Here Dr. Kirk Adams frames disability inclusion as a hiring advantage powered by one national door and local execution. He spotlights CSAVR's National Employment Team (NET), led by Kathleen West-Evans, as a single gateway into every state and territorial public VR agency, with TAP (the Talent Acquisition Portal) and on-the-ground VR specialists turning postings into interviews, OJT, accommodations, and retention. The article walks leaders through why inclusion breaks at the national-to-local seam, how the NET's "one company" model fixes it, and where the ROI shows up—shorter time-to-fill, stronger 90/180-day retention, and reduced compliance risk. Case patterns from Hyatt (1,000+ trainees), Microsoft (dozens of hires), CVS Health (hundreds of hires), and Kwik Trip (300+ hires across 600+ stores) demonstrate repeatable designs: employer-built curricula, alternative assessments, role redesign, and national agreements executed locally.

He closes with a six-step playbook (name a national sponsor, execute a NET agreement, activate state POCs, instrument training/OJT, pre-plan retention, measure and scale), rebuts common objections ("we already have job boards," "accommodations are costly," "multi-state is messy"), and shows how to integrate the NET into ATS, accessibility roadmaps, workforce pipelines, and governance. Compliance is the floor; performance is the flywheel. The invitation: join the September 25 LinkedIn Live with West-Evans, bring one stubborn multi-state requisition and a draft KPI set, and leave with a 90-day plan to pilot the NET in two regions—because inclusion isn't charity; it's recruiting math at enterprise scale.

TRANSCRIPT

Podcast Commentator: Welcome to podcasts by Doctor Kirk Adams, where we bring you powerful conversations with leading voices in disability rights, employment and inclusion. Our guests share their expertise, experiences and strategies to inspire action and create a more inclusive world. If you're passionate about social justice or want to make a difference, you're in the right place. Let's dive in with your host, doctor Kirk Adams.

Dr. Kirk Adams: Hello, everybody. This is Doctor Kirk Adams talking to you from my home office in sunny Seattle, Washington. And this is my monthly live streamed webinar, which I call Supercharge Your Bottom Line through Disability Inclusion. And today we have an expert in the area of disability inclusion and employment, Kathy West-Evans, my dear, dear, long time friend and colleague. Say, say. Say. Hi, Kathy. I'll be back to you in a minute.

Kathy West-Evans: Okay. Hi, this is Kathy West-Evans, and I'm joining you from east of Seattle. A long time partner of Kirkson. Thank you for having the conversation today, Kirk. We both know that this we we supercharge the bottom line working as a team. So thank you.

Dr. Kirk Adams: That's right. So I just wanted to reflect a little bit. So Kathy is involved in the vocational rehabilitation system which is a powerful engine for disability inclusion and employment. She'll be talking to us about how the vocational rehabilitation system works and how they work with employers and all of the resources they can bring to the table to assist people with disabilities and and their employers make successful employment outcomes. But I when I was at the American Foundation for the blind. So I am the immediate past president of AFB, and I was privileged to hold those roles in the same roles at the Lighthouse for the blind, Inc., here in Seattle, where we employed hundreds of blind and deaf blind people in various business activities, including aerospace manufacturing, which was a lot of fun making parts for all the Boeing aircraft. But when I was at AFB, when we did our strategic plan, you know, we wanted to support blind children in education. We wanted to support older people who are visually impaired. Most people who are legally blind have become so as part of the aging process, not not lived their lives as a blind person as I have. But we really decided we wanted to focus on employment because only 35% of us with significant disabilities are in the workforce, and that's that's compared to 70% of the general population.

Dr. Kirk Adams: So as far as working age people in our country, about 70% are working. And in the folks with significant disabilities, only about 35% of us. So half. And for the official unemployment rate, people seeking work. The Bureau of Labor Statistics if it's 4% for the general population, it will be 8% for us who are actively seeking work. So how you slice it, our outcomes and employment are half as good or twice as bad as the general population. But in preparation for designing our employment related strategies, we did a literature review. We hired a brilliant blind researcher named Doctor Ariel Silverman. She did her doctoral work here in Seattle at the University of Washington, and now she is a head of research at AFB. But we we asked Ariel to do a literature review on employment, Unemployment, and she synthesized probably 120 different peer reviewed research based articles on employment and one. One statistic that really stood out for me that among those employers who formerly say some sort of statement that they are inclusive of hiring people with disabilities or proactively seeking to hire more people with disabilities, less than 10% were connected with our vocational rehabilitation system. It was 9.2% of the employers that said they want to hire disabilities were actually connected to our greatest resource for employing people with disabilities, which is our vocational rehabilitation system.

