Assembly Select Committee on Select Committee on Opportunities and Barriers for People with Disabilities in the Workplace

Or are you both together? Well, I'm not clear on the question Silas is asking. I'm not clear what your question is.

Okay. Came in and asked me if I wanted to allow them to have my video and audio and I said yes, right? And did two. And then because I'm on a Mac, it said I had to enable. Now this is Silas wondering, am I going to be sharing my powerpoints or are you going to be doing that? I will share the PowerPoint. This is a test for closed captioning. Check 12 check. Check for closed captioning. There we go. Okay.

Good afternoon everyone. Thank you for being here today. I'm Assembly Member Liz Ortega. We expect today's hearing, Select Committee on opportunities and barriers for people with disabilities in the workplace to last about 3 hours. I would like to note that we also have ASL interpreters in the room that will be here for the whole hearing. After our four panels, there will be public comment section in which any Member from the public can speak for up to 1 minute.

Commenters may participate in person here in room 1100 at 1021 O-street in Sacramento. Or you may call into the teleconference line. Comments may the teleconference number is 877-692-8957 and the public access code is 1850-1100 this information is also posted on our Select Committee website. We are also accepting written testimony which can be emailed to assemblymember Ortega at Assembly ca gov. Please specify Select Committee in the subject.

Please note that any written testimony submitted to the Committee is considered public comment and may be read into the record or reprinted. We ask that all speakers maintain professional decorum and keep their comments respectful and relative to the issue being discussed. Thank you everyone for being here. Thank you for my colleagues, Assembly Member Alanis and Assembly Member Ash Kalra, thank you for being here today.

I'd like to thank speaker emeritus Anthony Rendon for allowing me to create this Select Committee and Speaker Robert Rivas for allowing us to continue and this meeting to take place. Today, I'm hosting this hearing to explore how we can address barriers and expand opportunities for employment among people with disabilities. As a labor leader, prior to coming to the Assembly, I have personally represented and advocated for hundreds of thousands of workers, including many workers with disabilities and workers who experience disability while on the job.

While preparing for this hearing and one of the reasons I wanted to really have this today is an article I read that talked about how during the pandemic, for the first time, a lot of people with disabilities were now feeling included in the workplace with the ability to work from home. It gave everyone an opportunity to feel part of the workplace and be recognized and seen.

Unfortunately, what was also talked about was as more employers are returning to the office, many employees that were able to participate are now having to return to the office and therefore taking away a lot of the gains that were made during the pandemic for this workforce. There are staggering rates of unemployment among this population and that should be concerning to all of us.

The unemployment rate among the disabled population in the United States is more than double what it is for workers who do not have a reported disability. In the US alone, only 40% of people with disabilities are employed, compared to 78% employment rate among those without disabilities. Among the small number of those with disabilities who are able to find jobs, many face discrimination or barriers to receiving reasonable accommodations.

However, there are many model employers who actively recruit workers with disabilities, provide them with reasonable accommodations, and find that they are valuable and productive members of this workforce. During today's hearing, we will hear from some of these employers who will share their best practices. We will also hear from experts on the topic about broader issues and challenges, and most importantly, we will hear from several individuals with disabilities who will share their expertise and personal experiences.

We will discuss the scope of the problem, but most importantly, potential solutions that we can take here in the State of California and other states could look at us as models. While there are several existing state programs designed to connect the disability community with meaningful employment, unfortunately, many of those programs are still not meeting their intended goals.

As the fourth largest economy or the fifth largest close to about to be the fourth largest economy in the world, there is no reason why California cannot uplift the disability community and provide opportunities of employment or higher education. I have a lot of hopes for today's hearings and a lot of hope for action afterwards. I would like to now allow my colleagues a few minutes to make some remarks.

Our mics are not working.

Okay. Now it's working. Thank you. Thank you, Madam labor chair. That sounds really great to say. I want to thank you for hosting this and bringing some incredible speakers here for us to learn from. We don't talk about the issues regarding those people with disabilities in the workplace often enough. So I think it's a great opportunity for us to put more emphasis on the needs of people with disabilities.

And if you don't have a personal knowledge of it, I think that you can just assume everything's okay, unemployment is down and wages are going up without recognizing that there are populations within our community that are still facing grave discrimination, especially as you correctly indicated coming out of COVID that although that may mean freedom for a lot of folks, I think in many ways it does bring challenges as well.

And I have a very close family friend that over the last couple of years, lost much of his vision. And I learned a lot about how that can have an impact in terms of not being able to drive, having to have accommodations to be able to be employed. And there's a lot more to it than I ever would have imagined. And so I want to thank you and those that are here to offer their expertise as to what we can be doing better as a state.

Thank you very much, Madam Chair, for your leadership on this issue. Obviously, we know that we have to make sure that we pay even more closer attention of the needs of this community. We need to do a better job to strengthen our systems and make sure that we keep them updated as well to meet the current needs of this population.

And I look forward to continue to learn through this process, learn through the presentations that you have organized for us all, so that as we begin to go about our work next year, we can make sure that we have some things to take some action on. So thank you very much for your leadership.

Thank you, colleagues. Our first panel will give an overview of the landscape of employment among people with disabilities. Each speaker has up to five minutes to speak, and we will give you a warning when you have 1 minute left. At the end of each panel, there will be an opportunity for committee members to ask questions or make comments.

Our first speaker will be Dr. Olivia Rayner, who has over 45 years of experience as a national leader in policy development and development, implementation and advocacy for inclusive higher education. She is joining us remotely. Our second speaker is Dr. Sorry, I apologize. The second speaker is panel Paula Tobler, a supervising attorney in the pathways to work practice group at a Disability Rights California.

And lastly, we have John Bole, the Executive Director of Visibility, which is a nonprofit in the East Bay that provides services to individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities. And our final panelist is Erin Carruthers, the Executive Director of the California State Council on Developmental Disabilities. So, Dr. Rayner, hi.

Good afternoon, Chair Ortega and Members of the Committee. I am getting an echo on my end of the webex, so I hope you're not getting the same in where you're sitting.

No, we can hear you clearly.

Thank you, and I'll keep going. So, my name is Olivia Rainer. I am a white female in my short blonde hair, brown eyes, and glasses. I use the pronouns she and her. I am the former Director and adjunct Professor of the UCLA Tarjan Center, a University Center for Excellence in developmental Disabilities. Most of my academic experience has centered in two areas, policy and systems change, that can lead to competitive integrated employment and postsecondary education for students with intellectual disabilities.

Thank you for this opportunity to provide some foundational information about the employment of people with disabilities and some of the barriers faced. In my remarks, I will be paying specific attention to individuals with developmental disabilities. Developmental disabilities are a group of conditions due to an impairment of physical, learning, language, or other behavioral issues. These conditions begin early during the developmental period and may impact day to day functioning and usually last throughout a person's life.

For this presentation, you will hear me use the term DD when referring to this population, or IDD when talking about individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities. Research shows that people with disabilities want to work in meaningful jobs in the community, earning fair wages and earning fair wages. Californians with developmental disabilities who are currently unemployed express a strong desire for employment, and 90% of those currently working report satisfaction with their jobs.

Central to California's employment first, policy is that the opportunity to work is for all, regardless of the severity of their disability, and that competitive integrated employment, which can be simply defined as real work for real pay with real benefits, is the desired outcome. With competitive integrated employment, called CIE, people with disabilities are more fully included in their communities, earn more money, work in a variety of jobs, pay more taxes, and have greater access to employer sponsored benefits.

For decades, we have known that there is an unacceptably low rate of employment for individuals with disabilities. The following stats will give you a sense of this. Slide two, please. Persons with disability there are 22 million working age adults in California and 2.1 million working age adults with disabilities. Slide three, please.

In 2021, the overall rate for employment for people with disabilities was 40% and 73% for those without disabilities, a 33% difference in employment among the six types of functional disabilities identified by the American Community Survey. The highest employment rate was for people with a hearing disability and the lowest employment rate were with those with a self care disability. Next slide, please. There is no one data source for the employment rate of people with developmental disabilities.

Estimates are made based on the number of individuals receiving integrated employment services from their state's developmental disabilities agency in California. This rate has decreased over the last five years from a high of 17.2% in 2018 and 13.8% in 2022. Next slide, please. Poor employment outcomes are a result of a confluence of issues. The reasons are complex and reflect issues that include individual family, systemic barriers and the perception about the capacity of a person to work and contribute to the economy.

I will highlight two social bias and diminished expectations have lifelong psychological and economic consequences and result in fewer opportunities in education and employment. Biases and lower expectations are also forms of discrimination. We also know that many individuals and their families fear the loss of benefits, particularly health benefits, tied to SSI. Next slide, please. Workers with disabilities are twice as likely to work part time compared to those with disabilities.

According to national data, individuals with IDD typically work on average 29 biweekly hours and earn an hourly rate wage of $10.76. Most individuals with IDD are working Low skill entry jobs with no benefits. The four most common occupations for people with IDD are sometimes referred to as the four f's, occupations that involve food, filth, filing, and flowers. I will end on a more positive note. Next slide, please. There is a growing body of evidence of ways we can support competitive employment outcomes.

For example, we know that inclusive education, paid work experience in high school, early work experience, adequate job supports, and benefits counseling are significant predictors of later employment. We also know that participation in higher education programs are associated with better employment outcomes for individuals with disabilities. I have two recommendations for consideration by the council that aim to enhance existing educational policies in support of career pathways to employment.

The first is regarding a new development within the education system that offers an alternate pathway to a high school diploma for students with significant cognitive disabilities. We know that students who receive a diploma increase their employability and earnings. On average, there is a 28% difference in weekly earnings between those who do or do not have a diploma. We encourage an investment in the higher education systems postsecondary education programs for students with intellectual and developmental disabilities.

Currently, there are 22 postsecondary education programs that are listed in the Think College database. There is a need for additional programs to be part and parcel of California's higher education system I want to thank you for this opportunity of speaking with you, chair Ortega and Committee Members. I have included my contact information on the slide presentation and available to offer you any additional information to the Committee. I've also included some additional references and some resources for your consideration. Again, thank you for your time.

Thank you Dr. Rayner and lovely picture you sent in. It does match the description you gave us earlier. Now I would like to have our second speaker, Paula Tobler, who's a supervising attorney at Disability Rights California. Thank you.

Blur oops.

Thank you.

Good afternoon. My name is Paula Tobler and I am a supervising attorney in the pathways to work practice group at Disability Rights California. I am a middle aged white woman with brown hair and glasses and my pronouns are she, her, hers Disability Rights California provides legal services through 26 offices and over 300 employees throughout the State of California. We prioritize civil rights, education, employment, Healthcare and community based services, housing, intellectual and developmental disabilities, mental health, and voting.

I work in the practice group that concentrates on the employment of persons with disabilities, specifically advocating for clients of the Department of Rehabilitation, Social Security beneficiaries wishing to work, and employees with all manner of disabilities in need of reasonable accommodations in their employment. As an employee with disabilities, myself, and a supervisor in an organization that actively recruits employees with disabilities, I personally participate in the reasonable accommodation process, both on the employee and manager side.

In addition to the work I do for clients, I both live and work on the front lines of this issue. I was a practicing attorney when I was hit by a truck while driving from court back to my office years ago. In the blink of an eye, I went from carrying a heavy case load of trial work to not being able to read a paragraph in a fluffy novel and tell you what it said.

I was diagnosed with posttraumatic stress disorder and traumatic brain injury in addition to various physical injuries. I was not able to work at all for some time, but I desperately wanted to work. I had worked very hard to succeed in a career that I loved and I literally grieved its loss. But I could not pull myself up by my bootstraps hard as I tried. I apologize. It still gets to me 25 plus years later.

Fortunately, I got the supports and services I needed to return to work and have been able to get the accommodations I need to keep working. I would not be here if the State of California and my employer had not invested in my well being and returned to work.

The state has received a return on that investment as I have been back to being able to pay taxes and not relying on social safety nets for the past couple decades and will continue paying it back and paying it forward for years to come. Everyone on every point of the political spectrum should be in favor of growing the tax base with people who are passionate about working. Happier people, happier budget forecasts. It's a win win. Actually, it's a win win.

