Seven months after a hijacked passenger jet slammed into the Pentagon on Sept. 11, 2001, a Defense Department accountant who lost both of her hands in the attack visited the Computer/Electronic Accommodations Program (CAP) looking for help.
“I don’t think there’s anything you can do for me,” said the woman, who had recovered from burns over 70 percent of her body.
But there was.
Through various technology offered through CAP, including voice-activated computers, she went back to work at the Pentagon as an accountant and later moved on to a position in which she teleworks for a Defense Department agency.
That’s just one of many success stories of disabled federal workers using specialized computer software and electronics to land or keep federal jobs and fulfill an executive order from President Obama for agencies to increase the number of disabled federal workers by 100,000 in the next five years. The Labor Department provides recommendations and encouragement for fulfilling the executive order by hiring disabled workers.
“We have shown the concrete ways that providing accommodation is easy. It’s important. It’s my focus, my passion,” said CAP Director Dinah Cohen. “We have to always remember that anyone can join this population at any time.”
Beginning as a Defense Department program in 1990, CAP has since expanded to include workers at 68 other federal agencies where disabled workers are often struggling to do their jobs. CAP has provided more than 105,000 assistive technology solutions for federal employees with disabilities, and since 2004, CAP has provided the equipment for 24,000 wounded service members.
If you are without your hands, you can talk to your computer like so many of our returning warriors are or other victims of the 9-11 attacks.” – Dinah Cohen
From blind workers who need voice-activated software to visually impaired ones who need bigger type to those who lost the use of their hands because of war or accident, CAP provides equal access to everyone with accommodation needs on an annual budget that’s currently $8 million. The average cost of an assistive technology per worker is $382, Cohen said.
“If you are without your hands, you can talk to your computer like so many of our returning warriors are or other victims of the 9-11 attacks,” said Cohen, 58, who’s a certified rehabilitation counselor and has worked for the federal government for 28 years.
Once a disabled worker is hired by a federal agency under a program known as Schedule A, the agency works with CAP to come up with the assistive technology to accommodate the worker, said Cohen, adding that she hopes CAP will gain more attention during National Disability Awareness month in October. This year’s theme: “Profit by Investing in Workers with Disabilities.”
Cohen understands disability issues firsthand. She has mobility issues because of a congenital heart problem, cannot walk as fast or frequently as others can and has to plan ahead.
And she is helping federal agencies move ahead with a mandate to increase telework by helping agencies make teleworking accessible for disabled workers, too. Some 200 telework requests from disabled federal workers were recently approved with CAP’s help.
CAP also provides services at military hospitals where service members are being treated for war injuries and helps navigate the way to federal jobs for these disabled personnel. Special operations Army Capt. Ivan Castro (in video above) is one of them. Blinded in a mortar attack in Iraq, CAP made it possible for him to continue doing his job in the military with computer devices that read the text.
“If you have this kind of program, you have the ability to keep talented people in the federal government on board even if they’ve been in a car accident or diagnosed with a disability,” Cohen said.