Vocational Rehab Services And Transportation Options For Those In The Community Needing Resources And More!

Authors Note: The following Post also has my personal opinion about the Vocational Rehab Services Experience. Vocational Rehabilitation Services and Transportation Services-The truth is in the fine print. 

(Finished draft)

**Authors note: Services and Outcomes vary for each individual. It also depends on the state you live in, and the guidelines the said agency/service may have to follow by law.** 

Okay here is the brutal truth. If you’re a person with a physical disability and are seeking employment whether it is straight out of high school or not. You’re in for a long wait. While I know it’s different for every person when they’re introduced to VRS. My biggest issues with the services they provide are the lack of communication and the lack of knowledge they have about the life of a disabled person who lives by the rule of universal design. That for us is more than just a blueprint for buildings, but rather a blueprint for the disabled person(s) and their families. 

    In 2001, I had plans to go to a local university but was told that may not be a good choice for me because I didn’t take SAT’S. And because of my weak math skills. Keep in mind this before we had the various options in online education like we do now. This is where my parents and I were introduced to our local chapter of VRS. Thus began the eye-opening experience of how and what it truly means when they use the term: state services.

    The definition is as follows: Vocational rehabilitation is a process which enables persons with functional, psychological, developmental, cognitive and emotional impairments or health disabilities to overcome barriers to accessing, maintaining or returning to employment or other useful occupation. And the process typically goes as follows: It is basically done by a referral process. Where the basic requirement is that the person(s) with a mental/physical disability requires assistance in finding, and maintaining future employment. Then The tests are the next step. Test that tells  them your strength and weaknesses, hobbies, interests, and the type of work setting that is the best fit for the person(s.) Once that is figured out, they connect you with one of their agencies that they feel is the best fit for your employment needs.

    This is where a second job coach comes in and you basically give them the run down of your work history, (if you have any.) Your goals both short-term and long-term employment wise. Your strengths and weaknesses, what adaptations or accommodations to keep in mind when they begin scouting and searching for positions for you. Every state agency has their own method when it comes to this point in the process. Very few do the old-school method of checking the classifieds in the paper these days. 

    The following basic information can be found via,  International Encyclopedia Of Rehabilitation: http://cirrie.buffalo.edu/encyclopedia/en/article/128/

    Some agencies do provide follow-ups with their clients once the goal of employment is reached. That, however, is not the case for everyone who goes through this process. And that is where I take issue with these services. If you’re a person with a disability, whether visible or not that means two very important things are guaranteed to occur 24/7, 365 days of the year. You as the disabled person are constantly making adjustments and adapting to your surroundings. 

    Why? Because having a disability is not like outgrowing clothes.  A disability is something you grow with not out of. And while having a disability seemingly has the label of “one size fits all” that is an extremely unrealistic assumption. While I am sure some people do find success with using VRS, I strongly believe that their system needs to be completely overhauled in general.

    To give you an example of what I mean. Someone very close to me wanted to share his personal experience with VRS, in the Chicago area where he lives. His name is Christopher. He has a mild form of CP and wanted to be a part of the discussion on VRS.

     “Let me first start off by saying that all states are different so, you hopefully won't have an experience like mine. My name is Chris Blezien and I am 35 years old. I have mild CP.  My local DHS office made it sound so enticing yes we can help you, Chris, just schedule an appointment and we will assign your case to a case manager. I was excited about my first meeting when would it be? I found out it was a two-week wait to even be seen. I found out at the first meeting that they needed a doctor's referral for state services before they could even assign me a job coach and would need copies of my medical records. I value privacy and resented giving my medical records to a complete stranger to potentially get help finding a job. My problem with this is do people without disabilities have to go through this when finding a job without state help? I  asked my parents as well as able-bodied peers they said no that they only had to pass a drug screen but that was it on the medical front.  My grandfather died shortly after I started the process at DHS so, I decided to close my case and I expected at least some understanding heartfelt words such as I'm sorry to hear this sorry for your loss etc I tried to close the case and got grief we are all on a timetable with this Chris was the response I got when I asked if I could put my case on hold for awhile or close it. I'm like I just told you my relative died and you can't show an ounce of compassion? I ended up closing my case in disgust and reporting the employee to her supervisor. My point to this is, as disabled people we deserve better than this. I think they should not be asking for medical information to receive help. Since I'm on SSDI I had to have gotten seen by a doctor or provided the requested info to the government already why should I have to keep showing proof of disability if I just want help finding a job? I think the state puts these hoops in the way to frustrate us and make it seem hopeless so we give up.  I have come to the conclusion that because of my experience the best help you can receive is to do it yourself whether it's finding a job or other state services such as housing after all if you can use the Internet trust me you can find a job and it probably will be faster than the state helping you find one.” 

