Some Florida businesses try to fill jobs with disabled workers

From The Times-Union in Jacksonville, Fla.:

Shannon Mclaughlin (pictured) treasures her two Persian cats. She works four days a week at Mandarin Veterinary Clinic, mainly filing paperwork. Now, after eight years at the clinic, the 36-year-old recently learned how to use the office computer. For fun, she participates in a karate class on Wednesday nights.

It's hard to tell while watching her work, but Mclaughlin was born with cerebral palsy, a series of disorders that changes her speech and makes her crouch over instead of sitting upright.

It has also made her a very quiet person, said Sherri Hall, lead nurse at the clinic, who has worked closely with Mclaughlin for six years.

"Filing is not an easy job," Hall said.

Mclaughlin can work only three hours per day, has limited endurance and can walk for only short periods of time. Cerebral palsy made high school difficult for her; she graduated by taking Exceptional Student Education classes.

But Shannon Mclaughlin is different from most in her condition in that she has a job.

She is one of 386,116 people with a disability employed in Florida last year. In Duval County, there were 25,955 out of 395,544 workers, according to the U.S. Census Bureau's American Community Survey.

The unemployment rate for these workers is about 60 percent, said Melanie Etters, spokeswoman for the Florida Agency for Persons with Disabilities.

But more than small veterinary clinics, larger companies are also joining the trend of hiring the disabled.

Walgreens is one of the companies taking big steps to accommodate workers with disabilities. People like Randy Lewis, senior vice president for supply chain management for Walgreens nationally, are making it happen.

One of Lewis' major accomplishments was adding a distribution center in Anderson, S.C., where 37 percent of the center's workforce has some type of disability, he said.

Getting hired is very difficult for people with disabilities because employers are afraid to take a chance, he said.

"This is why many people who have disabilities try their best to hide it," he said. "My goal is for 10 percent of the workforce to be workers with disabilities. Right now we are around 7 percent."

Walgreens does receive some funding from the federal government through the Social Security Administration's Ticket to Work program, he said.

This program's purpose is to lower the dependence on Social Security and its cash benefits to workers with disabilities, according to the SSA Web site.

Lewis is coming to Jacksonville on Oct. 28-29 to speak at an annual fundraiser, Dinner with Bill, by Arc Jacksonville, a local organization that helps provide jobs to workers with disabilities, and to speak to University of North Florida students.

Of the almost 450 workers that Arc Jacksonville works with, about 30 to 35 have been hired by local businesses and are coached as needed, said Cara Bowyer, executive director of Arc Jacksonville.

Among those under Arc's supervision is Mclaughlin, who considers herself a well-liked and popular person at work and at church, where she spends much of her time.

"I really enjoy the Bible study," she said. "I am popular there."

The rest of the workers are employed at one of Arc's three day centers, Bowyer said. Here the workers usually work in assembling products, like putting instructional pamphlets together for companies that outsource this type of work.