Connecting Workers and Employers
Supporting this goal, we, along with our JFF colleagues, are committed to finding better ways to connect highly talented workers with disabilities to employers seeking to fill high-skill positions. We’re especially excited about JFF’s ongoing partnership on the Apprenticeship Inclusion Models (AIM) initiative supported by the U.S. Department of Labor’s Office of Disability Employment Policy (ODEP).
We believe that inclusive apprenticeships and related work-based learning can provide a combination of on-the-job experience and academic instruction that facilitates access to career pathways for people with disabilities. Youth and young adults with disabilities who participate in apprenticeships and related WBL opportunities have demonstrated stronger post-school outcomes.
Work-based learning also affords strong benefits for employers who previously have hesitated to hire people with disabilities. By enhancing access to inclusive apprenticeships for people with disabilities, employers can become more familiar with diverse working styles of job seekers in this talent pool. Prior research shows that businesses that take initial steps to employ people with disabilities, whether via internships or other pursuits, have improved attitudes and a greater interest in considering talented job candidates with disabilities.
Through personal experience, we know that people with disabilities are fully capable of performing successfully in a multitude of work environments when they can access needed workplace accommodations. Still, people with disabilities face disproportionate rates of unemployment: Nearly six in 10 working-age adults with disabilities are unemployed.
The Job Accommodation Network (JAN) has found that most workplace accommodations for people with disabilities have no associated costs; and accommodations that do have an associated cost, such as accessible and assistive technology, have a typical cost of $500. Furthermore, collaborations can help employers access resources and information that support accommodations. (You can learn more about JAN’s resources on workplace accommodations at www.askjan.org.)