25 years after the ADA became law, the disabled continue to be absent from workforce

But no way was he going to slow down.

“It never occurred to me to put limits on myself,” Selvaggio said. “I never said, ‘Life is ruined.’”

He transferred from Bayless High School to the Missouri School for the Blind, where he competed in track and field, wrestling and goalball, a game designed specifically for blind people.

He graduated from Southeast Missouri State University in May 2011 with degrees in public relations, advertising and communications. He felt good about his résumé, and was confident he’d quickly land a job.

“I applied for dozens and dozens of jobs,” said Selvaggio, 28. But for about a year and a half, nothing.

It’s hard to know why he was passed over, time and again. His résumé might have tipped off prospective employers to his disability. He included under work experience that he was an intern with the U.S. Olympic committee assigned to the U.S. Association of Blind Athletes.

But in job interviews, hiding his disability was not an option. He has a guide dog.

Disabled people nationwide continue to struggle finding jobs 25 years after the Americans with Disabilities Act was signed by President George Bush, although great strides have been made in other areas. The law brought sidewalk curb cuts, designated parking spaces and access to public transportation. It changed the way homes are built or rehabbed and required schools to provide equal opportunities for all students.

But one of the key tenets — to bring more disabled people into the workforce — has fallen short.

“Unemployment for the disabled is the same today as it was when the ADA went into effect 25 years ago,” said longtime advocate for the disabled Colleen Kelly Starkloff.

While the country’s unemployment rate has fallen below 6 percent, at least 70 percent of disabled people ages 16 to 64 are unemployed.

“There are 54 million people who are disabled, and the number is climbing as the population ages, and our economy through various public programs is spending a lot of money on people who are not working,” Starkloff said.

Long before there was an Americans with Disabilities Act, Starkloff and her husband, Max, were on the front lines in the fight for disability rights.

Together, the Starkloffs built Paraquad, one of the first 10 federally funded independent living centers in the nation, into a St. Louis-based agency that now serves more than 3,000 people a year.

Max Starkloff died in 2010.

“What it was intended to do was to change paradigms,” said Colleen Starkloff of the center, founded in 1970. “The centers were about emancipation.”

The centers, which have grown to nearly 500 today, continue to work with the disabled to help them achieve independence.

The Starkloffs, who helped St. Louis become the first city in the country to have lift-equipped public buses, parted ways with Paraquad in 2002 and began the Starkloff Disability Institute. The focus of the new endeavor: creating more employment opportunities for the disabled.

‘RACE FOR TALENT’

One of the institute’s efforts is The Next Big Step program, creating partnerships with large companies to help train and hire those with disabilities. Those who enroll in the 12-week program are taught résumé writing, interviewing skills and how to talk about disability as an asset.Classes are taught by representatives from participating companies such as Centene Corp., Wells Fargo Advisors and Nestlé Purina. Of the 85 people who have gone through the program since 2012, 61 have landed jobs.“The race for talent is already in play,” said Annette Morris, director of diversity at Nestlé Purina, south of downtown. “If you are looking for the best and brightest, you could be missing a whole pool of people.”Companies may be impressed by a job candidate who is disabled but ultimately take a pass. Managers are concerned a disabled person won’t fit in, company health care costs will rise and that it will be expensive to adapt the workplace to accommodate the new employee.However, there have been no indicators that health care costs have risen as a result of hiring the disabled, advocates say.

And in a 2014 report from the U.S. Department of Labor looking at what disabled employees needed to do their jobs, employers said that in 57 percent of cases, there were no costs to provide accommodations. The average expense for the rest of employers was $500 per disabled employee.

Much of the trepidation of hiring a disabled person could be avoided if employers asked the right questions, said David Newburger, commissioner on the disabled for the city of St. Louis.

“There is a nervousness, fear of asking the wrong questions, and interviews often turn into pro-forma things,” said Newburger, who also is co-director of the Starkloff Disability Institute. “I have this view that the lawyers have been telling them how to stay out of trouble and they are very risk averse as a result of that.”

Asking about someone’s medical condition is not allowed under employment laws, veering into discrimination.

