Carley’s Story of Walmart
by Ellen Condon

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 IEP team, several of the team members balked thinking this was not possible, realistic, or feasible at all. Although to her family, who had always set high expectations for her and supported her to be as independent as possible at home, 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. National statistics are showing us that people with cerebral palsy and ongoing support needs are still not gaining access to employment. If Carley’s team could support her to gain real paid work experience prior to graduation her chances to be employed after she graduated would really 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 1:1 support person with her, from the time she exited the school bus upon arriving at school to the time she got on the bus to go home at the end of the day. Her support person performed various therapy routines, supported her with all of her personal care, 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 nondisabled 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 an employer 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 up get to know what Carley’s interests, skills, support needs and strategies were for accomplishing activities during her day.

The team began discovering information about Carley by spending time with her, observing and letting her show us what she could do before we “helped”. (We included people who knew her well, for example, her mom, who guided us with her 18 years of experience implementing strategies to enable Carley to participate and do for herself.) We encouraged school staff to “back off” and see what Carley could do on her own.

Supporting Students to Participate Fully
The biggest eye opener for her teacher was the challenge of supporting her to come in from the bus and get to her classroom by herself in the morning. He had always assumed that she needed a 1:1 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 like the outside door to the school.

Another student lets her in the door to the school and with minimal training she learned how to operate the elevator and what to do if it got stuck. She could maneuver the elevator door and her wheelchair without any assistance. This staff and student learning experience set the tone for the school staff to begin supporting other students to be as independent and competent as possible. The paraprofessionals and teachers began supporting and teaching the students to perform activities as independently as possible rather than always providing a 1:1 aide which created dependence of students 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 2 different community-based work experiences over the past 2 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 very evident. She strived to be independent on each job and is highly motivated by earning a pay check 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 Carley is great at showing people how to get places, she knows where things are and she has a great memory. She is 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 using the computer or e-mails and when she got home from school she was on the phone using her new Delta Talker. Through several work experiences we learned that Carley is highly motivated to do things independently, takes her job seriously, has a strong work ethic, and loves to please her supervisor.

As we gathered more information about Carley, the picture of the ideal employment situation emerged. She needed an accessible environment, roomy enough for her to get around in her chair and with job tasks and materials that she could physically maneuver. She did best with an established routine and 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 or 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 Wal-Mart as a work environment which matched Carley’s ideal characteristics of a job environment and job tasks.

The Marketing Call
The job development team consisted of her teacher, her paraprofessional and her mom. When they met with the manager of Wal-Mart they had a clear vision of what Carley could contribute to his store. They had actually listed over 70 items, categorized by department, as examples of items they knew she could return for the store. They described her skills and abilities as:

" She has eyes like a hawk. She will find things that are out of place and return them to their correct location. She is meticulous. She won’t return an item to the shelf where it doesn’t belong. And, if she doesn’t know where something goes or needs help she will seek someone out and ask them. She is also very capable of directing people as to how to help her.” (A skill her mom had worked on with her to develop at home to direct her personal care attendants).

Before meeting with the Walmart Manager, Don, Annie and Corinne assembled a list of contributions that they knew Carley could make to Walmart if hired on as an employee.

• 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 consistently at work.
• She has a great smile and is well known in the community. People who shop at Wal-Mart will 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 replace 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 replacing the item in the wrong spot.

The manager asked about Carley’s ability to communicate with customers and Annie assured him that her Delta Talker is programmed with “Wal Mart 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 Annie and her mom were able to explain that she uses her right hand to drive her power chair, use her Delta Talker and could use it to put items away on the shelf. Her mom is really gifted at explaining the exact dimensions of items, weight limitations and sizes that Carley can physically lift.

Carley was hired to stock the end-cap displays (the shelves on the end of each aisle that are used to highlight particular products for sale), 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 recently completed her 90 day probationary period and moved into permanent employee status. She works at the store 3 hours each day and then proceeds on to school. As of next week her job coach will have faded from the job site. Carley plans to continue her employment at Wal-Mart after graduation this June and she would like to increase her hours. This summer her sister and Mom served as her Job Coaches, financed 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 will also be eligible for a PASS plan if her wages begin reducing her SSI check.

As a student, Carley can earn up to $5,320 a year and still keep receiving her full 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 $197.00/month.

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