in New Mexico that -- and one of the reasons that I'm excited about it is that it is something that has been taken on by the governor of the state. And I think that one theme that we'll see come up over and over again, and it's mentioned in our report, is that efforts that are initiated from the top down have, I think, the greatest success -- the greatest chance of success and evidence the greatest level of commitment by the state. It's one thing for an agency to do something, that's great. But when the governor says go out and do this, it's going to happen. And I hope my colleague from New Mexico will talk a little bit about this, but governor Bill Richardson established an executive task force on disability employment, and what that's going to do is look at -- it's, first of all, a recognition that we can do better in the state than we're doing in terms of -- and this could be said of every state that we looked at. Indeed, the federal government. We could be doing better. We're going to look at certain things that may be barriers to employment to enable, and this commitment comes right from the governor, to enable people with disabilities to be recruited and hired at a greater percentage than they currently are. And New Mexico has some other initiatives as well.
In Vermont, this may seem like a relatively small anything, but it's important, again, because it comes from the governor. Governor Jim Douglas took the time in 2004 in connection with Disability Mentoring Day to record a series of public service announcements that specifically promote the idea that people with disabilities should apply for jobs with the state. This is important when the governor says that we are welcoming people with disabilities into our state work force.
Vermont also does something kind of interesting. They have a -- they offer a mandatory interview to people with disabilities with qualifying -- that is ADA disabilities -- who express an interest in a job. They'll allow them to have what's called a mandatory interview for that position. Not a guarantee that they'll be hired, but certainly an opportunity to be considered.
And the last thing I wanted to note with respect to hiring for jobs generally available, is that Washington State's affirmative action program specifically includes individuals with disabilities. Again, how significant is that? I think it's quite significant because I think that things are changing with respect to how we think about affirmative action, how we think about diversity. To be honest about it, I think until quite recently those issues were seen as primarily being about race, gender and ethnicity. More recently, we're hearing more things about religious diversity in the workplace and disability is really becoming a part of the discussion that we're having about affirmative action and about diversity and it's significant that Washington's program includes a reference to disability because it means that the state then is going to take certain actions to try to increase the pool of qualified applicants with disabilities for state jobs.
I just wanted to note with respect to jobs specifically designed for people with disabilities, that Washington and Vermont, it's noted in the report, have programs like these. And the only thing that -- at least they specifically reported them to us and other states may have them as well -- but what's significant about them is, again, that these are jobs that ultimately are to lead to full, stable employment in state jobs and mainstream employment within the state; not situations where somebody is expected to work in these jobs forever and ever when they are with the state.
Let me talk about job announcements, job applications because what job announcements and job applications have to say about the job may have an impact on whether people with disabilities will apply for work with the state. If a job is defined in such a way, for example, as to make a physical requirement -- you know, let's say it says the applicant must be able to communicate orally -- make oral presentations. Well, that could have an effect on someone who is deaf and who uses sign language who may be disinclined to apply for that position. Other ways that jobs define their functions in terms of certain physical characteristics may get in the way as well. In precision of identifying essential and marginal functions could be a problem. States -- you need to make these distinctions because marginal functions are functions that people with disabilities are not required to be able to perform in order to be considered qualified. So it's really critical that job announcements, job descriptions, applications carefully delineate what the actual and the requirements of the job are.
Several states reported on the efforts they made to identify essential and marginal functions, and I won't say too much about that beyond what I've said, except to say that we've seen examples of that in the state of Kansas. We've seen examples of what states do with respect to Florida, with respect to Utah, other states have done it as well. They take specific kinds of measures, but I think that the more important than the specific measures that they undertake is really the fact that they are making significant efforts to really get supervisors and managers and people who know about these jobs to carefully identify what the requirements are so that they're not screening out people unnecessarily because there is some marginal function that's been misclassified as essential. So that's very important.
