Carley’s Story of Walmart

By Ellen Condon, Project Director at The Rural Institute

Employment as a Transition Goal

When the concept of Carley working for pay in the community and eventually without a job coach was first introduced to her Individual Education Plan (IEP) team, several members of the team balked, thinking this was not possible, realistic, or feasible at all. Her family had always set high expectations for her and supported her to be as independent as possible at home, and employment seemed like the next logical step in her preparation for transition from school to adulthood. At this time, Carley was 16 and had two more years of high school. She lived in a small town of about 10,000 people in western Montana. National statistics indicate that people with cerebral palsy and ongoing support needs are still not gaining access to employment. If Carely’s team could support her to gain a real paid work experience prior to graduation, her chances to be employed after she graduated would improve.

The impact of Carley’s disability can distract you from thinking in terms of what she could bring to an employer and a job. It is easy to focus on what she can’t physically do and all the daily activities with which she needs support and will always need support. At school she had always had a one-to-one support person with her, from the time she arrived on the school bus in the morning until she got on the bus to go home at the end of the day. Her support person performed various therapy routines, provided all of her personal care needs, fixed her meals, assisted her to eat, and basically directed her day, much of which was spent in a classroom with several other students with significant support needs. There wasn’t an expectation for her to be as independent as possible or to participate in events and classes with non-disabled peers, much less become an employed adult and tax payer upon graduation from high school.

Before we could develop a job for Carley, we needed to discover what her interests, skills, and actual support needs were so that we could confidently approach employers and market Carley to them. At first we didn’t have a vision of what she could bring to an employer or what the ideal job tasks or work environments for Carley looked like. This made job development impossible. At age 16 she hadn’t had any work experience or preparation.

We needed to start with a Discovery process, which would help us get to know what Carley’s interests, skills, support needs, and strategies were for accomplishing activities during her day. The team began by spending time with Carley, observing, letting her show us what she could do before we “helped.” We included people on her team who knew her well. Her mom guided us with her years of experience implementing strategies to enable Carley to participate and do for herself. We encouraged school staff to see what Carley could do on her own.

Supporting Students to Participate Fully

The biggest eye opener for her teacher was learning what support Carley needed to come in from the bus and get to her classroom by herself in the morning. He had always assumed that she needed a one-to-one support person to get in the door and take the elevator to the second floor. As he began to analyze what he was providing for support and why, Carley basically demonstrated that she didn’t need this level of assistance. A paid support person didn’t always need to be with her. Steps she couldn’t physically perform could be done in a different manner or with an adaptation. Steps she didn’t know how to perform she could be taught and other students were naturally available and could eliminate some of the barriers for her, such as the outside door. Another student opened the door to the school. With minimal training she learned how to operate the elevator, what to do if it got stuck, and how to maneuver the elevator door and her wheelchair. Rethinking Carley’s support needs in this situation set the tone for the school staff to begin helping her to be as independent and competent as possible. The para-professionals and teachers began supporting and teaching other students to perform activities as independently as possible, too, rather than always providing support and fostering dependence on paid staff. The students began expecting to do things more independently and began offering their own ideas of supports or adaptations they might need.

Carley had participated in two different community-based work experiences over two years and a variety of in-school jobs. As Carley was given the opportunity to show us what her interests and capabilities were, her strong work ethic became evident. She strived to be independent on each job and was highly motivated to earn her pay checks, which she is saving to pay for a wheelchair accessible van and items for her own home after she graduates from high school.

We discovered that Carely was great at showing people how to get places; she knew where things were and she had a great memory. She was a very social young woman. When we went out in the community with her, it appeared that she knew half of the town. At school she wrote notes to friends or emails using the computer, and when she got home she was on the phone using her new Delta Talker. Through several work experiences, we learned that Carley was highly motivated to do things independently, took her job seriously, had a strong work ethic, and loved to please her supervisor.

As we gathered more information about Carley, the picture of the ideal employment situation emerged. She needed an accessible environment, with enough room for her to get around in her wheelchair, and with job tasks and materials that she could physically maneuver. She did best with an established routine. She needed support initially with new tasks to identify or create adaptations when she couldn’t physically perform a portion of the task as anyone else would. She could deliver items, give directions, assist customers to find things, perform data entry on the computer, identify things that are out of place, and return them to the appropriate location. The IEP team identified Walmart as a work environment that matched Carley’s ideal characteristics of a job environment and job tasks.

The Marketing Call

The job development team consisted of her teacher, her para-professional, and her mom. When they met with the manager of Walmart, they had a clear vision of what Carley could contribute to his store. They had actually listed over 70 items, categorized by department, they knew she could re-shelve in the store. Before meeting with the Walmart manager, the team assembled a list of contributions that they knew Carley could make to Walmart as an employee. They described her skills and abilities as:

• Carley wants to work. She is looking for long-term employment where she can be employed now and remain employed after graduation.
• Carley is a dedicated worker. She will be reliable and consistent at work.
• She has a great smile and is well known in the community. People who shop at WalMart look for her.
• Carley has a good knowledge of where things are in the store.
• She has “eyes like a hawk.” She sees things on the shelves that have been abandoned and misplaced and is able to re-shelve them in their appropriate locations.
• Carley has a great memory for instructions and where items are located.
• Carley is resourceful. When she has a question or a need she finds a way for someone to help her.
• She is meticulous. If she doesn’t know where an item goes she will find the manager of the department and ask for help rather than putting the item in the wrong spot.

The manager asked about Carley’s ability to communicate with customers and was assured that her Delta Talker is programmed with “Walmart words and vocabulary.” She can ask for help from department managers and greet and converse with customers. (Part of her ongoing support plan is to continuously identify new vocabulary she needs on the job and program it into her computer). The manager also wanted to know how she would handle items and her team was able to explain that she uses her right hand to drive her power chair, use her Delta Talker, and to put items away on the shelf. Her mom explained the exact dimensions of items, weight limitations, and sizes that Carley can physically lift.

Carley was hired to stock the end cap displays and the check-out candy and the clip strips located in various departments throughout the store. She continues to do returns for Customer Services as needed. She completed her 90-day probationary period and moved into permanent employee status. She works at the store three hours each day and then proceeds on to school. Her job coach will have faded from the job site soon. Carley plans to continue her employment at Walmart after graduation and she would like to increase her hours. During the summer her sister and mom served as her job coaches and were paid by Tribal Vocational Rehabilitation.

She is on the waiting list for local Developmental Disabilities employment services, but in case she remains on the waiting list for services, she could pay for employment supports with a Social Security Plan for Achieving Self Support (PASS plan). As a student, Carley can earn up to $5,410 a year and still keep receiving her full Supplemental Security Income (SSI) check. Carley only receives SSI. When she graduates, her SSI check will be reduced by $1 for every $2 she earns over $85/month, or she could shelter these wages in a PASS plan. If she is working 20 hours a week at $5.15 an hour she could shelter over $160/month, and use that money to pay for employment supports.

Contact Information

Production of this article was funded through the Work Incentives and Alternative Resource Development for Student Employment project at The Rural Institute, funded through the U.S. Department of Education, Office of Special Education and Rehabilitation Services.

Ellen Condon, Project Director
(406) 243-5927
condon@selway.umt.edu

The Rural Institute
52 Corbin Hall
The University of Montana
Missoula, MT 59812
(406) 243-4730 Fax