PERSPECTIVES: Businesses Have To Break Barriers

Screen Shot 2014-10-21 at 2.52.08 PMAt Project SEARCH, I learned how to make beds, make packets, move all the stuff from the old hospital rooms to the new hospital rooms, check hospital machines and other various tasks in the departments at Cartersville Medical Center's The Hope Center. The center serves cancer patients with radiation therapy and other patient services. I learned a lot of new skills, met new people and I had fun by working in different departments and having different job duties. But, it has been hard to find a job because you
have to go on the computer to look for jobs to see where the job is located so you can know if the job is far or close to your house.

The applications are easy to fill out depending on what kind of questions they give you. They might put some hard questions that I do not get and some questions that I do get depending on what kind of job I apply for. I had help to complete applications from my teacher and my job coach. I had difficulty with the portion of the application that had ethical questions, reading comprehension quizzes and math problems. If I didn't score high enough on these, my application was never seen by human resources. Some ways businesses can make it easier for people to apply is they should put applications on computers, in the newspaper or put a sign outside at the front building.

But, applications aren't the only thing that can be difficult in getting a job. Sometimes, if your whole family has just one car to drive from work and back, that can make it difficult to get and keep a job. I was hired in May to work at Bojangles from 10 a.m. – 3 p.m., four days per week. My main duty was to make the biscuits from scratch. When a new manager arrived, she said that there was no 10 – 3 shift and that I would have to work the regular shifts like everyone else.

This was a problem because of transportation. My father works the night shift and I could not work the closing shift at the restaurant because I would have needed to be picked up after my father had already left for work.

The restaurant was not willing to make any accommodations to the schedule. But, at the same time, I was told that I was doing a great job, arrived on time and got the job finished. She said I was a good worker, but I worked there for about six weeks. I am good at building and fixing things, cooking, art, computers, sports, building with Legos, wood, metal parts and other kind of
materials.

If people teach the people who have disabilities more skills and give them more work experience than a person that does not have disabilities, we can work in a job by ourselves.

Tags: Making a Difference, Perspectives