Dr. Kirk Adams: So I really want to turn turn the microphone over to Kathy and really ask you, Kathy, to talk about three things. And I'll I'll pop in with questions as they as they arise, as they occur to me. But I'd love it if you could tell our listeners and viewers describe the vocational rehabilitation system, how how it works, how funding works, how how federal funds flow to the states. We'd like you to talk about all of the resources that vocational rehabilitation can bring to the table in working with individuals with disabilities, seeking employment, and working with employers who want to successfully employ people with disabilities. So paint paint is the general VR picture. And then we'd love for you to talk about the national employment team. Was was happily joined you all in your two day summit over on the Microsoft campus earlier this month. So the national employment team is very fresh and current in my mind. And then the the talent acquisition portal, which is another powerful tool that people can use. So I'm going to I'm going to turn it over to you, Kathy. I'll pop. I'll pop back in with a question or two from time to time.

Kathy West-Evans: Good. Keep me on track, Kirk, because, you know, I get excited about this, this work and the work that we've done together. Yeah. So the Rehabilitation Act, which funds public vocational rehab. The acronym is VR. And no, it's not virtual reality. It's vocational rehabilitation. Who was funded in initially in 1920 because people recognized that disability happens. You could be born with a disability. You can acquire a disability at any time during your life, but your goals are the same employment, independence, living in your communities. And so that act was built around the person thinking about the whole person. So as Kirk well knows, Kirk and I work together supporting the employment of people who are deaf blind here in our Seattle community. You know, you've got to think of things like, if someone doesn't drive, how do they get to and from work? It seems simple to us in the field, but not always. Not always simple transportation systems, navigating everything. We work hard to do that. So it's thinking about the whole person. What are their goals? What are their skill sets, what are their career aspirations? And then looking and working with business to understand their their needs for talent as well as their needs to retain talent.

Kathy West-Evans: So this system is a federal, state funded system, roughly 80% federal, 20% state. It's 2070 8.7 and 21.3 state. So I'm not going to get into those details, but the program is decided, the structure of the program is decided at the state level. Understanding the states know their resources and know how to best support the success of the individual and the business. So we have 78 agencies. We're in every state, the territories and District of Columbia. And in some states, like here in Washington, we have two states because the state has decided to have a general agency, but also an agency that specializes in serving people who are blind or have vision loss. And that may be, again, in independent living, it could be in that career track. And there's also a program for individuals who are older, blind. Like Kirk says, we have an aging workforce and an aging population. And vision and hearing are two of the sensory functions that tend to be impacted by aging. So really looking at two things.

Dr. Kirk Adams: So you mentioned in our state we have two vocational rehabilitation agencies, one that focuses specifically on people who are blind and the other that addresses people with, with other disabilities. Now, some states only have one agency. I think it's something like 30 states have two and 20 have one, something like that. Yes.

Kathy West-Evans: Something like that.

Dr. Kirk Adams: Correct. Yeah.

Kathy West-Evans: Yeah. And again it's decided at the state level understanding how they're structured. So like for example in California we have a combined agency okay.

Dr. Kirk Adams: And then the other thing I don't know if it was if it was at your summit or somewhere else, but I just recently heard the statistic that the fastest growing age group entering employment, people over 75.

Kathy West-Evans: Yes. So it's not just entering employment, Kirk, but I think staying employed. Okay. Right.

Dr. Kirk Adams: Okay. Right.

Kathy West-Evans: Yeah.

Dr. Kirk Adams: Good. So as a you know again we're we're researchers here. So to statistics. So some like 16% of people over 65 years old have some sort of visual impairment some sort of low vision situation primarily. And then something like 23% of people over 85 have a visual impairment. So many, many, many people enter our community. Yes. Of legal blindness later in life.

Kathy West-Evans: Yes, yes. We talk about disability being the one community that you can hinder enter at any point in your life. Right. So yeah, it's, you know, life changes in an instant, right, Kirk. Right. It's like, as you know my brother had an accident at the time. He had his accident. He owned his own business. Now he's a quadriplegic with a traumatic brain injury. He he fell working on a building. And guess what? He's back working Because that's what he wanted. And living independently and driving and, and you know, I, I like to have people think, what would you want for yourself? Yeah, I think all of us want to have control of our life. Right?

Dr. Kirk Adams: Yeah. I didn't mean to to derail you, but I just wanted to to talk about the fact that some states have one agency, some states have two. So if you're if you're in a, if you're in a two state state with two agencies, you you have double. Double the fun, double the people to talk to if you're an employer. But I'll get back to you.

