Breaking disability’s glass ceiling: NY firm helps workers push beyond low-pay jobs

Michelle Charest was thrilled to start her job last year as a benefits associate at Prudential. The 27-year old from Westchester County had been trying to ignite her career for years without much luck.

She thinks she knows why. Charest is on the autism spectrum and social interactions − who to address, how to navigate a three-way conversation − can be minefields for her in ways that others don't face. She worries her flat tone and affect have cost her during interviews.

"People can’t always tell, but it impacts me a lot," said Charest, who lives in Thornwood, New York. "People will look at me and evaluate based on expectations for someone who is neurotypical."

She isn't alone. Just 21% of Americans 16 and over with disabilities were employed or seeking work last year, compared to 67% of those without disabilities, according to federal statistics. But advocates in New York and New Jersey − including the Manhattan employment agency that placed Charest − say they're trying to break the glass ceiling that keeps people with autism from good-paying, professional jobs.

Marcia Scheiner is the president of Integrate Autism Employment Advisors, a New York-based firm that recruits and trains people on the spectrum for the type of positions not normally offered to those with developmental disabilities. Integrate has about 1,000 people in its database looking to help such people build careers with Fortune 500 companies like JPMorgan Chase, Microsoft and SAP.

The move toward remote work during the pandemic has opened new options for such workers − Charest, for example, works out of her home for Empower, which acquired Prudential's retirement business this year. But how long that will last in an uncertain economy remains to be seen. Those with disabilities say they are already struggling within a job-training and placement system that often fails to serve their needs.

“For college graduates on the autism spectrum, the unemployment and under-employment rate is somewhere between 75% and 80%,” said Scheiner, a former finance executive and the author of "An Employer’s Guide to Managing Professionals on the Autism Spectrum" (2017) and "The Neurodivergent Job Candidate: Recruiting Autistic Professionals" (2021).

The numbers are even bleaker in a 2016 study published in the Journal of Business and Management that places the "total unemployment or underemployment as high as 90% of the adult autistic population."

An analysis published in May by Rutgers and the University of Massachusetts found that out of 12,000 people with developmental disabilities in a New Jersey employment program last year, fewer than 1,800 were either working or receiving assisstance in finding jobs. The study was commissioned by the New Jersey Council on Developmental Disabilities.

“Largely, what we have in this country is a state-based vocational service system where state agencies take individuals on as clients and try to help them find a job," Scheiner said. "For autistic individuals, particularly the growing segment that is going to college, it’s a very ineffective process. If they get employed, they tend to end up under employed.”

K-12 schools introduce students with disabilities to possible careers and prepare them for their lives as adults. The state offers its own employment services. But the transition can be messy for people who age out of local special education at age 21 and have nowhere to go, according to the Rutgers/UMass analysis. The disability community calls it "falling off a cliff."

Inclusive interviews

Integrated Advisors is trying to offer a bridge. The firm is a second career for Scheiner, who worked in financial services for 25 years while raising a son who is on the spectrum. A former senior manager at Zurich Financial Services and Chase Manhattan Bank, she wanted to work where she was needed most. Her company, which also has offices in Cincinnati and San Francisco, has placed about 100 people since its founding 12 years ago.

One of Scheiner's clients from New Jersey graduated college with a degree in computer science only to spend seven years filling pill bottles in the back of a pharmacy. Integrate eventually found him a job as a software developer.

"He has been there three years and has already been promoted," Scheiner said. "He’s smart. He just couldn’t get through the interview process."

The interview is often the biggest barrier to employment for people on the autism spectrum, she said.

“I have someone now who was told that he will be interviewed by a panel of three people,” Scheiner said. “That is one of the things we do not recommend to employers. It’s hard enough to do one-on-one, let alone having three people shooting questions at you.”

Rewriting questions that require interviewees to read between the lines or forgoing panels for one-on-one interviews would also level the playing field, Schneier said.

Charest said that, in the past, her facial expressions wouldn't always match what she was saying. Integrate staff worked with her in mock interviews to correct that, and she was able to land the Prudential job in January of last year.

She appreciated her previous jobs as a cashier at a yoga studio and working in a movie theater, she said. But she wanted more.

"I went from having that movie theater job to having a full-time position," said Charest. "It was a big jump."

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'My kid is sitting home. Now what?'

Mercedes Witowsky, executive director of the New Jersey Council on Developmental Disabilities, said she too often hears from parents of high schoolgraduates who ask, "My kid is sitting home. Now what?"

"What happened in planning − going from school to adult life? Who dropped the ball?" she asked. "When you get a call from a parent and their daughter or son is now 25 and they haven’t done anything since high school, you have to scratch your head and say, 'why is this?'"

More communication is needed between school staff responsible for training students and exposing them to job opportunities and state employees who take over as students become adults, Witkowsky said.

What could help? The yearly meetings between schools and parents of children in special education programs are a chance to point families toward state programs and employment services. So are the transition meetings that assess life skills and employment possibilities before graduation.

But a lack of coordination often results in missed opportunities, Witowsky said.

"If someone is graduating, the support coordinator [a state-funded case manager] should be at the table. The Division of Vocational Rehabilitation Services (DVRS) should be at the table," she said. "I don’t get the sense that that happens often enough."

Case management is overseen by the state's Department of Developmental Disabilities, part of the Department of Human Services, while the DVRS is part of the Department of Labor. Both the DDD and DVRS need to coordinate with local school districts as students climb into their teen years to help them avoid falling off the cliff, advocates said.

State protocol doesn't require coordination among these departments, said Department of Human Services spokesperson Eva Loayza-McBride, and the process isn't automatically triggered by a student's graduation.

'Employment First' fails to deliver

"If...an individual expresses a desire for employment, the support coordinator initiates a referral to DVRS," said Loayza-McBride, though the state also has the ability to step in and help people looking for employment services earlier in the process, she added.

New Jersey enrolled 10 years ago in Employment First, a federal initiative intended to help young people with disabilities find work after graduation. The program represented a shift in philosophy to having people opt out of employment services rather than requiring them to seek out the help, the advocacy group Easterseals New Jersey explains on its blog.

In practice, however, not much has changed, the Rutgers and UMass analysis found: "In spite of this policy shift toward Employment First almost a decade ago, the mainstream labor force participation rate for individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities in New Jersey has not significantly increased and continues to lag behind national trends," it states.

The autismcommunity is doing what it can on its own. Brian Detlefsen is principal at The Forum School in Waldwick, which focuses on students with disabilities. He's developed a pilot program for students ages 16 to 21 with the goal of helping them find work before graduation.

The school "teaches students as many skills as possible to increase the chances of being employed back in their communities," he said. One student with a love for art was given a paid internship painting murals on the sides of buildings in his hometown, Jersey City.

The programtakes a grassroots approach, working through a network of parents and local businesses to find jobs. Dubbed ELITE (Education Leading Individuals Towards Employment), the effort started with five students two years ago and has expanded to 21 this year.

"We go in to smaller businesses and our students start with jobs like stocking shelves, but then the businesses see that they have a lot more to offer," Detlefsen said.

Gene Myers covers disability and mental health for NorthJersey.com and the USA TODAY Network. For unlimited access to the most important news from your local community, please subscribe or activate your digital account today.

Email: myers@northjersey.com

Twitter: @myersgene

This article originally appeared on NorthJersey.com: NY agency helps workers with autism find professional jobs