ERIC ED246603: Employment Trends: 1984 and Beyond. Where the Jobs Will Be.

Ed 246 603

EC* 162 811

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.1984 and Beyond. Where the Jobs

Bowe, Frank
Employment Trend:

Will Be. ./ 1

Arkansas Univ. , /Fayettevi lie . Rehabilitation Research
.arid Training Center. . ■" .. r V
National. Inst, of Handicapped Research (ED), ' f
Washington, DC.. , .

84 '
G008300010/01

4 Op.' " ' . / • , • *•

Arkansas Rehabilitation Research and Training Center,
Publications Department, P.O. Box 1358, Hot Springs',-.'
AR 71902 (No. ,1231, $5.00).

Information Analyses (070)-- Viewpoints (120)

■ ■ .•• .
MFOl/PCO'2 Plus Postage.

♦Disabilities; *Employment Opportunities; *Emplo.yment
Projections; *Labor Market; *Success; Trend
Analysis ■ • . \ . ' ^ ';' '•■ ' '

ABSTRACT _ , ^ .

The/report examines current labor market statistics
and makes projections regarding the types of jobs, available in the
future for handicapped workers. It is projected that

3 million

1980' s,

1 arts
^nd five
sales,
in which

disabled persons could be put to work before the end of the
An initial chapter considers difficultiesin making projections and
notes the positive potential of technology. Trends are then examined
which are considered unlikely to come to pass, including^massive
employment for/disabled persons in the computer industry, th£
.^industrialization of America, and the obsolescence of liber
as a course of study. The changing labour market is analyzed,
areas of opportunity ^general services, special services,
information /services, and entrepreneurshipX are described
people with 7 severe physical, sensory, and mental disabilities are
, most likely to find and keep jobs.. Personal characteristics, such as
tolerance/for routine, educational attainment, and inner vs.
other-dir'ectedness, are considered in', terms of I the five vareas of '
opportunity. The final chapter describes steps for promoting success
of disabled persons in private employment. Cooperation between
disabled persons themselves, service agencies, other government . _>
agencies, and employers" is stressed.- (CL) /

/

/

* Reproductions supplied by EDRS are the best that can be made *

* from the original document, - 1 r*
**************************^^

Where the Jobs Will Be

Frank Bowe

. t r. P» • f 1 ■. 1 1 m h! < 1 1 m »n d'c'.i'iifi h ami Inn

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9

ERIC

ERIC

Employment Trends:
1984 and Beyond

Where the Jobs Will Be

frank Bowe

A

1

V ,

^ v Arkansas Rehabilitation Research and Training Center

S University of Arkansas

s^*" . / Xr'i Arkansas Rehabilitation Services ,

• ■ ■■ 1984' : " '

The contents

t tdtive Services, Department of Education, Washington, DC 20202. However, those contents do not
necessarily represent the pplicy of that agehcy and you should not assume endorsement by the"
federal Government. : • .;■,;/■•/• •< .>V ,\ ■ : U*'V- ; v ;

All progr^tes administered by and^servlcesprovltied by the Arkansas Research ahd Training Center
in VocationarReWabilitation are rerkfered on a nondiscriminatory basis without regard fo handicap,
race, creed, color, or national origin in compliance with th$ Rehabilitation Act of 1973 and Title VI of
the Civil Rights Act$ 1964. All applicants for program participation and/or services have a right to file
Complaints and to appeal according to regulations governing this principle. \ ■ j, • '

About th© Author

Frank Bowe, Ph.D., U.D., In fifteen years of work Iniehbbllltdtlon and special education,
government*! and private business, has developed b broad r,ange of Interests vyhlch are

! e ! le ^? d J^l)^^ 00 ^ Comp ^ n fl- and 8 ^ la ^H !l> » (Sybexeompujer Boiks, 1984) his
latest, Is the first book-length treatment of how personal spmputerscan helplandlcapped

and older persons. Handicapping America (Harperfc Row) Introduced rhany thousands of
If^L^^® l0fl,8la,,V0 ' re 9 ula ^©- and social aspects $f disability In our country.
Rehabilitating America (Harper & Row) looked at the economics of age a«d disability
Comeback (Harper & Row) profiled six severely dlkabled Individuals In thlllbuntiy and
abroad, seeking the reasons for their remarkable sbccess.ln overcoming disability While
working for- the Arkansas Rehabllltatlbn Research Arid Training Center at the University of
Arkansas, he authored three books-Demography and Disability, The Business.
Rehabilitation Partnership, and Employment Trehdi- which explore the poterrffal for
placing more disabled persons Into meaningful jobs. ' " • ..

A Visiting Professor wlth.the R&T Center.Dr. Bowe res Ides ori Long Isiand'Houth shore with his
wife of, ten years and their two daughters. '

Preface

Employment Trends: 1904 and Beyond represents the third book Frank Bowe has written \
while working for the University of Arkansas Rehabilitation Research and Training Center^ln
Demography and Disability, his first, he Interpreted complex Census Bureau figures Into
easy-fcwead charts that helped us to better understand the nations population of disabled
adults. With Jay Rochlln, AT&T Human Resourdes Manager, he then wrote. The Business*
Rehabilitation Partnership, which offered rehabilitation practitioners the benefit of their
experiences In business by suggesting ways In which rehabilitation could creqte and .
maintain a true 4 'partnershlp M with business to benefit disabled job seekers and employers.
Employment Trends Identifies five broad areas In which Dr, Bowe believes disabled people ,
are especially likely to find employment In the years ahead. It answers, as best as possible,
the questlon: "Where are the Jobs?" ,

The ARR&TC continues Its five-year program of research on employment of persons with
disabilities. We stand ready to serve the profession throughout the Southwest and thenatlon.
As director of the Center, I welcome your Inquiries! • ** ■

Vernon L.Glenn . / 1 *^§jWV

plrector \

Table of Contents \ .

Chapter On*: Into the Breach , . . .' ................ ^ . 1

Chapter Two: What Is Not Coping to Happen , 5

Chapter Three: Pocket Marketing. , 1.1

Chapter Four: Five Areas of Opportunity 17

phapter Five: Personal Characteristics v 23

Chapter Six: Making It Happen. 29

Footnotes ./*• .*. , . , a ... 33

X

Reference! , A t ,/f . ... i ......... ... 37

v

(

Chapter On* f - ^ \

ibtoThe Broach

In writing a book about "whore the jobs will bo/ 1 It Is necessary to makd many projections,
prodlctlons^jjnd prognostications, Thqse represent my best Judgments, yet even as I make
them, I know that many of them will be wrong, Some will be so embarraslngly erroneous
that I will be strongly tempted to ask the university to recall copies of the book*o I can wipe
the ,ogg off my face, * '■ ' ' • ^ (

It's probably hot good to begin a book with such diffidence, If there Is such uncertainty
ab/but what I'm writing, why write It at all? Good question, I'm writing fhe book because I'm
convinced wo can put throe million, disabled people to VHfk beforo the docado Is out—
people who are not working now, I think we can do It by taking sortie spofciflc, fairly simple,
stops between 1984 and 1990, '

Each year, I give! some forty or fifty speeches. At the conventions In which I speak,
I encounter some 15,000 to 20,000 peoplexmnually. The question they most often ask,
despite their diversity of Interests, Is: "Where afe thejpbs?" Parents of handicapped children
ask that question. Special educators do, too, f hear that question fromvocatlonaMechnlcal
* school administrators, rehabilitation counselors, career educators, I hear it from disabled
youth and adults. I hear it In th)o halls and lobbies of hotels coast-to coast from people who
sell educational audio-visual equipment, people who serve as consultants to special
education agencies, people who run those agencies, and people who rgn the colleges
and universities that use the audio-visual equipment to train the people who run the
educational agencies. ;

The reason they're all so Interested is not difficult ,to understand— the answers will affect
what they do. Some of these people, particularly pfebllc agency officials, school
administrators and parents; are looking fairly far down the road. Decisions they make now
will affect the lives 6f handicapped youth three, five, even ten years from now. i

Also, theyjre asking whpre the )obs*pre because they're nervous. High unemployment has
become a periodic phenomenon; iplmost one-third of all working-age Americans have
been unemployed at one point or another during the-pafct half-decade or have someone
close to them who was. With sophisticated technology coming so fast, and doing so many
jobs so well, people feel threatened.

They're asking where the Jobs are because they understand that the labor»market supply
and demand information they get in the general media does not necessarily reflect the
, situation that will be faced by people with hdndlcaps. For example, one may see a story In
the Wall Street Journal about the phenomenal /growth of sales Jobs in recent years, yet
come away from that story with a nagging sense of unease: will people with physical,
sensory and other disabilities bp able to get those kinds of jobs?,

When you think about it for a moment, "Where will the jobs be?" Is a simple questton that
turns out to be very difficult to answer. In one case, it's a 40-yearold former Chicago Tribune
pressman who is askjng the question. He Wonders "Wherefore Jobs that' I can do, or qualify
to do, within the next few months?" The nsxt person to inquire may be the mother of a 1 2-year-
old child with a learning disability; the mother's concern has to do with secondary and
post-secondary educational concentrations most likely to lead'to stable and rewarding
work for her daughter ten years down the rbad. The pressman and the mother are having to
consider gyrations In interest rates, inflation, white-collar productivity, the strength of the
dollar, the fiscal policy popular in Washington at any given ppint'what the Japanese are
selling lately, regional and seasonal variatldns in employment patterns around the country
and in different sectors of the economy, and a host of other factors. Also to be considered
are projections about the relative cost and supply of reasonable accommodation aids
and, devices, attitudes toward disabled persons among employment interviewers, the
adequacy of public income maintenance support for people riot In the labor force, Federal
and state employment Incentives' for employers such as the Targeted Jobs Tax Credit'
program, and a myriad of other matters.

To dnswer that simple-sounding four-word question (''Where are the jobs?"), then, requires
wading through a veritable maze of facts, figures, assumptions and even some wild guesses.

Let me N make that concrete. For Its October 1979 special supplement, "Careers In the
1 980* s " the staff of the Sunday New Yprk Times assembled the nation 'sjop experts in labor
economics and an array of related fields? As The Times reported, Vermont, almost atone
among all the New England and Mid-Atlantic states, would enjoy explosive growth in the

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' number of now job! between 1980 and 1985, In act, Tho Tlmoi predicted that growth In
Vermont lobs could como at a staggering 25% clip but surely would bo no lower than a*
robust 10V ; '

As .It happened, smbek In the middle of that fi\l(o-year period, I was asked to speak In
Vermont, As I stood up bofdro over 300 people at the Lake Morey Inn, just past the New
Hampshlro bordor, on October 13, ,1982, to convoylto them the considered opinions of Tho %
Times' august: editors, I watched the crowd react with a loqk of stunned Incredulity, As all of
us know, tho Federal Department of Labor had denounced that preceding Friday that
unemployment had hit a post-war high of 10,1% wflh 11,3 mlllldn poopiooul ofworkJob
growth In Vormonl ovor tho past two and one-half ykus had actually boon nogatlvo; Ihore
c woro fowor jobs when I spoko than Ihore had boon In January 1980,

How, my audlonce wantod to know, could \\\o exports have boon so Incrodlbly
misguided? Their faith In tho rationality and knowledge of the opinion loddors of our country
\ ^ was shaken to Its core. ■ ' ■ -\\

Tho answer, of course, Is that unexpected things had happened to upset the careful
• calculations of tho exports, Thoro was the not-inconsidorablo maltor of tho worst rocosslon
k slhco tho Groat Depression, Thoro was tho prossuro'uppn corporate Amorlca to cut costs In
order to compote with the Japanese, Interest rafes were sky-high, making firms reluctynt to
V Invest In new |obs. Mixed In with all of this, unseen at tt^e time, was a major alteration In the
\ vory nature of the American economy: were we(e changing very quickly from a post-
Industrial economy to what Is now known as an 'Information-age" society. In 1979, when
\ The Times collected the views of its selected experts, the term hadn't even been coined,
\ If all of this is true, what's the point In making predictions at all? That seems to be a
reasonable question, and in one sense it probably is. But the fact remains that there are
\baslc forces and factors at work In our economy, as well-concealed as they sometime*
bom to be. Vermont will enjoy robust job growth, in fact already Is beglnnlngto, for many of
the reasons idenllflod by The Times 1 experts four, years ago, The events of the intervening
years have changed some of thettends, strengthening some dnd weakening others, so that
. exact prediction is an unreachable goal. Yet there is much of value In what The Times
stated. Even with the ever-present threat of unpredictable ©vents, we are better off trying fo
understand our economy and trying to project where jobs will be than we are with reliance
upon $heer guesswork. \ t

So v I'iri going to leap into the breach to predict, not only that there will be jobs for people
with handicaps who want them, but also what kinds of jobs these will be. This book identifies
five (5) broad areas of Jobs th'at disabled people will be filling In the nextfive to ten years. For
each occupation, I'll describe the characteristics which successful workers probably will
have. This Information Is needed by educators, counselors, parents and dispbled adults to
decide on difficult training, job-seeking and life-style issues.^ Bearing in mind that some of
these* projections will be wide of the mark, this book should help disabled people to help
themselves. \ ' \ \

My earlier books for the university differed greatly from Employment Trends. Demography
and Disability offered data on the size and characteristics of the nation's population ofr
adults with disabilities. That book.drew upon 1981 and 1982 surveys conducted by the U S.
Bureau of the Census. Although some of the information was interpreted and explained,
most of the data yvere fairly objective and reliable; it's not a book about which I have many
doubts. Demography, in a very real sense, Is destiny. Majpr shifts in demography beyond
those already foreseen are unlikely They do happen and a good example is the "baby-
boom generation" phenomenon. Virtually no demographer exbectedJt,* and such major
surprises are quite rare. So. I have confidence In Demography and Disability.