Kathy West-Evans: Okay. But it's, you know, it's working together. And even if there are two separate agencies, then we work together. And that's the key thing, particularly when we're working with business. And I'll talk about that a little bit when we talk about the net and what we learn from the national employment team in our conversation with business. So but the vocational rehab system serves a wide range of individuals. So I'm glad you brought up the aging population, Kirk, because we're working with individuals who are transitioning from high school into their first career. And I think a key thing there is helping them understand the careers that are available and connecting them with, you know, what a career looks like from the perspective of a business and what you would need to do to enter that career and grow within it. So what's the appropriate training? What you know what? What will get the person the skill sets they need to be productive and and have the career of their choice. And we all know career a career is a journey, right, Kirk? You never you never end up where you think you're when you start. So you know, preparing people for that and supporting them in being successful. And then, you know, we serve people throughout the age range again to the aging population. Yes. Vision, hearing you know, mobility.

Kathy West-Evans: Several things happen when you age. I'm wearing a lovely pair of glasses, but they're there for a reason, right? So, you know, it's it's thinking about how you continue to help keep people successful. And we work with a lot of businesses where people have acquired a disability. They may have had an accident or an illness or an injury or it's the aging process. And then how do we keep them working? Because these are often very, very talented and experienced people in a workplace. So the businesses want to keep them working. So we have that wide range of services. We also work with veterans. And I want to bring this one up, Kirk, because a lot of people don't know this, but we support veterans who have acquired their disability after service. The Veterans Administration supports veterans who have a service connected disability. But we work together. Okay. And as I said, my brother had an accident, but he's a veteran, so he receives medical support from our Seattle VA, which has been wonderful. But his voc rehab services come from our public vocational rehab program. So again, you know, it's how you help connect the systems to support the success of the person. And each state looks differently. Does that. Kirk, did you have something you wanted to add there? Thinking?

Dr. Kirk Adams: No.

Kathy West-Evans: Oh, okay. Okay. So there are a wide range of services for the individual that's sitting down and building a plan with the person and thinking about what they need. And so we look at you know, I think a key thing is not to get stuck in the medical diagnosis, right? Because you don't want to make assumptions about what a person can or can't do. That's the biggest barrier that people face in the workplace. And the one that we need to really talk about more. Kirk, so I appreciate you having this podcast because it allows us to open that dialogue. Yeah. But it's building around the person. And and again, you know, it could be training. It could be, you know, going to a university, it could be an apprenticeship and internship online classes you know, actual work experience and building from there. We could be looking at.

Dr. Kirk Adams: People, and young people with disabilities can start receiving vocational related services. Is at age 14. Is that correct?

Kathy West-Evans: It can. Yes. Again, the the definition of youth varies state to state in terms of how long they may be covered. If they're if they've been if they're born with a disability or acquire a disability at a young age. So.

Dr. Kirk Adams: But we'd like to thank the Washington Department of Services for the blind, which was called Commission for the blind at the time. I went to graduated from Snohomish High School and went off to Whitman College in Walla Walla. Thank you for providing me with the cutting edge technology of the day, which was the IBM Selectric typewriter with the erase ribbon. So I was I was well equipped to head off to college with my slate and stylus to take notes during class in my Perkins brailler to recopy my notes and then to type my papers and tests. I had the amazing IBM Selectric provided to me by the Department of Services for the blind.

Kathy West-Evans: Yes, we have a great we have a great Department of Services for the blind here. Yes. Yeah. So and again, that's an example of setting someone up for success. And, and Kirk, look where you've gone with your career. I mean I see so many people in their career journey who are now in, you know, they're they're leading initiatives and leading the work that we do with business and partnering and really supporting businesses in being successful. And I think, you know, that's one of the key things we want to focus on is how we support talent and retention of that talent. So on the business side, what we did was, as I said, you know, I started my career here in Washington State, but I always had a connection with business and, and worked with people who were deaf, hard of hearing, deaf, blind. So that's where I connected with Kirk early on. And the the goal of the program, though, was really listening to business. And that's the experience that I carried to my role in vocational rehabilitation. And from there, we built a program working with business and started to connect around the country. And when we started connecting around the country, because you've got to think of 78 different agencies, 15,000 staff, you know. But those of us who are working with businesses started thinking, you know, we're working with the same business. How do we do this better? How do we do it in a more coordinated fashion? So it's not as confusing for the business. And we're really understanding what they need. And it's not just putting someone in a job. First job, any job. Right. It's helping with that career strategy.

Dr. Kirk Adams: And I've heard the term dual customer approach. Dual customer. You're you're serving two customers. You're serving the person with a disability who wants to be employed and live live their lives as a employed person earning a salary. And you also serve the business who needs to identify, attract, hire and retain talent?