People with disabilities, the tax base, and employers all win. I am by no means an anomaly. While reports of employees not wanting to work and employers struggling to fill openings have filled news cycles, I have been working day in and day out with a steady stream of people fighting hard to be able to work. So why are the employment statistics for employment of people with disabilities so Low? Five minutes is not near enough time to answer that question.

But one huge factor in the hiring, and especially retention of employees with disabilities is whether people with disabilities can get reasonable accommodations in the workplace. While we have laws in place requiring accommodations, these laws have proven difficult to implement and enforce. Under the law, employers do not have to lower productivity standards, eliminate any essential job functions, or suffer undue hardship to accommodate employees with disabilities. The majority of requests that I see day in and day out, including my own, are free or low cost.

That does not, unfortunately, mean that employers do not refuse such accommodation requests. For example, the broader availability of remote work has been a game changer for people with disabilities who want to work. Unfortunately, the conversation around remote work and returning to offices has centered on personal preferences, leaving out the disabled population for many of whom it is a need and not a preference.

Autoimmune disorders and long Covid transportation issues, embarrassing or disruptive symptoms, social anxiety, and even PTSD can all result in remote work being the difference between being able to work or being unemployed. Ensuring that remote work is readily available to employees with disabilities who need it is crucial to keeping people with disabilities working, but many employers are denying it without showing any undue hardship.

While we have laws such as the Fair Employment and Housing Act that protect workers with disabilities and require employers to accommodate them abdu hardship, the systems in place to enforce these laws are not sufficient. Employers who take the attitude that they do not have to show undue hardship or any hardship, but can simply refuse to accommodate, which, despite the laws against doing so, need to be more easily held accountable.

Another specific problem in the implementation of the reasonable accommodation laws is the practice of some medical providers and health insurers to refuse to provide medical support letters. This brings the legislative process, or the process that the Legislature has put into place to a halt. Employers can demand the medical documentation, and if medical providers refuse to provide it. The process is over, and good employees cannot keep their jobs. Legislation prohibiting such practices would help many employees with disabilities to keep their jobs.

I want to thank you for the opportunity to be here today and for the investments that the State of California has made in me. I'm happy to be providing a substantial return on that investment. Even at this time of year where I've just paid property taxes and I'm gearing up to do my income taxes, I can still wholeheartedly say that it is my pleasure to be back in the tax base.

May we all work together to increase that tax base and add to California's proud history as a leader in creating a strong economy through investing in its people.

Thank you so much and thank you for sharing your story. Very proud to have you here today. Next our next speaker is John Boulet, the Executive Director of visibility, which is a nonprofit in the East Bay and serves many of my constituents in Assembly District 20. Thank you.

This is on. There it is. Madam Chair and esteemed Committee Members, thank you for the privilege to address you today. I'm John Bole, Executive Director of Vistability, a community based nonprofit that is dedicated to serving 1100 individuals with intellectual developmental disabilities and other complex needs in both Contra Costa and Alameda County, and our agency has been doing so for nearly six decades.

Our organization provides a spectrum of vital services encompassing early start, after school adult day, tailored day in home day, family resource, and a range of employment focused initiatives like work activity, group supported employment, paid internships, and individual placement job coaching. Today, I'm here to share my perspective on the issue of trying to help people with disabilities find and keep jobs. Let's first consider the collective identity encapsulated in the term people with disabilities.

It's imperative to recognize the diversity within this group, with individuals possessing a wide array of capabilities, challenges and needs. Addressing these varied circumstances requires an equally diverse set of services and options to empower them in achieving their life goals. And I implore the Committee and all policymakers to keep in mind those individuals with significant disabilities who often need different services than the articulate self advocates that tend to circulate through your offices.

With the passage of SB 639 in 2021, California is moving forward with eliminating the use of federal law 14 C, authorized under the Fair Labor Standards act. We are eliminating 14 c because we perceive sub minimum wage jobs as bad, but I urge this Committee to also consider what was good about it and why so many people with IDD chose to be in those positions.

There are still thousands of people with significant disabilities who are unlikely to attain competitive employment, who rely on 14 c for their opportunity to have a job and the pride that comes along with that. And in my opinion, they deserve better than, quote, we decided that a day program is a good option for you. To truly understand why progress in getting individuals with IDD competitively employed remain slow, we must acknowledge three key obstacles. One is the loss of benefits.

Individuals fear losing essential benefits such as SSI, Section eight, and so on, and rightfully so, especially while in a competitive job where they may 1 day lose both. And when that happens, how long will it take for those individuals to get those benefits activated again? Or will they even at all getting to the end of the line to receive Section eight? It's a long line. Number two is a lack of desire.

Factors like the lack of camaraderie and stress for people with IDD associated with competitive jobs impact individuals willingness to seek such employment. And three, there are system challenges. Requirements to fade, support for people with IDD, staffing shortages, and funding constraints all pose significant hurdles. Moving forward, we should adopt a thoughtful approach, and here are some ideas. One, that we take an individualized solutions. We focus on individualized solutions, excuse me?

And recognize that a one size fits all approach is inadequate for addressing the diverse needs of, quote, individuals with disabilities. Two, keep the 14 C processes in place for those individuals who are not able to transition and consider funding the wage gap between their 14 C wage and the minimum wage, at least until a sustainable solution is identified.

And number three, take the time required to develop comprehensive strategies that meet the needs of everyone and don't harm anyone along the way, especially those who are most vulnerable. And in conclusion, our collective responsibility is to pave the way for a more inclusive and supportive future, ensuring that individuals with disabilities have the opportunities they deserve to lead fulfilling lives according to their own definition of fulfillment. Not our idea for them. Thank you, and I'm happy to answer any questions you may have.

Thank you very much. Our final speaker is Aaron Carruthers. Sorry, I apologize.

You say it however you want.

The Executive Director of California State Council on the Developmental Disabilities.

Thank you, Madam Chair. Aaron Carruthers pronouns he, they a white male with gray hair, great plaid suit, blue tie, and wearing glasses. I really want to thank the chair and the Members today for your passion and your commitment to this issue and being here today. It's a critical issue, and my personal passion is working to make California the best place for people with developmental and other disabilities. And that's what brings me here today. Next slide, please.

A quick introduction about the California State Council on Developmental Disabilities. We exist in federal and state law. I do lead a State Department, but we're a State Department that doesn't deliver programs and services, but delivers advocacy and systems change. We're outside of any other state Department or even outside of agency. If you look at the state chart, we're sort of one of those free radicals up in the corner administratively reporting to the governor's office. Yet still I've got a CA gov email address.

Like the others here. Our role is to find barriers that keep people with developmental disabilities from living fully integrated lives in the community and remove those barriers so that they can do that. How we do that is just by asking the community every five years, what would you like us to work on? In our last survey, there were 6300 voices represented. When we identify the voices of people with developmental disabilities, the number one answer was employment. We want you working on this. This matters.

10 years ago. Five years ago, the answer was benefits. Keep my benefits, don't want to lose my benefits. Do what we can. What we saw is kind of the change and evolution of, I guess, the integration generation. When you have people with significant disabilities in the same classroom as everybody else, that generation grows up with different expectations about each other and about themselves. And we're seeing that actually reflected in what the committee is telling us to work on, which is employment. Next slide.

What's important, and the first speaker spoke to this, is that California has laid the foundation for the work that you as a committee are here to do, which is adopting by adopting the employment first policy that just states that we begin with the assumption that everybody wants to work and can work independent of their disability as long as they have the right supports for their skills and abilities. Next slide, please. There's been some recent solutions that the Legislature has implemented that's addressed some important barriers.

The first on this list is LEAP SIP, terrible acronym. LEAP is the process for employees with disabilities to become state civil servants. This matters because you as the Legislature have the most direct control and authority over California as an employer itself. So I'm talking about people working for the state. Huge opportunity, lots of ways to change. This program offers that way.

It's an internship specifically designed for people with developmental disabilities who, upon completion and experiencing work in a state position, then are eligible to be on the LEAP list. It's a bunch of civil service talk, but civil service itself becomes its own barrier to employment. There are a number of really smart recommendations in the Legislature. Last year, making this program permanent was a critical one. Next change that also happened last year was the state established a statewide employment first office.

Thank you to the very strong, clear and persistent leadership of Mr. Arambula. With that, the barrier there is of the many well intended efforts happening within the state, estimates are up to 60. Making sure they're all working in a way that's coordinated to amplify and get the best outcomes for employees with disabilities. Thank you again, Mr. Arambula. The other piece that is important change is phasing out and ending sub minimum wage.

So I tell people that people with developmental disabilities can be paid as Low as $2 an hour, and that's still legal and possible. Madam Chair, with your strong passion and leadership in labor, you can see on its face what a labor violation this is. We're proud that the state has made the decision to phase it out and are working toward that end. So these are some recent, some current barriers and some current solutions to them.

But if I can offer one suggestion of something to look at. Next slide, please. As the prior speaker mentioned, people do still can care about their benefits and when they are employed, they want to know how is it going to impact the benefits the benefit structure is tied to. As you earn more, your benefits go down. One of the key resources in that is an online web based called DB 101. Disability benefits 101 recently learned that this is set to run out of funding.

It's a key tool. It's specialized, it's individualized. It needs to continue. So if you're looking for an opportunity, something to continue that really impacts employment, continuing, DB 101 would be it. Thank you, Members.

Thank you very much. This concludes our first panelists. I will now open it up to my colleagues for any questions or comments. Thank.

Thank you. Thank you, Madam Chair. Just on the issue of the sub-minimum wage, I do certainly agree in principle that it's the right thing to do is to move away from that which we are doing as a state. But I've also heard not just here, but certainly compelling concerns about doing that. So as we move forward, it sounds like efforts to ensure that there isn't a loss of employment based upon that.

I mean, it just seems like it's rampant for exploitation, and that's part of the reason why we've kind of moved away. So are there thoughts as to how we can ensure that there's not necessarily a loss of employment opportunity while at the same time paying the fair wage like everyone else is entitled to? And anyone can feel free to chime in on that.

Aaron Carruthers with the State Council. It's an interesting dynamic because, well, I'll just reveal my bias. I won't call that employment. I'll call it a program with an allowance. And so when we're looking at what happens next, it really is an individual process to find out what does somebody want to do next. When you look at demographics of who's in sheltered workshops and seminum wages, people have sort of kind of been put there a long time ago and stuck in there and never really left.

So the demographics, you look at people in their people, you would think retirement age. So what does that mean for somebody with developmental disabilities? And what's next? The Department of Developmental Services, the Department of Rehabilitation have a wide variety and options of different programs and services that are available to people as they construct what is their next best day. If that's employment, that's great. We encourage that. We want to see that.

If it's something else, education, community service, where are you in your life experience and lifespan that needs to be individualized and supported too?

May I comment?

Yes.

Thank you. Along with what Mr. Carruthers was just sharing, there are new practices called customized employment, which takes an individualized approach to undergoing a process of discovery to find out what the skills, talents and abilities of that individual are. And it again operates under the assumption that all people can work.

So it is a meaningful and important process that goes from discovery to a customized and tailored job, negotiated with a business that speaks to the needs of that business and also provides an opportunity for the person to do work that they find meaningful, important to their lives. We also recognize that already in today's world, most individuals work part time. I think that the amount of hours could be individualized.

This is where the DB 101 or the social knowledge about Social Security becomes very important because we want to balance that person's ability to work also with their needs and continuation of the benefits that they are entitled to receive.

I really appreciate the comment on individualized type of employment. I know at San Andreas Regional Center in my neck of the woods, there are employers that have been highlighted for finding the right place. I mean, look, someone with developmental disabilities, they also have their own skills, their own passions, their own interests, and just giving them a job sometimes seemed like, okay, well, let's just get a job.

To Mr. Carter's point, and then they're there until they're in their think that if you can find the right position that suits their needs and the employer's needs, you don't even have to get into the discussion of the sub minimum wage issue. You pay a fair wage, everyone's happy, and they can advance in their career in that position.

Exactly.

Yes, go ahead. And then I'm going to move on to Assembly Member Jackson, who has a separate question.