The Business-Rehabilitation Partnership, too, contained few Statements I think will need
to be retracted in the next several years. I'm confident about ill especially because AT&T
Human Resources Manager, J.F. Rochlin was my co-author. Jaylhas had almost three
decades; of experience in business. 1
' Employmet Trends, 'hough^lfe^ my biases, experience, al^d philosophy, Someone
else might have written Demd^^ffiyor Partnership and. with fairlyminor differences of style
and content, come up ; with ratK^T similar results. The same is not true of Employment. So,
before we gotfurther. I need to make clear where I'm "coming from/' and then you will be
able to make the adjustments necessary to judge the information in th|is book.

2

First, I am noto luddlle, Acjvances In technology don't make me tear for people's jobs :
• I think what we've seen In the gast w© will continue to see; as machines enable one person to
do what two once ^ld, they will also generate demand for new work by \ho now-displaced
worker Not everyone shares this view, If you do not, treat the prbgndstlcations In this book
with some care

Second, planned oconomles make me very nervous I am not an advocate of controlled,
^late-controlled employment programs. Over the years, I've •listened, not to iabor
Department bureaucrats, but to private businessmen In order to learn bbout where jobs will
bo This book reflects what I've learned; If youVo talked to people of different opinions, you
may disagree with much that's In Ihisvbeok, V

Third, I bollovo that wo, as a nation, wit havo to find wpys to help handicapped pooplo and
older Americans to got and koop jobs v l do not see how we can maintain our traditional
values *whllo kooplng Jn ddpondoncy millions of people who could, and should, work
Sooner or l6tor t I tjolloVo, others will como around to this way of thinking, Business will wahl to
hire disabled people and government will want to encourage that, So I am optimistic that
jobs will bo'Qvallablo for 'disabled persons If you are a fan "of the soclarfze\t "economies of
Sweden, England and France, you will want to rovise downward^ \tw employment
pro|ocllons In this book-disabled pooplo In those countries very rarely work,

, Finally, I am vory optimistic about Iho fuluro polonllal of tochnology In hwlp/ng poople with
disabilities to work. Porsonal compulors. today aro capable ol arllotitatirrg. In an artificial
voice, data appearing on Scroons; for dyslexic. and blind porsons/ln particular, that
capability opons up completely new job horizons, Tomorrow's computers wllthMjr; I, for one,
will got such a machlno and work Potior bpcauso of it, If you are moro sangulno about
computers, adjust your Interpretation of what you road here accordingly.

10

Chapter Two

What It Not Going to Happen

Over the years, I've found that I have.to explain what I don't oxpscf la happen before
communicating with people about tho'klnds of Jobs I believe handicapped or disabled
people* will be doing in the next decqde or so,

By the time you fihish the next several pa0ei, you'll either fool that you are gaining q new
perspective on employment trends or suspect that you're really reading a disguised Garry
Trudeau cartoon strip.

Massive Computer Jobs

traveling around the country, I hear rehabilitation practitioners, special educators and
vocatldrtal'lochnlcal school adminlsljalors touting compulor-programmlrig and corn-
puter-ropalr Iralningifor handicapped youth and adults, Ihey point to tho news storlos
projecting great yoaps In the percentages of people employed in computer lobs as
jqillficalion for steering disabled students and clients Into these occupations,

• Look" they spy, "the Bureau of Labor Statistics In the U S. Department of Labor predicts
that employment In the computer companies will grow twice as fast as the national average
over the next ten years: Computer operators, computer repair technicians, computer
systoms analysts and computor programmers— those are the jobs to shoot for.' 1 1 oven hoar*
some counselors saying that thoir agencies won't support clients In academic majors in
collogo but will subsidize computor technology courses of study,

First, looking carefully at this widoly heralded growth flold, consider how computers aro
made. In Docq Raton, Florida, a smalt team of engineers doslgnod the hugely popular IBM
PC, Thoy used IBM computers to do tho machine's configurations. A computor transmitted*.
• Iho product specifications to computer-driven manufacturing units, which were attended by
a fairly small staff of workers acting more as monitors than as assembly-line workers As the
new personal computers came off line, Ihey were tested by running a computer program to
"debug" Ihom'and ensure that thoy work()d properly, Th$ same softwaro and hardware was
used to discover why some units falle^— and to repair thorn.

IBM expects to makesome two millioln PC's In 1984, more than lhe4otal number produced
by all computer manufac turers in the country in 1963. They can only do that by relying upon
a highly automated factory set-up. The Boca Raton 1 factory produces a complete PC in just
45 seconds. Few people are employed In that process, compared to the traditional
assembly-line operation in Detroit, \

Second, the people \vho work in the factories are not highly unionized as are their peers in
auto-assembly shops. Look, for a helpful- contrast, at what happened as railroad engines
were Improved: union rules required that two people remairi In the engine cab, even though
only one was now needed, Nothing of the sort is happening In computer factories, IBM will
never have to attempt to invalidate union contracts, It can automate Its factories as much
and as (as! as It wishes, keeping factory emqffbyment down, ,

Third, look at what is happening to computers themselves. Ten years ago, when I was in 4
graduate school, only highly trained computer programmers knew how to make a
computer do what Ihey Wanted done; I can keenly remember feeling frustrated as I stood
with my slack of IBM'cards while a specialist made the machine work for me. Today, my
seven-year-old daughter can operate a computer— by herself. Computers are becoming
more "user friendly/' and this powerful trend reduces the need for sophisticated computer
p/ogrammers in every office department of every company or organization.

Fourth, look at what's happening to the computer Industry. Early in 1 983, we had some 1 50
manufacturers of home and personal computers. By the end of 1<?84, observers predict, we'll
have at most a dozen or so. The smaller 4 ones J just can't afford the huge capitalization costs
Ihey would need to remain competitive with fBM and Apple: they're being forced out of the
market even as the market grows by Iqaps and bounds. In just 18 short months, Adam
Osborne look his fledgling company. Osborne Computers, from obscurity to dominance in
the portable-computer market. On September 13, 1983, the company filed for bankruptcy,
laying off 900 workers. Atari, the video games manufacturer, laid off 3.000 employees when
its games fell in popular favor. Mattel, an Atari competit£>r A eut on§-lhird of its electronics
support staff. Victor Technologies laid off 950 people. Ve^tbf graphics slashed its payroll by
one-quarter. v : " v;

What the computer Industry really looks like, from-the, prospective worker's point of view, is

cThoitl employing a few well-paid psopio to dsiign and oversee ©p§reti6ns, a taw poorly
paid nan unionized factory workers who watch Ihe assembly "line fn©re than mov§ it. end a
small number a» shipping and clerical workers, also poorly paid, who insure mat the
products got lo the* right location* , .

Even poopio who understand* oil this stilt insist that ^Someone's going lo have to repair
oil those devices!" They point la probations in ih^Mpcrtiaaad percentages of people
omployod as eompgtor ropoir technicians Out eonslder)*hatla already starling lo happ/riv
wilh hardware and software II something doesn't work, yqu carrcall an 8O0-nu/*nber, someone*
ihoro lolls you what to do If ihot doesn't help* you slip a circuit board or a floppy disk cuUl.of
the machine, put it fhio a mailing cartridge and send il back for replacement Because the
cost of repairing the board or disk frequently exceeds the original cost of making if,
what often happens is thai ihe piece is analy;ed by Ihe company lo discover what went
wrong. aVow commands are entered Into Iho controlling design thai oversees how those
piocos oro mado-and Iho offending piece Is discarded Considor, for oxomplo, hand
calculators When I was pursuing rrjy doctoral studlos y a programmable calculator cost
some $350 |l (t didn't perform a regression equation properly J sent it off to be fixed Toddy
I can gel a hand held calculator that does everything my original one did, bul colli under
C»K) if it brooks (ofl.. coffee is spilled on lis keyboard); I throw it away, la fix H would cosMar
more than buying a new ono ■ * * ,

Some of Iho executives at Apple Computer have a good analogy of what's happening to
personal computers those days Ihoy point lo what happens when people rent cars at
airports almost nobody roads Iho owner's manual beforo drMng off That's true, I've rented
Nissan Sonlras. Ford Galaxies, Chovrolel Chovolles cfnd many other makes I'd noy$i drivon
beforo and look off on Voy trips without even glancing at an ownor's manual mi&Apple's
loaders say. Is whal ls going to happen to personal computers What happons if there ft an
accident? I've soon cars bang Into trees, smashing two doors on ono side, but tanMng Iho
rosl of iho car undamaged Result iho car Is lunkod because il costs too much to fix It

Adam Osborne made* an interesting point before his company filed for protection under
bankruptcy laws "What wore going tp sqo. m ho said "is not so much computers in every
room In Iho homo and in Ihe office as computing there " The refrigerator, for example, may
corno wilh microprocessors inside It Bul ytt| will scarcely oven be awaro or that fact— lot
alono use compulor programming Skills tlfiWalk" lo your rofrigoralor

I think that what has misled', many pooplITn spoclal education and rehabilitation's wpll
as Ihoir coiloaguos In many'olher fields, Is thai perconlagos have denpmlnalors as well as
numerators It's an easy oversight tc5 make when one roads sparkling predictions thai tho
numbor of computer programmer jobs will doublo by 1990 and that compulor-lechnlcian
positions wlinncroasc^93% by Iho end of Iho century Slop for a moment, though: how many
/Computer ropalr technicians do you know?

\ Sure, compulor programming and manufaeiyrlng jobs will Increase-* but from a vary
Vmall base. Job openings in Ihe entire computer design, manufacturing and ropalr field will
pjpbablv averago just 50,000 annually for 'Ihe foreseeable future. Already, more than that
number of people Is enrollod In computer-related col^s^s each semester We'rp seeing in
computer programming what we rocenlly saw in ioi^pdllsm and in law. After the highly
publicized Walorgale scandal, hordes of people went Jo jSbrnalism and law schoolfc. Today,
a lot of thoso people are dftving cabs. t

What will be important for handicapped youth gnd adults to learn is how to be
comfortable around computers— and how lo interpretthe data they produce. In the future,
millions of handicapped workers will use computers— tout to do things they'll trained to do,
such as financial management, sales, writing, product design and Ihe like. They will use
computers as tools lo do othor jobs:

Liberal Arts as a Dinosaur \.

.Rehabilitation and special educatlon|Deopletellmetheydctivetydiscouragecllentsand
students from pursuing liberal-arts couffts of study Thfeir reasoning: it's hard for History and
English majors to gel jobs. In fact, some rehabilitation practitioners go so far as to say that
Iheir agenpy will not pay for college education in such fields. I think that's d major mistake.

Look at what happened when Osborne Computers laid off 900 people. The low-skilled oper-
ators and technicians were gone in just a few minutes. Most found It hard to get another

6

12

computer-industry job. TheV^new hqw tb dgjDne job and only one job. By contrast, the
managers, financial people** a nd otfier^^ worked^with people rather than machines
often got job offers within -days of OsbCrrjO's filing^or bankruptcy. .

The. major characteristic 8 of our time?;:'probdbly t| is change. People need a broad back-,
ground, including exposure to history, spa in prder to cope well with

constant changed Technical^ gaining such flexibility, "Another rnqjor

characteristic of work, paradoxically in^ie^of the rapid acceleration of machines in every :
phase of our lives, is people orientation *Gb^; workers know how-to relate well to co-workers J
and to customers. They know how to molipte people to perform and to buy. These are,
exactly the skills that the liberal, arts teacnf ?' ; \

Careers today are made, not in one field, but in several. My father worked for the same
company, in the same job, for Several decades. I've held five jobs in fifteen years, an&fqurof
thbse jobs didn't even exjst before I took them. Narrow training in a highly speflfelized
technical field, is more likely to lead to frustration than is prepdrdtfbh that. is qpplicqRjp to
many different fields of >vork. >-.;. '. ' / "

Finally, the real growth in jobs in.the future, if) facHn:the present as well, is not so much in
operating a piece of machinery :ajph taking advantage of what if does. Financial managers
make ten to fifteen times as much as do data-entry technicians, and forgobd reasons: the
ability to interpret raw data, to make sense of numbers, to relate findings to factors beyond
the data set, are the capabilities highly prized in.oursociety One needs a feeling for history,
q sensitivity to economics, an understanding of how people behave, in order to analyze and
interpret information. Again, these are skills that fhe liberal arts foster

Often, I talk to business people who telJ me they prefer to hire broadly educated, as
opposed to narrowly trained, people. Each company has its own way of doing things; its
own procedures, its own philosophy. The corporations I've worked most closely with prefer to
train people "bur way" rather than hire fully trained people off the street.

Let's not become so mesmerized by the allure of high technology thatvte lose sightof the ,
•fact that machines are. to serve us. A computer, some day, will be much like q typewriter— ■
and where is the "glamour" in typewriter manufacturing, sales and repair?

Let's not restrict the future of disabled students and clients by misleading and.mistraining
them:. Particularly «for the more promising individuals, those with real potential for higtv
powered careers; let's offer them the broad-based "education" they will need and not just
the harrow "training" they might use on their first entry-level job— and never again, ;

These days there's a lot of "doom and gloom" talk about the future of work in«our country.
If you listen carefully, you'll find that the real horror stories are about the fates of low-skilled,
semi-skilled and unskilled workers, especially those who had high-paying unionized jobs in
heavy manufacturing. Their future is not bright, which leads us to the next topic—
^industrialization.