    While some may have found success with state-funded agencies. Most people get frustrated by the long process, and wait in-between and typically stop meeting with their assigned job coach as a result. **Author’s note* Not all state funded agencies may have you waiting a long time. However, due to the state of the economy securing a job right away may be difficult. And because it will most likely be a state-funded agency helping you find employment, they most likely will see budget cuts which will result in a lot of transitioning within the agency as well. 

Now, if going to school is your first option. With online education having such a big impact now, the options are endless than they were 20 years prior. The services can also vary from state to state in that area as well. Eligibility: must meet the criteria that are stated in the referral (the overall goal.) The basic criteria are as follows: The person(s) has said disability and needs help finding and keeping said position once one is found for them. 

    A simple google search can direct you to what services/agencies are in your area. I strongly advise researching all your options thoroughly, to ensure the best fit for yourself and your specific needs if you have any. Including what their disability services are, and what exactly they provide students with IE. A note taker, extra time on tests ECT.

I would also like to add, that with the option of an online education there multiple options to pick from. Including sites like Coursera, that offer free courses in various areas of interest. And if you do your homework(no pun intended.) You could even find courses that include certification. The following is a compiled list of the top 50 sites that offer free online courses: http://www.opencolleges.edu.au/informed/features/free-online-courses-50-sites-to-get-educated-for-free/ 

    And with more schools being more open to given students free tuition to attend their schools and universities more students may be given better opportunities and better resources to help them secure employment. And not just securing a job, but securing a career they can flourish and grow with. Believe or not, however, the biggest issue and most common issue the disabled community face, and struggle to overcome is the issue of transportation. Now, while is true, that not every person with a disability has the inability to drive their own car. And because of that lean on family or public transportation to get them to their desired location safely and on time.

    The following statistics were reported by The Bureau Of Transportation the year, possibly the year of publication 200. Data Analysis

This section contains a summary of the disability survey data. It is divided into three sections:

    •    Disability Information and Travel Outside the Home

    •    Local and Long-Distance Personal Travel, and

    •    Personal Motor Vehicle Ownership and Use.

Detailed data tables showing weighted percents and standard errors for disabled and non-disabled individuals are contained in the Appendix. The purpose of this Data Analysis section is to provide broad data findings based on a distinction between the disabled and non-disabled groups, as classified by the Census definition. Other factors, such as the specific type of disability (e.g., vision, hearing, or physical disability), age, and severity, are not explored in this report.

DISABILITY INFORMATION AND TRAVEL OUTSIDE THE HOME

According to the 2000 decennial census, approximately 49.5 million people (19 percent) of the U.S. resident (noninstitutionalized) population aged 5 years or older have a disability (see figure 1).1 The disability prevalence rate among children under the age of 5 years is approximately 3 percent.2

Frequency of Travel Outside the Home

There are 3.5 million people in this country who never leave their homes a national homebound percentage of over one percent (see figure 2 and appendix table 1, table 2, table 3, table 4, table 5, table 6, table 7, table 8 and table 9.). More than half of the homebound, 1.9 million, are people with disabilities. Overall, the majority of people with disabilities (62 percent) and those without disabilities (88 percent) leave the home five to seven days a week. People with disabilities who never leave home tend to be older (average age 66) and have more severe disabilities (58 percent report their disability as severe) than the disabled who leave home at least one day per week (average age 50, and 22 percent reporting severe disabilities). More people with disabilities who never leave home need specialized assistance or equipment to travel outside the home (57 percent) than do those who leave home at least once a week (22 percent). And people with disabilities who never leave home also have more difficulty getting transportation (29 percent) than those who leave home once a week or more (11 percent). Of those people with disabilities who leave the home the most five to seven days per week,  14 percent need assistance to travel outside the home, and 8 percent have problems getting the transportation they need.