Kathy West-Evans: Absolutely, absolutely. And so that's where we started having that conversation. And some of us got together nationally and said you know, it's great that we have all these national employment conferences. Why don't we invite business to them so we can really hear from the business partners. So 20 years ago the we had a group of 35 businesses join us. And that included CEOs. It included, you know, HR, it included floor level managers, federal agencies. It included a wide range small, large businesses from different geographic areas. And we asked them, we're building careers. You know, what careers look like. You know the talent you need. What do we need to do differently to support you as a customer? And we heard a few really key points. Number one, build the trust. We want to have an open dialogue about what this all means and how we can best be successful. Build the partnership and build the strategy with the company. So really listen. Right. Don't assume that you know what a company needs, but really listen and make it easy to find you because every one of your agencies has a different name, right? And who do I call and how can it if I'm a state that if I'm a company that has a multi-state presence, I don't want to reinvent the wheel in every location. How do I build a strategy that I can move across the footprint of my business? Right. So that's where we started building what we now call the National Employment team or the net. You'll notice we use the net because business said VR virtual reality. What is it?

Dr. Kirk Adams: So national employment team makes it pretty clear what you're doing. You're a team of people who focus on employment. So. Right.

Kathy West-Evans: Right. And supporting business as a customer. Right. So and again we have.

Dr. Kirk Adams: A wide range.

Kathy West-Evans: Of services.

Dr. Kirk Adams: Yeah. I just wanted to mention another study. So this is a this is what you're addressing at the net. So there there was a study. It's probably about 20 years old. But they asked vocational rehabilitation counselors what is the greatest barrier to you successfully finding employment opportunities for the people you serve? And they asked employers, what is the greatest barrier to you working with the vocational rehabilitation system. So they basically asked the same question what is the greatest barrier? The vocational rehabilitation counselor said employer attitudes and the employer said lack of understanding of our operational needs. So that is what you're addressing by actually actually talking to businesses and asking them what their operational needs are.

Kathy West-Evans: Yes, yes. So it's that, as you said earlier, we call it the dual customer strategy understanding we can build a plan with an individual, but that plan has to reflect what's needed in the workplace and building a plan with the with a company, but also understanding how we grow that plan across their footprint.

Dr. Kirk Adams: Could you give us a could you give us a real world example case study of a business that has partnered successfully with the vocational rehabilitation system and the net, and what the strategy look like? I know there's many.

Kathy West-Evans: There's over yeah, there's over 400. But you saw well, you saw some you saw some of them at the net summit. So yeah. Let's see. Which one would you like to start with? I mean, there was Microsoft, CVS, Walgreens. I mean, where do we want to go? Clean logic? Mclean industries.

Dr. Kirk Adams: Well, let's let's talk about McLean.

Kathy West-Evans: Mclean. Okay.

Dr. Kirk Adams: Yeah.

Dr. Kirk Adams: That was that was new to me, and it's huge. And I wasn't familiar with them until the person from McLean was present for both days of the summit.

Kathy West-Evans: Yes, and Jennifer is an incredible person. So Jennifer is the inclusion and belonging manager at McLean. Mclean is based in Texas, and it's a you know, anytime you go to an am PM mini mart, a Taco Bell you name it, they are the company that gets the food supplies to these these businesses.

Dr. Kirk Adams: Right.

Kathy West-Evans: To be able to do their jobs.

Dr. Kirk Adams: I think she said.

Dr. Kirk Adams: They have 80 warehouse and distribution centers or something.

Dr. Kirk Adams: Yes.

Kathy West-Evans: Absolutely. Yeah. So they look at food distribution. So the warehouse truck drivers, forklift drivers, a number of opportunities and needs within that company to keep that supply chain moving.

Kathy West-Evans: So our Texas team has done a great job building the partnership locally, but we've picked up and we're expanding. In addition to our national employment team, the VR system also supports training centers. So we have eight physical training centers around the country. And then several of our agencies for the blind have training centers. So looking at what are the skill sets that this company needs, right. Whether it's hands on, working in a warehouse, driving a truck, forklift customer service, inventory control, you name it. What skill sets the need? And how do we work with the company to build them?

Dr. Kirk Adams: And we can design training specifically to train people to to do the jobs that McClain needs to fill.

