A group of 18 workers with developmental disabilities helped Avista Corp. save $853,000 last year by recycling industrial materials and paper that the Spokane-based utility otherwise would have thrown away.


A woman here with Down syndrome is a professional photographer. Others with cognitive disabilities or compromised physical skillsdefinitions of the developmentally disabledare putting data into computers, driving forklifts, and working as a construction-site flagman here.


Its an untapped labor pool, says Paula Morgan, employment manager for Skilskin, one of 10 Spokane-area agencies that seek employment opportunities for the developmentally handicapped.


Currently, more than 700 people with developmental disabilities work in Spokane County and another 400 are on a waiting list seeking work, estimates Greg Falk, CEO of The Arc of Spokane. He says the unemployment rate for such individuals is about 80 percent in the county.


Spokane County is home to between 6,000 and 12,000 people with developmental disabilities, although the number is inexact because many arent registered with governmental agencies, Falk says.


Scott Thurlow, The Arcs program director, has been working with the disabled for 21 years and advocates for their respect as people and value as workers.


The person comes first, he says. Their disability is a characteristic of who they are, but not a defining characteristic.


He is adamant that employers not hire people with disabilities for charitable reasons, but rather for what those workers can do for the employer. Thurlow says the developmentally disabled can perform repetitive, tedious, productive work that would be boring for many others. He says such fits are often advantageous for both the employer and the employee.


To educate employers here about the advantages of hiring the developmentally disabled, Spokane County Community Services and the aforementioned 10 agencies created an annual Hire Ability Day that was held for the second time last month.


Scott Morris, president of Avista Utilities, announced at the first gathering that Avista Corp.s 15-year-old partnership with The Arc of Spokane to provide jobs for people with disabilities has helped Avista salvage and reuse some parts and recycle others.


The Arc of Spokane provides us with outstanding, dedicated individuals who have a direct, positive benefit to Avista, not just to the companys bottom line, but to the quality of the Avista family, says Morris.


Vicky Priestley, who manages The Arcs Avista project, says, In 2004, we recycled more than a million pounds of metal and wire, and 110,000 tons of paper. In addition to cleaning and recycling industrial parts, people with developmental disabilities drive forklifts at Avista as well.


The guest speaker at the second annual Hire Ability Day, held Oct. 12, was Erin Riehle, director of disability services at Cincinnati Childrens Hospital Medical Center. Riehle said in an interview that she sees an even higher role for the developmentally handicapped in the future.


In a world that only looks at this group of people to perform food service and cleaning jobs, were missing their potential, she says. We (at Cincinnati Childrens Hospital) dont look for the easiest work.


A woman with Down syndrome has filled the role of dental sterilization technician at Cincinnati Childrens Hospital for the past nine years, performing a complex, repetitive routine of sterilizing about 400 different dental instruments, Riehle says. It would be hard to find another person who wouldnt quickly become bored, she says.


A man with developmental disabilities who cant count, but can use a specially designed Lazy Susan with a jig and a tray with 40 slots, uses his one good hand to pick up, hand-wipe, check the functionality of, and package groups of 40 recycled probes, used to measure oxygen in the blood. She says that single job saves Cincinnati Childrens Hospital $225,000 each year.


He honors the work and wants to do it right, Riehle says.


At Spokane Teachers Credit Union here, two persons with developmental disabilities have been sharing one full-time job for the last six months.


Patricia Kelly, their supervisor and STCUs information-systems manager, says the credit union wanted a full-time shipping and receiving mail clerk and has found the perfect fit with the job-share. She says between them, the two women not only place all mail in the correct employee boxes, but also enter basic administrative data into a computer, cross-reference all checks that are issued by the credit union, and do a variety of other tasks.


Their biggest strength is their willingness to do anything thats asked, says Kelly. They are really huge assets with their energy and positive attitudes. She says one, though sharp as a whip, is physically handicapped, while the other has mental disabilities. She says shes amazed at how well the two complement each other as they work in jobs that pay above the minimum wage.


Skilskins Morgan says an individual with developmental disabilities who works for a paving company here performs jobs as a flagman, doing asphalt work, and painting. He earns about $12 an hour, she says. She describes others who are employed to drive senior citizens around town.


Reliability


With 18 years of experience working with persons with disabilities, Morgan says shes received excellent feedback from employers who have found such employees to be long-term workers they can really count on. She asserts such employees hardly ever miss work and are very task-oriented.


Not all such hires work out as planned, but thats also true of new hires who dont have disabilities, she says.


Regrettably, Morgan says, Sometimes an employer will judge the entire disabled community if one hired disabled person doesnt work out.


Although many persons with disabilities work full time in the Spokane area, the majority, by their own choice, work on a part-time basis, says Morgan.


To help with the transition for both the employer and the individual, representatives from the 10 local agencies, in addition to helping secure jobs, routinely provide hands-on training.


Morgan says Skilskin workers accompany a new hire to the workplace on the first day of work, and additional days if necessary, determine how to implement that persons skills for the designated task best, educate the new employee on both the job and proper etiquette for that work environment, and maintain a follow-up program to address future concerns of both parties.


The employer doesnt have to do any training, says Morgan.


The majority of job opportunities here for people with disabilities are jobs such as stocking products on shelves in retail stores, landscaping and lawn maintenance, and serving as busboys and dishwashers.


The Arc also has nine workers employed at Olympic Foods Inc., on the West Plains, where they package juices, and six more doing housekeeping chores for Oxford Suites hotels, says Thurlow. A Sacred Heart Medical Center representative who attended Hire Ability Day last month hired one person on the spot for the medical centers food and nutrition department, says Falk.


In addition to filling conventional jobs, the process of carving a job is sometimes used to coordinate the skills of the developmentally disabled with the niche needs of an employer.


For example, workers at Pizza Hut restaurants in the Spokane area long have dreaded the repetitive task of folding flat pizza-box blanks into three-dimensional boxes to package pizzas for delivery, Morgan says.


One person with a disability was hired on a part-time basis to perform that task at one outlet, and the experiment has worked so well that the individual is now employed at four different Pizza Hut locations on different days performing the same task, says Morgan.


Disabled employees who dont drive often use public transit, Morgan says. She also says its not uncommon for an agency that arranges employment to coordinate transportation with a fellow worker on the same shift, with the disabled individual paying a share of the gas expense.


In addition to The Arc of Spokane and Skilskin, other agencies that find work for the developmentally disabled here include: The Artisans Ark, Career Connections, Career Path Services, Goodwill Industries, Job Resource Center, Nova Services, PACE Services, and S L Start & Associates Inc.


Changing how employers look at persons with developmental disabilities improves the workplace and self-esteem of the individuals who get jobs, Falk says.


People weve tended to think of as drags on the economy are actually assets that can be used, says Falk. They dont need to just receive subsidies from society.


Says Thurlow, They can become taxpaying citizens just like us.