As a Rehabilitation Counselor for the last 13 years, I have worked with hundreds of individuals with disabilities. My main role is to assist these individuals in either returning to work after a occupational injury or disabling illness or accident. I have primarily worked with insurance companies and their insured employers on developing opportunities for returning disabled workers back to the work environment or creating opportunities for new employers to hire individuals who just happen to have a disability.

Since the passage of the Americans with Disabilities Act in 1990, there has been minimal improvement in getting workers with disabilities into the competitive work force. According to a recent survey of Social Security Disability recipients, 75% desire to work but have not been successful for several reasons. First, they are fearful of attempting to work for fear of losing their benefits. Second, they are frustrated with the Vocational Rehabilitation system administered by state agencies. They are not receiving the level and type of services they want due to high caseloads and reduced funding. The third reason my clients deal with on an ongoing basis is, employers are apprehensive to hire an individual with a disability because of outdated and uninformed beliefs about such individuals. Examples of these include less productivity, too much money and time to accommodate, risk of higher workers' compensation and medical benefit costs, and attendance problems. As we know, these antiquated beliefs hamper the employer from tapping into a vast pool of motivated and skilled workers.

Our organization, the International Association of Rehabilitation Professionals (IARP), developed a program, REDI Online, to help workers with disabilities get beyond these old beliefs and barriers and get them in front of employers to get jobs. The program is about relationships with Rehabilitation Counselors, Individuals with Disabilities and Employers. This is not an online resume data bank or listings of job openings. It is a pipeline to job opportunities through Rehabilitation Counselors to participating employers.

The Hartford has co- sponsored this resource program and is also a REDI online participating employer. I am a local Rehabilitation Counselor who has signed on to be the REDI Connector to The Hartford as an employer. My job is to develop and seek out qualified job candidates and match them with appropriate job openings within The Hartford. Referrals of qualified candidates can come from other Rehabilitation Counselors, Insurance Companies, State Agencies, Federal Agencies, and any program that needs help placing individuals with disabilities in the work place. I screen potential candidates' resumes and job qualifications and attempt to identify positions, which may be suited to their skills. I have a point of contact within The Hartford Human Resource Department who is responsible for assisting me in evaluating qualified candidates and arranging for job interviews. A REDI employer does not guarantee hiring of these job candidates. They only make the commitment to consider qualified individuals from the REDI Connector. If the candidate is hired, as the REDI Connector, I assist the employer in reasonable accommodations and assistive technology resources, if necessary. I am paid for my services by the referral source. I am not paid by the employer or the individual with the disability.

This program is an innovative tool to recruit qualified job candidates and to work with experience Rehabilitation Counselors to streamline the job search process. This program is available to all employers and its' success is dependent on employers signing on at no cost to be a REDI Online employer. Individuals with disabilities, who are interested in this service, please contact your rehabilitation providers, counselors, and case managers to be referred. We are looking to sign on new employers to increase our job pool to match different skills in all industries.

Please contact Cherie King for more information. Email: Kingvoc@erols.com.

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