Kathy West-Evans: Yes. Yes, absolutely. So right now, Jennifer is working with some of our training centers, and we're looking at the certificate and Warehouse. Work where the forklift. Because, you know, you can't train someone to. Operate a forklift on the floor in a warehouse. Sure, a little tricky. So how do we how do we train someone and then transition them into the workplace? And again, working with that company. Cvs is another great example. And you heard about the training center that we've developed with them in Virginia. Cvs, their CEO was at that meeting 20 years ago to help us build the net, and they've been a partner since. And you know, they hire anywhere between 800 and 1000 people from us a year. And they had a they had a need. They have warehouses, they have retail. They had a real need for pharmacy techs because anytime you, you know, it's not just distributing pharmaceuticals in a retail pharmacy, but it's also now that we have the increase in in mail order pharmaceuticals, you still have to be a technician. You have to be trained and and certified in that skill set. So we started working with them to build a program. They now have a registered a registered apprenticeship program, and we feed talent into all of those. We have people that work in retail and then decide they want to be a pharmacy tech and go into that field. And again, our growing careers within that company. So again, an example of another long term partnership.

Dr. Kirk Adams: So just to restate so for for both McLean and CVS and the other 400 companies you're partnering with, you've gone in and carefully analyzed what their jobs are, what the job functions are, what skills are needed, what training is needed. In case some of them require certifications and the vocational rehabilitation system in your eight training centers, you have designed training specifically to prepare people to be successful in jobs at these particular companies. And so that's on that's on the menu of choice for people with disabilities who want to seek employment. And they become I don't know what the word is now client, consumer customer of vocational rehabilitation. And one of their choices might be to become a pharmacy technician for CVS. And if that is the career path they want, then they can be trained and certified. And that training and certification is funded and provided by the vocational rehabilitation system. That that a good summary.

Kathy West-Evans: Yeah. And I'd like to say, you know, when we're working with a business customer, think about it as taxpayer dollars back at work in the business. Right?

Dr. Kirk Adams: Yeah.

Kathy West-Evans: We want to work with you to build your talent pipeline and to keep people working. And, you know, we're working with a people who want to go to work and they end up becoming taxpayers in this country. So that's right. You know.

Kathy West-Evans: Let's, let's, let's talk.

Dr. Kirk Adams: About all that the vocational rehabilitation system can bring to the table in supporting employers to successfully employ people with disabilities. I, I've seen instances where a salary was paid during an on the job training period or an internship. I've seen vocational rehabilitation teams come in and analyze a workplace and make recommendations for accommodations. I know personally when I first went to work out of college, I was I was provided with a refreshable Braille display by vocational rehabilitation because I needed it for that specific job. So tell tell us about all that vocational rehabilitation can do for for our employer community.

Kathy West-Evans: Well, first it's sitting down and listening to the business. And we learned early on in our conversation with business. Look at it as a business and not just an employer, because in order to understand how someone has a career path within a company, look at the bigger picture. And so HR is always part of that discussion. But you know, when you're working with companies like Weyerhaeuser, you're also looking at warehouse, you know, staff and supports and facilities managers, etc.. So it's looking at the whole scope of people within a company and the whole range of people that would be engaging in that hiring process and supporting the success of companies. So really looking there, looking at the skill sets that accompany, you know, the recruitment and retention strategy that you're using, and how can we get people into an existing pipeline or help build a pipeline? Disability awareness, just that, that initial dialogue of what is disability? There's a lot of confusion about that term and just really opening the dialogue and answering questions, because that attitudinal barrier continues to be one of the biggest challenges, because we don't talk about it, people are uncomfortable asking the questions.

Kathy West-Evans: Kirk. So we'll bring our team in. We'll sit down and have a discussion, and we really want people to feel comfortable. And with one of our company partners, we built a series over a period of time where there were questions by staff, you know, understanding that one out of four people in this country has a disability, and it's the population that any one of us can join at any time. What does that mean? Right. You know. And what does it mean to say you're blind? And is everyone who's blind? Can they not see well? No. Some people have usable levels of vision, and there are accommodations and, you know, assistive technology that supports all of us. So helping people understand that, I think is really helpful so that you take away that apprehension where people aren't making assumptions about what someone can and can't do. And that series went on to include, well, you know, we talk a lot about you know, deafness or hearing loss. We talk about ADHD, neurodiversities you know, a big growing topic. What does that mean?

Kathy West-Evans: So this was a, you know, just.

Dr. Kirk Adams: For the employer.

Kathy West-Evans: Yeah. And and yeah.

Kathy West-Evans: The staff at the company and they asked and they said, please bring in, you know, bring in people to talk with us about what this means. And so we worked collaboratively. Dsb and the Division of VOC Rehab here set up even set up opportunities for people to see what the assistive technology looks like.

Kathy West-Evans: You know, some people wanted to understand what does Braille mean, what does, you know, and then you demonstrate large print and how to change your font. And everyone uses it. Right? That's a accommodation that goes mainstream. It's good for everyone.