"Reindustrialization" of America

Labor economists Bennett Harrison 9 of Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Barry
Bluestone of Boston College/and many others have been quite vocal in recent years in
calling for a "reindustrialization" in ouKcountry. Mr. Harrison, who is a respected Marxist
economist is much more concerned about the tabor side of the equation than the

capital side. ■•/■'- :

Harrison and Bluestone studied the New England economy of the 1970's, concentrating
upon the traditional manufacturing operations and , the newer hightech companies
springing up along Route 128 outside Boston. What they found frightened them/Of some
675,000 textile workers who lost jobs when mills closed all over New England, qnly 3% found
jobs in Boston's high-tech companies (such as Wang and Prime Computer). Five times more
of these people got jobs in places like McDonalds, than those who moved to better-paying
slots with high-tech companies. Most moved down and the jobsfhey gof were lower-paying,
less secure, and less, unionized than the ones they left; /

The economists were very angry at the capitalists responsible for all this. The textile factory ;
bwners shifted the vast bulk of the jobs overseas in order to cut manufacturing costs. This,
Harrison and Bluestone argued, deprived Americans of good jobs, handing them to
foreigners. And, the fast-growing high-tech company owners, who controlled the emerging
jobs, kept unions out of their factories, thus depriving workers of a livable wage

Harrison and Bluestone decried "the missing middle'Vwe^ moving into an economy
characterized by well-paid planners and managers on the one hand and poorly paid
blue-collarworkers on the other. The middle-class - low-educated but high-paid factory worker
of the past is, it seems, gone, forever. That's probably right— the Detroit assembly line
operator, who earned more than many college professors, likely will never again see such
financial security and job safety V

The AFL-CIO 10 hailed Harrison and Bluestone's study; Complaining that. robots and other
computerized devices would displace hundreds of thousands of factory workers every year
for a decade to come, the labor dsisobidtion called for protectionist trade legislation.
Federal laws requiring that American workers be employed to make American products
using made-in-Americq components, and similar measures. There was a lot of talk about •?
creating a "new industrial. policy," one that would tiave the Federal government handing/
out subsidies to keep jeopardized "smokestack" industries afloat, erecting high barriers and
stiff tariffs to prevent foreigh competitors from taking the market from the domestic
manufacturers; and guaranteeing the termination-threatened American factory workerfree
job-retraining if and when that became necessary. ' ■£.*

The organization 's Evolution of Work Committee suggested that the AFL-CIO position itself
squarely in opposition to rapid computerization in the workplace. Recoiling in horrpfbefore
figures showing that each robot*dnd other computer device used in a factory vyouLq deprive
three workers of their jobs, and calling upon Hdrrispn and Bluestone to demonstrate that
those people probably couldn't find equally well-paying jobs elsewhere, the committee
rushed to the cause of the low-educated factory workerwhosefuturewasthredrened.That is
understandable because such workers are the very people who belong to AFC-CIO affiliated
unions. Just as predictably, business owners jumped all over the Harrisonf and Bluestone
study. ,. ■ / ■ : • '• '

James Cook, 11 executive editor of Forbes; magazine, for example/ pointed out that
protectionist legislation just wouldn't work. Factory assembly operations very soon will be
almost completely automated in many industries, he wrote in a guesfpolumn syndicated to
the nation's newspapers. Computers will not only design products, jmanufacture their parts
and assemble these components, but will repair the devices as werf. Indeed; in some of the
more advanced factories, that is happening already; we've seen what IBM did in Boca
Raton When such automation spreads to other fields within the next several years, most of
the remaining high-pay low-skill jobs will be eliminated. The pepple displaced will be Taiwan
and Singapore workers; already, fully half of all employees of the entirq^semiconductor
industry, for exgmple, work in the Far* East/ The factories tjjien will be moved back to-this
country, but there will be very few jobs in thoselfactoriesto ,be done by human workers. Why,
then, Cook, says, argue about jobs that aren't going to be there anyway?

Cook acknowledges that, according to the Congressionai Budget Office, micro-
electronic technology might result in the Iqss of threamillion American jobs by 1 990, or 1 5%
(one in every six) of the manufacturing labor force, and seven million (one-third) by the year
'2000. But he points out that if business ownerSyWere to do what the Evolution, of Work
Committee asks, .and keep fiigh-paid low skill porkers on the job, competitors who use
computers to make more products faster, cheaper arid more effectively. would drive the
labor-intensive Companies out of business, thus ending the jobs anyway.

As for putting up trade barriers, as; the AFl/ciO wants done, Cook observes that other
countries would respbrld in kind. Unabieio^seJI our products abroad, we would lose

jobs here. / v '

It's a classic case of "the eye of the beholder." Cook and Harrison both looked at Route
1 28 and Silicon Valley. Harrison, whose orientation was toward protecting proletarian labor,
was disgusted; Cook, who starts from trie capitalist's point of view, was delighted.

What does all this have to do with employment of handicapped adults? Consider for a
moment in what kinds of jobs people/With disabilities often are placed. In my experience, it's
been in "things" work as'much as in "people" or "ideas" jobs. And, of course, workers, in
direct-labor, high-risk jobs are precisely those workers who tend to Jbecome; disabled
through industrial accidents. Many rehabilitation and special-education agency people
side with Harrison and Bluestone/in rooting fora return to an industrial economy. I think
they're wrong and are doing a disservice to students and clients by promising employment
that doesn't call for advanced education or highly skilled capabilities, „

We're just nohgelng to have a ^industrialization in this country. Cook is right— it would be
economic suicide. Peter Drucker points out, correctly! believe, that the kinds of jobs that
highly-unionized workers have done in the past won't be done in this country in the future.
They'll be done in developing nationswhere cpste of manufacturing and of labor are lower,
or they'll be automated. „

The answer isn't to kee|f training disabled ^people to do low-skilled manufacturing jobs.
Rather, it's to train them, or as the case may b& re-train them for services employment and for
- jobs jequiring higher levels of education, i ' . ■ • 7 ■ V ?r

M The Happy Beneficiary"

Rehabilitation personnel coast-to-coast bemoan the fact that they can't seem to
motivate adults with disabilities to seek job-training and to pursue employment. When I
point out that the '1980 Social Security Amendments removed most of the so-called "work,
disincentives" from Social Security Disability Insurance and Supplemental Security Income
program rules, they]ust shrug: "I can't even get them to listen, Frank. They're making better
.deals for themselves off the taxpayers than they think they can make on payrolls."

What's happened so far 12 is understandable. Until 1 980, many literally could not afford to
look for work. As soon as they could afford to try, there were no jobs to be had— the nation
was in a recession so deep some people called it a depression; Then, as the recession
started lifting, the Federal Government went into a crackdown on disability beneficiaries so
severe that several Senators used terms like "subhuman" and "callous" to describe it. The
Social Security Administration's goal was clear—to wipe off the rolls the people who didn't r
belong there. In three short years, more than one-half million people were dumped from
the rgills. ■; v

The naive observer in far-away Washington, DC, might be excused for thinking that so
^drastic a measure surely would convince people on disability insurance rolls to depart
Ihose rolls for jobs. But that's not what happened. When you talk with people who are getting
benefits, you learn that they're almost desperate riot to showony capacity for work, lest the
slightest "gainful activity' 1 be turned against them. Besides, many had been on the rolls so
long that they had grown accustomed to the benefits and theyjelt "entitled" to them. When
the crackdown came, the response often was to engage lawyers to fight Washington rather
than counselors to find jobs. There's a shopworn schoolyard expression that cayers this:
"better the devil you don't know than the devil you do." ;
There is little doubt that the Social Security Administration went too far. I remember being
, there, lobbying for the removal of work disincentives, every step of the way as the bill was:
fashioned; and the provision calling for a review attracted only passing attention; In fact J 'd
clearly forgotten about it by March 1 981 . when the crackdown began. I know that tnany of
the people who were removed from the rolls indisputably belong-on them bedQuse they
really can't work full-time in any jobs for which they would qualify. Yet the review continued,
unabated, for three solid years. There were only a few scattered complaints from the people
in a position to halt the review: the Senators and Congressmen on the key authorizing
committees, despite a cascade of mail, phone calls and even personal visitsfrom outraged
0 beneficiaries and their advocates.

Just as I was beginning to think that the Cpngress would allow the Administration to
continue on its barbarous path, along came some "white knights" to the rescue of theSSDI
beneficiaries. These saviors said all the right things: that Congress never had intended so
brutal a crackdown (true); that the Social Security Administration was ignoring court orders r
to cease and desist (true); that many people oh the rolls really can't work (true)
Administration had the burden to show that a beneficiary had improved in health status and
ability to work since joining the rolls in order to justify removal (probably true).

But who were these wonderful "white knights"? None other than our old, well-known, so-
called friends, the National Governors' Association (NGA). The self-same people who
complained when then-HEW Secretary, Joseph Califanq, issued the tough new section 504
regulations. The vlry folks who paraded up Capitol Hill to defeat reauthorization of P.L. 94-
/ 142, the Education for All Handicapped Children Act. This same group of people, the NGA,
had alsobeseiged then-President Carter to veto what became P.L. 95-602, the Rehabilitation
Act Amendments of 1980. (Many governors disagreed with the NGA on these stands.)

What had cqused the NGA's suddeh tufn of h$07 If s "true that politics rriakeS strange*
bedfellows, and I was glad to learn thaf they hdcpnally seen the light, but I was curious
nonetheless. I think all of us should have been, b^c<duse it turns put* that the vast bulk><^f the
unfortunate souls who were being cut off from di^bjlify benefits by the^Pederal government
were landing bffstbte^su^

crackdown because the states were having to foofjthe bill for it, ^ > • J- r.

Thelesso^
on dependency rblfc^
the states; Thl^
boni know trtari t^

to become awfully uncqfnfcirtable. "Reviews" .jvill c8me much more often; they'll be more
and more rigid; and benefits ^

people on the rolls "Wiii get worse and w^ ^ -

♦ Meanwhile, as suggested earlier, I think, eventually, that government will wake up to the
fact that it costs relatively little to train and equip people with accommodation aids and
devices so they can work. < V : v ; , • j

|p August 1983, 13 President Redgan signed into lawa bill authQrizing payments of up to
$1 0,000 to companies that hired previously unemployed ^yeteraps. (including disabled^
veterans) in order to defray training and other emplbymentfelated dbsts. This is,more than
three times the.amount provided by the targeted jobs tax credit, for which the same people
were eligible, yet it remains a good deal for the Federal Government. —

The fact is that ed6h additional one percent of unerhplqymentjcosts theTreasgry between
$25- and $30-billion in lost tax revenues and in larger payments to the unemployed. When
the jobless individuals dre qlsb-disabled, the cost to governmentls even higher, because of
eligibility for long^erm Federal (qot just state) support through SSDI and SSI. ■ ♦ ^

William C Norris^ 4 chairman of Control Data Corporation, i$ asking for a (5Q% payroll
contribution from government for every disadvantaged person hired by business. Norris,
^probably one of the most social-conscious chief executives in the nation, pbints out that a
tax credit of $1 5,000 per year per person trained and put on the job rolls— a credit that would
last for the first ten full years that person kept working— would still save govemmeht money. t .
As much as I respect Norris, I believe this overstates the case; but only slightly, because Norris '
is on the right track. \ \ ".:.' > . \

What all of this mean$J£that, if) the not-too-distant future.&usiness and government will
combine to provide a real opportunity to work for many people with disabilities. I believe
these people will grab at the chance! /

A choice between an increasingly threatened tenure orta shrinking public-aid roll and an
attractive opportunity to get and keep a good job, is no dilemma atxHI. Those of us who
work know that we get social contact, peer respect, monetary compensation, q challenge,
a source of pride, and a feeling of real achievement from our work. None of that comes from
being idle.

hapter Three ✓

ocket Marketing 7 V'tzfi-

< For the balance 15 of thfe d

ber of jobs— that's the bad news. The good nev^isthat "pgckets" of opportunity exist qveh in
a labor-surplus market, and that demography is onfhevside of pebple Who want jobs^ ;

The working<ige popu^ is growing at a rate of about 1 00,000 ; '

persons per mohth , As the%conpmy brightens, rnqny-^

of the labor force during the recent recession will be drawn back )n. To illustcate;1n 1976, just
after the 1 974-75 recession^ the economy generated a large 2.9 million jobs;: but 2:4 millioh
peopleentered t^e labor rparket! "? - y '—."[■. • ^U'-^-f '>y;iy' : £yiy r

This means that throughput the-decacte of\the 1 §80s K rehabilitation wilfhave to seefe out
pockets; of opportunity withih;the labor jnarket, fields in which there are labor Shortages Jn
order to give persons with disabilities important ■ 'first job" opportunities. There are now, and,
will continue to be, such podcets. : v : ;,//>. ,- o

Our edonomy is by pow a5customed >o the influx of young people into the Idbpr market; '
the baby-boom generation has be^h with -us so iong'that we find it hqrd to imagine life '
without a constantly larger group of young people pressing for jobs. Yet that is exactly what
is iastorie for us. For the first time.in $5 years, the number of peopleenterinjj [the iafcbrfharket .
% Jor their first time will Start declining. The last of the baby boomers, those born |n 4964, will tur^ *
24 ip 1 988; almost all of them VtflFbe in the labor force by that year. Thereafter, the 'number
of new entrants, frill drop-rand keep dropping for the foreseeable future;

In 1 980, 17 for example, 14.7% of working-age persons Wete between 20 jdnd 24 years' of
bge; by 1 985 # that proportion will drop to 1 3.8%. By 1 990, there will be a real drop— to 1.1 .6%,
according to th£Uureau of/^abor Statistics. ; X' % k

Meanwhile, the tabor forc^absorbed inJh^^dO's and 1970's, huge numbers of wQmen. v
members of minority groups, and others who had not participated as actively in the
workplace in previous years. : ' ^ > * 4

According to Lawrenpe-Olson 18 of Sage Associates, Inc., in Washington, the labor force
-grew at a strong pace of 2.6% per year in the 197Q's but will increase at only half that or 1.3% {
late in the 1980s. By the time 1990jolls around; it will be growing nfrore^slowly than wilf thfe /
supply of jobs. Eventually, says mqpagement philosopher Peter Dicker, employers will be ;
beggifag'for workers '/ ■'"•>?..' " ' / :

} AlKof this means that; in oggregrate terms, rehabilitation rilacements should become
easier to make as we approach the end of the^^

valleys of employment growth that will make some yefcirs more "placement-easy" than
others. Byt the overall trend is toward more job opporturijties. That's one reason for optimism.

