Safeway executives unveiled the 2009 Safeway Foundation’s Empowerment Grant award winners during Easter Seals’ annual convention in Washington, D.C., granting $1 million to expand programs across the country that measurably improve access to services and outcomes for children and adults living with autism and other disabilities.

Now in its second year, the 2009 Safeway Foundation’s Empowerment Grants are awarded to Easter Seals affiliates across the country whose innovative programming truly makes a difference in the lives of people with disabilities, whether through autism services, employment support, inclusive child care, early intervention, medical rehabilitation or respite.

You might remember the post I wrote about Safeway last may, where I mentioned their long-standing commitment to hiring people with disabilities:

Safeway employs more than 10,000 adults with disabilities. You read that right. They hire more than 10,000 adults with disabilities. There are over 1,700 Safeway stores across the United States and Canada, operating under various brand names including Safeway (East Coast, Seattle, Portland, Northern California, Phoenix and Denver), Vons and Pavilions (Southern California and Nevada), Dominick’s (Chicago), Randalls and Tom Thumb (Texas), Genuardi’s (Philadelphia) and Carrs stores (Alaska). Look around the next time you are shopping at one of these stores — it’s likely you’ll find an employee there with a disability. What a welcome sight!

I can tell you firsthand — when you have a disability, it is extremely difficult to convince employers to hire you. Safeway’s commitment has given many adults with autism and other disabilities a career and a means to live independently. Now these new 2009 Safeway Foundation Empowerment Grant awards will support Easter Seals local programs, which will help us reach more families living with disabilities.

I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again: Thank you Safeway!

This was a special night for Easter Seals Southeast Wisconsin, as we were publicly announcing our merger with Waukesha Training Center. I was so grateful Maurice spoke after I did. Everyone knows there’s no topping Maurice’s inspiring personal story.

Maurice has autism, and when he was a child the system very often considered institutionalizing children with his symptoms. In his speech, Maurice shared his life and a tale of his personal strength, devoted family and the help of Easter Seals Metropolitan Chicago. Today Maurice is a college graduate, and I actually heard a gasp of surprise from the audience as Maurice shared the story of earning that degree. When Maurice’s talk drew to a close, the audience gave him a standing ovation.

Maurice’s personal story spoke to one aspect of our merger, bringing together an array of services:

• Early intervention
• Work services
• Case management
• Adult day and recreation

Families seeking help, hope and answers will find resources and support at Easter Seals. Maurice’s story also speaks to the need for a continuum of services across the lifespan, to give people with all types of disabilities more opportunities for inclusion, access to services, careers and most importantly, choices in their futures!

Thanks, Maurice, for coming to Milwaukee! We want to bring you back to share your story with our work services participants so they can start dreaming of their futures too.

After these posts were published, I received a note about an interview with artist Gary Rosenthal. In the interview, Rosenthal discusses a new line of woven Judaica he is producing with the help of two workers who have autism. The artist says:

I like to say that all of my staff/associates do what they do better than I would do. Nowhere is this clearer than with my autistic associates. Everyone is different, but John and Tim love to work on repetitive tasks where precision is critical. Weaving is a favorite task and the more the better.

Rosenthal says that the success of the mezuzahs have motivated him to create more woven items and hire more staffers who have autism. I think that’s great! Just hope he’s read Patricia Wright’s posts here and knows that not all people with autism are precise and like repetition the way his workers John and Tim Do.

I warned against assuming people with autism all have the same special interest. A good example: Lars Perner.

Dr. Perner is an assistant professor of clinical marketing at University of Southern California’s Marshall School of Business. He also happens to be a person with autism. Perner keeps a personal blog called Delightful Reflections, and often shares that his special interest in consumer behavior has contributed to his professional success.

Dr. Perner has a free audio lecture too. You might want to check it out — we can all learn a lot more about “special interests” by getting a personal perspective from an expert: an individual with autism.

One characteristic we often hear about people with autism is an intense interest in a particular subject. Colloquially in the field of autism this is called a “special interest,” and Specialisterne hires individuals with autism who have a special interest in internet technology.

In Sonne’s native Denmark, as elsewhere, autistics are typically considered unemployable. But Sonne worked in I.T., a field more suited to people with autism and related conditions like Asperger’s syndrome.

“As a general view, they have excellent memory and strong attention to detail. They are persistent and good at following structures and routines,” Sonne says. In other words, they’re born software engineers.

Too often I hear people say things like, “People with autism are really good at (name a topic).” CAREFUL! I think people with autism are really good at something that interests them, at a particular time, and in a particular environment. Kind of like the rest of us!