Kathy West-Evans: That's right.

Kathy West-Evans: Yeah.

Dr. Kirk Adams: So you know, the when I work with clients, companies who want to employ people with disabilities, I do a discovery process and I basically do ethnographic research. I interview their key leaders and, you know, understand what their objectives are. And, and they usually have a really good intent and they usually think too narrowly. They for instance, one large manufacturer thought Facture thought, you know, I can have a corner of this warehouse and I can have some, you know, blind people doing some packaging.

Dr. Kirk Adams: Putting some stuff in boxes and putting labels on. And then we started talking about you could have a deaf person in it. You could have a wheelchair user in HR. Just think think that any, any job of these 2000 jobs that you have, a person with a person with a disability can do all of these jobs. So just to really broaden their thinking and taking people on field trips, I took that team to the Walgreens distribution center in Anderson, South Carolina.

Dr. Kirk Adams: About 40% of the employees are people with disabilities. And Doctor Jeffrey Moore and his team at Anderson University have tracked the data since they opened that center in 2007. So by any metric, it's it's their it's their best warehouse and distribution center in the Walgreens system as far as productivity and turnover and absenteeism and safety. Best safety record, best employee satisfaction, best customer perception, all those things. So to. To take people there to really broaden their thinking is one thing I do. And then the next thing I do is I call. Kathy West-Evans.

Kathy West-Evans: I say.

Dr. Kirk Adams: For instance, in a case like you mentioned clean logic earlier. So Isaac Shapiro.

Dr. Kirk Adams: One of the, the two co-founders of Clean Logic, his mother is blind, his business partner has a daughter who's autistic. And they sincerely wanted to hire people with disabilities. And they were doing so on their own. And they'd hired a number of blind people in their warehouse and distribution center near Philadelphia. And now they're onshoring their manufacturing into the same area, and they think they can hire up to 90 more people with disabilities there. And I called you and told you a little bit about Isaac and what they wanted to do there in Pennsylvania. And you connected them with the right resources in the vocational rehabilitation system. And now now they are full speed ahead on employing people with disabilities there at their company.

Kathy West-Evans: Absolutely, absolutely. Yes. And Audubon Pennsylvania had a chance to be there for the ribbon cutting. And it's it is quite amazing. And there's a wide range of people with and without disabilities working together and collaborating in their production. And, you know, he's their products are amazing. And the fact that they have Braille on every one of their products is you know, is it awesome? It sends a great message. But Isaac and Michael and their families are just really committed to helping people understand the skill sets.

Kathy West-Evans: Right?

Dr. Kirk Adams: So for employers out there, if you want to even explore the Or the possibility of being more inclusive of people with disabilities in your workforce. Get in touch with me, and I will put you in touch with Kathy. She will put you in touch with the resources in the state or states in which you operate. And I do I do want to mention that when I have these conversations with employers and we talk about the capabilities of people with disabilities, they're oftentimes employers have not really worked with people with apparent disabilities or don't really realize they're actually working with people with disabilities in, in their company already, because, yes, not 70% of disabilities are not apparent. And and not everyone discloses their, their disability. But we talk about the strengths, you know, living every day with a disability gives us ample opportunity to meet and overcome challenges. And that's the way we develop strengths and that's the way we learn. So we need to be creative problem solvers all the time. So we develop really unique skills there. We need to be creative. We need to be persistent. We need to be resilient. We need to be good communicators. We need to know how to work in teams. So people with disabilities have a oftentimes a very unique set of strengths that can really add to a workplace. So I do always want to emphasize that.

Kathy West-Evans: Well, Kirk, you talked about this.

Dr. Kirk Adams: Is not an act of charity. This is a strategic business lever that you can use to again, supercharge your bottom line.

Kathy West-Evans: Yeah.

Kathy West-Evans: And you talked about Walgreens and Randy Lewis, and we worked with them early on in Anderson. And you're absolutely right. More than 40% of that workforce are individuals with disabilities. Highest producing, lowest error rate, lowest turnover, highest safety rate. I mean, you could go on and on. And, you know, I think the key thing is it contributed to production. There was Randy, Joe Wendover, Deb Russell. You know, I could there's a whole host of great partners that have been connected with Walgreens, but their market share also went up, because if you think about in this country, one out of four people with a disability think about the individuals, but think about the families.

Kathy West-Evans: Yes.

Kathy West-Evans: And where do you want to do business? And you know that that business case particularly when you're you're serving and supporting family members, people are going to do business there. We choose in our family to do business with companies that support, you know, our population and our family member, whether we're traveling, grocery shopping, gas, whatever, we choose to support those companies.