/ A second is that the labor market-is, of c<3jjrse; not brie big rponolifji but a'colleqtion of
* • much, smaller markets. Some of these already have packets of labor shortages. Some will
^J>ecofne increasingly 'labor-short as the decade proceeds, even as others become
^labor-heavy. Finding the areas in which CQmpetition is weak, or "pocket marketing" to coin
a term, is one challenge facing rehabilitation in the 1980's and 1990's. '
. A third reason for optimism is that despite keen competition, some attractive jobs are.
going to open increasingly wide for persons with physical and sensory disabilities. Tgpt is. >
■.' sftme of the most desirable jobs in America are goipg.to be easier for severely disabled
people to get than they are now, thanks^prgely to th§ remarkable progfess of advanced
.technology in providing "reasonable accommodation" aids and devices that are most
■ likely to be purchased, by employers hiring exactly th^se coveted workers. Finding sijbh
employers, and bringing to them qualified disabled job seekers, is another aspect of
"pocket marketing." /

The Changing Labor Market ;..

The fact that the job market 19 is altering very grealty comes as no surprise to most people '
in rehabilitation and special education. They know that of the 25 million new jobs created
between the years 1970 and 1982, only 2.3 million were in manufacturing. In fact,
manufacturing lost three million jobs during the slow-growth years, 1978 to 1982. Virtually all
of the new jobs have been in what is callecf "the service sector " which is an . often V' .
misunderstood term. * '

95

°t> : . a * ■ ■ ■ ■' * •

•j<983 " ; 1990 M ; < ... > 200D*

Year

If the economy generates an average of two million new jobs annually, as it did 1970- ,
A982 f and If the labor supply grows at a 1,3% rate as Lawrence Olson expects, the gap
/between the number of jobs and the number of job seekers will narrow in the coming years;
brightening job prospects for traditiortelly hard-to-plqce job seekers. > ,

. A The^ervice sector irfclud.es, not. only the ^veil-known fastrfood minimum wage "jobs so
Y |highiy visible across this country, but also high-paying jobs in financial management, laW,
•^electronic data pr6cessing, ^affirmative action, environmental control, and astronautics.
. - Toddy, half of all American jobs are information jobjs. and by the year 2000? that figure will,
risejrto seven ; out of ten. One basic ,reason for such explosive growth: more and more . ..."
Amerj^ are two-income families where both husband and wife work. Because

they do/ana because they are; ca;e^pri©nted f they demarfd personal services such as
firiancidi; plpnnirig; leisure-time produ^ dnd services, help jn filing their tax returns, and the;
:! lite— thingtfthey. used to do tor thems^ves; ; : •; .V- / , ^

rhay hbf be so.self-evident is that the same fortes are working to c^fepentralize the workplace,
^Wheri both'husband and wife w^^r^bcqtibrr to take ^ttractive^new jobs becomes less
likely;; Enter another factor: the growtagf^ipability of information technology. Tdda^there's ;
little reason for^undredSjOr thousqn0^af corporate workers to occupy contigu^^ffices
in a central locafe'onijQstedd, thq^tcs fe distributed data processing, etecjt^mS^Tioll
teleconferencing and the like, itj^dssfibie for/toorkers to u.se satellite officesdijarer to their .1"**
homes'— of even. Work from thenohle if^ely wish. Employers like dececfrolized offices
because"they firfd that produc not hdVe to fight rush-hour traffic

compnut^ Ipng distances, and exngust tfemielyes in'nd «"
:4 V As Peters and Waterman poifij but* in troir book In Search of Excellence, the pofepler
* "economies of scale^jdeas'.m^ People' work better, and are ha^ie^,^

when they are recognized. In p^^^^ offi^S ^bui Wing or factory, they are jwufch mp^Jp
anonymous <ind may dlsp^be.tesl . i - 9 i^40$$£

These factor? are^openirig lip io> employment opportunities for severely disabled <a^^^
sensory disabled indiviaudlsr Because, with advanced technologies, the inability
commulg in rus^i hobrs ri$&d no lorfger prevent someone with a health or physical cohditj^^v
fro m*wdrki ng /pe same technologies permit people who are deaf to work using computer f &'$
terminals, compriunicatiha With co-workers and' supervisors through electronic mail rather
than in pers^K Blind pe^ie^ df course, benefit from the cdpacity of modem compute^ to 7 ' ^
"talk" using^ynthesize^ispe^ch. :',-> ■ ' - . ^

An industrial age places p premium .upon physical • and . sensory wholeness, !AnMr%:; £
.information age economy place's a higher ^

: and use information; machines can do the necessary lifting, listening and seeing. ^-jfofl
: Peter Drucker and others point out that education levels among persons entering the^E^
labor force for ff the first time are rising, and will continue to rise, particularly as women 'put,dff^
marriage andchildbearingto equiplhemselve^

"srnokestack'Hndus^ieis to cope with Japan§se|competitors send warning signa^fb
„ parents: if John and Jane leave school early, they won't be able to make a living for
. themselves. Writing in a guest column in the Wall Street Journal, Drucker points out that
high-school graduates sometimes could command salaries at Detroit assembly plants and
similar industries that exceeded the salaries their brothers and sisters coiAd expect afterfive
years of experience and an MBA from a prestigious business school. Given that fact,
parental pressure tocpmplete college sometimes was less than it otherwise would have
been; Today, statesT3rucker, the chances that >high-school graduates can do better than
highly educated peers are diminishing fast, and soon will be gdne, altogether. Hence,
rising parental pressure for post-secondary education.

Cook, in his article, takes this one step further if large numbers of labor-market ehtr<pnts
sport high education levels, many blue-collar manufacturing and service jobs could
go begging.

In Sales: 21 The Fast Track for Women, Gonnie McCiung Siegel comments that increased
. intra-ih$pstry competition in both slow-growing and fast-paced fields means that
ever-larger proportions of available capital will be given over to marketing. Apple Computer,
forexample, hired awayfrom Pepsido a senior marketing executive, ratherthan a computer
engineer, to head its executive team. Commodore and other computer firms are taking -
similar steps! Yet, as The New York Times has noted in several recent"Careers** supplements
. to its Sunday edition, thenumber of people trained both in sales and in computers is far below,
that needed by. the nation's information companies today, let alone for the balance of
the decade.

I • * A Business* Week 22 special jeporPcin the divestiture of the Bell Systenrv^dtes that with the
^ telecdn^unications field breGkWg wid tt e open, competition will be int^isiafforthe^bdlance

* of the' cfecade. Here, again, malting and sales opportunities should |& many, particularly " f
for people, trained in both areas . v ; , S\ JJr ..\ .

.The nation , 4 i »opUldUpn is growing olcler with 1 each passing year The cwer-65 cohort will

* double in siz^y^2030; already/people in this, segment of the -populaHpn represent the .
Country's fpstesPgrowing group of (fepple; Another rapid-pace field of work is home hfealttr '

car& Even before* thb*? October i t ^83. starting dqt© for f^er^flly supported "prospective

* reimbursemdnt^bjiciesr horrte h^l^^re gifew y^iy fdS« From just $78-mlllionTn 1 969; the
fielc* mushroonr^d to mor£ thdn $1^bll)16n in /sales hi 1983: ; >■ » f.y r

Trdsplbtive reimbursement" itself re'pretents the cutting -edge of a large labor-short
pocket market: Starting last October, MeJSiicq
, each of 467 categories ohtlnegs. ^ptgfgory 115, ibr. example; covers reimbursement fees
sfdfcarffjac paremakefs, while category. 117 sets tbe levels for their replacements: By
transferring a pdtient* from the hospital to* the h3me shortly dfterari operation, hospital
administrator? can spend less using hom^' health care agencies 1o delivsyr follow-up
services than, it would cost to keep y the patienh in hospitals: Result: costs fall belo>y the
pre-set reimbursement level, and the hospital makes money. - \

This suggests that opportunities in home health care may.oytdistance, by far, growth in the
overall latsor market for the npict several decades. Companies s|ich as ARA Services,
Johnson and Johnson, Quality Care, Superior Cbre, Health Extension Services, Healthdyne,
and American Hosptial Supply may erpptoy large numbers of service workers to deliver
at-home, medical arid related care to older individuals and people; recovering from severe
"accidents and illnesses, including many who* are newly disabled. -
1 Trtpse firms are among the leaders in investing In sophisticated productivity-rai$ing
equipment. ARA Services, for exdmple, has spent millions in recent yedrs to make its service
operation^ more cost-effecive. iSuch measures can only increase the pgce of home health
care delivery as an alternative to prolonged hospitalization. v

Their fallow seiVice 24 industries are becoming nervous about th^ coming decline in the
number of young people in the late 1980*s and 1990's, which is being caused by the aging
of the baby-bbom generation. The reason is that fast-food, laundry and similar general-
service operations rely heavily upon/ teen-aged workers, who receive only entry-level,
' minimum-wage pay. This is dhothepreason for the great increase, sihce.1 980 Jn spending
on capital equipment among sejKrtce firms. As a result pf all that investmegp he firm ^ are
disproving the experts, who until Very recently were discounting the possibitll^bf productivity
growth hvthe service sector. Stephen S. Roach -of Morgan Stanley & Co. estimates that
seivice producers have invested as mi^ch as $50-billion annually in the past two or three
years— sharply up from less that $20-bitlion;in 1975. During the samVpedod, employment'
in the service sectqr, he says, grew by one-quarter to just under 60 million of the nation's
100 million workers. * M . V ■

According to Chdrtes Jonscher 25 of Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Ikich $1,000
invested in technology per service worker yields twice as much productivity as does the
same per-employee investment in manufacturing firms. The reason; Jonscher says, is that
service workers, being on the whole lqw-educated,.benefit tremendously from interactjng
.« . with the technology; the machines- are educational for them. Instead of doing the same
simple tasks thousands, of times each day (example: reading the label on a magazine,
making d note of it, and ihen reading the next labej) service workers are learning how to use
advanced technologies, to do their jobs better. The result is that they become more
comfortable yvith technology, broaden their experiences, and.equiptheqnselvesfpr upward
^nobility to more demanding occupations. Without such equipment, such upward mobility
was almost nonexistent. Mfeanwhile, they work more productively/The company, and the
worker, gain bath short- andlorig-term. ;

* This suggests something very few people have seen, tb date, in selected service industries.
Employers making high investments in equipment dnd those worried about the drop-off in
young workers during the balance of this decade, may exert moreeftorfro keep and train
employees. ARA Services', Inc., headquartered in Philqdelphiq, seJjfBn example of this.
Such cdmpanies have helped to change the very negative image that fast-food and other
operations have as employers. They may also provide, ^foralert rehabilitatjon personnel, new

pdckets of employment in which to place persons with disabilities.*

Since the early, 1?70's, a major characteristic of, our, economy has been increased
financial complexity. At one time, people took hom^ a paycheck, spent much of it, placed
some into a passbook savings acdourjrahd thought little more about financial planning.
Today, the options available to the astjute investor are dazzling in their diversity— and risk.
Hence the dizzying rise of. investment and other kinds of financial planning specialties. To
date, tfie§e high-powered money ma nagers have concentrated upon that "darling" of the
advertising media, the M upwardIymobilecareer-oriented mover arid shaker/ 1 that is, people
aged 25-44 who are well-educated; hold professional white-collar jobs; and watch their
money ver\f carefully. •

Almost totally overlooked is the massive 25-millioh strong population of older Americans.
These people not only have solid eciu}ty (most own their own homes), but also receive
substantial amounts of money in pension checks, Social Security benefits, and other forms
<> of payment, particularly dividends on stocks and interest payments on savings* This is the
very generation of-Americans that is least sophisticated financially because they grew up in
an era of 'stable dollars, low interest rates, and the like. Helping them plan and invest their
money represents yet another pocket of opportunity.

In the past five 27 to ten years in particular, the growth of entrepreneurs has been startling.
During that time, the nation has suffered several recessions and large corporations have laid
off large numbers of workers, particularly middle managers. Millions of people have started
their own tpusinesses. Such incorporated companies provide employment opportunities for
people Who have lost jobs in larger corporations. And, because of the structured the tax
laws, owning a corporation offers some important tax benefits, among th^m the opportunity
to plan for a secure future through pension plans and the chance to provide employment
to members of the owner's family. Federal regulations encourage people to start small
businesses, and many agencies set aside a certain proportion of contract and grant
monies specifically for bidding by small business. Entrepreneurship represents yet another
pocket of! opportunity.

