Skylor Pond is one of three associates who came to the CPD through business partnerships with Deseret Industries.

Business partnerships prepare people with disabilities for careers

In the hunt for a good job in a bad economy, work experience really helps.

That is why the Center for Persons with Disabilities partners with Deseret Industries to offer work experience to associates looking to beef up their resumes. The DI pays wages and taxes; the CPD offers space, supervision and jobs for the doing.

In addition to providing thrift stores, the DI trains people who may struggle to get or keep a job. The associates who are chosen for a business partnership have first met standards showing they are ready to make the transition to the working world. Most have some issue--adjusting to a new culture, for example--that might make finding a job difficult, said Danny Brock, manager of business partnerships at Deseret Industries in Salt Lake City.

Those associates are paired with jobs that they want to do. In the CPD's case, the partnership started when CPD Director Bryce Fifield contacted Deseret Industries officials in both Logan and Salt Lake City.

Jenae Butler of the Logan DI is glad he did. The center was a good fit for some of Logan's associates, she said. "We knew that they could prove their abilities at the CPD."

Thanks to the partnership, the CPD has gained many articles for its website, conscientiously-welded devices in its Assistive Technology Lab and a pleasant voice to greet people telephoning the CPD. All three of the associates with business partnerships at the center are people with disabilities.

CPD Director Fifield said the program helps the center meet its goal of helping people with disabilities become independent. Often they face three big issues: housing, transportation and employment. "If people have a good, solid employment situation, those other two issues can be addressed easier," he said.

The program that brought the three associates to the CPD is designed to not only get them a job; it also strives to put them in jobs they want.

"One of my goals is to hone my writing skills so when I go out into the real world after college, that can be a part of my resume," said Skylor Pond, a senior at Utah State University who currently writes articles on disability issues for the CPD website. "Here I am, trying to improve my writing skills, to hone my craft so I can write that book someday."

Nicholas Thompson wants welding experience; enough of it that he can get a job in a shop. His work experience at the CPD's Assistive Technology Lab follows training he received at Bridgerland Applied Technology College.

Amanda Kropf mans the CPD's reception desk two days a week. "It's been a really good experience," she said. "It's nice to come into more of a business-related job and see how things are run." Her long-term goal is to finish her education, and her work helps by giving her practice on the computer.

In addition to the CPD, several businesses in Cache County are also participating in the DI's business partnership program.

Interpreter Satenik Sargsyan and Russian visitor Vera Khotinets pause between translating and speaking. Together, they spoke to attendees during a reception for the five visiting researchers from Udmurtia State University and other dignitaries from the Open World program.

CPD goes global

This fall, the Center for Persons with Disabilities' reach extended beyond national boundaries.

Five scholars from Russia swapped ideas with researchers at the Center for Persons with Disabilities in October. An Early Intervention Research Institute researcher is working with universities in Jordan to help strengthen the training of early childhood education teachers in that country. WebAIM's web accessibility evaluation tool will soon be translated into Spanish. And a new interdisciplinary training project will move the CPD farther into international territory.

The Russian delegates came to the Utah State University campus through the Open World program, which fosters collaboration between leaders in the US and Eurasia. Their visit continued a collaboration that began in 2006 between Udmutia State University in Siberia and researchers from EIRI and the Family, Consumer and Human Development department.

EIRI researcher Vonda Jump Norman will go to Jordan to work with university educators at the University of Jordan and the University of Petra.

WebAIM has received funding from the CPD to make its web accessibility evaluation tool (WAVE) available to people who speak Spanish. Preliminary versions will be available this spring, and the final Spanish-language version of WAVE will be released no later than June 2009.

The CPD's interdisciplinary training project to increase knowledge, collaboration and proposals in the Middle East, Asia and South America will broaden the center's understanding of other cultures. It will also establish relationships with other organizations, seek international contracts and train USU business students on disability issues.

Cultural differences sometimes stand out in the way societies approach people with disabilities. Both Udmurtia State University General Psychology Department Head Vera Khotinets and EIRI researcher Vonda Jump Norman said American culture tends to put emphasis on the individual. Russia's and Jordan's focus is more on the group.

Viewing issues from another culture's perspective may offer researchers and educators a fresh look into their own practices. "All of this in the end will help children in both countries," said USU college of education Dean Carol Strong during a reception for the Russian delegates who visited Utah State last month. "I hope this is the beginning of a long friendship."