Dr. Kirk Adams: So you have members of the national employment team in every state. So any employer in these great United States who wants to explore being more inclusive of people with disabilities can connect with the right resources in their state or states if they're if they're multiple. And you mentioned earlier, rather than reaching out to ten vocational rehabilitation agencies and ten states, a multi-state company can have one, one point of contact can, to help educate and build, build the strategy. And then the other thing I wanted to ask you about, which again needs to stop being a best kept secret is the talent acquisition portal of great resource. If you could talk to us about that.

Kathy West-Evans: Yes, yes. And I want to hit on some of the other services we provide as well.

Kathy West-Evans: Yes, yes.

Kathy West-Evans: But the the talent acquisition portal or tap, you see it's an easier acronym. Again, tap into talent, right? Yeah. When we started working with companies, the one question they had for us is where do we find the talent pool? Because we know in companies that there are a lot of people with disabilities already working there, but they haven't disclosed because they're afraid of how they would be seen by managers, coworkers, etc.. So you know, when we started seeing laws like the Ada in the Rehab Act, there's title five, which is section 503 for federal contractors. It was really about educating business. How do you help create a culture? How do you help create a pipeline where, you know, people with disabilities are coming into your workplace and create a culture within your workplace that supports them? So it was simple things like, you know, there was a lot of confusion with the Americans with Disabilities Act. What does this all mean? Well, one of the things that wasn't required, but that just made sense was just post notification, right? If you're a person with a disability and you're interviewing or working here and you have a need. Who do you ask? Right? Open up that dialogue and and help that person be successful to meet your needs. Well, you're supporting their needs. So the talent acquisition portal, what we found was we were looking at recruitment software and none of it was accessible.

Kathy West-Evans: So if we've got candidates who use Braille or, you know, large print or some other form of accessing information, you know, how do we, how do we build a portal that does that. And we ended up connecting with a disability managed nonprofit out of San Diego, disabled persons abled in capital letters. And they said, sure, let's build something together. So we brought in candidates, individuals with disabilities, we brought in business partners, we brought in a number of people and said, what do we need to do? And that's really how we grew the talent acquisition portal or Tap. And what we did was we put in a resume builder and businesses told us things like, well, you know, a lot of times people speak a second language, which could be a benefit, or they have a security clearance, which could be a benefit. Let us know. So we started building those pieces in. People can indicate their geographic preference. So if a business is looking for a candidate in a specific area they can search on that. Where is your availability? Where can you go to work? Maybe it's not even the state you're currently living in, but you're looking to relocate or would be open to relocate. So building in features like that and enabling the people who are coming onto the portal are invited by either a vocational rehab agency. We've partnered with the VA. So Veterans Readiness and Employment, their program. We've partnered with Social Security. So we have several employment networks. We've got 7500 staff that are referring candidates, and we have over 40,000 candidates on the portal.

Dr. Kirk Adams: So last number I heard was 28,000.

Kathy West-Evans: So yeah.

Dr. Kirk Adams: You're growing by leaps and bounds.

Kathy West-Evans: It's growing by leaps and bounds.

Kathy West-Evans: Yeah.

Dr. Kirk Adams: And 40,000 detailed resumes of people with disabilities who are eager to work and have the backing of the vocational rehabilitation system to help work, work with employers to make successful employment outcomes for those individuals.

Kathy West-Evans: Yes.

Kathy West-Evans: And the platform continues to grow. So as remote work started to become becoming more prevalent, we're able to, you know, put the features in where people can search for remote opportunities. And you know, so there's.

Kathy West-Evans: A lot of features.

Dr. Kirk Adams: It's yeah, if I'm if I'm an employer listening to this, how do I, how do I get access to those 40,000 customers.

Kathy West-Evans: Well, you can contact Kirk or I or you could go on to w.w.w. Org.

Dr. Kirk Adams: And do I become a member, do I register, do I pay a fee?

Kathy West-Evans: Yeah.

Dr. Kirk Adams: Employers access the resumes.

Kathy West-Evans: So for on the employer side, what you're going to be able to do is you'll, you'll be able to count the number of people who are applying for jobs. You'll you can use the platform to search. We host virtual events on the platform. Everyone coming in has voluntarily self disclosed that they're an individual with a disability. So if you're a federal contractor, you know that. But for a business reach out and connect with our partner at disabled persons. So either a micro Chris Corso, I'm going to call him out here and they will help you get set up. We looked at you know, the what we would need just to break even. We're both nonprofit organizations, so you can have an annual unlimited posting and a virtual career for for $7,500.