Take me, for example. I’m good at cooking, in the evening, in my kitchen. In the morning, it’s a bowl of cereal. In an unfamiliar kitchen, I’m a little shaky. Each person with autism is an individual, and their interests emerge in particular environments in a particular time frame.

It’s fantastic when anyone’s interest intersects with a vocation, and if you are a person with autism who loves Information Technology, Specialisterne may want to hire you. Mr. Sonne used a great business strategy: find an area of special interest, and employ people with autism who have that special interest. Given the vast number of adults with autism who have difficulty securing employment, it would be great of other business leaders took on this model with their own area of special interest.

At a time when “celebrity rules” and the only “ordinary” people we see are faces in the crowd, The Story reminds listeners that their stories and their lives matter. We believe that by creating a space for first person stories we are choosing not to accept a pollster’s version of our thoughts and attitudes.

The Story originates on North Carolina Public Radio, so Dick Gordon, the show’s host, was in Chapel Hill during Friday’s interview. Me? I sat alone with my Seeing Eye dog Hanni in a recording booth in Evanston, Illinois. The sound man, seated in another room behind a plate of glass, says if you listen carefully you’ll hear Hanni’s harness jiggle as she settles in at the beginning of the taping. She slept for the rest of the hour. She’d heard this all before.

The interview questions centered on my working life. I lost my sight in 1985. The Americans with Disabilities Act wouldn’t be signed into law until five years later. When I lost my sight, I lost my job. Worse than that, I lost my self-confidence. It took a while for me to get the gumption to apply for work again, but once I did I met up with some pretty wonderful, flexible employers. A series of part-time jobs helped rebuild my confidence back. Today I’m a published author, a teacher, and … a blog moderator!

If you read my blog post about a speech Sen. Richard Durbin (D-IL), gave on hiring people with autism and other disabilities, you know he mentioned a recent DePaul University study on the costs and benefits of employing people with disabilities. Durbin used the study to remind his audience that people with autism and other disabilities make very loyal employees.

This is what the study found: on their annual performance reviews, employees with disabilities rated slightly higher than their co-workers without disabilities. Employees with disabilities took fewer scheduled and unscheduled days off work — just the opposite of what many might assume.

In addition, the average cost of accommodating the workers with disabilities — modifying the workplace to meet their needs — was $313. As investments in good, dependable workers go, that’s a bargain.

I wasn’t savvy enough to refer to research studies when they taped my interview for The Story, but I hope the spirit of that study shines through when the show airs. The Story is distributed nationally by American Public Media. It can be heard in North Carolina on WUNC-FM and WRQM-FM (90.9) in Rocky Mount. The show can also be heard on other stations across the U.S. including WBEZ in Chicago and KPCC in Los Angeles. I’m not sure yet when my particular segment will air, so stay tuned — I’ll let you know as soon as I find out.

In the meantime, take a look at a post called Disability Employment Awareness in the News on the Justice for All Activist Blog. The post has a nice round-up of articles about disability employment awareness that have already been published this month.

I’ve always nodded and smiled the vendor’s way as we pass. Since I can’t see to read, though, I never bought one of his papers. Until last December, that is. I left Hanni at home that day to go Christmas shopping with a friend — crowds can be so fixated on shopping that they step on my Seeing Eye dog. I cabbed home on my own afterwards, and when I fumbled with my white cane at the curb I heard a familiar voice call out to me. “Want some help?” he asked.

It was the StreetWise vendor. I grabbed his arm, and from the way my hand pumped up and down as we plodded to my doorway I could tell he had a very bad limp. When we finally arrived, I held out a bill that had one corner folded and asked for a copy of StreetWise. “They only cost two dollars,” my helper said. “You’re giving me a five.”

“I meant to give you a five,” I said, showing him how I fold money to keep track of the denominations. “Thanks for the help. Merry Christmas!”

J.T. and I have been friends ever since. “Hello Mizz Lady!” he calls out to me as Hanni and I pass him in the morning. And if we go a different way, and we don’t pass him, J.T. notices. “I didn’t see you earlier,” he’ll say. “I was worried.”

Kristina Chew’s autism blog at change.org refers to a story in the July 16 issue of Disability Scoop that says more than 40 percent of the homeless population in the U.S. are people with disabilities. I wish I could say this statistic surprised me. If anything, I thought the percentage would be higher. Chew quotes from the 2008 Annual Homeless Assessment Report, which was issued by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.

