Hartford Business Journal

22 HARTFORDBUSINESS.COM | APRIL 3, 2023 FOCUS: DEI Mintz+Hoke CEO Ron Perine with employee Cate Alix. PHOTO | CONTRIBUTED Equal Opportunity In DEI conversation, employers often overlook people with disabilities By Harriet Jones Hartford Business Journal Contributor C ate Alix checks off the job responsibilities she has as an office assistant at Avon-based advertising agency Mintz+Hoke. Distributing mail, restocking supplies, scanning, making copies, inventory, keeping conference rooms clean and tidy, and — best of all — shredding. "Shredding is my jam," she laughs. For her boss, CEO Ron Perine, having Alix in the office is about more than just her organizing skills. "Cate's personality has just made such an impact on everybody here," he said. "And I think her eagerness to do anything and to learn more sets a really good example for a lot of people." Alix, 26, has Down syndrome. She is part of one of the most margin- alized of all cohorts in employment — adults with intellectual and developmental disabilities, or IDD. Data from national surveys suggest that only around 18% of working-age adults supported by state IDD agencies are employed in a paid job in the community. Overall, in 2022, 21.3% of people with disabilities were employed in the U.S., up from 19.1% in 2021, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. By comparison, 65.4% of people without a disability were employed last year. "We've done a pretty good job with inclusive education," said Cate's mother Noelle Alix, "but then when those students transition either out of high school or a post-high school program, there's nothing. They go from being part of a classroom and being included, to essentially nothing waiting for them and an unemploy- ment rate that's pretty staggering." That's one of the reasons that Noelle Alix is a co-founder of another inclusive workplace in Avon, the cafe Beanz & Co., which integrates employees with IDD alongside typical peers. Her partner in the business, Kim Morrison, who also has a daughter with Down syndrome, said the venture, which opened in 2018, was born of frustration with employers who weren't willing to take a chance. "They don't get it. They think it's too hard. They think it's going to be too expensive," Morrison said. "Or, they just don't want to do it." While many people with IDD may not be able to handle a typical 40-hour-a-week position, Morrison said there's plenty of opportunity to get creative in making a role. "What if we just carved off a piece of that job, and you gave someone a job for say, 15 to 20 hours a week?" she said. "That is an entire life for someone who isn't other- wise afforded the ability to be out in the community working, making a paycheck, spending a paycheck, not being dependent on government assistance for a hundred percent." Sales pitch For Perine, who has been Cate Alix's boss since 2019, the rewards of making this work were unexpected. "For our folks, being in a high-paced (profession) can be kind of stressful sometimes," he said. "Cate interacted with everybody and everybody just loved seeing her. People just stopped, and whatever they were anxious about kind of just melted away. The relationship that she's created with people here is incredible." It's a sales pitch that Dan Bracken makes to employers every day. "We're not coming to them saying, could you please give us some charity and help out this person?" said Bracken, the career develop- ment services manager for Easter- seals Capital Region & Eastern Connecticut. "We're going to them and we're saying, 'Hey, I'd like to be an asset to you because I know hiring is difficult. Let me know what job openings you have because I work with a pool of highly motivated people that I can help connect you to and fill your staffing needs.'" Bracken works with people with all kinds of limitations, physical disabil- ities and psychiatric conditions in addi- tion to intellectual disabilities. Although the "d" word is not a term he likes. "I don't like to think of it as a disability," he said. "I like to think everyone has their own way of being in the world. A lot of times people with quote-unquote 'disabilities' have been discriminated against. And if you choose to go forward hiring somebody like that, they're often- times going to be the hardest working person on your team." Part of Bracken's role is to help employers and prospective workers navigate the complex landscape of programs that exist to facilitate compet- itive hiring of non-typical employees. It's an effort to mainstream employ- ment for people with disabilities, moving away from an older model of segregated workshops and sub-min- imum wage employment. When Bracken places a new employee, he said it's always for at least minimum wage. But Connecticut, in line with current federal law, still allows employers to get a waiver to pay workers with disabilities a sub-minimum wage. A bill in the current legislative session aims to eliminate this provision, making the state part of a growing movement around the country. When a similar measure was raised in 2019 it died in committee, but not before the Department of Develop- mental Services noted the complexity of the issue in its testimony. Many services aimed at integrating employees with disabilities in compet- itive employment are funded through Connecticut's Bureau of Rehabilita- tion Services, and provided through nonprofit agencies including Easter- seals, The Arc and Project SEARCH. These can include vocational

• Cover