On December 9, 2020, ICD’s CEO, Susan Scheer, testified before The New York City Council’s Committee on Small Business and Committee on Economic Development at the virtual joint hearing on workforce development and combating unemployment.
Ms. Scheer utilized her time to highlight the disproportionate rate of unemployment among individuals with disabilities, as well as the lack of access to assessment and training services despite the high level of need for these services. After shedding light on these disparities, Ms. Scheer offered actionable solutions, such as more robust funding for service providers like ICD and inviting individuals with disabilities and community-based providers to the planning table.
During her testimony, Ms. Scheer said,
To borrow from the show Hamilton, “we want to be in the room where it happens.” At this historic moment, the disability community—my community--is eager to be part of rebuilding New York City’s economy. We look to the Council to ensure that the “new normal” is one that embraces disability, equity and full inclusion.
A video of the full hearing can be found here, with Ms. Scheer’s testimony beginning at 02:28:04.
A transcript is included below:
Testimony submitted by Susan Scheer, CEO, ICD-Institute for Career Development
New York City Council Committee on Economic Development
Oversight Hearing – Workforce Development and Combating Unemployment
December 9, 2020
Good morning and thank you for the opportunity to testify. My name is Susan Scheer, and I am the CEO of ICD-Institute for Career Development. Founded over 100 years ago to rehabilitate wounded WWI soldiers, ICD is a NYC-based non-profit that provides vocational assessment, training, and job placement free of charge to individuals with disabilities, ages 14 and up.
Even before COVID, unemployment rates for individuals with disabilities were unacceptably high. During the longest economic expansion on record, 70 percent of individuals with disabilities were not in the workforce, and the unemployment rate was 2.5 times that of individuals without a disability. Often among the last hired and in entry-level service roles, individuals with disabilities were among the first to lose their jobs in this downturn. Others were forced to give up employment because the nature of their disability placed them at higher risk for COVID-related complications should they contract the virus.
To be clear, individuals with disabilities want to work. Indeed, once ICD secured tablets and hot spots to address the “disability digital divide,” our students were eager to continue their vocational training on-line starting in April and to return to in-person training in August so they can be ready when the economy picks up. Still others took jobs keeping NYC safe by cleaning our subways and buses. We recently held our first-ever virtual graduation, with more than 100 students in attendance, and helped 11 students receive Cisco certification in networking,
including for the first time, two Deaf students who took the class on-line with an ASL interpreter present for every class.
Yet, as the scandalous unemployment numbers I cited earlier indicate, individuals with disabilities face ongoing systemic bias, or ableism. The majority of ICD’s participants are people of color and live in low-income households, creating intersectional biases. In the face of these obstacles, many are forced to rely on cash assistance or federal disability benefits that offer those with a limited work history a meager average annual income of about $10,000, making our community among the poorest in New York City.
One in five individuals has a disability. Post-COVID, that number will surely rise, as many of our fellow New Yorkers experience lasting health impacts from the virus. These so-called “long haulers” will need organizations like ICD who can help identify what types of assistive technology and other accommodations are needed if they are to return to their previous job or pursue a new line of employment. Yet, now when the demand is greatest, organizations like ours are experiencing reduced funding and the loss of talented staff.
Despite the extreme level of need, assessment and training services accessible to individuals with disabilities are largely missing from the City’s current workforce development programs funded by agencies such as SBS and EDC. State and federally-funded vocational rehabilitation programs, while vital to the workforce development ecosystem, do not meet the needs of all New Yorkers with disabilities. The status quo needs to change, and it needs to change now. When you are already considered “not normal,” back to normal is definitely not good enough.
We can start by welcoming individuals with disabilities and community-based providers that have expertise in preparing individuals with disabilities for employment to the planning table. Whether it is recognized or not, organizations that work with individuals with barriers to employment, including individuals who were formerly incarcerated, who have aged out of foster care, or who are homeless, are already serving individuals with disabilities.
Understanding and meeting these intersectional identities requires collaboration among funders, service providers, and those who have lived experience with disability.
In developing new approaches and new funding streams, it is imperative that traditional pay-for-performance metrics not act as a limit on the ability of providers to work with individuals with disabilities. There needs to be a recognition that the cost for services may be higher and the time needed to successfully prepare and place an individual in employment is likely to be longer. The same is true of pre-employment services such as high school equivalency programs, where gains in reading levels may take longer.
To borrow from the show Hamilton, “we want to be in the room where it happens.” At this historic moment, the disability community—my community—is eager to be part of rebuilding New York City’s economy. We look to the Council to ensure that the “new normal” is one that embraces disability, equity, and full inclusion.
