Oklahoma job seeker with disabilities struggles to overcome

Journal Record, The (Oklahoma City), Jun 24, 2009

Robert Girard has what it takes to get a job - work experience, advanced training and a strong desire to make products with his hands in a woodworking or metal shop. At 35, he has power tools, the necessary skills and performance awards from previous jobs, but many employers are reluctant to give him a chance.

Girard has Usher syndrome. This medical condition caused deafness and retinitis pigmentosa, an eye disorder limiting his vision to the central area directly in front of him.

Technically, Girard is deaf-blind, a disability that many associate with Helen Keller, the author and lecturer who remains one of the best-known Americans with deaf-blindness, although she died nearly 40 years ago.

Unlike Keller, however, Girard has useable vision.

"People don't need to be afraid of hiring a person who is deaf- blind," Girard said through a sign-language interpreter. "If an employer will give me a chance, I'm willing to do whatever I need to do so I can be productive and support myself."

Janie Fugitt, Girard's rehabilitation counselor in the Visual Services division of the Oklahoma Department of Rehabilitation Services (DRS), hopes that new incentives, such as stimulus fund payments to employers for hiring and training qualified workers with disabilities, will help him find a job soon. The agency also may pay a percentage of the employee's monthly salaries for a short time with the understanding that he or she will be hired on a permanent basis if the job standards are met.

Fugitt coordinates with Joan Blake and DRS's Services to the Deaf division direct care specialist Keri Nutt to help Girard locate and follow up on job leads. Dale Rogers Training Center job coach Vivian Kelleher is an important part of the job search team.

While he waits to be hired, Girard makes and sells wooden crafts with holiday or fantasy themes. He uses carbon paper or an overhead projector to sketch designs, an electric saw to cut the shapes and finally paints and assembles the finished pieces.

"I can see to do this work," he said, "and I don't get hurt."

"Robert works hard to find a job and has done all the right things," said Blake, a specialist on deaf-blindness for Visual Services. "He should be wildly successful, but he comes up against a brick wall."

In order to increase public awareness about the needs and abilities of Oklahomans with severe sight and hearing impairments, Gov. Brad Henry declared June 21-27 as Helen Keller Deaf-Blind Awareness Week in Oklahoma.

While specific employment numbers are not available for deaf- blind workers, U.S. Census data indicates that 37.7 percent of Oklahomans with all types of disabilities, ages 16 to 64, are employed, compared to 80.4 percent of individuals in the same age range with no disabilities.

To boost Girard's employment chances, Visual Services sent him to the Helen Keller National Center in Sands Point, N.Y., for assessment and intensive training focused on employment skills, travel, computer use, and financial and household management.

Christine Baldwin, a specialist on rehabilitation of the blind, worked with Girard on travel skills and orientation to his apartment, bus routes and safe travel routes to potential jobs.

Girard also communicates with written notes.

"People with vision and hearing losses can do many jobs very well and can live independently in their own homes, like Robert does, assisted by special technology," Blake explained. "About the only thing they can't do is get in the car and drive."

"Sometimes the boss and co-workers are not willing to work with me," Girard said, "but those who gave me a chance in the past found out I can be a benefit to the company."

For more information about available services for Oklahomans who are deaf and blind, contact Blake at (405) 522-3417 or e-mail jblake@drs.state.ok.us/.