Colorado urging businesses to hire people with disabilities

The state government is encouraging businesses to hire people with disabilities such as Down syndrome and bipolar disorder.

Nine people dispatched throughout Colorado since July are telling businesses about the capabilities of people with disabilities and programs providing incentives to hire them.

Many people with disabilities have a hard time getting work. In Colorado Springs, an estimated 29,299 people age 16 to 64 are disabled. About half of them were unemployed last year, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. The statistics don’t reveal how many people with disabilities sought employment.

“The biggest barrier is attitudes and stereotypes,” said Larry Gehring, business outreach coordinator for the Division of Vocational Rehabilitation. The division is part of the Colorado Department of Human Services, the state welfare department.

Hiring officials sometimes don’t realize people with disabilities are capable of performing many jobs, and the changes necessary to accommodate a disability are often minimal, Gehring said. The state set aside about $200,000 for marketing efforts to tell companies about disabled workers, he said.

In Colorado Springs, Business Outreach Specialist Melody Babbitt said she identifies businesses that might hire people with disabilities through networking groups, cold calls and other means. Among Babbitt’s arsenal of reasons for hiring someone with a disability is one argument that’s highly personal. Babbitt has dyslexia, an impairment of the ability to read.

“I’ve got one, and I’ve been working all my life,” she said. “The more people we have working in our community, the better it is for all of us.”

Other arguments are on the practical side. For some employers, the state gives a temporary reimbursement of the salary for a disabled person. The government also sometimes covers the cost of changing a work space to accommodate a worker’s disability.

Colorado Springs resident Robert Troy Caron, a shift leader at a Quiznos restaurant, got his job about a year ago with help from Babbitt. Caron, 49, has several barriers to getting a job, including attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, bipolar disorder and a criminal record that includes felony convictions.

The store manager, Marge Carl, said she’s hired several people with disabilities through the Division of Vocational Rehabilitation program and now has two on staff.

Caron wrapped sandwiches at the restaurant until he got a promotion a few weeks ago. He said he enjoys the new position.

“I guess I got more responsibilities to myself, so it makes me feel better to myself,” he said.

CONTACT THE WRITER: 636-0187 or perry.swanson@gazette.com