The availability of reasonable accommodation, and making that known to job applicants, is critical. If an applicant knows that accommodations will be provided, that person is more likely to apply for a position than if there is no notice of the availability of accommodations. It's important that the -- whatever information is communicated about the availability of accommodations, both for the application process and on the job, is communicated somewhere prominently on the job application. Florida's employment application states at the top of the form that applicants can notify an agency's hiring authority to request accommodations. The Kansas employment application clearly announces the state's obligation to provide reasonable accommodations to applicants and gives a telephone number for requesting accommodations. Very important, provide information -- it's important to provide information not only that accommodations will be provided, but how does the applicant know to whom the request should be made? So part of that -- part of the advertisement for the job or the announcement of the job, if it's going to include information about the availability of accommodations, needs -- and it should -- needs to include information about who to contact. Missouri -- the state of Missouri public defender's office informs applicants that if they need assistance with any phase of the application process, they should notify the human resources director. That's another way that a state has handled it. So providing both a clear statement of the availability of reasonable accommodation and clear information about a contact person who can provide applications for the application -- provide accommodations for the application process. Very important.
The last thing I wanted to talk about with respect to recruiting and hiring, very quickly, is that one of our observations in the report is that there seems to be an adequate amount of training -- more than adequate amount of training made available. I won't do through what specific of what states are doing, but they are providing a lot of training to supervisors, managers, to anyone involved in the recruitment process concerning the job interview process, reasonable accommodations for the application process, and specifically with respect to interviewing, there are certain questions that people are not allowed to ask about one's disability during the application process. It seems as if people involved in the interviewing and recruiting process are aware of these kinds of rules and others because of the availability of training. And I guess the last point that I would mention has to do with providing mentoring, mentoring programs. Two states, Maryland and Vermont, specifically -- many of the states participated in international Disability Mentoring Day, but two states specifically Maryland and Vermont told us that part of their mentoring experience on Disability Mentoring Day are specific workshops or other specific activities that are designed to introduce people with disabilities to state employment.
I think part 2 is -- although it's not the -- certainly recruiting and hiring is very important, and equally as important I think are what states are doing with respect to providing reasonable accommodations for applicants and employees with disabilities. And the first thing that we do in this section is we set out four -- what appear to be four models that we have seen emerge in the states for how they go about providing reasonable accommodations, the procedures specifically that they use.
One model is -- and it occurred to me in looking over my notes just before this teleconference that maybe one of the reasons it works Dick particularly well is because of the small size of the workforce in Vermont. In Vermont's procedures, they are statewide procedures. There is a statewide policy with attending procedures that apply to all agencies within the state. And that may make sense in a state where there are about 8,000 employees. And there is a chart in the back of the report that shows the approximate number of employees in each state. You know, so maybe that's the type of -- set of procedures, a very centralized process that is appropriate for a smaller state. Maybe it's appropriate for a larger state as well, but it struck me that the smallest of the states that I think we surveyed in terms of workforce have that kind of centralized policy.
Other states do something a little bit different. The state of Washington has something that is similar to what I think the federal government does. Agencies have adopted their own procedures, but they are subject to review by the state. We do something like that. Federal agencies develop their procedures and EEOC reviews them and provides input on them.
The third kind of -- the third type of procedure is there is no centralized system, and there is no -- there is no requirement for submission to some sort of statewide body that would review them, but two states, Florida and Kansas, have individual agencies that have the discretion to adopt their own procedures and have a fair amount of flexibility, it's my understanding, and perhaps Anthony will correct me if I'm wrong, to create procedures that work for their states. They are not necessarily subject to review by the states, although it is possible, I suppose, that in these cases that the agencies that need assistance could get assistance on, say, from a state ADA coordinator in putting their procedures together.
And the fourth model is what Utah employs. There is no specific set of procedures to live by, but there is a lot of training and there is a very centralized -- there is a sort of centralized process for providing accommodations in the sense that the accommodations go through the state ADA -- the various ADA coordinators. They are charged -- they are the ones who handle, rather than the individual supervisor, manager or individual office, the ADA coordinators for the various agencies handle all aspects related to the requests and people are educated and trained that if they get a request, it goes to the ADA coordinator. So four somewhat different models.
I want to focus on section 4 just to pull out a few things from that section. What other kinds of things are states doing? I think that some of the things that states are doing to promote employment generally, and not just in state government, some of the ones that are significant are things had a happen at the executive level, the level of the governor or at the legislative level. For example, in the legislature in Florida created a new agency in 2004 called the agency for persons with disabilities. Now, it's particular focus is on individuals with developmental disabilities in particular, but that sends a message, again, from the top, from the legislature that this is an important issue.