I just want to point out that very quickly, the commentary here sort of divulged into kind of what we think, even asking the question of, well, what would you like to do next after I've excluded the option that you've chosen? And again, I want to draw back to my testimony that I believe that we should respect people with intellectual and developmental disabilities and the choices for what they want to do.

As I mentioned, also my testimony, all of the services that you're talking about, whether it's competitive, integrated employment, whether it's customized employment, internships, my agency, we do them all. I don't have an interest in placing somebody where they don't want to be. And I use offering them all as a resource to work with somebody to get the skills to get to the next phase of Independence with their employment.

And I will tell you that the folks that are in my work centers are there because they are choosing to be there. And I don't think that they're being irrational in those choices. As I mentioned, there are hurdles that when faced with those hurdles, and the primary one is the loss of benefits, but people are choosing that particular setting.

And I think the real question is whether or not it's our role in society to determine, sort of like, is this right for you or is it not?

Thank you. Assembly Member Jackson.

Thank you very much, Madam Chair. I really appreciate. There's obviously those of us that are trained in the human services profession, the helping professions, understand that we want to make sure that we treat people as experts in their own lives. Right. And ensuring that they know what's best for themselves.

But we also know that there are great examples that we could possibly be using throughout the nation as well on things that we may not be doing in California or looking at the best practices based upon the data and the research that is out there, how are we integrating at the same time as we're doing the focus groups, getting the real life feedback from those who are experts in their own lives, but then also uplifting some of the things that may be happening around the nation, that even some of the people, sometimes you don't know what you don't know either, though, right?

And we want to make sure that they also know that we don't want them to limit their own expectations or limit their own opportunities based upon things that they may not know could be available, but we haven't really introduced them to it. How are we kind of meshing those two?

Sure.

As I mentioned before, offering the entire gambit of employment services we do offer and we do get folks into situations where we can try them on certain different placements, certain different employment opportunities. And I think, again, it comes down to the, there's a presumption that because you put somebody into competitive, integrated employment, that that somehow is not isolating for an individual, but for an individual, especially an individual with a severe disability, I would argue against that.

I think that they oftentimes would view the settings that are out of favor as being the setting of choice because it's the least isolating for them. That's where their friends are. That's where they are enjoying going to work. Whereas if you placing an individual into a competitive, integrated spot and it's not all. Okay, I'm not saying it's all times, but there are instances where those placements in of themselves become very isolating. I would say that anybody.

Can you give an example of that? Because not everyone may understand the context.

Yeah. Essentially, when you have somebody with a disability who is brought in to work at a restaurant and they're put in the back of the restaurant and they're washing dishes and nobody talks to them until manager circles around to say, can you go on your break? Versus an experience where they're around people that they may live with in their group home, and now they're at work with them and they engage on break times with each other and so on and so forth.

And so if I had an opportunity to work in a setting with all of my friends, I would choose that. I don't think that the people that I'm serving are making irrational decisions, as I mentioned in my testimony. I just don't. I think if I was presented with the option to work around my friends, I would choose that. If I was presented with an option that, well, you could get this job. Yes.

Your SSI is going to go away, which is a guaranteed amount of money every month. It comes like clockwork, and you could have this job that's going to go away. But if you lose that job, it's going to be several months before you get that SSI to kick back on. You're going to have to figure out how to deal with that. I don't find it to be irrational to say, yeah, I don't want to take that risk, in my opinion. I just don't think that.

Thank you. I appreciate your comments. I do need to kind of wrap this panel up as we're almost out of time. We have three more panels to go. Obviously, it's a lot to cover in a very limited amount of time, and our colleagues here are always available for you to ask additional questions or make additional comments. But I want to thank today's panelists for providing your expertise.

Now, I want to move on to our second panel, who we've been talking a lot about, workers, workers with disabilities. So I would like to bring up our first panelist, which is actually Silas Wagner, who's a counselor at the California school for the Deaf in Riverside, and he is going to join us remotely. We also have Bobby Duta, a state employee, and the President of the Association of California State Employees with Disabilities.

And we have our final speaker on this panel, which is Noah Lebowitz, a founder of the law office of Noah D. Lebowitz, an attorney who represents employees in all types of employment cases. Thank you. And we will go ahead and get started with our first. And I also want to mention, I recently visited the California school for the Deaf, and it was an amazing experience to be able to meet a lot of the students there, particularly the youth.

There was a little girl who was about, I don't know, no more than eight years old. And watching her be our lead and guide us through the visit was just a remarkable experience. And as a Legislator, it is my job to make sure that we represent all of our constituents, including this eight year old little girl who has a very bright future thanks to the work of the California school of the.

You know, I am looking forward to her one day being President of the United States. That's how blown away I was by the program at this school. All right. And so we will have Silas Wagner go ahead.

Hello? Hold on just a moment. Hello, I am Silas Wagner and I am a male in my 50 s. I wear glasses, I have very short hair. I have a navy colored shirt on, and I'm here to present about the school for the deaf in Riverside. So what I want to do is talk about access and so what? The point is that we need to include everyone with communication barriers. We have become used to that. We need to stop having those barriers.

So could we go ahead with my slides? Can you share my slides or you cannot see them? Okay, well, American Sign Language itself is a very visual language. It has a very rich culture involved with that signed language, and it's open to all people in the community. It gives people communication access and able to allow them to collaborate. ASL opportunity is a powerful tool for opening doors for everyone who is deaf, who cannot speak, but can sign. ASL barriers.

Yes, there are some issues that come up. People can communicate, but there are barriers. And I'll expand on those later.

Real quick, I just want to announce the slides are not coming up. They were having some technical issues. We have them up here. We'll make sure that they're available after today's hearing.

Okay, that's fine. I wish everybody could see the slides now so that I could relate my science to what they're seeing, but I'm sorry, we're going to miss out on that part. That's too bad. All right, great. So I'll go on. On September the 25th, just recently, we had a school issue that came up. This happened at 4:30 in the morning, and CHP stopped by and started questioning the students. That was at 4:30 in the morning.

And a challenge came up because when they questioned the students and the staff, those were the night attendants who work at night in the dorms, as well as anybody else that they needed to talk to. Everything had to occur on video, on the phone. So the security guards, as well as the CHP and everybody else had to try to communicate through the phone, and they had to pass that phone around so that they could see the interpreter or understand what was being said.

So that led to a lot of misunderstandings. In the end, it was all clarified, but it was a long, difficult process, and it was difficult for the students and staff to be able to communicate. Currently at CSD, nobody and our security staff, none of the security guards know how to sign. None are proficient signers, but some of them can barely sign, but they do not sign well.

And now at CSDR, it is not required for security staff to know how to sign in order to get a job at the school for the deaf, they can get that job without even knowing how to sign. So I think that we need to add that requirement for the security guards to be able to sign in ASL so they can communicate fluently with the staff and the students. That allows more access to everyone in the school. And of course, empathy is so important.

We talk about that a lot. Can you imagine if the CHP knew how to sign or if they brought their own ASL interpreters with them when they had to come to the school while questioning students? That would totally cut down on misunderstandings rather than relying on interpreter on the phone and having to pass that phone around. It would be very nice if they would do something like that. Okay, so now I want to bring up another issue.

This was the lockdown, but now I want to talk about another issue. And what happened was I misplaced my phone as well as my fob card. And so I got to the gate with my car, and this was at the school for the deaf. And we just installed this, like, five years ago, where you had to have the card in order to get through the gate.

So I kept pushing the button that's at the gate, and it's like a speaker box or a call box that's there. I push the button, but there's no video in that box. So finally, 10 or 15 minutes later, a security guard drove up. They recognized me. They knew who I was, and they opened the gate and allowed me in. And I asked them, how come it took so long for you to come and open the gate? And they said, well, we couldn't see you.

There's no video camera, so we're far away. We had to drive over to see who it was. What they do is when you ring the bell, then through the speaker, they ask, who is ringing the bell? But I wasn't able to hear that. I wasn't able to identify myself. And here we are to school for the deaf, we should install a push button that has video included in it. So in the front office, the Administration office, that's where most people come in.

That's at gate number six. And when you go in there, they do not have video cameras where they can see who's coming through. It's not two way. So I wished I had the slide to show you what it looks like, but you're not able to sign to let people know who's there. So it's not deaf friendly. What we need to do is it requires people to be able to speak. And most deaf people that work there can speak. Some can, but some can't.

And so this is a barrier for people. It's a communication barrier. So the way to solve that barrier is to install video boxes. And I've investigated this, and there are call boxes that do incorporate video. So then it's two way video where you can sign to the person and say, hi, this is who I am. And then they can sign to you and say, can ask questions. They can ask who you are. You don't have to be able to speak.

So this needs to be improved for a school for the deaf. So you want no student left behind or no one left behind. You need to think about deaf people, too. You need to have equal access to both deaf and hearing people at the school. This is a full ASL communication access campus. And so this is the heartbeat of everybody who goes to school. They meet everybody on campus size.

So in a school for the deaf, you have to show that it's a very inclusive environment, not when there are no barriers. So for changes for the future, I would ask for your support and commitment to allowing communication access by upgrading the call boxes and emphasizing the importance of the security guards, being able to learn American Sign Language and be proficient in ASL. It's not just a technical issue. It really includes the inclusivity of including everyone. Thank you. So that's all I have. Thank you.

Thank you very much. And I apologize again for not having your slides. Up next, we have our second panelist is Bobby Dutas, state employee and President of the Association of California State Employees with Disabilities. Thank you.

Good afternoon, Madam chairperson and esteemed Member and Select Committee. I'm honored to have this opportunity to appear before you today to share my experiences and observation as a person with a disability and a proud employee of the California State Service. As you said, my name is Bobby Dutta, and I wear a glasses, dark jacket, and a tie. I'm an Asian man. I currently serve as the President of the Association of California State Employees with Disabilities Acced and also co chair the statewide Disability Advisory Council, SDAC.

In Senate Bill SB 925 of 2002, the California State government made a solemn commitment to become a model employer for people with disabilities. This commitment was enshrined in Section 1283.6 of the California government code. Regrettably, despite this pledge, the state performance as an employer for individual with disabilities has fallen short of expectation over the past several administrations.

As a state employee with a disability and a leader in two organizations dedicated advancing the employment with person with disabilities in state government I'm deeply disappointed to report that state remains an employer that often falls short in providing a user friendly environment for the employment and accommodation for individual with disabilities. This is starkly evident in the steady decline in the representation of people with disabilities in state government workforce over the past five and a half years.

At the end of 2017 calendar year, individual with disabilities comprised 14.7% of the state government workforce. Just five and a half years later, as of June 302023 that figure had plummeted to a mere 8.8%. This alarming decline suggests that the state government is no longer perceived as an attractive employer for individual with disabilities, seeking employment or pursuing an extended career path. I believe one of the primary factors contributing to this decline is the state government persistent failure to provide timely and appropriate reasonable accommodations.

The state has consistently refused to establish specific time frame or timelines for adjudicating reasonable accommodation requests made by employees with disabilities. Unfortunately, the standards commonly employed to decide such requests are rooted in a medical model often rely on medical professionals who may not be equipped or willing to address the vocational limitation of individual with disabilities. This practice results in lengthy and unnecessary delays in providing appropriate accommodation or outright denial of deserved accommodation.

Moreover, when requests are adjudicated promptly, delays in the procurement process for equipment or services can take months, leaving employees without the essential tool to perform their job duties effectively. Efforts to require the state to collect and record statistical information regarding the nature and extent of these delays have been futile. Additionally, I must criticize the state government lack of meaningful outreach to disability community regarding exam and job opportunities.

Simply distributing exam or job opportunity announcement to entities that serve or represent person with disabilities is insufficient to attract applicant who may utilize alternative testing formats. Require accommodation to participate in application process. While I applied the Department of Human Resource CaLHR to step to add additional job classification to the limited exam and appointment program, one of the speakers spoke of LeAp. These efforts, without substantial targeted outreach and recruitment initiative, will undoubtedly fall short of meaningfully improving the representation of people with disabilities in state government workforce.