Early in 1984, Burger King ran newspaper ads designed to encourage workers at McDpnalds and other fi/ms to
"switch to Burger King (or better working conditions and better benefits.

15

21

Chapter Four

Five Areas of Opportunity

In the years 1984-1990, and beyond, persons with severe physical, sensory and mental
disabilities seem most likely to find and keep jobs in five broad areas of employment.
. The five are:

1 . General Services. This category Is intentionally a broad one. It includes direct services
to members of the general public and to employers. Examples: secretarial and related
office woik, hotel^motel arid convention services, home management services, and
other services designed to do jobs for busy p^pterrjobs v^teh people once did for
themselves. .... • ; •

2. Special Sendees, This grouping Includes jobs In which workers provide direct services
and other assistance (including devices and equipment) to persons with "special
needs, *suteh as older citizens, people with chronic health conditions, and disabled
individuals.

3. Sales; This category is self-explanatory.

4. Information Services, in this group, experts and others who are highly qualified offer
guidance and advice to corporate and individual clients, including persons with
special needs. Examples: lawyer, CPA, stock analyst, personal-affairs manager.

5. Entrepreneiirship. People start their own businesses to take advantage of two factors:
•^ISwn special expertise, and market* demand that is not being met by others.
EM&obles are legion; entrepreneurs do just about every imaginable kind of job.

ManyTJ^abled people; will, of course, work in other kinds of jobs. Still, these five areas '
appear to represent the most interesting opportunities because labor-market, labor-forco,
worker-characteristic, and aecommodation-aid factors converge to create particularly
favorable conditions. The areas are described in some detail in this chapter. Chapters,
Personal Characteristics. takeS up the characteristics needed by people who are interested
in working in these kinds of occupations.

General Services

Opportunities in the "general services" qrea are very attractive for many persons with
disabilities for a number of reasons.

First, most of these" "jobs require little In the way of previous education and training
because they usually feature employer-provided training. In fact, many employers insist
upon doing their own training of general services workers, and discourage highly educated
people from entering such jobs. Given that many disabled people have education-
attainment levels lower than the averagesfor the general public (see, for example
Demography and Disability), this charactelwlc of the area may be an appealing one for
many disabled individuals.

Second, deHnand* 9 for such jobs generally is slack compared to the demand in many
other fields of work. As women pursue careers and not just stop-gap jobs, for example, many
eschew secretarial and general service positions; however, many men shrink away from
them since these jobphav^lraditionaily been' known as "women's jobs." Because pay
levels have tendecWfcrbe l<pw, particularly at entry level, bettereducated ana more
ambitious people decline to take such positions. General service jobs usually attract young
people which indicates that the decline In the number of baby-boomers will create more
openings than have been available in the recent past. >

Third, the number of 30 openings in this area Is projected to grow very rapidly until the end of
the century. Factors we have already discussed— the growth of the two-income family, the
'farming out" from the tfome of traditional homemaker tasks, the growing career orientation of
many workers, and the explosion of Information technologies— will support this growth.
Secretarial openings, forexample, are projected at some 300,000 annually for the balance of ;
the decade and probably will continue to maintain that pace to the year 2000. Private
household workers (some 45,000 openings annually to 1990). cash ters (about 180, 000 yea rty),
bookkeepers (some 96,000 per year), and waiters, (approximately 77,000 annually) will all
show large numbers of new openings throughout the decade.

Fourth, particularly 31 for employees of fairly large corporations, upward mobility is quite
possible because many such companies offer employees training at the firm's cost. The
employers are offering paid training because they are worried about the availability of
approrlate workers in the years to come.

Figure 2 r

Projected Growth in Four Areas: New Jobs

(Entrepreneurial Job growth projections not available. Category not reported separately)

Estimated
Average
Annual
Openings

500,000

450,000

400,000

350,000

300,000

250,000

200,000

150.000

100,000

50,000

500,000

300,000

68,750

61,000

Telemarketing
Sales*

Secretaries,
Office* •

Aides for Older,
Disabled Persons* 0

Accountants*

Telemarketing

General/*
Services

Special
Services

Information
Services

* Forecasting International, 1983 (to 2000)

Occupational Outlook Quarterly, 1983 (to 1990)
a: Combines geriatric aides, gerontological aides, technicians for handicapped and technical

aides for handicapped.

18

23

Fifth, investment in tech nology to aid such workers is surprisingly sharp. The use of personal
computers and personal work stations in the bffice, for example, is growing exponentially.
Such devices are easy for many physically disabled people to use and/ increasingly, can
speak to blind Workers. Within the next five to ten years, some such machines will also "hear"
for aeof workers. ARA Services recently invested in an optical character recognition (OCR)
device to speed up its magazine distribution operation; OCR technology is the heart of the
Kurzweil Readpg Machine, It Is possible that companies using OCR devices may attach
peripherals enabling people who cqnnot see to use these machines.

AH of these factors— the lower level of competition; the employer-training characteristic,
the fast pace of growth and large number of newloperilngs, the potential In some firms for
upward mobility, and the Investment In technology— make many general service jobs
attractive for persons with disabilities.

The challenge for rehabilitation will be to Identify those firms that are willing to train entry-
level workers for better positions and those that are willing to allocate for accommodation
aids and devices. Special educators, vocational-technical teachers, and rehabilitation
counsetors should look carefully for such pockets within the gerieral service field.

The general population, for reasons I have discussed briefly, will likely shun such
opportunities, believing that airsuch jobs are low-pay, dead-end, unrewarding positions.
This popular belief, until now largely true, also means heavy turnover in those jobs, sdme
service sector employers, for example, have to fill jobs four orflve times annually, so not only
will there be many new openings, but each position may open several times each year.

Special Services

Opportunities in the "special services" area will explode in number at least until the year
2030, because the older population and the disabled population both will grow in size by
leaps and bounds during this period. The move away from institutions and toward
community care,, qs in independent living and home health care services, for example,
adds to the growth in this realm of employment. And because many disabled people have
first-hand experience with limitations of activity, as well as with effective and inexpensive
solutions to common problems of daily living, they can call upon their own personal life
experiences to help meet the heeds of other people with special needs. *^

Technology is providing one major reason for explosive growth in the special services
area. Reasonable accommodation aids and devices are increasing in number— and
effectiveness— even as they are dropping in price.

For an indication of the great growth possible in this area, consider the* projections made
by Forecasting International of Arlington, Virginia, for U.S. News and World Report in the May
9, 1983, special Issue on "What the Next 50 Years Will Bring." Fl Identified 23 occupations
expected to be fastest-growing by the year 2000. Almost half, or 10, of them were in special

services:

Field New Jobs Created

Geriatric social workers 600,000

Emergency medical technicians ; t 375,000

Gerontological aides 300,000

Technical aides for handicapped persons 120,000

Respiratory therapists, 100,000

Biomedical/ electronic technicians 90,000

Technicians for handicapped persons , • 80,000

, Bionic-transplant technicians 65,000

Implant technipians - 50,000

Dialysis technicians * r 30,000

Geriatric social workers and gerontological aides will, of course, find work with older
parsons, many of whom will live in their own homes rather than In institutions. Emergency
medical technicians, respiratory therapists, and dialysis technicians likely will work In home
health care dgencies ahd In outpatient departments of major hospitals as well as In

hospitals, Intermediate medical care fdcilities, nursing homes, etc. Technical aides 32 for
handicapped persons and technicians for handicapped persons will be the people who
know about and understand how to use aids and devices for disabled people; some, of
course, will make such devices.and repair them.wrie will work for home health care
agencices (such as Johnson and Johnson, Superior Care) that specialize in providing
services for older alrid chronically ill Individuals in the home.

Biomedical/electronic technicians and implant technicians will assist doctors in
implanting into the body artificial hearing (e.g., ear Implants) and other d&Ades, as well as
assisting* patients to adjust to using the new aids. Blonlc transplant technicians will help
' surgeons In similar ways. These technicians will find employment because engineering and
medicine are joining hands to prolong life and replace falling body functions, % ,
. The special services field, thfen, Includes much that is traditionally "social work 0 in
orientatioiV, much that is "technological" in nature, and much that is "medical" in essence.
As a generaf rule, special services workers will be trained In helping older and disabled
people, as well as those who are chronically ill. to care for themselves outside of institutions.

Sales

Increased domestic and international competition in business creates large numbers of
sales positions. This is onfe reason for singling out this area as a pocket of opportunity, A
second, and very important reason is that sales, traditionally, is a point of entry from which
fast upward mobility is possible. In IBM," for example, almost all of the top executives started
as salespersons. Disabled people seeding long-term careers will find sales a good place to
start* Third, success In sales is demonstrable; a disabled job applicant can prove to an
employer very quickly that he or she is a capable worker, overcoming employer resistance
to hiring handicapped people.

The most 34 interesting reason for highlighting sates as a pocket of opportunity for disabled
people is that telemarketing is increasingly becoming "the" way sales is conducted. It is
much less costly, companies find, to have 800-numbers, WATS lines and the like, than it is to
send salespeople to visit with customers. Accordingly, company after company is installing
expensive, highly sophisticated technology at the fingertips of the sales worker, who calls to
the screen information. about the "prospect' 1 and fills orders by keyboarding.Thesasame
devices can provide, with fairly minor adjustments, "one key" capabilities so that severely
physically handicapped people can operate them quickly and well; "synthesized Speech"
so blind people can use them; and, in time, ''voice recognition" so deaf people can

operate them. M .

Because of the corporate concern for providing "the right image, ' sales has traditionally
been a field in which many employers did not believe that handicapped workers were
appropriate. But with telemarketing, customers do not meet, or see, the. sales person. Too,
sales was traditionally an occupation requiring long hours on the road; anyone who has
ever heard stories about "the traveling salesman and the farmer's daughter" will recognize
this immediately. But Joday, that is becoming less and less tru£.

Forecasting International projected, for U.S. News & World Report, that "sales
(telemarketing)" jobs would .lead, all other categories in the number of new positions
created by the year 20()0-a staggering eight million new jobs.

Earnings potential in sales jobs is virtually unlimited; it is determined by the worker's own
effort and success because most sales jobs are based upon commissions.

Rehabilitation's challenge will be to show corporatiops how people with different kinds of
disabilities can perform sales jobs, to find out whcit technology is available to assist them to
do those tasks, and to give the job seeker a chance,

A note of warning: rehabilitation placement specialists should be aware that straight-
corrjmission jobs may be more "contractor" than "Employee" in nature, according to the
courts. For this reason, equal-employment opportunity legislation may not always apply.
Take, for example, an item appearing in U.S. News & World Report's August 29, 1983. issue
(pg . 69). The item observes that a U.S, appeals court has ruled thatthe Age Discrimination in
Employment Act does not protect sales workers who receive commissions but not coqipany
benefits, and who pay their own expenses. The court stated that these employment terms
make the salesworkers' "independent contractors" for purposes of employment legislation
coverage. When placing a disabled person in a sales job, rehabilitation should take care to

25

ensure that the terms are covered by sections 402 and 503, that is, ensure that the person is
,an employee and. not a contractor.

Information Services J

As our society becomes increasingly cpmplex, individuals and'corporations need solid
informption upon which they can base decisions. The problem Is not so much one of a lack
of datd; rather .often it Is one of too much Information. Experts are edited upon to sort out,
interpret and explain the data which are avollable/Flnance Is a good example. What you
can do with dlscretionaiy monies is dlmibst endless: for advice and guidance, many people
turn to financial planners, bankers and brokerage houses. Law Is another example; tax law,
In particular, is extremely complex and the recommendations of a knowledgeable and
experienced lawyer are highly prized by individuals and firms alike* / 1

Persons with disabilities will be interested to^&am that growth ih these kinds of fields has
been so great that firms in these areas are recruiting— even as firms In many other fields dre
cvmlng back. In Bostoh. w for example, Bradford Trust had so desperate a need fSr'more
cferks and managers that it entered into a lengthy and' large agreement with the areaCETA
(Comprehensive Employment and Training Act, now replaced by the Job Partnership
Training Act) to bring Into the firm previously unemployed individuals with an interest in
finance. Bradford vice president/Jay Begtey , explains: "The traditionalwpy has been to bring
people In at the entr$1evel and then promote them as they ledop the business. Now, financial
services are expandlng^oaJast to do that." L

Connie Chen, president**^)* a Manhattan financial services firm, says people in her field'
who have seven to ten YQjAp of experience earn more than $75,000 a year In Manhattan and
some other large cities^^Kooklyn, Michael Dlckmarjhas fashioned a highly successful tax
law practice that speo^^fcin meeting the needs of low-income clients, many of whom are
- disabled, as Is DickmcJH international Association 37 for Financial Planners reports that
membership has grown Spwfcthe past four years alone, despite the recession (or perhaps,
in part, because of it). Accounting^ another growing field, Beginners can start at $25,000
and go as high as the low six figures. <>

People with disabilities who have an interest in financial planning and tax 'law, may find
that practices specializing In help for older and disabled persons may fill a gap left by
competitors who are zeroing In on the 25-44 year-old, fdsMrqck managerial group. Persons
who receive some governmental benefits are particularly^ need of advice about how to
supplement aid checks without jeopardizing eligibility for the programs.

Other kinds of information services are also highly valued In today's society, People who
know about unusual leisure-time activities, people who can arrange an array of personal
services such as home and landscaping aid, and specialists who can locate fagts that few
people know, (such as what governmental program could be tapped )o finance a
particular venture) may sell their services in return for a good living.

