For Disabled Workers, a Tight Labor Market Opens New Doors

For individuals with developmental disabilities in Washington, D.C., inclusion’s uphill battle, while still happening, has shown results. After the practice of institutionalization ended decades ago, there was a shift to group home living, nonprofit advocacy groups, and job placements. Challenges remain though, like slow-moving bureaucracy, funding, and those still fighting inclusion, but moves toward inclusive jobs and living continue.

Individuals who have Aspergers Syndrome and autism experience difficulty in conforming to workplace norms and find themselves unemployed. Specialisterne, a Danish company, has opened employment opportunities for them. Sixty countries around the world have sought to adopt the company model.

Most programs to cut recidivism don’t significantly reduce rates of repeated arrests or incarceration, but one called the Center for Employment Opportunities that started in New York City is making a dramatic dent. The program provides newly-released prisoners with transitional services - most significantly, distinct working crews where they can be constructively monitored and learn teamwork - effectively helping keep them out of jail and transition back into society.

A startling 70% of blind persons in the United States are unemployed. The Dallas Lighthouse for the Blind is helping shift the understanding of what types of jobs are available to this population with a revolutionary factory built specifically for its blind employees. Each machine is retrofitted to be used safely and easily, empowering individuals to become more independent. This video takes you inside the factory to meet some of the workers.

The unemployment rate for individuals diagnosed on the autism spectrum is a whopping 58%, but a number of pilot programs at big companies are working to increase what is being called "neurodiversity" in the workplace. Inspired by the success of a Dutch organization that helps place autistic workers, firms like EY and Microsoft are finding that employing individuals with unique cognitive abilities benefits not just people, but the company's bottom line.

It was a "longshot" that resulted in doctors at a Seattle-area hospital diagnosing the first cases of coronavirus, but how they responded may serve as a model to other hospitals attempting to contain the spread further. From staff trained on incident management and a drive-through testing site that serve the health-care workers to a dedicated floor for treating the patients who have tested positive, the hospital has been able to successfully stop any internal spreading.

Kinsa thermometers connect wirelessly to a central database that has been used to track fevers across the United States during the COVID19 pandemic. The data that has been collected has shown that strict orders like business closures and stay-at-home restrictions are working. With public health measures that seek prevention rather than treatment, proof of success can be hard to identify, but these thermometers and their tracking are doing it.

Facing a supply shortage, North Dakota and South Dakota arranged a no-cost swap of needed COVID19 testing supplies. Both states are part of the Northern Plains Consortium, made up of five states’ public health lab workers in an ongoing effort to collaborate and learn from one another. And those relationships paid off when the Dakotas needed to cooperate to share supplies in order to test their residents.

A Lithuanian organization is helping neurodiverse applicants gain a foothold in the job market by tailoring the hiring process to their needs. Despite have the necessary skills, neurodiverse applicants often face roadblocks in the hiring process that fail to highlight their skills and abilities. Specialisterne is changing that.

Throughout the pandemic, testing for COVID-19 in wastewater has been used to monitor the transmission of the virus. Wastewater testing is a reliable tool that often complements clinical COVID-19 testing and can be used for the early detection of outbreaks and surges. In Ontario, each of the province’s 34 public-health units joined Ontario’s Wastewater Surveillance Initiative, allowing researchers and public-health units to work together on testing water samples.