Ultimately, state government lacks the unwavering commitment to seriously address the underrepresentation of people with disabilities within its workforce. A dramatic and sustained commitment from the highest level of Administration is essential to emphasize the importance and the necessity of recruiting, employing, retaining, and advancing individual with disabilities. Restoring the state government to its former status as employee with individual desire to work requires a paradigm shift. So thank you again for the opportunity to testify. I'm happy to respond to any questions you may have.

Thank you and our final speaker on this panel is Noah Lebowitz.

Thank you. Thank you, Chair Ortega, and esteemed Members of the Committee, thank you for holding this very important hearing today on this very important topic. Again, my name is Noah Lebowitz. I am an attorney based in the East Bay and North Coast, California, practicing employment law, which I have done for more than 25 years, primarily exclusively representing employees and primarily in disability discrimination and medical leave cases. I've also been involved in legislation and regulations in regards to reasonable accommodation and disability discrimination.

So this is a matter that's dear to my heart. We started this hearing today, chair Ortega, talking about the return to office movement, so to speak, and the impact it's having on the population of workers with disabilities. And that's what I'm here to talk about in particular and what we are seeing in our practices and in individual situations.

Now, as we all know as a bit of background, of course, it is crucial to the reasonable accommodation process is the appropriate definition of the essential functions of a particular job, and that is supposed to be reached through an individualized assessment of a particular job.

And an employer is, under the regulations, under the law, required to make that individualized assessment of both the particular job and when it comes to a request for accommodation, the particular worker's disability, and any matters or issues that come up in their employment based on that or that arise from that disability. We have the interactive process, where the employer theoretically, is an expert in that job, why that job exists, and what the essential functions are.

The employee is the expert in themselves, as we've noted in many other speakers today. And through a collaborative process, through that interactive process, we explore, excuse me, reasonable accommodations. Now, before the pandemic, the kind of status quo was that employers routinely argued that physical presence in the workplace was an essential function of every job, almost every job.

Even in California, where we have multitudes of high tech companies where people can easily work remotely, even in those jobs, employers routinely held their ground and said, no physical presence in the workplace is an essential function. And despite our arguments on behalf of employees advocating for accommodations, that, in fact, through an individualized assessment, you would actually see that there's opportunities for things like reasonable accommodations of remote work.

Those were often rejected by employers, and unfortunately, in the courts, those arguments on behalf of employers were often accepted without further inquiry. Then, of course, we had the pandemic, and everything changed. So everyone, except for essential workers, went home and everybody started working remotely. And what did we discover? Obviously, there are some companies that didn't survive. There was economic hardship, but a lot of companies figured it out. People adapted. Companies adapted.

And what we discovered was, through the use of technology and adaptability and creativity, we were able to continue economic viability, and we were able to continue having employees be active at work, even at their homes, even if they weren't even in the same state, even if they weren't in the same country as the base of where the employer was headquartered.

And I had many conversations with members of colleagues who represent management, friends of mine, about this development and what it was going to mean for the argument that it is an essential function of every job to be physically present in the workplace. And they acknowledged at that point, yep, you know what? That argument is probably out the window. But what we've seen since, in the past half a year plus or so, is this movement towards return to the office.

But unfortunately, what we are seeing in this process is that there is, again, no individualized assessment. We are seeing blanket orders that everyone must return to the office. And I've had a number of occasions to work with individual employees who have been subjected to these mandates. And what's happening is back to where it was before, where there is no individualized assessment. There is no individualized description or discussion of what each particular job entails, or why is physical presence in the workplace required for this particular job.

It's just not happening. And this is across the board, whether it's small companies, large companies, tech companies, finance companies, across the board, in our experience. So I just wanted to. I know my time is up, so I want to be mindful of that and of the other speakers, but I'm happy to answer any other questions, and I'm really happy this Committee is holding this hearing. So thank you.

Thank you. Thank you. And again, I apologize. I know this is a huge topic and we're trying to cram as much information as possible in a very limited amount of time. But I also know that with this information, my goal is to continue that discussion with possible solutions coming out of here. So it's not the first time that it won't be the last time we will have this conversation and discussion. But I appreciate your understanding. I know Assemblymember Alanis and Assembly Member Arambula had questions earlier. I don't know if they want to continue with those.

Thank you, Madam Chair. I'll begin, if I can, with Dr. Rayner's comment about the unacceptability about the Low rate of employment that we have within the IDD community.

I thought the data point regarding a 33% employment gap between people with and without disabilities needs to be a North Star for us to continue to work on, as well as the importance that this can have in being a win for employers, a win for our disability communities, and ultimately a win for our state and our tax base if we're able to effectuate the change that we want to. But I'd like to ask Mr. Dutta, if I can, regarding reasonable accommodations. Your testimony was powerful.

As someone with lived experience and hear and really believe, your deep disappointment came through your testimony that I'd like to understand how we get a better timeline to adjudicate the reasonable accommodations that's before us and wonder if you have any other suggestions other than medical professionals who can help us to make those types of decisions. First, and then second, if I can. You spoke about the lack of outreach and job announcements to the IDD community we heard earlier on as well.

Regarding a Bill I had the lovely opportunity to work with many in this room on, which was AB 447, our Inclusive Higher Education Act. That I'd like to see if there's an opportunity within those higher education institutions for our employers to be doing some of that outreach or the State of California to be connecting some of those dots. So I'm hoping you can speak to those two questions.

Great. Thank you very much for the question, the last part. I'll get to that in a minute. The reasonable accommodation question. It's real simple. The law requires that you need to engage in interactive process when an employee comes up and say, hey, I need some help to perform the essential functions.

Oftentimes what I saw, and I also used to be a Member leader for SCIU Local 1000 for five years as a job steward, I represented a lot of Members just in that capacity alone was frustrating for me to observe that the interactive process did not happen immediately. So oftentimes the employee would make the request. So the solution to that problem is engage in that interactive process immediately and then form a timeline.

Let's say that you enter into that negotiation, come up to a milestone of where you need to be, and work out a schedule for completing that which might involve the medical professionals if you need it. Oftentimes it may not, but don't fit a one size, fit all policy, but move on it rapidly, quickly, just so that the work can get done. As a state employee, I want to work for the state. I want to serve the public at large.

But if I cannot perform my functions because the tools that I need to do that job is taken away from me are not available, I can do that job effectively, and that's a waste of public money. So engage in interactive process, come up with it and respond to the question that I present, that I need help, let's say within five days or three days, whatever it is within your agency, within your department, but have some sort of a guideline to approach that.

So that would be one question that I would say have a time frame to deal with and then come up with a solution to the problem. See an end goal of where you want to be in 10 days, 20 days, and meet with that person intermittently and until that problem is fully resolved. So that's the way I would respond to that question. Your second question was had to do with the higher education of how the employer could engage in that.

I used to actually go out as a job steward and try to get people to work for the state. I used to show up at SaC state, at UC centers and try to engage people in that. Have a recruitment geared towards person with disabilities, including everybody. Normalize the process and make sure that when you're presenting the opportunities for jobs that it is equitable, it is inclusive, it is normalizing the process for everyone to apply, including person with disabilities, not just a normal standard process.

So I would just go out there and ask people, do you need any help? Alternate, different application process. What kind of assistance do you require? I would make that question broadly available to all forms of applicants, students and job seekers that come in and apply and not focus in one standard protocol.

Quickly, just a quick follow up question on the reasonable accommodations, if I can. Sure. Is there a role for the Regional Centers or the employment first office, which we mentioned at the start, to help us to determine that reasonable accommodation since they have more familiarity? Does it only need to be medical professionals. Speaking as one who are making those decisions, can we have people who have more experience working to make sure that we have appropriate accommodations?

Very good question. I think you answered the question by saying we don't have to rely on medical professionals alone. We can rely on the experts, like those Regional Centers, like the other folks, the community Members, anybody can come in and roll up their sleeves and help solve the problem. That's what we want. So we shouldn't just narrowly and be tunneled vision into thinking that the only person that can help us, other physicians, oftentimes a Kaiser Doctor, could care less about your job duties.

They're busy enough serving patients, and then you burden them with, well, read my duty statement. If you're a state employee that's three pages long, decipher all these different terms that nobody knows anything about, and then you tell me what kind of reasonable accommodation is needed. How effective is that process? Yet we demand that that's how we do things, and that just doesn't make any sense. So, yes, I would engage those Regional Centers and everyone else.

Thank you. Yes, Mr. Lebowitz, and then I have a question for you after that, just.

Addressing your last point. In fact, one of the biggest issues we've seen consistently is that practicing physicians are a way overworked. And if you have 15 minutes to see a client or a patient and then your insurance company makes you move on, there's not a lot of time for good, in depth exploration into what possible reasonable accommodations there may be.

But secondly, a lot of physicians aren't trained and don't understand the difference between seeking a reasonable accommodation where you acknowledge the person has a disability but they are still able to work, versus applying for saying that the patient is totally disabled and unable to work and therefore qualifying for benefits. And that's a narrow path that has to be followed to show eligibility for reasonable accommodation.

And when the physicians are being required to make that decision, it often leads to all kinds of problems for the individual employee patient in how they're able to or not able to pursue accommodations and continue working. And we've seen that for forever in this field, and it's something that we've come across a lot. So other folks, other experts being involved would be terrific. Thank you.

Thank you for that. And I had a question.

Again, the idea for this hearing came from several articles that I read about what was happening during the pandemic, but particularly amongst people with mobility disabilities who for the first time were feeling very part of our society and were being very productive and then this idea that now that we're having this blanket return to work, return to the office, policies coming back, I'm really worried about that population being either laid off or returning to the place we were previously, where they were invisible.

And so what recommendations or what have you seen that could help us as we move into our next legislative session?

It's a hard question, because on the one hand, the law exists, and it's there, and the rules are there. They're just not being followed, in some sense, in good faith. So how do you craft further legislation or further policy statements to encourage actual compliance with the law? Now, of course, in our regulatory work, that's always been our goal is to seek clarity in the regulations and use the regulations as a means of encouraging compliance as opposed to encouraging litigation, because we're trying to avoid litigation.

Honestly, this is what I mean. A huge part of my practice is not litigation, but is actually just advising individuals as they go through the interactive process and the reasonable accommodation process. And so with the goal of maintaining employment, not with setting up litigation or creating more litigation, it's about keeping people employed. It's a fundamental aspect of the Ada, even its preamble talks about. One of the nation's goal is making sure that people with disabilities are economically self sufficient. And that's what we're talking.

One of the earlier speakers today was talking about that in their own experience, and it was important, and it's an important aspect of these laws. But what we are seeing is, during the pandemic, we were seeing folks. I had folks who were achieving accommodations and who were working productively, folks with pretty significant disabilities, physical disabilities, where they.

In fact, one of my clients could not leave her home, but is a programmer, is a talented programmer, and was able to maintain her employment with one of the autonomous automobile companies because everyone was working remotely, and she was able to continue her work remotely. Otherwise, she would have been on assistance. There's no way she couldn't leave her home. There's no way she could have worked in that type of job. She was making over $150,000 a year working in that type of environment. So it's there.

It's about willingness to engage. It's about willingness to do it in good faith. It's about complying with the laws that are there. Obviously, anything policy wise, policy statements or otherwise, that would encourage. That would be highly welcome.

Well, thank you so much for our panelists, this panel. Thank you for coming today. I really appreciate your expertise.

Thank you.

I will now move on to our next panel. This is our third panel to hear from the employer's perspective, and those joining us today are Ashley Hoffman from California Chamber of Commerce. We also have Heather Sweeney, manager of workplace accommodations at Healthnet, Laurie Rodriguez, Director of people services and strategies at SmUD. And I believe those are our three panelists. Thank you so much for being here today. So Ashley is first.

Can you hear me?

Thank you.

Good afternoon, Madam Chair and Members. My name is Ashley Hoffman, policy advocate for the California Chamber of Commerce. I'm a white female with short brown hair. I handle policy area for labor and employment. Prior to working at the Cal Chamber, I was a practicing attorney. I did handle Ada in cases for a federal district court, and then I also practiced at two law firms with labor and employment law, advising employers on how to comply with labor law and also handling litigation.