Information services require not only considerable high-level education but also
experience. The key to attracting and keeping clients, whether corporate or individual,
seems to be the ability to inspire trust. With so much Information around, and so rpany
people advising so many different alternatives, firms and private citizens with funds to Invest
or lives to plan need someone upon whom they can rely. The ability to attract new clients
and keep them translates into high pay in many firms— and it can offer the opportunity to
strike out on your own, taking the clients with you.

Errtrepreneurshlp ' ,

Someone starting his or her own business needs to know the particular field of work very
well— and have the kinds of contacts that will get the company off to a running start. That's
why many Information managers eventually strike out on their own once they've mastered
the area and earned the personal loyalty of a following of clients.

People with disabilities who know an area and can attract enough clients to get started
may find entreplreneurshlp attractive. One does not have to rely upon the fairness of
employers; the entrepreneur is his or her own boss, and earnings are not limited by
corporate-Imposed ceilings.

There Is, however, another aspect of the picture. Although the entrepreneur does not havq

21 26 • . '

to sell him or herself to a boss, It Is necessary to sell to financial backers, Getting venture
capital can be more difficult than getting a salaried job/fortunately, the Small" Business
Administration (SBA) In Washington, offers Information and assistance to people wanting to
start their own companies, Loans at low interest rates are also available. If the would-be
entrepreneur can endure the SBA's sometime-slowness and maze of red tape, support can
be obtained. Also, as observed earlier, set-asld|es In Federal contract and grant prograrrfs
are often available specifically for blddlng^ by small businesses,

The entrepreneur must be prepared to be all things for all people, As the pwner of a new
^business, the entrepreneur often must^

typist and data-entry technican all at once, M You must live ^ says almost every
4 entrepreneur who has survived In business. >

Just as there Is no rigid cap on earnings potential, so too there is no rigid floor. In fact,
there's no floor at all. An entrepreneur might go a year or more with no salary whatsoever, and
end the year owing money— not making It.

Rehabilitation* challenge for disabled .Individuals interested In forming their own
companies Is to help these persons assess Individual strengths/weaknesses, Identify areas
of business to enter, find and attract start-up funds, and secure the assistance— particularly
legal and accounting— that wlll'be needed. ; . . ^ ?-V:.f ti?iY»

Depslte all the downside risks, entrepreneurship sometimes is exactly what Is heeded,
There Is undeniable challenge, freedom, and opportunity. If what the person Is selling Is *
unique and needed, remarkable success may be had. For example. Stqphen Woznlak's
business started in a small garage; today that same business, Apple Computer, \l neck-
and-neck with IBM In the huge and astonishingly fast-growing personal computer business.

A Ladder of Opportunity

Persons with disabilities, like other people, want not just a job but the chance to have a
meaningful and rewarding career. The five broad areas of work outlined In this chapter offer
such a chance. One might begin in general services while still a college student and,
depending upon personal interests, branch out into Information or special services, either of
which may serve as a springboard to entrepreneurshlp. An individual may pick one area
and remain in it for several decades. Not everyone has the Inner resources and self-starter
mentality to succeed as an entrepreneur. Similarly, not everyone wants the pressure
attendant upon becoming anil remaining successful in Information services, Nor is
everyone so gregarious as to enjoy working day by dby with people whp have a need for
persona] services and for companionship. f \

The next chapter discusses personal characteristics needed for succeSs In each of the five
fields. As we are seeing throughout this book, th%iks largely to technological break-
~ roughs what matters— and matters significantly— in tomorrow's workplace, for people
ilitiQS, is not so much the disability as the ability— and the personality.

Chapter Five . - v.. . ' ... .

Personal Characteristics |_

The challenge for rehabilitation, vocational-technical education, and special education
Is to locate pockets of opportunity appropriate for persons likely to'succeed In them and to
offer these persons the needed training. Training—and retraining— are critical.

The Jobs for which a given student or client should bejjrepatecj likely will vary sharply by
personal characterlstlcs—and less sharply by disability. ;'•>/&?•-

Others In the field of rehabilitation pre better positioned than I to define which personality
characteristics mesh most closely with success |n various occupatlpns. In what follows, I
have drawn upon my own limited experience "in the field/' rather thari empirical research,
to suggest some characteristics that different kinds of jobs seem to require,: Quite likely,
research will advance our understanding beyond the limited Ideas expressed here.

People/Ideas/Things e

Relative people/ideas/things brlen^pin Is one variable that dppears worth investigating.

* Special services work, in particular, seems to require a high level of people orientation as
does sales work. Information services, by contrast, appear to feature a high level of ideas
orientation. • •' ' v - •

Entrepreneurship, not surprisingly, varies depending upon the kind of business. But the -
most successful business owners will be high on both Ideas and people orientation; if their
businesses make or repair devices, things orientation probably Is needed as well,

Inner vs. Other-Dlrectedness

Successful information services 39 and entrepreneurial workers likely will be highly inner-
directed. Reliance upon others for validation of Ideas, organization of work activity, etc, are
not characteristic of successful people in information services, although a willingness to
listen certainly is. V

General services 40 workers; and to a lesser extent, sales and special services workers heed

• some degree of other-dlrectedness. When one works closely with customers, and the
objective is to do what the customer wants done, a high level of sensitivity to the customer's
spoken or unspoken desires is important. Often, the worker has no choice! A general service
worker, for example, must do what he <br she is told, the way he or she is told, and In the order
in which he or she is told to do it. Some people respond well to such close supervision while
others rebel against (t.

Tolerance for Routine

People in general and special services in particular will probably heed a high degree of
tolerance for repetition and routine. Desire to experiment and/qr boredom with repeated
tasks will probably not be rewarded. ; r

By contrast, information workers and entrepreneurs seem to be people who thrive on
constant change! lack of a set routine; and absence of a rigid schedule of activities Sales
workers, too, often need variation and challenge rather than routine:

Consider the contrast between a stock broker a nd an automobile assembly plant worker.
What the stock broker does in any five-minute period depends upon a variety of factors;
each five-minute period may be characterized by sharply-different activities. The lockstep of
the assembly, by contrast, enforces a routine that cannot be deviated from without severe
consequences. Some people can take such rigid though,
cannot. ; - ' • . v • ? - '" '"v; f - V. : : '-x'-- ^^h^ ! • : v

Educational Attainment

Another important personal characteristic Is the level of education achieved, People with
high levels of education will likely become very frustrated with general services work; for this
reason, employers in such fields^ ^ educational
qualifications (qtthbu^h aliTiost ql

An information services worker, |p view the othei^
mqre highly qualified in his or her llhe bf work than is his or her manager and both know it. In

hospitals, for example, administrators routinely take a back seat to surgeons. Much the
same kind of thing happens In law firms and financial management organizations, as when
administrators yield to the specialized knowledge of account executives.

Asserttveness

A related characteristic 41 differentiating successful performers in different fields Is relative
degree of aggressiveness In asserting one's own views. Assertiveness that is accepted, even
expected, in an entrepreneur would never be tolerated in a general services worker. and
may conflict with a client/ patient's needs in special services. Salespeople, almost by
definition, must be assertive. Information workers will achieve to their full potential only by
attracting attention to their successes through assertive behavior, although not usually
by aggressiveness toward clients.

Desire for Companionship

Another factor relates to the degree to which a worker wants to be friends with co-workers.
This is not the same as other-directedness. General service workers, for example, often bowl

together. , ... ; , '

Sales people usually like to be With ' customers and cljents, but show much lower levels of
need for companionship toward competing sales peripM. Entrepreneurs often cannot afford
to become too close to people who work for them; spelw services workers, too, will usually be
more effective if they maintain some distance from clients and patients. Both, however, may
have a high need for companionship with^ peers.

Need for Communication Technologies

Persons whose disabilities 42 are communication in nature or impact may find that
information services employers are more likely than are others to offer the devices they need
to do their work. The reason is that such employers value expertise, These organizations, such
as tax law firms and financial management companies, also have relatively high revenues,
making the costs of such aids more affordable.

Entrepreneurs, of course, may write off as a business expense virtually any needed
accommodation. There is no such thing as an ■'unreasonable" accommodation for the
owner of the firm, because without him or her performing at peak efficiency there would not
obe a business to speak of. . i a ; . :• ■ .

General and special service workers may encounter much more resistance to their neeas
for communication devices, although office workers in highly automated organizations are
less likely than cfre customer service clerks at low-tech firms to see such resistance.

Characteristics by Area

General Services. These jobs require repeated performance of a standard set of fairly
low-level tasks. Productivity is measured in terms of speed with which work is performed and
attention to detail. Customers and employers expect good work quickly. Supervision,
accordingly, is tight; often the first-line manager works alongside the service workers, doing
much of the work him or herself, . (

Disabled persons likely to be successful in general services probably will have the

following characteristics: *

High in— tolerance for repetition; need for neatness, cleanliness; need for companionship

with co-workers; attention to routine tasks'
Low In— compensation expectations;, upward-mobility orientation; need for autonomy 0t

work; level of educational attainment; need for high technology in communication.

Employers often prefer to train general services Workers themselves, McDonalds, Marriott
and other such employers have extensive on-the-job training programs designed to
develop the skills needed in the work. These employers discourage highly educated
applicants, knowing that the low levels of worker autonomy and compensation would result
in levels of turnover that are even higher than the already very high levels they experience

Many workers in general services jobs are young and often they are in their first full-time

positions, Many aie single, with low personal and familial expenses; other* are "displaced
homemakers" re-entering the labor market after* many years of chlldrearing. For these
reasons, general seivice workers tend to be fairly unsophisticated with, respect to work; They
need ongoing supervision— and know they will benefit from it, Persons with disabilities
placed into general services jobs would probably s^are many of these characteristics and
enjoy being around others with these traits.

General services workers oftep socialize with their co-workers off the job. indeed, many
employers sponsor softbaii and bowling leagues comprised of such workers, both to satisfy
the employees' companionship needs and to build company loyalty.

Special Services, these jobs require the performance of personal-assistance tasks tor
. people who have special needs. Accordingly, special service workers often have a heed to
care for others, The very qualities that mark success in school teachers, nurses and social
workers are generally important in special services/Performance is usually measured in
timely completion of routine tasks, personal neatness and courtesy, promptness, and
customer/client satisfaction. Supervision tends to be fairly tight, although managers
usually do not accompany the workers throughout the day. Extensive reporting is required,
however, and It is through such documentation that evaluations are made.

Disabled personswho mayenjoyand do well in special services jobs likely will have these
characteristics:

High in— tolerance for repitition; need for neatness, cleanliness; need to care for others;
attention tb routine tasks,

Moderate In—heed for companionship; need for autdnomy at work; level of educational
attainment; compensation expectations.

Low in— need for technology in communication; upward mobility expectations.

There are exceptions. Some special services work includes invention and maintenance of
equipment. High "things orientation" is needed here, together with considerable personal
experience or acquaintance with the needs; for which the equipment is intended.
Engineering consultant Raif Hotcfikiss of Oakland, California, for example, combines an
understanding of devices with a keen appreciation for the need to design equipment to
meet actual, not just imagined, personal needs.

One common failing in the home health care area is that service workers who do not
understand people with special needs do what is not needed While failing to do things that
are needed. There is a powerful "doctor-patient' 1 orientation in some of these services which
is counterproductive to the independence of the patient or client. Thus the "need to care
for others" characteristic must be tempered with an understanding that the objective is to
help people help themselves^not to do it for them.

« SOme of the work is not a^ ail routine. Technicians, for example, may encounter great
variety in mixing and matching different aids and devices to meet particular needs of
individuals. So, persons low in tolerance for repetition might find satisfaction in some
aspects of special services. v

There is, of course, some overlap in this area with - information services and' with
entrepreneurship. People with special needs^do not just have special heeds; they also have
general needs, like financial advice, that experts in such areas may provide.

■ ■■ • • ■ * ■' ; . '-" ■•• <

Sales. Sales workers are often on their own. Indeed, many work on commission rather than
on salary. ' .'-v •• \.

. Today's sales workers need g keen understanding of the product or service they are
selling, to whom it applies, and how it applies. They must also understand the needs of
their individual customers, « ife V

IBM, for example, often places advertising showing a^illow case, The advertising test
makes the point that security is what customers want when they buy a computer. The fact
that IBM understondslhat, and someother firms do not, in part accounts tor the remarkable
success of Big Blue (IBM) over the years. Sales people at ARA Services, Inc. stress efficiency and
effectiveness— we can do it for you for less, and take it off your mind. %
Sales work, too, is highly people oriented. People buy products and services. Sales must

be made to'lodlvldual people, even when the c ustomer is a large corporation . So , sensitivity
to people Is requisite (or success In sales. A pleasing personality and a willingness to listen,
rather than to talk, helps, A sense of timing in knowing when to press ford* sale and when to
back off, too, Is Important.

Sales work Is also very competitive and It Is very self-directed, There are no set hours, no
set routines, aside from fairly flexible guidelines as to what Is expected in the way of n umbers,
of prospects to be contacted each month.

Sales people will likely be characterized:

High in-compensation expectation; Inner-dlrectedness; need for autonomy; attention to
detail; upward-mobility expectations. :„.;.„...,

Moderate in— educational attainment; need for companionship; tolerance for repltltlon;
need for high technology In communication.