Among adults, 17.7 percent of the U.S. population had a disability whereas an estimated 42.8 percent of sheltered homeless adults had a disability. A disability, particularly one relating to substance abuse or mental health issues, can make it difficult to work enough to afford housing.

The report points out that people with disabilities are an even higher share of the homeless population than the people who are poor. This suggests that people with disabilities face additional difficulties — more than those who are poor — when it comes to accessing permanent housing.

People with disabilities may have difficulties searching for a unit or finding a landlord willing to rent to them. Their disability may make it less easy to accommodate them without adaptive supports.

The one statistic from this report that did surprise me was this one about Supplemental Security Income (SSI) and Social Security Disability Income (SSDI). I didn’t realize SSI payments fell so far below the poverty level.

The average annual SSI payment is about 44 percent below the poverty level, and thus people with disabilities who lack a sufficient work history to qualify for SSDI—common among people with severe mental illness or substance abuse issues — are more susceptible to deep poverty.

Chew notes that the inability to work (or not being given the opportunity to work regardless of one’s skills) often puts the price of housing out of reach. This is a scary thought for those of us who have disabilities, and especially for people who have disabilities that are less obvious. Autism, for example. No wonder we read so many stories about adults with autism still living at home with their parents. The homelessness blog at Change.org reviews the Homeless Assessment Report and suggests that what especially needs to be looked at is performance. “Certainly there are programs and initiatives set up,” says Kristina Chew. “But what is actually working, and what is not?”

Thing is, though, the data for 1:150 was collected nine years ago on a sample of eight year olds — that figure represents individuals who are now 17 years old! These 17-year-olds will be exiting the educational system very soon. They’ll be joining many other adults with autism already challenged by our lack of services and supports for adults.

Easter Seals is taking action to address this need through participation in Advancing Futures for Adults with Autism (AFAA). AFAA is a national consortium seeking to create meaningful futures for adults with autism that include homes, jobs, recreation, friends and supportive communities. This unique national consortium has united to set national priorities for adults on the autism spectrum and to transform public policy and programming for teens and adults with autism spectrum disorders.

In January, AAFA held a Think Tank. Nationally recognized experts in a variety of fields (e.g., individuals with autism, program operators, university professors, public policy authorities and specialists from both the public and private sectors) met to begin addressing the issue of autism and adulthood. The summary report from that think tank is available at the AFAA web site, and national town halls are next — Americans will come together across at least 15 cities on November 13, 2009 to create a policy agenda for addressing the needs of adults with autism. Over 1,000 people — including caregivers, advocates, elected officials, family members, and adults with autism — will join the discussion to make recommendations on this important issue. The event will be orchestrated from a central hub in Chicago and available nationally via webcast. The unprecedented scale and diversity of the AFAA National Town Meeting will attract attention to the issue and build momentum.

Adults with autism can — and do — lead meaningful lives. Easter Seals believes that with proper supports, adults with autism can all live, learn, work and play in their communities. AFAA is helping to make this happen.

KXAN-TV here in Austin brought some sunshine to this cloudy outlook this week with a feature story about David Kennedy.

David is a very friendly young man of twenty-two years. He loves to listen to and play music on the keyboard, he likes talking to his friends and teachers in the community, and he enjoys meeting new people and helping them, especially while at his job. David also has autism.

From the KXAN-TV feature :

“I love going to work,” said David. “My job is awesome.”

He works at a South Austin H-E-B check-out line. It is a job he got with the help of a school program and one he has been able to maintain through a support system with Easter Seals Central Texas.

Easter Seals not only serves as a liaison between David and his employer but also as a search tool to help people like David find work.

Easter Seals Central Texas has been working for the past decade to aid adults with disabilities and other barriers gain employment skills and access opportunities to lead more independent lives. David has been working at the regional grocery store chain H-E-B for more than a year now. He proudly displays his “one-year badge” and is eagerly waiting to get his next badge in 2010. His mother, Barbara, is one of his greatest advocates and credits the support she has received at Easter Seals Central Texas for contributing to her son’s growing independence and sense of pride.

The Easter Seals Living with Autism Study results revealed that 76% of parents of children with autism are concerned about their children’s future employment. Finding employment for individuals with disabilities is always a challenge, but there is much we can each do to help open more doors to employment. Patronize companies known to hire individuals with disabilities. Tell employers how much you value their employees with disabilities. And if you are an employer, discover your nearest Workforce Development Program and learn how you can help support this very important and wonderful resource.

Read Julia McCollum’s biography.