Cal Chamber represents over 14,000 businesses in California. We represent approximately one quarter of the private businesses in California. But what I really want to talk about today is, in addition to our policy unit, which is where most of you are used to seeing us, is that actually the bulk of Cal Chamber is really dedicated to employer education.

We are one of the only state chambers of commerce that is actually a full service Chamber of Commerce where we offer extensive legal advice to employers about how to comply with the state's labor laws. We have an entire online treatise about it. We have a labor law hotline where our Members can actually call in and talk to attorneys and ask them questions about how to comply. We offer trainings and webinars, and then we also create notices and postings that go in the workplace.

So again, our focus really is on education specific to hiring and retaining workers with disabilities. We cover this topic and a couple of our trainings that we offer, one of which is really a hiring training, really informing employers that there is a significant importance when you're looking at your workforce, about representation, which includes workers with disabilities.

If you do have an applicant with a disability, understanding what accommodations are your legal obligations for the interactive process, which has been talked a lot about today in today's hearing, we also have trainings about lifecycle of employment. What happens if you have a worker who during their employment, now comes to you saying that they need an accommodation, or you become aware that accommodation may be necessary?

And we actually are in the process of developing an entire webinar simply dedicated to the interactive process and accommodations which will be available in the spring. Some of the best practices that we really talk about with our Members are developing uniform policies and then also training. When I was working at a law firm on this issue. A lot of what I saw was sometimes supervisors are really not trained in what it means for a worker to maybe have a specific disability.

What does it mean to go through the interactive process? What does it mean to do that individualized assessment, to look at that worker's job. So we really impart on our members just how important that training of your supervisors is, and then also how to involve HR so that an interactive process comes up. We are having a timely process. We are making sure that we are getting that person to work with the accommodation they need as soon as possible.

We also have, as I mentioned, our labor law hotline that is run by attorneys who have both represented employers but also employees in their prior careers as well as prior state workers. In the last six months, I pulled our calls. We received about 253 disability related questions. That was actually one of the top categories of questions that we do receive, second, really only to situations surrounding wage and hour and termination, and then specific to what our members do.

I just want to highlight of a couple of the best practices that our members are trying to work on to really improve their ability to hire and retain workers with disabilities.

A lot of what we are seeing is development of having within hiring committees, groups that are dedicated solely to making sure that we are hiring workers with disabilities and that we are pairing them, once they are hired, with someone like a mentor who may, whether they have that same disability or they are knowledgeable in that space to help them feel welcome and comfortable.

One of our members actually started really reviewing data, and they shared with me that in the five years in which they have started to really focus and review data on the number of individuals with disabilities that they hire, they've actually doubled the number of workers. And so just moving on to barriers and solutions, I know it's really difficult kind of in this space to talk about specific legislative solutions.

So what I really wanted to talk about is things to kind of keep in mind as you are exploring legislation. It's been mentioned a lot that these really are case by case determinations, individual workers, their individual position, but then also what impact will that accommodation have on other workers? For example, we get a lot of questions about service animals or need to have specific offices and stuff. What does that mean? Or dividing up a workload. What does that mean for other workers?

Also, the issue related to privacy. We get a lot of questions from Members where they recognize that maybe someone is having a performance issue. They may think an accommodation won't be necessary, but they do not want to breach privacy, and they also do not want to put the worker on the spot to talk about something that they may not want to talk about. So how do we balance that? And then I know medical certification has been brought up a lot.

We do also sometimes have issues there again related to privacy, not wanting to prior ask questions that we shouldn't. But then also sometimes we get vague instructions from the medical providers and that makes it difficult. It draws out the process. And again, due to privacy concerns, we're not really able to have a direct communication with the medical provider.

And so really making sure that if we are seeking out that certification, is there a way to ensure that we are getting very specific instructions so we're not risking workers safety specifically if there is a physical disability and it may limit the amount that they can carry, that they can pull, push what have you for jobs that involve that. Thank you.

Thank you. Next we have Heather Sweeney. She's testifying remotely. You're cutting out. Are you there?

Heather. Okay. I think we're having some technical issues. I'm going to go ahead and call on Lori Rodriguez as we figure out, and Heather will come back to you. Okay?

Thank you, Madam Chair, good afternoon to you and the Committee. I'm Laurie Rodriguez, the Director of SMUD People Services and strategy, and happy to be here today with an employer's view on our disability hiring program. I have a couple of slides as we go through our informational session today. Next slide, please. For today's informational hearing, I'll share some of the key points that we cover at SMUD as part of our program, a little bit about our hiring disability program and the inclusiveness of it.

I also think, as we've heard today, some barriers are relevant to talk about. Not only those barriers, but some potential solutions that employers are trying, one of which SMUD is implementing to address these barriers, both from a public and private sector employers, and finally go over the way for employers to begin.

Although small, if they have not explored in this area, I think collectively, as work is being done, discussed and explored at the state level, as you all are doing today, having employers being part of that solution and simultaneously take actions is extremely important to our society and what we're all collectively trying to achieve. Next slide, please. Just a little bit about Smud we're a community owned, not for profit organization providing electrical services to approximately 645,000 customers.

Our customers, our communities, our partners are really at the heart of what we do. And by going zero carbon by 2030, we're helping to create a cleaner and healthier region for all. With our disability recruiting program, we're also looking and achieving some increased diversity. We also are a special district, and as such, we adhere to civil service rules which govern several of our employment practices, and those are pertinent to today's topic of our disability hiring program. Next slide, please.

As several of our speakers this afternoon attested to, it's well known and research continues to show, that companies and employers that embrace diversity and inclusion in all aspects of their business statistically outperform their peers. The ability to attract, engage people of all background, cultures, ages and types is essential to the success of any organization. So focusing on diversity and inclusion in a disability hiring program, not just the right thing to do, which we've heard today, but it's the smart thing to do.

In 2013, we began ideation on how we could further advance disability hiring at our organization. At that time, we became a Member of the Northern California Business Advisory Council that was established in 2015, which that group provides guidance and support for qualified applicants with disabilities into the workforce. As a group of employers, we met regularly to find ways to increase the hiring of disabled individuals. Over the years, we've been able to hire individuals with disabilities through this particular program spanning multiple smud business units.

That's generation management, financial services, our it function, image production and postal services, facilities or human resources or people services and strategies, which is the organization I oversee. Next slide, please. As I mentioned, SMED is a special district and we adhere to our civil service rules, and with that, for example, we are required to utilize a competitive selection process which sometimes includes examination, and we engage early regarding reasonable accommodation needs for any of our examinations that may be in place with the hiring disability program.

We utilize our casual positions initially for the disability hiring program, and that is serving as a good way for us to move forward. We also involve a coach for individuals that come in, and we also work directly with the supervisor and the team on any special needs that an individual may have. Next slide, please. We partner with local organizations so that together we can both have a coach. We can do the training that is needed for the supervisor.

We can also make sure that in advance we have money in the budget and for one year the funding for the hire is paid out of the human resource budget, and after a year, then the Department that continues to have the need funds the hire, and it has been very successful. The last item I would like to also point out to employers is to not only use the services that are available, but engage the supervisor and be sure to market the successes of the program.

And it is incredible. When you take a look, we have a video. I don't have it with me today, but the individuals that have come into our program and their testimony of what a life changer it has been. Although it's one individual at a time, we've heard a lot about case by case, collectively we can have much success. So happy to answer any questions in regards to our program and happy to participate today.

Thank you so much. Heather Sweeney, let's try you again.

Can you hear me, Madam Chair?

Yes, I can.

I dialed in Madam Chair. Esteemed Committee Members, thank you for having me apologize for the audio. I'm a white female with long, dark brown hair, wearing a black jacket and a coral blouse, and I use pronouns, she/her. Yes, I'm very proud to say I work for Sentinel Corporation, which, you know, is Healthnet, the largest Medicaid managed care organization in the US, where our mission is to transform the health of the communities we serve. One person at a time.

Our workplace accommodation team mission aligns with just that. We have provided solutions that remove barriers presented in the workplace caused by the limitations of a disability. We work to enhance performance and productivity for individuals with disabilities and develop knowledge for our employees. You can go to the next slide, which consists of registered nurses, provider liaisons, community health workers and customer service agents, to name a few.

Our purpose is to provide employees with disabilities the opportunity to be productive and successful, sending employees who can contribute to their business unit operation and company's overall mission. Our vision is to provide world class service experience to our business unit and our employees seeking accommodations while navigating the most effective and efficient processes. How are we doing that? Since the inception of the team in 2019, we've centralized our workplace Accommodation team, which really sets us apart.

We have grown to a team of 13, including a combined 100 plus years of experience. We have a licensed ergonomics, specialized skills in absence management, project management, Healthcare Administration, human resources, accommodations and training. We have a formal, interactive process designed to truly meet the employees where they are and determine what accommodations will remove their barriers while allowing them to be fully productive in their roles. Since inception in mid 2019, we have reviewed and approved over 25,000 accommodations.

As we continue this journey, the workplace Accommodation team has created accommodations landing page on our employee intranet site that provides both employees and people leaders the ability to understand what the Ada means, what is the definition of a disability? What is a reasonable accommodation? It explains in detail what an employee requesting accommodation should expect throughout the entire process, what the people leader should expect, and their role in that process.

Sentine has supported employee inclusion groups like ability, whose mission is to support and bring necessary awareness to employees with disabilities and caregivers to better enable employees'ability to reach their full potential in the workplace and to empower allies to help create a safe space where they can thrive. The ability network works to challenge the stereotypes and stigma associated with people with disabilities and caregivers.

It expands disability cultural competency throughout the organization with a focus on education, engagement, accessibility, talent enhancement, and community involvement in order to drive engagement and performance. Their vision is maximizing communities through realizing potential of all people living with or supporting someone with a disability. Our employee inclusion group ultimately strives for universal accessibility for all employees. Most recently, our workplace accommodation teams attended a monthly abilities meeting where we shared information about the accommodation process and provided an opportunity for questions.

We are prioritizing the needs of people with disabilities and aiming to ensure that individuals can fully participate in that interactive process at any time. An applicant or employee indicates they have a need for an accommodation the workplace accommodation team initiates the interactive process, which includes a medical review of documentation if warranted, and the conducting of an interactive dialogue to determine what reasonable accommodation will remove the identified barriers, regardless of the employee or candidate's abilities.

Ensuring sentinel is accessible to the greatest number of people possible is truly our goal. The option of accessibility is there, with or without an accommodation. A current example is our work with facilities in our talent hub project, where we ensure our facilities have a selection of fully accessible workstation as employees who need to return into the office locations. When we have taken an inclusive design involving people with disabilities to ensure their needs and perspectives are considered specifically in the technology space.

Ongoing partnerships we have a dedicated assistive technology team that works with our team hand in hand. They support finding the latest and greatest equipment compatible with sentinel technology. At times we've had to give them some very complicated things to solve for, and they show up with solutions each time.

Systems like Dragon speech to text, which provides an employee that may not have use of their hands or the inability to type the opportunity to speak text into our systems jaws job access with speech allows for an employee that may be blind, the ability to hear the words on the screen versus reading them. Infusion Zoom text with jaws are just some of the systems they specialize in, not only with determined compatibility, but the ongoing hands on support they provide to our employees utilizing the software.

Centine has growth in this area as we continue to get in front of system deployments and upgrades that potentially impact our employees using assistive technology. Most recently, we had the privilege to spotlight our disability inclusion efforts in the workplace accommodation space with earn employer assistance and resource network, whose role is to help employers, human resource professionals, and De I staff find resources they need to recruit, hire, and retain and advance people with disabilities.

And finally, Sentinel's very own national disability Advisory Council, comprised of national leaders in disability advocacy who work on enterprise wide recommendations and initiatives that advance disability inclusion in Sentinel's workforce and product offerings in our healthcare solutions. With that, I'll conclude and would be happy to answer any questions.

Thank you so much and I'm glad we were able to fix the technical issues. I will now open it up for questions or comments from Committee Members. None? Okay, thank you so much to our employer panelists, and thank you for everything you're doing to be an inclusive part of this community and appreciate your testimony today and moving right along. We're down to our final panelists today, which we've already been sort of talking about as we've moved throughout the hours.