Low in— need for close supervision. . ■> /

As indicated earlier, sales is rapidly- becoming telemarketing, Sophisticated,, expensive
technology faces the worker! who works mostly with telephones. Information about the
customer recent purchases, an'd known needs and desires flash on a screen 'as the worker
places or' receives a call. Thus, physical mobility Is not a major concern. Vision loss gan be
compensated for. and at some point Within the next five or ten years: hearing loss may, to
some extent, also be accommodated. , '. : .

Yet sales continues to be an activity that Is carried out in more ways than by telephone.
Sales managers remain conditioned to the traditional in-person sales appearance and
strategy So, expect some resistance to the Idea of disabled persons doing sales work,
especiqllyVom managers who are not sensitive to abilities in disabled people.

Information Services. This realm is one in which a high level of personal expertise is basically
what the employer buys when hiring workers-thaf. and personal contacts. Information
workers almost as much as sales workers, are expected to bring in new clients and new
revenue from existing clients. It can be a very high-powered, high-pressure opera ion; bu
the rewards can also be great. True autonomy, rapid upward mobility, very high levels of
compensation, and real' prestige in 4he community are some of the rewards.

These jobs require interpretation of information. They call upon judgment, high-level
training and experience. Productivity is measured in income generated from corporate or
individual clients willing to pay for such guidance. Supervision is light; performance
is evident from client satisfaction. ■ peer judgments of quality, and. often, documents or
other information products. ' /
, Disabled individuals successful In such fields are likely to be:,

Hiqh in-educational attainment; inner-directedness; experience with particular infor-
mation; understanding of clients' needs; upward-mobility orientation; compensation
expectations.

Low in— need for companionship; tolerance for routine; need for supervision. . ; /
Success irt such fields often comes in one or both of two ways. First, top-performers survive
weeding-out processes in which less successful co-workers are dropped from the firm s
payroll Those who make it can expect to receive six-figure salaries, in many organizations.
Second experts with considerable experience and a wide reputation often set up their own
consulting companies: that is. they take the next step and become entrepreneurs.

Employers rarely train such Workers in more than "our way" of doing things, and such
training is more appropriately called "orientation." Usually the employee begins work with, at
most d few days' exposure to particular forms, special computer commands, and the firm s
client roster/The employer assumes that formal training occured in graduate school (law,
public administration, accounting, business, medicine, etc ;) . and that the worker has
previous employment experience in a simifar company. . . ,

Information service workers are very sophisticated with respect to the field in whicn tney
work They are experts in their chosen areas. Often, they have expended considerable sums
of money and sizeable amounts of time on their education; then, too, most are married with
substantial personal and familial expenses. They have a strong need for high levels of

compensation and for upward mobility, 'which would bring dven higher levels of
compensation, Th^y also tend to be extremely inner-directed, trusting their own judgments
over those of all others,

Entrepreneurshlp. mjfyft ih many waysr the, most demanding of the occupational areas
considered in- this book: it is demanding because a business owner, "particularly >in the
beginning, must devofotiTm or herself to the business more than ten hours a day, often six
days a week, it (s demapdrng because so many talents, skjils and kinds of knowledge are'
cdlled upon— the abilityjp^sell , Me knowledge of the market, the ability to hire and supervise
people to get the most*«Ofn them-, and familiarity with accounting and finance. Also, it is
demanding because the*entrepreneur must maintain faith in his^orher id^qs even in the face
* of repeated rejection, But, for those who make it, the rewards match the demands.
Disabled people likely td.J/'make it" will be:

High In— compensation expectations; knowledge of a particular field or area; inner-
dlrectedness; attention tcjaetail; "people" and "ideas" orientation ("things" orientation,
too, for many); assertiveness.

Moderate in— tolerance for routine; need for communication technologies.

Low In— need for companionship; need for supervision,

\ .. ■ •

■ The entrepreneur must be 'capable of drafting a business plan that is free of "holes" and
shows exactly what wi)i be dbnefwhen, how, and where the money will cqme from. He or she
must be able to sejUhdt plan to banker and private investors. And then he or she must carry
out the plan. There is no question teat starting a business is a high-risk operation; some nine
put of ten new companies fail within the first five years of operation.

Ray Kurzweil is an example of a successful entrepreneur. He believed in himself, even when
almost everyone to whom he tufitad ridiculed his idea. He became a high-powered
salesman, convincing many doubf^rs, He had a high "things" orientation, which he needed
in order to develop the technology. He put in the long hours, days and weeks necessary to
see his idea from concept 'to reality. ; v

Ray Kurzweil had 43 , an idea that optical character rec6gnition could be developed to the
point that it could "read" for blind peopl£. Over a period of many years, he and others tested
the technology. They\attracted supjoprt from government and from private sourcds. They,
involved consumers, including representatives from the National Federation of the Blind/
Kurzweil's long struggll proved successful: the machine is a "hit," and Xerox* Corporation
acquired the company- infusing it with capital to* continue to develop and diversify.

A disabled individual Who pejceives a similar market need must know how to meet that
need, and have the determinatiph to see tf^e work through to a successful conclusion. As*
noted, the rewards are great. \ : Y >.; \ /.

Chapter Six

Making It Happen

Is it really possible for substantlql numbers of severely disabled persons to achieve
success In private employment In the fast-growing fields that are highlighted In this book? I
don't just think It Is possible; I'm convinced that It Is probable. In fad, I will be veiy surprised^!
It doesrt't happen. / /

To make It happen will require cooperation between disabled people themselves, service
agencies (such as rehabilitation and special education), other governmental agencies,
aRd employers. This chapter briefly outlines the kinds of steps that seem to bQ needed.

, Disabled People . ,, .

Without question, the major Initiative has to come from people with disabilities— they have
| to want to work. They need to bb willing to Invest in their own futures, through education and
through, employment experience, In order to reach the heights of which they are capable.

The whole concept of "independent -/living" finds its greatest expression when disabled
people work. Need accessible housing? With a good job, you can buyyourown homeand
modify it to meet your particular needs. Need accessible transportation? You can afford
your own. Need accommodation aids and devices? You can get them by qualifying for a
job which requires such assistance; or by charging the costs off to your own business. Need
medical Insurance? Your employer will provide group plans; or, as an entrepreneur, you can
design your own plans.

' As Demography and Disability shows, disabled people who seek and get full-time year-
round jobs tend to do very well. It can be done, and often Is, but only by those who try. The
same book illustrates that although Federal and State aid is available to people who don't
work, the support is barely subsistence-level, in most cases the average "income" from all
sources among persons* with disabilities of working age in 1980 was about $4,000.

Consider the possibilities In work. Sales people often earn $40,000 or more; tax-laW and
financial-planning people can take home more that doublethat In larger cities, and 150% of
that (amount in some areas. Special services workers can earn more than classroom
teachers, rehabilitation counselors and others in traditional human service agencies,
particularly when they work for home health care and other community-service, profit-
making companies. General services work pays less, but many secretaries earn in the
$20,000-$30,000 range.

Best of all disabled people now have a fighting chance at these kinds of jobs. Sections 402
(for disabled veterans), 503 (for disabled civilians in private employment), and 504 (for
disabled civilians and veterans in government-supported organizations) have been on the
books for at least seven years and have been upheld In the courts. Demographic trends
indicate that wit hin a short time it will be^nuch easier to get jobs than it has been for almost
two decades. High technology is capable of doing things that disabilities used to preclude:
And for fiscal policy reasons, government and business will soon, I believe, get serious about
moving disabled people from aid rolls to payrolls.

Service Agencies

As suggested in this book, special education and rehabilitation counselors should search
for "pockets" of opportunity in the labor market, identify those disabled students and clients
who have the personal and .educational characteristics most suitable for those kinds of
jobs, and help bring employers and qualified applicants together. Convincing disabled
persons, on the one hand, and employers on the other, to "take a chance" may be one of
their biggest roles.

For years, rehabilitation has given more "lip service" than actual "sweat of the brow" to job
development and placement services. As The Business-Rehabilitation Partnership
suggests, it is time to concentrate many more resources upon jobs for disabled persons.
Proven techniques are available which will help to do that. Among other things, counselors
should bring to the attention of employers the positive experiences of such firms as duPont,
AT&T, IBM and ARA Services. They should tell employers about new, low-cost, high-impact
technologies and should provide the "bridge" services that will follow-up on placements to
make sure they are successful. >

Other $6vernment Agencies

i believe that P'.L 99-77, the Emergency Jobs Training Act lor Veterans, provides a
precedent that we shoflld extend ^benefit disabled civilians, The Act provides upto$1 0,000
per previously unemployed veteran hired*]? help defray the employer's training and other
costs AWhough this Is more than triple the ^mount offered by the Targeted Jobs Ta* Credit
program, which offers up to $3,00p for flrst-year pay, it still represents a good deal for
goverrtaenjUfo Control Data Corporation chairman-NorrlS observes, even higher levels of
tax crecHts^md other allowances would be in government's Interests,

We need to look, tod, ata tax credit for accommodations aids and devices. While thecost
of such deviqes* is falling, many employers still hesitate to spend money on special
equipment, I* have seert employers who run bllllbn-dollar businesses balk at purchasing
$800 aids for d sabled applicants, It doesn'tYnake sense, but it happens, A tax credit foc/the
full amount of the device would help because It would, exceed the investment credit
ly equipment purchase. Such a full credit would stimulate employmeiyofthe
disabled persons who need such aids In order to work. /
it just lip-service Implementation, but real enforcement of sectiprfs 402, 503
"fer with the Age Discrimination in Employment Act (ADEA), As^Demography
illustrates, most people with disabilities are over 50 years of age; ADEA
ns aged 40-70. \
'tecently expired provisions that we need to have reinstated. A tax deduction
Amoving architectural barriers from their premises in order to make the
Je to disabled employees and customers, was In effect until December 31,

available for a
more^severely

^NGMoed, n
and/fe04 ( tog'
anp Dlsabllll
protects per^

Thetto^re 1
for bulihessy
facilities dec
1982
more

QCCgaStelW IU UIDUUicu ui i i|jiwywa wii i« wy«ivi i **wwn > w«.w V . — . ...» — - ■ •

_ I vvfTfe^fforteare being made to bring the deduction back, It's worth doing. Perhaps
Important is continuing, even making permarient. the 1980 "work disincentive"
allow(jnces4r^brporated into Social Security leglslbtion. ,
These two^ovisions allowed disabled beneficiaries to take a chanoe on employment. If
they lost thelrfobs because the companies movetf out of town, or if they found themselves
unable to cbhtinue working for some other reason, th\ey could return immediately to theaid
rolls. w|lh no need to wait two years to re-qualify for rrSedical coverage under Medicate. It's
true that not' many disabled people took advantage of this provisionintheyears1980-1983,
but tVlls probably" was due to the severity of the recession, the newness of the provision , and
continuing distrtfst of Social Security Administration officials by many people with disabilities.
Let's continueJ^provision and expand it. Let's assure, a disabled person that for the first
year of emplfemehkthe medical coverage will continue as a "second dollar" package
th»t will pa^viiatever medical expenses the employer's health insurance does not.
/&feo I strongiWavor bonuses for delayed retiremerit.'the present system -which actually
•r^brds retirement at 62 or 65 and penalizes later retirement-- acts powerfully to ease but of
•r force many persons who become disabled while working, it is too easy for an
rib offer to pay a supplement equal to thiev.dnticipated early-retirement Social
benefit (80% of the full retirement benefit) bec8|»se the employer only has to pay this
ient for a few years. Thus, employers early-retue.people as young as 55, particularly
wi.tM. jwmeone becomes disabled, and often wheTrVfhe person remains able-bodied. In
fact, today, the majority of workers retire before they reach 65 and the trend is toward ever-
earlier retirement. ';'-:i; t ' •' ■ '. ■

If on the other hand, we were to reward later retirement, making it more attractive to
employees to keep working, they would be more likely, to resist disability leave and early
retirement. Demography and Disability shows that .one-quarter of all 55-64; year-old
Americans report a disability; a Census Bureau report on older Americans, released in
September 1983. demonstratesthat 80% of persons 55 and over report their health to be
"gbod" or "excellent." That's not a contradiction-for example: the writer of this book is both
severely disabled and healthy at the same time. The point is that if We help older people
keep working, we will be doing a big favor for large numbers of disabled individuals.

The change must start with government, in the Social Security program. Business is
following government's lead in this area.

Employers % ;.- *\
Employers expect and, I believe, deserve authoritative information about laws and

regulallons, reasonable accommodation aids and devices, and the capabililies of
disabled job-seokers, Offered such Information and support; togolherwith tax-expenditure
incentives such as tdx credits for devices and direct payments for job training, employers will
likely become much more amenable to overcoming their historical reluctance to believe
that M hiring handicapped people Is good business/ 1

In particular, It Is vital that rehabilitation agonclos help business to understand that, often,
when an employee becomes disabled It Is not necessary to take that person of the payroll
and place him or her on long-term dlsablllly leave or early retirement. Indeed it can be
counterproductive for the business.

We must also realize that It Is just as necessary to get that word to the now-disabled
employee, who may feel that It is no longer possible for him or herto work. For, In the end. It
always comes .back to the motivation of persons with disabilities to overcome those
restrictions and to take cohtrol, once again, of their own lives,

Control Data Corporation knows that. The managers of its innovative "Homework" program
, have told me of countless instances In which an employee had an accident (e.g., an
automobile wreck). The company sent a homework manager to the hospital room as soon
as the employee regained consciousness. The manager's pitch: we're bringing you back to
work; we want you; and here's how we're going to helpyou start wqijdng acjaln. The manager
didn't leave until the employee was convinced that a return, to work would succeed. The
result is a return-to-work program that is, In my judgment, the best in the nation.

