A Self-Advocate’s Perspective on a Person-Centered Approach to Employment for People with Disabilities
August 22, 2024
In this blog Disability Employment Technical Assistance (TA) Center Self-Advocate Advisor, Nicole LeBlanc, shares her personal perspective on engaging people with disabilities around employment through a person-centered process, including tips for how to be person-centered through promoting the dignity of risk, discovery, and customized employment. Nicole also shares do’s and don’ts for taking a person-centered approach to employment.
“Without choice, you have no control. Without control, you have no dream.” -Southern Collaborative of Self Advocates, as quoted in a person-centered planning training from Detroit-Wayne Connect. [1]
The Administration for Community Living (ACL) National Center on Advancing Person-Centered Practices and Systems (NCAPPS) defines person-centered thinking as a foundational principle that “focuses language, values, and actions toward respecting the views of the person and their loved ones.” [2] Person-centered planning is a person-directed way of planning and coordinating a person’s services and supports. [3] Person-centered planning involves the person’s family, friends, and other professionals the person wishes to include. A person-centered planning process focuses on the person’s strengths, wishes, and abilities. It helps the person learn about their choices and interests so they can figure out the supports and support people needed to get the life they want—based on their own definition of a good life. It builds upon a person’s capacity to engage in activities that promote community living. [4] There is a saying among advocates that “it’s not enough for a person to remain in the community, they need to be engaged in the community.”
Dignity of Risk
One thing that’s at the heart of person-centeredness is embracing the dignity of risk. Having the right to learn from failure and getting outside one’s comfort zone is at the heart of being truly person-centered. Too often our society shelters people with disabilities and restricts their choices and independence. This is especially true when people with disabilities screw up and make mistakes like bouncing checks, taking the wrong bus, or getting scammed. Too often, I find that people with disabilities like me are held to higher standards when we screw up. Many of us were raised in a world where we need to be perfect 100% of the time. Dignity of risk is especially important in the area of employment as we move away from sheltered workshops and the “4 F’s” of disability employment – food, filth, flowers, and filing. As Robert Perske says “There is dignity in risk. Failure is not the opposite of success, it is part of it!”
Discovery
A 2nd major part of taking a person-centered approach is supporting self-advocates to discover their skills, talents, strengths, and passions that could turn into a job someday. It is best to start this process when kids are young. We can do this by giving people with disabilities exposure to a wide variety of experiences. One way to start is for teachers, families, and support staff to have high expectations for us starting in grade school. Too often our society sees people with disabilities as broken and in need of fixing. Many studies have shown that when families and providers have high expectations, it leads to better employment outcomes. [5]
“Unfortunately, many people with disabilities grow up in the shadows of ‘Low Expectation Syndrome.’ Our hopes and dreams can be stripped away by doctors, teachers, parents, and providers who have preconceived notions about what we are capable of doing.” Nicole LeBlanc
Customized Employment
A 3rd part of being person-centered is embracing customer-focused job development by focusing on carving jobs to match the strengths, hopes and desires of people with developmental disabilities. This is an essential part of a truly great person-centered career plan. We must remember there is a job out there for everyone regardless of severity of disability. It is essential that we presume employability. No one is too disabled to live, work, and thrive in the community. Job carving, also known as customized employment, is a win-win because it offers many great benefits to both employers and people with disabilities. Job carving can also allow employers to re-evaluate workloads by creating a new position fit someone with a disability. It is essential that we support people with disabilities in going after their dream job. Person-centeredness in employment is supporting people to go after their dreams and not just telling us that we should go into only certain roles that are fast growing based on the Occupational Outlook Handbook. In a good person-centered planning process, people with developmental disabilities are fully supported and empowered to achieve their dreams and goals and have access to the dignity of risk. As a society we must move away from being system-centered, which is doing what’s in best interest of a system, rather than what is in the best interest of the person.
Do’s and Don’ts of a Person-Centered Approach to Employment
Do’s
- Embrace the Dignity of Risk and don’t be overprotective.
- Have high expectations.
- Ask what the person prefers with respect to people-first vs. identity-first, respectful language. [6]
- Use Plain Language – when we use words everyone can understand we all win! Plain language is inclusive language and makes us feel like we belong at the table. [7]
- Presume Competence – Don’t assume what we can and cannot do based on our disability.
- Learn to Let Go.
- Have an accessible agenda for person-centered planning meetings. It should use plain language and be in a format that everyone can access.
- Dream big.
- Focus on supporting the person in discovery of goals, hopes, and dreams in specific areas of life, like employment.