Here we have this last panel is solutions to increase and maintain accessibility for people with disabilities in the workplace. And here today we have Joe Xavier, Director of the Department of Rehabilitation. We also have Brian Winfield, Chief Deputy Director of the Department of Developmental Services Eric Stewart, Director of work skills and Harrison Lane, transformative autism program coordinator. Thank you for being here today. Yes, Joe, you are first.

No, now.

Yes.

Figured it out. Thank you. Well, first of all, just good afternoon to chair to the Members. Thank you for the opportunity to be here today and share information with you on the employment of people with disabilities. I am an individual with a disability. I am blind.

I have benefited personally and professionally from the services that our Department provides, but more importantly, the opportunity to be at work, to provide for my family, and to live in community of choice, and have the opportunity to contribute to my community. So I just wanted to respond to the topics that we were asked to speak to. So let me start with what does the Department of Rehabilitation, what are the services that we provide? And we provide services to individuals with disabilities.

Anyone that has a qualifying disability, that is seeking employment cross a disability. So that includes sensory disabilities like blindness and deafness, cognitive disabilities, physical disabilities, learning disabilities, mental health disabilities, both visible and invisible disabilities. All of the services that we provide are to either get a job, to keep a job, or to advance in the job that an individual may have, and that could include counseling and guidance for myself as a blind person. It could include orientation and mobility.

It could include customized employments for individuals who needed it. That was mentioned earlier, and the services that we start provide. The services that we start providing at the age of 16 for youth with disabilities. That includes career exploration, counseling, work based learning experiences, post secondary education counseling, and the range. We also provide work based place, readiness for the individual, and instruction and self advocacy. We also provide services to the business community. We provide the talent for meeting their workplace needs.

We provide assistance with recruitment, training, and support to create a supportive workplace for their individuals with disabilities, ongoing support to them for those individuals that have a disability in the workplace and whose circumstances may change, or individuals that acquire disability while in the workplace. We also provide independent living services to support individuals living in their community of choice, keeping them from becoming institutionalized, and those who are institutionalized transition them back into the community.

All of the work that we do is done through partnerships at the state level, at the local level, with workforce partners, and with community based organizations. So everything that we do happens both at the state level and at the local level. What are existing programs that can be used to provide services to individuals with disabilities looking for employment. As I mentioned, the services and programs that are provided through the Department of Rehabilitation. My colleague Brian will talk about services.

Department of Developmental Services provides, and we have programs and services that are provided through the workforce system, including America's Job Centers here in California. Programs provided through the higher education system and even through our calihr. The limited examination appointment program is one such program that they provide to support specifically individuals with disabilities. What are suggestions for policy considerations? One, just some areas that are really important on the policy area for individuals with disabilities getting into the workforce.

One of the largest barrier that our youth with disabilities face, and frankly, even adults with disabilities face, is having grown up with little to no expectation they would ever go to work, right? No exposure and really no ability to have believed that they could go to work and thus develop that skill set that a child develops as they progress into the working age. The stigma that is attached to disability is a huge barrier to employment across the whole of society.

It's prevalent in all of our systems, education system, workforce system, and all other systems, frankly. And so being able to address that stigma goes a very long way to creating meaningful, sustainable employment opportunities. As mentioned in a number of other panels, the disincentive that is created by the public assistance system for individuals to return to work for individuals with very significant disabilities, there is no middle class.

You either have to be very poor to benefit from public assistance or jump right into the upper class to be able to afford the support that you may need and make a living wage to sustain yourself. And then, of course, increasingly align the career pathways to get individuals into employment, and thus the issuance of the Executive order by the Governor this past August for a plan to better align all of these programs on career education, career pathways into employment.

And then, of course, the importance of addressing the myths and the misperceptions that are surrounding individuals with disabilities in the workplace, such as the cost of accommodations. That's been alluded to recently in one of the prior speakers, and really help them understand what the value and the talented individuals with disabilities not only have, but bring to that workplace and help that business deliver their products, their services contribute to their bottom line.

So I also was asked about what's our hiring practices and how do we work with other departments to support their hiring practices of individuals with disabilities. First, our approach at our Department starts with a very strong belief that every individual with disability has the talent and the potential to go to work.

And so when we're hiring, that is front and center, and we greatly value the lived experience that that individual brings to our organization, and that creates a culture that ensures that individuals disabilities not only believe they belong, but that they are welcomed, and they're seen and valued just like anyone else in the workforce.

And that's an environment that needs to be sufficiently welcoming so that individuals with invisible disabilities, such as, perhaps mental health, feel both welcome and invited to disclose, so they can be appropriately supported and be their best selves the workplace. And then it also ensures that individuals with disabilities can see themselves at all levels of the organization. Representation matters. I know I belong when I can see someone that looks like me that's similarly situated to me in that place.

So to that end, I'm very proud to say that our Department has 25 or 30% of our workforce are individuals with disabilities. 40% of the department's leadership self identify as being individuals with disabilities.

Services we provide to support other departments, again, the talent to meet their recruitment needs, training to include culture, the environment, the awareness and understanding of disability in the workplace, technical assistance to support the identification and the provision and delivery of reasonable accommodations, and then a range of tools and resources, such as the California Human Services Agency's playbook on hiring people with disabilities that offers a range of strategies to support individuals in the workplace and to get individuals into the workplace.

So I will keep my comments to that and look forward to any questions you have.

Thank you very much. Next we have Mr. Winfield.

Thank you, Madam Chair and Members of the Committee.

Regional Centers have relationships with thousands of service providers, or what we call vendors throughout the state, and the direct services to individuals are actually provided by the vendors in California. To highlight some of the service that Regional Centers purchase for individuals to both attain and maintain employment in the community, we have supported employment services. These services are provided by agencies who assist the individual to assess their skills and abilities and then help match them with an employer in the community.

And then these job coaching services can actually be tailored to that individual in that workplace and can be provided in whatever amount that that individual needs. They can provide a couple of hours a week all the way up to being available the entire time that the individual is employed.

We also have what we call the employment incentive program, and this is a program that has been in existence since 201617 where service providers receive an incentive payment when they are successful in assisting an individual to obtain and maintain their employment. And there's incentive payments that are available for the 30 day marker of employment, the six month marker, and then 12 months of employment. In 201617 the Department also launched the paid internship program.

This has been a really successful program whereby service providers assist an individual to become employed with an employer in the community. And through this program, the wages are paid for the individual up to 1040 hours per year at minimum wage in integrated settings. The whole goal of the paid internship program is so that individuals can get experience in employment settings and for employers to have the experience of employing an individual with a developmental disability, with the goal of that employment becoming long term sustained employment.

We also have worked to tailor additional services to the needs of the individuals that we serve through what we call tailored day service. And this is a way that services are provided more individual during the daytime to assist people in whatever ways that they want to work in the community, whether it be through paid employment. It could be through volunteerism, it could be higher education, or whatever that individual wants to achieve during the daytime.

Dr. Rayner spoke earlier about customized employment and this is a good example of a service that could be provided through tailored day service to help a person to be employed. While DDS has prioritized the employment of individuals that we serve, we recognize that there is a lot of work ahead of us and a lot of work to be done. One of the ways that we have prioritized employment is through current system reform that we're going through.

And the system reform is both at the Regional Center level as well as our service providers. So working with different work groups, one for Regional Centers and one for service providers, we have prioritized employment. So Regional Centers are incentivized to work with their service providers to improve, increase the number of people who are employed through our quality incentive program.

With Our service providers, we have also increased the incentive funding that I spoke of earlier so that service providers receive even higher incentives to assist them to employ people. They also are incentivized to assist individuals when they are moving out of a sub minimum wage environment, as well as people transitioning from a paid internship. Lastly, I'll highlight that DDS has a grant program that we implemented with the assistance of an employment work group and the grant program.

We have 45 grantees who are implementing a variety of different strategies to improve employment and our goal is to really use those grants as a way to learn promising practices and improve outcomes. Thank you for your time.

Thank you. We will now hear from Eric Stewart.

Hi, everybody. Thank you so much for having us. I had a whole thing spelled out and I figured if I hung out for a couple hours, I wouldn't even want to read this. And I don't. I think I should say that I'm a 50 year old white guy, semi round, and I go by Eric. I'm Harry as well. Well, actually, it's my colleague Harry. It's a different kind of Harry. It's been really awesome to be a part of.

I thank you all for figuring out a way to stay awake and attentive through something like this. I think most of us sitting on this side really hope that you're sitting there because you really care about what we're doing. I know that there's a lot of people behind me. I saw some of the folks here and I've listened to the people speak today that have just been doing phenomenal work for a long time. I kind of lucked into this 25 years ago.

Moved into special education right out of college, and I was in one of the poorest towns in our nation outside of New Orleans. And after my second year, I had to take 422 year olds on their transition planning field trip. Right. So when you're in special Ed and you're 22 and you've got significant disabilities. At 22, the public ed system pushes you out, and you go into the big, bad adult world.

And this very, very poor town in Louisiana had two options for these 422 year olds. I was TaKen, and it would take me a long time to describe how depressing those options were. But fast forward, and I get to come to Northern California, and I get to move in our space, and the first thing I want to say is, overwhelmingly, I hope you don't feel like everything's going bad. I hope you've heard a lot of good stuff today.

I'm really glad that we got to hear from Smud. They're one of the folks that I think makes sense to talk to us and show us what works and how it works. So I'm really glad they were here, but it's way more than that. There's way more than just smud out there.

There are folks again in this room, but you've got job coaches that are making $20 an hour that care like you can't believe, and they're working with somebody right now making a difference in that person's life. And that's just as big in its own way as a company like smud that can really do a lot of great work.

But you've also got a lot of employers that are proving through their work and their efforts that they're all in on this, and it's just a matter of, and I guess maybe I'll get to that in a minute. Right. Like, how do we help? But today I come to you from a program we just heard from the Deputy Director, a program that is vendored by Alta Regional Center. Voila. Good timing, right? And what do we do? We have young adults that are autistic, neurodiverse idd.

They come to this program Monday through Friday, and they're trying to figure out how do I live, work, and play, quote unquote, like everybody else? What do I need to learn? How do I do that? What kind of supports do I need? And at Maristim, we're doing our best to help each one of these folks. There's about 50 right now, but I think about earlier today, you had Mr. Bowl up here from vistability out in Contra, he said 1100 people.

So there's companies like vistability that have, they're serving the whole gamut from little babies coming out and moms and dads figuring out for the first time, zero, my gosh, how do I move through this to 60 and 70 year olds that are still looking for that right place, and they want to have a real viable connection to the community. Thank you, Mr. Bowl, for coming today. I loved what you had to say.

And so Maristim is one of those, and there's a lot of us that are doing really hard work. We have our own unique way of doing it. And so my number one solution, I want to throw in your ear, like, right away, actually wanted to catch his ear, so let him know I threw it out there. They'll let you know.

I think that you had mentioned earlier, Chairwoman, about an eight year old, and I didn't catch the whole thing, but I thought maybe you had actually spent some time in that eight year old's world and how important that was.

Well, I think what needs to happen with this Committee to really, really have the influence that you want is instead of doing these three hour things, which are awesome, or maybe in addition to, you need to connect with some of us that are boots on the ground, folks, and spend, and it's going to take you a few days, because what we have to do is we have to put you in the world of a few people.

Because if you go into the world of one person and you see how they're affected and what's going on in their life and where the supports are, you only have a snapshot. All we have to do is take you to one other person's experience or two or three and let you go through what does this actually look like for this particular person?

And you're going to see just when we talk about diversity of diversity, just how big of a spectrum that we're all working with and trying to work through. When we say, how do we make this workforce system better on behalf of people with disabilities? It kills me. Right? Because there's just so much to look into. But if you want to have the knowledge that you're looking for, you can come to me directly. I promise you I'll set up really cool days for you.

But I want to give you that experience, and then I know you can bring that back to your colleagues and help them understand just how big and complex the work we're doing. So that would be one suggestion, then, just to give you a little bit of an idea. Like when we talk about people with disabilities, it's happened today, right, where you have developmental disabilities and then you have disabilities, and what exactly are we talking about?