Specialized Assistance Traveling Outside the Home

About 23 percent of individuals with disabilities need some sort of specialized assistance or equipment to travel outside the home (see appendix table 10 and table 11). The most frequently cited types of assistance needed are:

    •    cane, crutches, or walker  48 percent

    •    assistance from another person while outside the home  33 percent

    •    manual wheelchair  22 percent

    •    assistance from another person while inside the home  16 percent

    •    electric scooter or wheelchair  10 percent

    •    oxygen  8 percent

Difficulties Getting Needed Transportation

Twelve percent of people with disabilities have difficulty getting the transportation they need, compared to three percent of persons without disabilities (see appendix table 10 and table 12). The problems most frequently cited by individuals with disabilities are:

    •    no or limited public transportation  33 percent

    •    don't have a car  26 percent

    •    disability makes transportation hard to use  17 percent

    •    no one to depend on  12 percent

Of the non-disabled who have difficulty getting the transportation they need, the reason cited most often is no or limited public transportation  47 percent.

LOCAL AND LONG-DISTANCE PERSONAL TRAVEL

Local Travel and Mode Choice

People use multiple modes of transportation for local travel. About 62 percent of people with disabilities who are 15 years or older, and about 86 percent of the nondisabled who are 15 years or older, drove motor vehicles in the month prior to the interview for local travel  to work, shopping, doctor and other medical appointments, and for other purposes (see figure 3 and appendix table 13). Seventy-seven percent of those with disabilities and 82 percent of the nondisabled rode in a personal motor vehicle as a passenger for local travel.

Forty-seven percent of people with disabilities walked (which, in this survey, includes the use of a non-motorized wheelchair or scooter) for local travel during the month prior to the interview, compared to 58 percent of nondisabled persons. Similarly, a higher percentage of nondisabled respondents, 33 percent, rode bicycles or other pedal cycles compared to 18 percent of disabled persons.

A greater proportion of nondisabled persons used carpools or van/pools/group cars or vans (14 percent), school buses (11 percent), and subway/light rail/commuter trains (9 percent) than disabled persons (11 percent, 5 percent, and 6 percent, respectively) for local travel.

Of those transportation means typically provided to assist people with disabilities, only 6 percent used motorized personal transportation, such as electric wheelchairs, scooters or golf carts; 6 percent used paratransit vans or buses sponsored by the public transit authority, and 3 percent used specialized transportation services provided by human services agencies.

However, driver status appears to affect the type of transportation used in the past month (see figure 4 and appendix table 14). More than 96 percent of the disabled and non-disabled who drive, drive a personal motor vehicle for local travel. A greater proportion of the disabled and non-disabled who do not drive use carpools,; the public bus; the subway, light rail, or commuter train; and taxicabs than do the disabled and nondisabled who drive (figure 4).

Trip Purpose

Although both disabled and non-disabled workers most often use personal motor vehicles to commute to paid or volunteer work, more workers with disabilities ride as passengers (15 percent) than do nondisabled workers (6 percent), while more non-disabled individuals drive (85 percent) than do disabled individuals (66 percent) (see figure 5 and appendix table 15 and table 16).

Motor vehicles and school buses serve as the primary transportation mode for commuting to school for both the disabled and non-disabled. About one-quarter of both disabled and nondisabled students ride a school bus, and another quarter drives a motor vehicle to school most frequently. However, 36 percent of the nondisabled students ride as a passenger in a personal motor vehicle compared to 21 percent of the students with disabilities.

Most of the disabled and non-disabled most frequently use motor vehicles, either as a driver or passenger, for transportation to the doctor and other medical visits and for other local travel, such as shopping and recreation. About 2 to 3 percent of both disabled and non-disabled use a public bus for these trips.