Likewise, there have been a number of executive task forces created in Florida and elsewhere. In Maryland, the legislation in Maryland elevated the office on disability to cabinet level status. I think that's very important that when you have an office in your state that reports directly to the governor, that has direct access, is accountable directly to the governor of Florida dealing with disabilities issues, that sends a message that this is a -- that disability issues are a priority, a cabinet level priority for this state. I think that's tremendously important, and governor Ehrlich of Maryland was recognized with a -- one of chair Dominguez and EEOC's freedom to compete award because of the recognition that this office has tremendous -- this is an award established last year, and I think this has recognized that it has a tremendous effort to raise the profile of disability issues and getting things done in Maryland.
There are -- perhaps Greg can talk for a moment or two about the New Mexico use act and changes to it that are reported in our report. Some other things that I think states are doing that are significant in terms of promoting employment more generally around technological issues. Three states, Florida, Kansas and New Hampshire, reported to us that they have a commitment statewide to make their state websites compliant with federal -- with standards that govern the federal government. Under Section 508 of The Rehabilitation Act, federal governments need to make their electronic and information technology, including their websites, readily accessible to and usable by individuals with disabilities. Those standards don't apply to the states, but the fact that at least three states have taken on that responsibility and said we want to step up and provide that level of access is significant. And I want to note here that according to a Brown University study, that the state of Kansas was ranked second among states in the accessibility of -- the number of accessible websites it has. New Hampshire was ranked fourth. And again, Florida has made the same commitment, you but I think it's very significant, access to state websites means that more people looking for state jobs who have disabilities will be able to find them. It means that people will have access to more information from the state concerning their rights and responsibilities as individuals with disabilities concerning services related to employment that the states may provide, concerning a whole array of things that may have an impact on their employment prospects.
We learned from the state of Maryland about an internship program that it has in which the quest program that pairs students with state agencies for the purpose of getting internship training. According to information that they receive a stipend for the period of internship. They receive the training that is provided by their work with the state agencies, and they are being prepared for jobs in both state and -- state and other public services. State and local governments or for the private sector. At least 50 percent of quest interns so far who have obtained full-time employment in either the state or in the private sector.
I want to mention just a couple of other things. Very quickly, there are things that states are doing to try to reduce disincentives to work. When people are in danger of losing benefits, losing all of their benefits if they earn even a small amount of money, that can prove a disincentive to work. The Florida freedom initiative is a program that allows individuals to earn more than they would normally be permitted to earn and still receive their -- certain disability benefits that they receive from the federal government. Likewise, in Vermont, they are involved in a pilot program where instead of losing all of one's SSDI or SSI benefits after a certain threshold is reached in terms of earnings, there would be a one to two reduction, a one dollar reduction for every two dollars earned above the federal limit. So there wouldn't be what is sometimes called the cash cliff, but it would be where the person once they are earning enough money, loses all benefits, but rather they would lose only a portion there and is thought that this might -- and it would also allow them to keep certain other kinds of benefits. This is thought that this may help to reduce the disincentives to work that some people with disabilities face.
And New Mexico -- and I think that this is the last -- well, I'll mention two other things. New Mexico has a Medicaid buy-in program for individuals who earned more than would -- if I have this wrong, I'm sure Greg will correct me -- more than they would normally be able to earn and still receive Medicaid benefits. They can earn more and then buy into the Medicaid program. And, again, it's thought that this will help to reduce disincentives to work by reducing the fear that medical benefits will be lost when someone goes back to work and leaves the benefit roles.
The last thing are Vermont and Maryland -- you know, the Workforce Investment Act established these one-stop career centers that are available to everyone, available at the community level. They are through a grant with the Department of Labor. Vermont and Maryland have had disability navigator programs, individuals who are available at one-stop centers who can help people with disabilities literally navigate or get around the workforce investment system, the one-stop system and can assist people in making -- perhaps making connections with businesses that have needs that fit their interests and skills of the particular individual with a disability. And that's, again, funded through a labor department grant.
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Beth: As always, there's a lot more good information in the full webcast, and you can find the link to that on our website, www.ada-podcast.com. Until next time, I'm Beth Case with the Southwest ADA Center Podcast.
The Southwest ADA Center is a program of Independent Living Research Utilization at TIRR - Memorial Hermann in Houston, Texas, and is funded by the National Institute on Disability and Rehabilitation Research. If you have questions about disability law or would like to request materials or training, please call 1-800-949-4232. The Southwest ADA Center Podcast is protected by the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial No-Derivative-Works 2.5 License. For more information and transcripts, visit www.ada-podcast.com.