The Bottom Line ^

* How many disabled persons would get jobs If these return-to-work, late, retirement
incentive, and other measures were undertaken on a national basis? The answer, probably,
is twice as many as are placed Into jobs each year now. We can double the placement rate
before the decade is out.

Remember, these steps would supplement the basic special education and
rehabilitation programs we already have. The steps proposed in this book would provide to
students and clients, on the one hand, and to employers, on the other, incentives that make
education and rehabilitation investments more cost-effective. With these "clinchers"
available, employer and job seeker alike would probably be more motivated. The $5,000
investment that rehabilitation often makes In a client, for example, too frequently produces
a closure that is short of competitive employment because employers anen't willing to hire or
the client is not persistent in attempts to find jobs. .

Most accommodation costs are fairly modest. To provide an accommodation tax credit,
for example, likely wouldn't cost the U.S. Treasury more than $30-million annually in tax
expenditures (e.g., foregone corporate tax revenues). Yet, because the vast majority of
accommodation aids and devices cost under $250, we could help tip the scales for as
many as 120,000 disabled people each year. .

Resurrecting the barrier-removal tax deduction would /lot result in tax expenditures
greater than those in the years the program was in effect. Surely ho more than $50-million
annually in foregone corporate income taxes. Yet if 15,000 companies took advantage of
the deduction, and each hired just one disabled person, we could put into placement,
before 1990, as many as 90,000 people. Tens of thousands more would be able to continue
working after becoming disabled because facility inaccessibility wpuld no longer make
continued work impossible.
^-Continuing the medical coverage for newly employed disabled persons who leave Social
Security Disability Insurance or Supplemental Security Income for the first year of
employment would not be expensive either. Because most employers offer health and
medical insurance plans which pay as much as 80% (sometimes even more) of the.coSts
incurred in doctor visits and hospital stays, the balance to be picked up as "second dolldr"
expenditures by the Federal government would be fciuite modest. : Recall, too, that these
persons, by leaving aid rolls for payrolls, no longer qualify for the benefits they had been
receiving as dependents on SSDI or SSI.

Enforcement of sections 402 and 503, as well as the Age Discrimination in Employment Act
would not be costly. Department of Labor officials concede that for every enforcement
dollar spent, the U.S. Treasury gets back many times over the investment in taxes paid by the
now-employed worker. It also saves unemployment benefits, SSDI, SSI and related outlays.

' 31 35

ERLC

Extending the P,L 98-77 provision for up to $10,000 to an employer who hires a previously
unemployed disabled person, would be similarly cost-effective, The law In effect nowapplles
only to certain veterans, and Is authorized at $150-mllllon a year for two years, If we put Into
effect the same level of expenditure on behalf of disabled persons, at least 30,000 would be
helped to find Jobs within the first two V*ws< The taxes paid on their wages (RCA taxes and
federal Income taxes), together with what the Treasuiy would save In benefits, would wipe
out the program's cost In the veiy first year oMmplementatlon. This Is true because costs to
maintain disabled p^ftple on aid rolls average as much as $8,000 annually In direct benefit
payments, Medlcare/Medlcald, food stamps, housing subsidies, and the like,-.

I'm convinced thaf'.rewardlng people for delayed retirement would be a boon for
government, More people working, and therefore, paying PICA taxes, would result In less
people receiving SoclalSecurlty benefits. Because of the Increase In !he number of workers,
more money would flow Into Social Security and the persons remaining on Social Security
would enjoy a much more stable, secure retirement, Norway sets an example of delayed-
retirement rewards. There, late retirees are rewarded with a 9% Increase In benefits for each
year they continue working between the ages of 67 and 70.

The proposals I have discussed are Indeed modest, yet their Impact could be,
tremendous. I can see a near future In which disabled students in schools ancjjcolleges, as
well as disabled clients In rehabilitation programs, would be much more highly motivated to
qualify for and seek jobs than many now are— because they would know that employers are
willing to give them a chance. I can see a near future In which people on SSDI or SSI rolls
would compare benefit checks in their mailboxes with payroll checks in their peers 1 boxes,
and conclude that It Is better to be working. And, I can see a near future In which people who
become disabled while working will keep worklng-wlth their employers 1 blessings.

It can be done, Let's do It.

Footnotes

Chapter One: Into the Breach

1 1n The Baby Boom Generation and the loonomy, Russell makes tho case that the baby-
boom generation's miseries at work (tough competition, llttlo upward mobility, etc) aro a
function, not of tho generations huge size as Is popularty believed, but of other, more general
economic factors. There Is a lively controversy over whether or not she Is right,

Chapter Two: What Is Not Going to Happen

* If a qualified rehabilitation client and his or her counselor come up with a valid Individual
written rehabilitation program (IWRP), the fact that the program calls for liberal arts or
academic schooling should in no way affect the willingness of the agency to support the
client's education.

■/

1 "Trouble In Computer Land," Newsweek.

4 It's not merely a matter of capital. Shelf space In computer stores Is limited. Managerial
decisions ctin be fatal, as some of Osborne Computers' seem to have been: they
announced an advanced version of the popular portable, which depressed sales of
existing units, then were unable to produce the promised machine on a timely basis,

•Bob Kuttner, writing In The Atlantic Monthly on "The Declining Middle,' 1 points out that in
addition to CAD/CAM (computer assisted design/computer assisted manfacturlng),
something called CIM (computer Integrated manufacturing) Is coming, which will
eliminate many CAD/CAM Jobs because the engineer can use a computer to drive the
manufacturing process directly, eliminating the need for additional technicians^

'Personal Computing, Interviewed Osborne on this Issue. The Interview Is an excellent
source of informed Judgments on what will happen In the 1990's.

7 Robert Weinsteln, writing in Family Weekly, on "How to Make Money In the 80V for
example, says: ''Topping the list of fast-growing Jobs Is computer service technician, with a
projected growth rate of 93.2 percent through 1990." Note that he doesn't Indicate the level
from which this growth will occur.

•Regarding desired worker characteristics, Peters and Waterman, In Search of Excellence,
have this to say: • • • close familiarity with the product, ability to relate well to customers, self-
starter mentality, etc. 1 '

♦HarTlson & Bluestone'sThe Delndustrlallzatlon of America started a lot of talk about "the
missing middle" and what it means to the American worker. For a very different perspective
on this issue, read Business Week's special report, "A New Era for Management." ^

10 Jack Anderson's Future File newsletter story, "Every Assembly-Line Robot Will Eliminate
Three Jobs," quotes one labor association official on the future of fired union workers: "What
are they gojng to do? Feed each other hamburgers?"

"Cook's sto[y, "There's Economic Hope In the Long Run," appeared In Newsday.

12 Bob Wyrick and Patrick Owens wrote a major series of articles on Social Security Disability
lnsurance;-/The Disability Nightmare." In Newsday.

"The bill pVesidi^ea^an signed is P.L98-77,the Emergency Jobs Training Act forVeterans.

" "A Conver^jferith William C. Norris; Business Can Profit by Filling •Unmet Social Needs 1 ,"
U.S. News & World Report. For more on the same general theme, see George F. Will, "On
Revenues and RonalcfReagan," Newsweek. Will makes the polntthat "In 1985 the president
must hurry to restore 4he govermenfs revenue base. Reagan cannot be a Reaganlte after
1 984." Something will have to be done to control runaway government spending on people •-■
who don't work.

33

37

Chapter Three: Pocket Marketing

foihm The »aby loom Generation and the loonomy.

S» Jean A. Brlggs and James Cook. "Help Wanted," Forbes, and "What May Keep the Jobless
/ A , Rate High." Business Week.

' "Howard N. Fullerton, "The 1995 labor Force: A First Look," Monthly Labor Review.

"Briggs and Cook. "Help Wanted,"Forbes, and "What May Keep the Jobless Rate High."
Buslriess Week. '

"Welnsteln In "How to Make Money In the 80's."Famlty Weekly.
, "Contact Homework Program Manager. HQN4CX, Control Data Corporation, P.O. Box 0,
Minneapolis, MN 55440, tor Information about CDC's "Homework" program which allows
home-based workers to use high technology to eliminate commuting and similar physical*
- disability problems. See "Talk to Me," Personal Computing, tor Trudy Bell's story about
synthesized speech. Also, see Robert Schadewald's story. "The Speech Gap," Technology
Illustrated.

"Gonnle McClung Slegel, Sales: The Fast Track for Women.
""Changing Phone tiablts." Business Week.

" Elizabeth Wehr. "Major Changes In Medicare Payment System Approved," Congressional
Quarterly.

"Pamela Sherrid, "Good News on the Productivity Front." Forties.

""Good News on the ProductMty Front," Forbes. Abo see "A ProductMty Revolution In the

Service Sector," Business Week.

""A ProductMty Revolution In the SeMce Sector," Business Week. The company's chairman,
William Flshman, was a leader of the U.S. Council for International Year of Disabled Persons
during 1980 and 1981, and has demonstrated a particular Interest In hiring people wtth
disabilities.

"Inc. magazine, various Issues. The periodical concentrates upon small, family-owned
businesses.

Chapter Four Five Areas of Opportunity

"Peters and Waterman, In Search of Excellence.

" Pick up any Issue ofWoridng Woman, Working Mother, andthe like. Almost all of the stories
are geared to executive women. The editors know what their readers want. Despite Census
Bureau data showing that large numbers of women remain In secretarial jobs, many If not
most of these women want to move up the career ladder. The shortage of secretaries In
major cities Is such that employers are offering salaries higher than that of some teachers
and professors to till secretarial positions.

"Themla Kartdel. "What People Earn." Parade.

" Companies with a commitment to promotion from within, such as AT&T and IBM. often
offer corporate sponsorship of college and post-graduate education for employees.
"For additional Information In this area, see the U.S. Congress Office of Technology
Assessment's study. Technology and Handicapped People.

" "The Colossus That Works," Time.

""Business Communications: Challenges for the 'SOs" and "Computer Systems and
Services for Business, Industry and the Home" In Fortune.

"Steve Curwood, "They're Growing Their Own," Boston ©lobe. ,

34

» . ' r . , 38

ERIC

»UJ. Newt ft World Report, "Succesil The Chaw li Back In Style Again, 1
»'UJ. Ntwt ft World Report, "SuccessI The Chase It Back In Style Again:
""RftD Money for the Aiklng," Venture.' •

Chapter Five: Personal Characteristics

"According to Douglas LaBter, a Washington, DC. psychoanalyst, many people rind
recognition In other peoples' approval-not from Internal goals, in )ob# lequWng high Inner-
dlrectodness, people may become deeply frustrated. LoBtofi views wore cited In the
"SuccessI" UJ. Newt ft World Report story.

"In Search of IxoeNonoe quotes Ray Kroc, McDonald's former chairman: "A welkun
restaurant is like a winning baseball team. It makes the most of every crewmember's latent and
takes advantage of every spllt'second opportunity to speed up service, ... I emphasize the
Importance of details. You must perfect every fundamental of your business If you expect It to
perform weir

41 Slegel In Sales: The Past Track for Women, "Nobody can soil to another person without first
having confidence In his or her ability to sell. ... You must be able to assert yourself In a positive
way and be aggressive enough to ask for the order."

"ATftT, tor example. Invested $25,000 per position In high-technology equipment, permitting
blind persons to operate long-distance telephone switching equipment. Such Investments are
rare In operations such as laundromats and fast-food stores.

"Robert W. Mann. "From Concept to Commercial Use: A History o( Aids tor the Visually
Impaired." In Technology for Independent living, Kurzwell has also written extensively on his
own work. See. tor example. 'The Kurzwell Reading Machlne-A Technical Overview."
available from the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS).

39

35

/

Anderson, J, "Bury AnembtyUne Tlobol wA Etmtnote Thwo Job*." Mut Fie, May 1903,

Bei.1 . "TO* K> Mo." PbmmoI Com|ji*nfl, Sopternbor 19M,pg. 120-1314 203.

MQQt. JA and Cook, J, "Hok> Wanted" Forts**, April 28, 1963.

OdQQi, J A and Cook, J. "What Moy Keep the Jobless Pole High. H Bushwu W*«k, Aptt 25, 1 963.

"Business Cormwnteottons: Choionges (or the ad's." Fortune, 1903, various Issues.

Xhongjng Phone Habta." Bustee* < moot, September 1903, pp. 66-76,

Xomputer System* and Service* lor Butlne**, Industry and the Home," fortune, 1983, various

- issue*. — * -~ - ■ ; -

M AConvario*kxtv«fhWll^ Social NoodtruJ.

Now* and Wortd Beport, January 1961 .

Cook. J. "Tbeie's Economic Hope In the Long Run." Mewedoy, Apr! 13. 1963.

Curwood, S. "Tho/io Growing Their Own.* Bottom CMobe, Oct. 11, 1963, p. 63.

"Tho Co*u»«m That Work*" Time, Juty 11. 1963, p. 64.

Ftrterton. H. "The 1995 Labor Force: A Hnt Look." MonMy Labor Review, December 1980.
Gottttob. D. "High Technology Training Surge*." High Te ch nol ogy. October 1963.
Hanfcon. B, and Btoostono, 6, TheDelnaYieMoBioBoitof Amerfoa New York: Basic Book*. 1962.

hie. mogazlne. various Issues. , . flf'-

Kandei. T. "What Peopie Earn." Parade, July 19. 1983, pp. 4-6.

Kuttnor, R. "The Docinlng MWdto ~ AftonBc Morihty, July 1983.

"A New Eio for Management.'* Burinee* Week, Apr! 25. 1963.

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