Transportation Availability

To some degree, transportation services are generally available to the disabled and nondisabled from their homes (see figure 6 and appendix table 17). For both groups, more than 50 percent live near a sidewalk or path, almost 60 percent have public paratransit available in the area, and over three-quarters have taxi service. About 25 percent live within 5 miles of a subway/light rail/commuter train station. Slightly more of the people with disabilities (47 percent) live within one-quarter mile of a bus stop than do the nondisabled (42 percent).

Transportation Use

The majority of disabled and non-disabled bus riders and subway, light rail, and commuter train users use the transportation service two or fewer days per week for local travel, as do paratransit riders3 (see figure 7 and appendix table 18 and table 19). However, more of those with disabilities (42 percent) use the bus three or more days per week than do the nondisabled (28 percent). When using a bus; subway, light rail, and commuter train; or paratransit service, most riders take one or two one-way trips. More than 90 percent of disabled and non-disabled public bus users; more than 88 percent of the disabled and non-disabled subway, light rail, and commuter train users; and 95 percent of disabled paratransit users take one or two one-way trips (see appendix table 20 and table 21).

Transportation Problems

Of those who walk, bike, use paratransit, buses, or subways, fewer than half of both disabled and non-disabled transportation users experience problems as pedestrians, as cyclists, on buses, while using paratransit or at bus stops or at subway, light rail, or commuter train stations (see figure 8 and appendix table 22, table 23, table 24, table 25 and table 26.). A higher percentage of disabled walkers (49 percent) experienced problems than do nondisabled walkers (37 percent).

Disabled and non-disabled transportation users cited similar problems. When walking and biking, the most frequently cited problems were insensitive drivers, too few/missing sidewalks/paths, and surface problems (potholes/cracks). The primary problem for bus and paratransit riders was schedules not being kept. On buses and on subways, light rails, and commuter trains, crowded/inadequate seating was cited by both disabled and non-disabled riders. Insensitive or unaware passengers were also a problem for both groups of riders.

Long-Distance Travel

Proportionally, fewer people with disabilities (60 percent) than without (76 percent) travel long distances (100 miles or more) (see appendix table 27). The two most frequently used modes of transportation for long-distance travel for both groups are personal motor vehicles (as either passenger or driver) and commercial airlines (see figure 9 and appendix table 28). Five percent or fewer of disabled and nondisabled respondents used other modes such as intercity bus (about 3 percent), private bus (almost 4 percent), and Amtrak/intercity rail (almost 4 percent).

Approximately 55 percent of air travelers with disabilities experience problems at airports compared to 45 percent of nondisabled air travelers (see appendix table 29). Although cited as problems the most frequently by both disabled and non-disabled air travelers, schedules not being kept and restrictive security procedures were cited as problems by more of the nondisabled air travelers (38 percent and 49 percent, respectively) as compared to the disabled air travelers (25 percent and 34 percent, respectively) (see appendix table 30). Less than one-third of disabled and non-disabled persons experience problems on airplanes (see appendix table 29). Inadequate seating on airplanes was cited by more than half of the disabled and non-disabled air-travelers the most frequently (see appendix table 31).

PERSONAL MOTOR VEHICLE OWNERSHIP AND USE

Personal Motor Vehicle Usage

About 65 percent of people with disabilities drive a car or other motor vehicle compared with 88 percent of nondisabled persons. On average, disabled drivers drive 5 days per week compared with 6 days per week for non-disabled drivers (see appendix table 32 and table 33).

Thirteen percent of those with disabilities live in households that do not own or lease any vehicle, 66 percent live in households that own or lease one or two vehicles, and 21 percent live in households that own or lease three or more vehicles. Among the nondisabled, only 4 percent live in households that do not own or lease any vehicles, 62 percent live in households that own or lease one or two vehicles, and 34 percent live in households that own or lease three or more vehicles. Of the 87 percent of the disabled that live in households with at least one vehicle, 2 percent own or lease a vehicle modified with adaptive devices or equipment (see appendix table 34, table 35 and table 36).