And in terms like accommodations come up and what does an accommodation look like for somebody who's calling themselves neurodiverse? That doesn't want to tell the employer that they're neurodiverse. Like, how does that all play out? Right. There's lots of complexities in that. And when we think about supporting somebody in the workforce, we think about, and I think Harry's going to talk a little bit better about this. But what does genuine inclusion look like?

And genuine inclusion over the course of time, at least what we're finding about, about. And I think Harry's really going to get into it when he talks about the transformative autism program. Inclusion just happens across the board. So if you start to build inclusive mindsets within an employer environment, which actually starts in the education environment, you'll find that certain things that we're saying are barriers for people go away. Thank you for the 1 minute warning.

But the big thing that I want to ask of you guys, and again, I think my colleague Harry is really going to hit this home, is I think that we can really break through if we put a lot more time and energy into saying how do we support the employer? There's so much energy going towards the job seeker, which is great. That's why we're all here. My whole career has been directly with job seekers.

So I'm not trying to say let's not focus on the job seeker, but I'm telling you, employers are ready, their arms are open, they're saying they want to do this, but it is not easy to do it. Well, maybe for a couple of people it is. But overwhelmingly it's a lot of work and it's a lot of focus and it's commitment to that process and I think that that's the big thing.

Can we develop more ways to support the employers across the board once they say they're all in? So thanks.

Thank you very much. Harrison Lane.

Can you hear me? All right, so unlike Eric, I am going to read my testimony, but I'll first introduce myself. I am wearing a tan linen suit jacket, Tan Linen Pants, brown shoes, and a blue striped collared shirt. I am a male in my 30's, and again, my name is Harrison Lane. I am the coordinator of Maristem's transformative autism program.

And just so you can visualize it, Maristem is a transitional school for young adults with autism and neurodiversity located in Fair Oaks, California, about 25 minutes east of California's capital in Sacramento. Thanks to the California Assembly for having us today. I was born in Santa Barbara County, California. I have struggled with sensory integration issues and learning difficulties since the beginning. I have a reading disorder. I was formally diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder.

In the 6th grade, I struggled in high school with making friends and getting the schoolwork complete. After high school, I also struggled in college when my father changed jobs. I've moved with my parents to the Bay Area. In 2014, I changed my major to hospitality management. Now I tried getting jobs, mostly in hotels, but I struggled to access Department of Rehabilitation services. It was 2016 when I first stepped foot onto the Maristem campus, and I can tell you this, it definitely changed my life.

I met my lifelong best friend, learned how to be the best me that I can be, Independence and more so I participated in a pilot project called breaking barriers that was aimed at raising awareness of what neurodiverse people have to offer in the workplace and served as a job coach in the Maristom cafe in a summer internship. And with these now that breaking barriers that I mentioned eventually became the transformative autism program that Eric mentioned. And with those experiences, I was able to move beyond Maristem.

In the September of 2020, I worked with strategies to empower people incorporated as a job coach and independent living instructor for the next year and a half until I returned to Maristem as the coordinator of Maristem's transformative autism program. I have worked with dozens of employers on this state funded training best practices for hiring and retaining neurodiverse employees in their workplace. I also help job seekers and work with community partners. Also, I co host a podcast, voices of the community, alongside Maricem's Executive Director, Aaron Sherm.

The podcast highlights human stories of people navigating work and life with neurodiversity. So in my day to day role, almost every neurodiverse job seeker that I serve has anxiety. Through an initial zoom or in person meeting, I am able to gauge General employability, skills and understandings of the individual. I can then help them to the best of my ability. I'm just going to mention a few of the employers that we have worked with because Eric mentioned that the employer, it's all about the employer.

It's about the individual, but it's really about the employer. And these stories are really, they're heartwarming to say the least. But here in the Sacramento region, we have built a huge partnership with Raleigh's grocery store chain and Bahar, their senior manager, corporate HR and talent acquisition. She is the champion in moving the underemployment rate for those with neurodiversity in the right direction. Along with her talent acquisition specialist Daniel, I have been able to help multiple people interview or receive a job at rallies.

I have also been able to train a local store in how to accommodate people with autism and neurodiversity and present best practices in senior store leadership training for the last two years. Another example is James Thompson, concessions manager at Sutter Health park, home of the Sacramento Rivercats minor league baseball team. We were able to get a variety of neurodiverse young adults to participate in almost every home game. Last season, James allowed us to come in and work a concession stand during each home game.

We even got asked back for a non baseball event, and we will be back returning at the start of the next season to do it all again. I should also mention that the Rivercats is paying the people through its competitive, integrative employment. That means that each new employee goes to the ballpark and does onboarding. They get an ID badge and they get paid by the Rivercats and also at Rayleigh's, they were getting paid by the company by Rayleigh's.

For many of the 16 people who got placed at the ballpark, it was their first formal work experience and critical to gain practical work experience. I'm going to give you one more that's not in Sacramento because we are a statewide program. So outside of Sacramento, we have partnered with the Jewish Family and Children's Services in San Francisco, an organization that works with individuals who have neurodiversity, autism or other ID delays through independent living apartments and helps them get employment as well.

We worked with a young man, Simon, and his family, meeting on Zoom weekly. His family connected us with Eric Wright, who owns several restaurants, including Humboldt and in Berkeley. He took our training and even shared his own connection with autism. Our training brought him to tears and he jumped at the idea of helping this young man. Simon had another part time job at the time, but eventually was able to fully commit to humble. He had specific supports that he needed.

We went to the restaurant and met the team and introduced Simon and his specific needs. None of this was a problem for Eric or his team, and Simon is successfully still working there today. Our program works because it has a focus on working with individuals and employers and personalizing the support to the needs of the individual and the job role. We need to work with both job seekers to prepare them for the workplace and workplaces to make room for everyone.

I see every day that autistic and neurodiverse people like myself have a lot to contribute. Thank you.

Thank you very much. I will now open it up to committee members with questions. I have Assembly Member Alanis.

Thank you, Madam Chair. So my original questions were going to be for Mr. Bowley, but since Mr. Stewart, you're up here speaking, and I want to say you both are doing kind of the same job in a sense. So I think this would be a better aimed towards you. So I know up here we were talking about how we expect businesses to employ those that they're employing right now with the 14 D, I believe is what it is.

And when that eventually happens in my district, we have a group there called the Howard Training center who has come to me and has already discussed. I've had parents come to me with their concerns with their children who are in the program, who fear that now their sons, their daughters are now going to be just in a day program and not feel that they are successful or beneficial to the community.

So one of my questions to you is, do you think we should delay the implementation of 14 D?

Thank you for the question. First of all, I want to say to John, I want to be like you when I grow up, buddy. Is he still here?

He is.

All right. I'm a little bit nervous to speak specifically to your question, but I will say to go back to what we've talked about and what John tried to help convey, if I could bring you into the community of the folks to where certain options are viable, you know, you have these options and we can really move you into it. Today we have maybe a dream of having more options, but right now those aren't available. This is what's here right now.

And we could work with those people and their families, because a lot of them are not going to be able to look you in the eye and say, you know what? I can clearly articulate to you what your question is, how I feel about it, what I think my future is all about. There's a lot of folks we're trying to help that are not going to be able to have that clear of a conversation.

So they have a support network of people around them that can help you understand their history, where they've earned money, where they might want to go, how they've communicated that in ways that you and I might not be able to pick up on.

And if we really sit down with those folks and we go through it and we take their opinions and their ideas and make a decision on whether or not to support that or not, that's what I would want to do for me directly, I get a little bit nervous going at that. I hope that is okay with you.

No, you're going towards the direction I'm thinking about. And if I can direct it also to the Director you talked about the paid internship program, employment incentive programs. Is that all part of also the capital integrated employment also as well? Is that also included in that?

I'm not familiar with the capital integrated employment.

Okay, so then we'll just go with the paid internship program that I heard you mention all the others. How much is the Legislature funding on that? As far as that goes year to year?

Yes. So originally the Department was provided with $20 million for each of those two programs annually.

And are we tracking how many people have been employed? And if so, are we also tracking who maybe isn't and where they're going from there?

So with regards to these two programs, we are tracking the number of individuals who receive services through the programs and also those individuals who become employed as a part of the paid internship program. But we also are developing a very unique service to assist individuals in 14 c environments so that they can have more customized services to transition to other types of services in the community.

Okay, thank you. 14 C. I said 14 D, I think is what I said. I was close. So then with that, do you guys have those numbers posted to where we know where all the money is going? Is there money left over that we can use for other programs?

We do have that information available and we do have quarterly briefings with legislative staff where we share information, including unemployment.

Okay, so you guys know I'm thinking out loud just in my district alone, just with those businesses that want to help but are not going to be able to help once this 14 seed thing happens, is there a way we can maybe work on maybe programs to where we can supplement that to where those that are working for these businesses can then get supplemented so they can make that minimum wage?

Because again, this is going to be devastating for my district and I'm sure other districts as well, who are Fearing, again, not just the mental health of their children, who aren't going to feel like they're contributing to society or being part of what everyday, as you said, quote unquote, everyday life kind of thing? I just fear that's going to be the issue. I'd like to know more information.

Obviously, I'm learning more as I go up here in the Assembly, but I think that would be helpful to go with that forward.

Right? Absolutely. Happy to explore additional ideas of how to work together. I will point out that there are a fraction of the number of providers that provide sub minimum wage employment today as compared to prior years. And the number of individuals who are now engaged in sub minimum wage has decreased significantly as well. DDS has what we call home and community based services funding that has assisted service providers to transform their services to be more integrated and more person centered.

And so we've used a variety of different methods to assist both the service providers as well as individuals we serve to move into competitive, integrated employment.

Awesome. That's great. And Harry, great presentation. John, Eric, I look forward to working and talking with both of you guys.

So thank you, Assembly Member Rambla.

Thank you, Madam Chair. I thought Mr. Stewart had a great question about how do we support the employer better, and I wanted Mr. Winfield, if I could, you provided two wonderful examples of how the Administration is doing that currently through the employment incentive program, that's getting higher incentives, but also through the paid internship program that I'd like to understand if I can. Are there reasonable accommodations that we're using for the paid internship program?

And if so, how are we asking those who are seeking employment to receive or to get those reasonable accommodations? Is there a way to help to streamline, to ensure that we're effectively employing as many individuals with disabilities as we can?

Yes, absolutely. That is an issue that is worked on both by the provider of services who is assisting the individual, as well as the employer to make sure that the individual who's being employed has all of the accommodations that they need to be successful. And again, like I said before, while this is a huge priority for the Department, we understand that there is much more work to be done in this space.

Earlier you had stated that Regional Centers play a role in working on increasing employment as well. Do they have a role in helping us to define or to work on what reasonable accommodations are or should that solely be in the hands of medical professionals?

No, absolutely. I believe it's something that, as a system, we need to work on individuals served, our family Members, Regional Centers, service providers, advocates. We have a huge, really great system in California, and we have a lot of resources to pull on and ideas to use.

Thank you, Madam Chair.

Thank you so much for our panelists. I want to thank Mr. Stewart. You hit the nail on the head in terms of going out into the community, experiencing what it's like. Assemblymember Gallagher actually invited me to, I shared my story earlier, the California State of the deaf school, and it was there that I met an amazing little girl who is thriving.

And I mentioned earlier she could be the next President of the United States because of the program, the support that she is getting from the resources, and our commitment to those youth, and would love to come out and visit other places. You can reach out to my office and thank you, Harry. The other Harry, for your testimony. You are the reason we are doing this. Know mentioning our employers is critical.

We can't have jobs without employers, which is why we wanted to have a comprehensive hearing today that included everyone who's working in this space. With that, I do want to open it out for public comment. We will hear from Members of the public in the hearing room. You will have 1 minute, and we ask that you keep your comments relevant to the topic of the hearing. After those who are in the room, we are providing testimony via teleconference.

The number is 877-692-8957 pin number is 1850-1100 thank you. Thank you very much for Assembly Member and panelists for having this very important session today. My name is Catherine Campisi. I'm a former Director of the Department of Rehabilitation. Several people before Joe Xavier. I'm here to talk specifically about employment in state government, following Mr. Dutta. I'm also a board Member of the Association of California State Employees with Disabilities.