- Help clarify who can provide support around the person’s specific goals (e.g., employment, health, financial-$, etc.), like a job coach, direct support professional,
- Shared Living Provider, Family member, or other Allies/Friends.
- Do believe in us.
Don’ts
- Don’t be overprotective and risk averse.
- Don’t hold people to higher standards than those without disabilities. For example, bouncing a check or getting on the wrong bus resulting in harsher punishment for people with disabilities, than those without disabilities.
- Don’t use offensive or outdated terms like Special Needs.
- Don’t treat adults with disabilities as kids by saying things like, “This is my foster daughter” when introducing us to others.
- Avoid the Developmental Age mindset.
- Don’t speak too fast.
- Don’t use “ABC soup” (lots of acronyms).
- Don’t use sarcasm or idioms or sugar-coat it. Tell it like it is!
- Be creative and think outside the box. When you have always done what you have always done, you will always get what you have always got.
Good person-centered planning in employment is seeing and treating people with disabilities as equals just like the rest of society. A good person-centered planning process is one that allows people with disabilities to take charge of their lives and DREAM BIG. It is done in a way that maximizes the person’s control over their lives.
Guidance for Providers and Families
As providers and families, we can respect and uphold a person’s wishes by doing the following:
- Honoring a person’s dreams, goals, and wishes is an essential part of the PCP process, because it shows respect for our personhood. One way to do this is by having them take charge of their lives at their PCP meeting.
- It’s important that providers/families put themselves in our shoes. Empathy is a two-way street.
- Believe in us. Support us in meeting our goals. Have patience.
- Use informed choice.
- Remember we all want the same things in life as the neurotypical or nondisabled world does. Honoring our wishes and goals is about showing RESPECT for us as people with disabilities.
- Be creative.
- Remember there is a job out there for everyone! No one is too disabled to live and work in the community.
- Lastly, being person-centered is just the right thing to do. Having empathy and putting yourself in our shoes is a great way to be person-centered as a parent or professional. It is essential that we start talking about employment when kids are in school and helping them figure out their passions, interests, dreams and what they want to be when they grow up.
Resources for Further Learning
- Self-Determination Resources, Think College
- Green Mountain Disability Stories Podcast, Episode 8: Alan Kurtz, Nicole LeBlanc, and Bryan Dague on Supporting Employment for People on the Autism Spectrum, University of Vermont Center on Disability & Community Inclusion (CDCI)
- Presentation on Person-Centered Employment Supports, Nicole LeBlanc & Alixe Bonardi, Human Services Research Institute (HSRI) and National Center on Advancing Person-Centered Practices and Systems (NCAPPS)
- Person-Centered Planning: PATH, MAPS, and Circles of Support, Inclusion Press
About the Author
Nicole LeBlanc is a Self-Advocate Advisor to the Administration on Disabilities (AoD) Disability Employment TA Center with 16+ years of experience in federal and state disability policy and advocacy. Nicole has held several internships and fellowships at the state and federal levels, and consults for various groups including the Human Services Research Institute (HSRI) and Liberty Healthcare. In the last five years, Nicole won the David Joyce Advocate of the Year Award (2019) and the Steven Bartlett Advocate of the Year Award (2022) for her disability rights advocacy. Her motto is “Control your own destiny, or someone else will.”
References
- Detroit-Wayne Connect. n.d. Person Centered Planning. https://www.dwctraining.com/OnlineCourses/Attachments/PCP/PCP.pdf
- National Center on Advancing Person-Centered Practices and Systems (2019). Introducing the National Center on Advancing Person-Centered Practices and Systems. https://ncapps.acl.gov/docs/NCAPPS_OnePager_Sept2019_Final.pdf
- Brady, K., Rajcevic, S. (2023). Promising Practices for Person-Centered Plans. National Center on Advancing Person-Centered Practices and Systems. https://ncapps.acl.gov/docs/Resources/NCAPPS%20Promising%20Practices%20for%20Person-Centered%20Plans.pdf
- Lawrence, J. (2020). Person-Centered Thinking, Planning, and Practice: Representative Examples of State Definitions. National Center on Advancing Person-Centered Practices and Systems. https://ncapps.acl.gov/docs/NCAPPS_Definitions_RepresentativeExamples_200930.pdf
- TennesseeWorks. (2021). Raising Expectations. https://www.tennesseeworks.org/raising-expectations/
- Visit the Employer Assistance and Resource Network on Disability Inclusion (EARN) website for more information about how and when to use person-first and identity-first language: https://askearn.org/page/people-first-language.
- Learn more about plain language at https://www.plainlanguage.gov/.