Kathy West-Evans: Wow.

Kathy West-Evans: So it's the least expensive tool on the market. Yeah. And and great talent. We've seen people have great opportunities and make great connections. And for individuals, they may not have ever known about those opportunities with a company. And for companies, you know, finding easy access to that talent pool and knowing that if they have supports, just ask. You know, I wanted to talk about, you know, when we're working with companies and and this brings us to mind you know, if a company has a question, we've gone out and done worksite assessments with companies. We'll look at, you know, how do you make a worksite more accessible? When we started working here in this state with T-Mobile. Kirk. That's a while ago. But when John Stanton was the CEO of T-Mobile, now he owns the Mariners. Go, Mariners.

Dr. Kirk Adams: Fellow Whitman College alumni.

Kathy West-Evans: There you go. There you go. So it's a small world, but, you know, one of the things that they looked at was you know, making phone packages more accessible. And how do we make our technology accessible so it doesn't leave people behind? So they were the first phone company that offered individuals who were deaf to have a, a text only package. You didn't have to buy voice. And, you know, it seemed logical because texting was an accommodation built for deaf people that's gone mainstream. So, you know, it's working with companies to look at those solutions for a workplace and finding that when you have find a solution for a workplace, it benefits everyone. Like if Randy probably shared with you the story at Walgreens, when they when you pick and pack in a warehouse, it's a quick process, right?

Kathy West-Evans: Right.

Kathy West-Evans: And they had little print up there for the name of the products. And one of the recommendations someone made was put a picture.

Kathy West-Evans: Yeah.

Kathy West-Evans: And guess what? It increased everyone's productivity. Right. It was easier to make that quick connection. So again it's it's how can we bring that expertise, whether it's assistive technology, a rehabilitation engineer, an OT or a PT, which we have on staff. How do we bring that that support to a company to really look at the accessibility and productivity of a workplace and how we can support that?

Kathy West-Evans: Right.

Dr. Kirk Adams: So I think every good employer wants to provide their employees with the tools and the techniques and the training they need to be successful and productive in their job. And depending on a person's impairment, whether it be visual, hearing, mobility, cognitive there are tools, special special tools, techniques and technologies specifically designed to help us be as productive and successful as we can be in the workplace. So that's what vocational rehabilitation rehabilitation to do is come in, look at your jobs, look at the worksite, make recommendations of tools, technologies, techniques, training that you can put in place so that your employees with disabilities can thrive and be successful, productive employees.

Kathy West-Evans: Right. And you talked about, in addition to the consultation and support, the ability to really get people into the right training, supporting internships. Maybe on the job training. We've done that. We've worked with companies and have done internships and help support people that have, you know, they're just hired directly out of those internships into companies. And again, it's it's looking at the match.

Kathy West-Evans: Yeah.

Dr. Kirk Adams: Well, Kathy, this time has flown by, as it always does when I get to visit with you. But want to let people know how to get in touch with you and the national employment team. So what's the best way for people to get in touch with you?

Kathy West-Evans: Well, we can give them our the email address. They can reach out to you. You know how to reach out to me, but Yeah, my email address is K West like north southeast.

Kathy West-Evans: Hyphen.

Kathy West-Evans: Evans Evans at CSR.

Kathy West-Evans: Org yes.

Dr. Kirk Adams: And I am Kirk Adams at Doctor Kirk Adams com. I'm also on LinkedIn. Every day Kirk Adams PhD on LinkedIn. And so please reach out to either Kathy or myself if you have any level of interest in understanding how you can supercharge your bottom line by being inclusive of people with disabilities in your workforce.

Kathy West-Evans: Yeah, we've got talent. Right, Kirk?

Kathy West-Evans: Absolutely.

Kathy West-Evans: And I'm on LinkedIn along with you.

Kathy West-Evans: So, you know.

Kathy West-Evans: If that's the easiest way. Let's get the talent.

Dr. Kirk Adams: Wonderful, wonderful. Thank you so much, Kathy. Looking forward to talking to you again very soon. And you enjoy the beautiful fall day here in sunny Seattle, Washington today.

Kathy West-Evans: Yeah.

Kathy West-Evans: Kirk, don't tell people it's sunny in Seattle.

Kathy West-Evans: Okay. It's raining. It's raining. Okay. All right. Take good care.

Kathy West-Evans: Thank you so much, Kirk. It's always great working with you. I appreciate your partnership.

Dr. Kirk Adams: Thanks. And we'll see you next month on my monthly live stream webinar, which is the last Thursday of every month at 11 a.m. Pacific time. Supercharge your bottom line disability inclusion.

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