We want to thank you for having this hearing, but we want to say that the decline in employees with disabilities in state civil service is totally unacceptable. I retired several years ago, and at the time that I was working, there were more people with significant and most significant disabilities in state service than there are now. We are offering a symposium which we will very much follow up and invite you to on training departments on disability employment.

And just to give you an example, we have been seeking a Department which is doing a very good job in providing reasonable accommodation. And after asking several experts other than the Department of Rehabilitation, and they cannot be the only Department in state service that does a great job at providing reasonable accommodation. But no one is able to come up with an example of a Department which is good at providing reasonable accommodation. This is simply unacceptable.

The other thing I want to tell you is there are numerous reports going. I was with Governor Davis when he signed the Bill making California a model employer in its own state government. Unfortunately, as Bobby said, we have fallen short. There are numerous reports that have been done by state agencies with partnerships with other stakeholders, and those have very much, a lot of the recommendations have just sat on a shelf, and we would urge you to pull those forward to make a legislative agenda.

You, the Legislature, have the ability to hold state departments and the state government accountable, and we ask you to do that. California is a really wonderful and can be a model employer. It has systems in place to provide accommodations, but it's falling very short, and we ask you to keep in mind, and we're here to work with you.

I would commit on behalf of axed that we would love to have a listening session or anything else that can help you more fully understand the issues that employees with disabilities face. Thank you so much. Ralph. Straight ahead of you here. The microphone is right there. You're going to have to tip it up. Okay.

Good afternoon, chair Ortega and Members of the Committee. My name is Ralph Black. I'm a retired state employee. For 30 years or so, I worked as an attorney for various state agencies, most of that time as the chief counsel for the California community colleges, as a Member of the Association of State Employees with Disabilities. I want to second many of the comments that our President Bobby Dutta and Catherine Campisi have made.

But I want to specifically focus on one issue which I think is important, and that is trying to provide programs that will assist employers in feeling comfortable with hiring people with disabilities, both in the public and private sectors. The Department of Rehabilitation a number of years ago had a program, was called the Career Opportunity Development Program. And what it did was they would go to an employer and say, we have a qualified individual with a disability here.

We'll pay their salary for six months or nine months if you commit to keeping them on the job, assuming they do a good job. During this initial trial period, and that was discontinued back in the 1990s, the theory was, well, the Americans with Disabilities act has passed, so we're going to have an end to all employment discrimination. The world's going to be wonderful, and companies are going to be hiring people with disabilities. But as we know, that hasn't really turned out to be the case.

That's why we're all here today, and both in state government and in the private sector, there are still employers that are reluctant to take a chance on hiring a person with a disability. You've heard about Smud and the Department of Rehab and Developmental Services offering these kinds of support. So we need to bring that program back and make it available for more people.

Thank you for your comments. Just a quick reminder, we are limiting comments to 1 minute. I do not like having to cut you off.

So thank you, Madam Chair Members. Thank you. My name is Carl London. I'm here today representing the alliance supporting people with IDD. First of all, I want to congratulate you and your staff in particular in putting together a very diverse panel of presenters today. It was actually quite interesting to listen to issues from other parts of the sector that I don't normally follow to hear what they had to say. So good job on that.

With regards to people with intellectual and developmental disabilities, I would encourage you to look closely at this one chart that was presented to you. It's a State Council chart, and it shows the level of employment of the various populations. What should be really concerning, and is a good starting point for all of us to think about is back in 2013, we adopted in California, through legislation, an employment first policy for the State of California for people with intellectual and developmental disabilities.

In other words, the top priority of what we're supposed to do is to help people with disabilities find and keep a job. What's interesting is that in that 10 year period from 2013 to today, what's really alarming is the employment rate is pretty much the same. So this Legislature and I know Dr. RambuLA has really dug in on this over the past few years, and we're going to miss his leadership in some of the positions around that.

But what happens here is that we don't ask often the follow up questions and do the oversight and ask what happened. All the money we gave you to do these various programs, what were the outcomes? Did they work? How well did they work? Here's a great example for you. 10 years with an employment first policy in the State of California and we have made no improvement.

That should be shocking to people and ought to make all of you interested in doing the oversight to ask these guys tougher questions. As we get rid of 14 c, which Mr. Allen started to talk about, the program that gets rid of sub minimum wage opportunities that people have chosen to be in. The next question is going to be is where do they go? And ask for the data on that. Currently they talked about how those programs have lessened and gone away.

They've seen the writing on the wall. 17,000 people with intellectual and developmental disabilities have gone from having a job to no job. The data are there. You have to ask for it. And we have to ask the following question. Why is that? Where are they going? Turns out that most of them are going to a more expensive model for day programs. I want to urge you to dig in on the data on this as you go along.

Thank you very much.

Hi, good afternoon. Daniel Sherle with SCIU Local 1000 wanted to thank Madam Chair Ortega and staff for organizing this wonderful hearing. We really appreciate the attention and focus, especially in regards to state service and the challenges we have with employment.

And mostly I just wanted to make a comment how proud Local 1000 is to represent the educators at the school of the deaf in Fremont and Riverside, and how we look forward to working with you in the coming budget cycle to ensure that they are adequately funded, and we are able to prioritize many of the accessibility issues that our Member Silas brought up in his presentation today. So thank you.

Chair Members Teresa Anderson, on behalf of the California Policy Center for Intellectual and developmental disabilities, just want to say thank you for having such a comprehensive hearing. Employment of people with disabilities is such a complex issue. And some of the issues that came up today that we're really interested in focusing on is how we incentivize employment and address some of the complexities with the issue around benefits and people being incentivized to not work in our space. So thank you very much and appreciate everybody's testimony today.

Hi, good afternoon. Barry Jardini with the California Disability Services Association. Thank you, Madam Chair, Members of the Committee, nice to see you today and thank you so much for this really wonderful hearing. It's such a breath of fresh air to really get to lay out some of these issues. I want to touch on just two things. I will stay within the minute timeframe. If I don't, just kick me out.

The first is really, I really appreciated the conversation around the commensurate wage, sub minimum wage certificates, and the need for us to be thoughtful. We are facing a very rapidly approaching deadline, and I think to Mr. Bole's point, I think he outlined it really well. We're talking about thousands of people who've made a choice for their lives. And we want to make sure that that transition is as soft and smooth as possible so that we don't lose those opportunities for employment.

We're running out of time as a State of California. So that's why I'm so excited about this hearing, knowing that the Legislature is involved and engaged. The departments are here from rehab and dds. I think we really all need to work together to make sure that we're not taking away opportunities from people. The second thing is really just more fundamentally around employment for individuals with IDD. To Mr. London's point, we're not making a lot of progress. We're trying hard.

I think that everyone's hearts are in the right place, but we're just not getting there. I think it's time to really look at how we're doing employment generally, how we're funding it. Are we paying rates that are adequate to incentivize providers to go into trying to get people into competitive, integrated employment? Are we focusing on providing incentives and higher rates for those maybe transitioning out of work activity programs or that have more barriers to employment?

I think it's time for a rethink, maybe looking at a report or a study for employment rates. How are other states doing it? Because they're seeing more success than we are here in California. It will be a great time for us to really dig in on this over the next couple of months. I look forward to doing that with you, and thank you again.

Thank you, Madam Chair and Select Committee Members. My name is Sarah Verity. I represent Ability Path, a nonprofit organization serving individuals with IDD in San Mateo and Santa Clara counties for 103 years. We've had a very difficult time hiring job coaches due to insufficient rates paid by the Department of Developmental Services, creating a significant barrier to employment for the people we serve. In fact, as Silicon Valley employers return to work, we are contacted by approximately 60 employers looking to hire our participants.

But without a job coach to support them on the job, we are unable to fulfill those requests. And another barrier is the lack of funding for job development, which is absolutely needed for matching the skills of a person with the right employment. It can take weeks, if not months, to find the right job, develop the relationship, and provide true person centered planning. Thank you.

Good afternoon, Members. My name is Dan Okenfuss. I'm the public policy manager for the California foundation for independent Living Centers. We are a network of 25 independent living centers across the state. These independent living centers are set up to provide services and supports for people with disabilities in the communities. The mission of CFILC is to increase access and equal opportunity for people with disabilities by building the capacity of our ILCs.

Last year, we served over 26,000 individuals in our independent living centers, providing over 160,000 services and over 53,000 of hours of community service. And one of the things I want to focus on is that all of our ILCs, one of their core services to provide employment services, and that can be intake and goal planning for the individual. You set up an individual program to assess the individual skills and what kind of career path they can go into.

We also address employment preparation, job development, placement, and retention services. All this is operated on a shoestring budget. And in all of our centers, we get a little bit of funding from Dor and other sources here in federal and state, and we couldn't do it without it. So when it comes time for next year's budget, we really need to protect the services that we provide. So I appreciate your support.

Thank you. We will now go to the phone line. Do we have anyone on the phone line? Thank you. For a public comment, you may press one and then zero. We will go to line 15. Your line is open. Thank you. Good morning, or should I say good afternoon? Proceed Fitzgerald, Silicon Valley Independent Living Center I couldn't agree more with what my learned colleague Dan Oakenfuse from CFIOC has said.

I will add an additional piece to the puzzle and say that this was a very interesting conversation and where we concentrated on looking at the employers employees, we haven't really looked at the practice of the practice of job coaching, but interview skills and interviewing. So for folks like myself, where my disability is very visual, I use a wheelchair. A lot of folks have invisible disabilities and sometimes they show up to the conversation during interview and sometimes not.

We need to help the employers learn how and understand how disability should not matter, should not be a concentration on the disability, but on the ability and on the education and skill of that individual trying to be employed by that company. So we need to look at the whole picture, not one or two pieces. The Elephant is a very large elephant with a lot of different pieces to that elephant, and we need to look at all of them. Thank you. Thank you.

Next we'll go to line at 13. Your line is open.

Good afternoon, chairperson Ortega and Members of the Committee. My name is Scott Richmond and I'm one of the past presidents of the State Employees Association with disabilities. I have two requests of you and they're specific to employment in state government. What I hope you will do as you craft state policy on the employment of people with disabilities is to require engagement with the disability community. As Executive departments make and implement policies, they often do so in a vacuum.

And we as people with disabilities are not consulted or given the opportunity to provide input. The other point that I would stress is that there be accountability, that there be clear goals and objectives set, that there be clear timelines and implementation strategies, and that there are people at senior levels in management that are held accountable for the achievement of those goals and strategies. Thank you very much.

Thank you. Thank you. Next we go line to 16. Good afternoon. Sarah Ortega and Members. My name is Lisa Cooley. I'm a 54 year old African American woman who has a developmental disability called cerebral palsy. One of the things that needs to happen to increase the rate of people who have developmental disabilities, such as cerebral palsy and other developmental disabilities to get employed is put an emphasis on having safe, reliable and accessible backup transportation.

Because with typical demand response transportation, also known as paratransit, you are lucky if you get to work on time late or early. And in order to work full time or part time and be successful, you need to prove to an employer that you can get to and from work on time to successfully do your job duties during a workday. Thank you. Thank you. If you have any more public comment, you may press one and then zero. And we have no further public comment in queue.

Thank you. This concludes our Committee hearing today. I want to thank all of our panelists, our staff, and our Members of the public who called in or participated here in the hearing room. I am committed to working. I've heard very loud and clear about the issues that are happening and barriers to employment within the disability community.

And that includes looking at ourselves as a state and holding ourselves accountable to what needs to happen to ensure that we are a state that leads the rest of the nation.

So you have my commitment to continue this dialogue along with those of my colleagues who were here today, assemblymember Kalra, Jackson, Alanis, Arambula, and Gallagher, who see this as a bipartisan issue and who are committed to working with me as we head into the next year and many years after that, because there's clearly a lot of work to be done. But there's also a lot of hope. I saw a lot of hope.

I saw a lot of great things happening in our communities, in our districts, in our state that give me not only the willingness to continue to fight, to continue to make a difference, but also to highlight all the amazing people that make our wonderful state such a diverse and beautiful place to live in. So thank you all for coming and appreciate, I look forward to working with all of you. Bye.