“It’s not right to ask: ‘Why are you in a wheelchair?’ or ‘When were you diagnosed?’” Newburger said. “The best way is: ‘How would you perform this job?’”

Asking the question this way, he said, allows employees to sell themselves and address their disability in a way that makes them comfortable. In turn, it eases an employer’s concern about any special accommodations or any limitations the candidate might have.

LOW EXPECTATIONS

Another issue with low employment among the disabled is a lack of confidence and low expectations society places on them.“That’s one of the reasons it can be very difficult to find someone capable of doing the job. The (people) themselves don’t have self-confidence,” Newburger said. To help change that, those with disabilities must be looked at differently. Sarah Schwegel has gotten the look more times than she can count. The “poor-girl-in-the-wheelchair” look.“They talk down to me. Patronize me. It’s the kind of thing that happens, unfortunately,” Schwegel said. People assume that because she has a physical disability, her mind must have limitations as well.“There is an assumption that I’m not cognitively age-appropriate and they talk to me like I’m 5 years old,” said Schwegel, 22. She has spinal muscular atrophy and cannot use her legs.

Schwegel started a job this summer in human resources for Nestlé. She was anxious about going to work in a corporate setting, surrounded by hundreds of other employees. But it has been a good fit so far. She asked for a smaller laptop than is typically used and brought in a lift for the restroom that the company makes sure is in place on days Schwegel works.

‘NOT WORTH THE GAMBLE’

Advocates say one of the biggest obstacles preventing more disabled people from entering the workforce is the financial limitations in place to qualify for Medicaid. Disabled people with limited mobility often require a personal care attendant for help bathing, dressing and eating. The cost of an attendant, which can range from a few hundred to a few thousand dollars a month, is not covered outside of Medicaid.As a result, many people with disabilities are reluctant to enter the workforce, knowing that if their salary goes beyond the federal guidelines to qualify for Medicaid, the cost of a personal care attendant falls to them. “It’s not worth the gamble,” said Aimee Wehmeier, executive director of Paraquad. And once in the workforce, there is little incentive to apply for promotions if it means the salary increase will make them ineligible for Medicaid — unless the raise is enough to offset the out-of-pocket cost for an attendant, she said.Wehmeier, 44, speaks from experience. It was not until she took the top job at Paraquad early last year that she went off Medicaid despite her master’s degree and work experience with an insurance company and an agency similar to Paraquad based in Columbia, Mo. She has muscular dystrophy, and a personal attendant costs $3,000 a month.Medicaid eligibility varies by state. In Missouri, those with disabilities cannot have assets exceeding $999. That includes bank accounts, stocks and property other than a primary residence. And income cannot exceed 300 percent of the federal poverty level, which is currently $35,000 a year.

Starkloff says efforts are underway by disability advocates to change parts of the Medicaid program such as raising asset limits, which have not changed since 1967, or putting in a sliding scale on income, so that the employee could pay for part of the Medicaid benefit as salary increases. But any changes come with strong resistance, part of a political debate on entitlement programs.

MORE TO BE DONE

Paraquad and other disability agencies continue working to make sure the Americans with Disabilities Act is followed. For example, early in the planning process of renovating the Gateway Arch grounds, Newburger was brought to the table and chaired a group that made sure the new designs provided access to all, including the new museum under the city’s iconic structure.“We watched step by step of every element. We have become very welcomed,” Newburger said.Starkloff said her husband would be pleased with the progress made in disability rights.“Max would say that it’s very important the disability community come together and celebrate 25 years of the ADA,” Starkloff said. “There is absolutely no question the ADA has brought into focus that disability rights are civil rights, and the ADA has opened doors to people with disabilities that were never opened before.”But, she said, Max Starkloff would not be content.

“Like any other movement, there is more to be done. The yet unfilled promise of the ADA is economic independence through employment.”

In Selvaggio’s case, he landed a job in human resources with Centene Corp. after going through the The Next Big Step program. It gave him the chance to network with prospective employers in a more casual environment where they could look past his disability and focus on what he could bring to the job, he said.

Mike Josias, a Centene vice president and Selvaggio’s boss, said actively working to hire disabled candidates is a sound business decision.

“There is a large, fairly untapped resource ready to go to work — when given the opportunity.”