Self-Imposed Limitations to Driving

People sometimes limit their driving in different ways. More drivers with disabilities impose limitations on their driving than do nondisabled drivers (see figure 10 and appendix table 37 and table 38). Other factors, such as age, also influence the decision to impose restrictions. For example, 74 percent of the disabled driver's age 75 or older and 54 percent of the non-disabled driver's age 75 or older avoid driving at night compared to 34 percent of disabled drivers and 21 percent of non-disabled drivers, age 25 to 34.

Driving Ability Perceptions

The survey sought to determine if a person's perception of his or her driving ability as it relates to certain physical characteristics has changed from 5 years ago. Although the majority of both disabled and non-disabled drivers indicate that their capabilities are the same as they were 5 years ago, a higher proportion of disabled drivers indicate their capabilities in all categories  eyesight/night vision, attention span, hearing, coordination, reaction time to brake or swerve, and depth perception  are worse than 5 years ago (see figure 11 and figure 12 and appendix table 39). Of particular note, 40 percent of disabled drivers compared to 28 percent of nondisabled drivers said their eyesight/night vision had declined. For the remaining categories, the percentages of drivers with a perception of declining capabilities range between 12 and 21 percent for drivers with disabilities, but only from 4 to 7 percent for non-disabled drivers. Again, these comparisons do not consider other factors such as disability type or age.

Considerations to Discontinue Driving

At some point, people may decide to give up operating a motor vehicle under certain circumstances. Approximately one-third of both disabled and non-disabled drivers indicate they would consider giving up driving if any of the following occurs:

    •    they feel they cannot operate a motor vehicle safely,

    •    their eyesight declines, or

    •    they experience other physical limitations.

A higher percentage of nondisabled drivers than disabled drivers indicate they would give up driving when they reach a certain age (10.2 percent of nondisabled compared to 6.4 percent of disabled) or had some other mental limitation (7.7 of non-disabled compared to 5.3 percent of disabled), while disabled drivers more often indicate they would give up driving if they caused a crash (5.1 percent disabled compared to 2.9 percent non-disabled) (see figure 13 and appendix table 40). Lastly, about 10 percent of both disabled and non-disabled said they never plan to give up driving.

1. U.S. Census Bureau, Census 2000. Summary File 3.

2. National Center for Health Statistics. Health United States, 2002. Hyattsville, MD: 2002.

3. Paratransit is defined as service comparable to fixed-route transit for use by people with disabilities who are unable to use the fixed-route system.

    Like everything in life nothing is done just so, and public transportation is not excluded from that list. But for someone who is unable to drive them from place to place, it can be extremely frustrating. Because unlike an abled bodied person, The person(s) with the disability or disabilities has to think about things location/distance, easy access, steps, how big the desired location is inside/out, security depending on the location. There is also the added consideration that if you do use a bus or cab service pick up and dropping off may not begin or end on time.

    So when you do schedule  a ride, (no matter what service you do use.) It's good to keep that in mind as well.  And like with the career/job, and education options public transportation for the disabled community vary. And every experience is different. The following is a list of transportation options you can check out for yourselves to see if your state offers you or someone you know with the same or similar options. 

    

AbilityList: gclid=CLiimMWixdQCFVBLDQodJ_IPYQ 

(A Craigslist geared toward the disability community.)

Uber 

https://accessibility.uber.com/#driver-partners-with-ambulatory-disabilities 

MyRide

http://www.gnhtd.org

Lyft

https://help.lyft.com/hc/en-us/articles/214218527-Wheelchair-Policy

My final thoughts: The disability community should not be forced to live in their homes because of something as simple as transportation and what should be easy access to their communities/neighborhoods. And yes, I know that money plays a big part when it comes to anything related to the government, but living with just the basic necessities is not working. Especially in the disability community where theses necessities will change as we get older.  

    We should not accept inadequacy as livable when it is anything but. It is barely manageable now. And it most certainly should not be accepted by the disability community any longer. Barely adequate should not be an acceptable description when someone talks about the recourses/services that are available to the disability community.