Perspective

1
Perspective

• Employment and disability research
• Advocate lens/means testing
• Science

2
Lens

• History Programs, policies, employer, advocacy
• Rehabilitation Act
• Research experience and tendency to write to
  myself
• Disability
• Impatience
• Expectations for a generation
• I collect SS and I dont work
• Thusly a lot of Fred

3
The charge Share Your Recommendations on

• Nexus research to inform PPP through an
  interagency agenda
• ICDR actions to achieve an interagency agenda
• Strategies to increase relevancy, transfer and
  adoption of research findings
• Strategies to increase stakeholders collaboration
  through the agenda

4
Nexus Research

• Focuses on
• Intersection of supply and demand side issues
• Solutions for business and disability that are
  fundamental for workforce development and
  business development.
• Outputs may
• Yield evidence-driven innovations in practice,
  policy, and program
• Increase viability and competitiveness in
  American business and
• Increase participation and economic benefits for
  persons with disabilities.
• Mutual concerns to business and disability
  advocacy include
• Worker quality, diversity, retention,
• Economic development (businesses, jobs) in
  American communities,
• Earnings, health and retirement benefits,
• Wealth and asset accumulation,
• Profitability, savings
• Accommodations and technology, and
• Sustainability of careers and work in local
  communities
• Tax reduction, improved government.

5
Nexus Research

• Is about intersection of interests, concerns,
  needs
• Relationship building is a process
• Addresses common social, personal, community,
  employer concerns and needs as criteria

6
Four themes are relevant

• Business and employment development in the 21st
  Century drivers
• Disability workforce experiences and needs
• Health of the American workforce
• Government policies and practices Role and effect

7
We have a problem

• If we want to improve the employment of people
  with disabilities
• What are we willing to do?
• What can we do through a common agenda?
• What are the barriers (or opportunities)?
• What strategic actions do we enact?

8
If we want to improve the employment of people
with disabilities

• What does the outcome look like
• What are our assumptions about possibility
• Size/scope of the question
• People lt-gt Employment Amorphism
• We do research on things that are important to or
  will contribute to an end
• Get heads around what is important
• Means test/ROI filters to set priorities

9
My ROI filters

• Sam, Rain, Rebecca/Charlie
• Caribou, Philips, Dairyland Coop, City/county
  government
• Design, fidelity, level of proof, measurement
• Value added Potential solution for

10
Research is more than what we are doing today

• Practices
• more than SE, 21, Ticket
• trends driven, which employers, one-by-one, and
  for whom
• Policy Implementation, effectiveness
• Programs Implementation, benefits/value added
• Science Methods, models, discovery,
  replication, why NOT

11
Interventions/Best Practices Research Plus

• Strategies derived from present
• Sensitivity to cultures, global
• Tested under real conditions
• Populations meaningful
• Standard of evidence
• Applicable criteria
• Conditions under which dynamic fidelity

12
Other ideas and observations I picked up

• Problems we are addressing are global and are
  being addressed globally
• Workforces have global counterparts
• Americas leadership in solving
  disability/employment problems
• Getting different (generations, cultures,
  disabilities) to work together
• Sometimes our assumptions get in the way work is
  for all
• No common definitions its OK
• Scoring compliance, missing impact
• KISS size the problem with the audience
• With us, not about us Business, consumers,
  providers
• Complexity of the research question will mask the
  importance of the problem and information that is
  actually needed
• Design research to include pwd and pw/od
• Focus on value added
• Look to the suggestions of those emeriti guys
  (Cobb)
• Fidelity assessment its dynamic
• Attitude change Selling a defective product
• Stronger criteria Careers vs jobs
• An agenda with passion
• Demonstrate feasible, not prove
• Grants to states

13
Barriers (and opportunities)

• Definitions, criteria
• Missions, values, trust
• Control, timeliness, guarantee
• History, incumbency, present body of evidence
• Collaboration, relationships
• Stakeholder inclusion
• Communications, dissemination, applications

14
Making ICDR agenda work

• Research policy
• Fragmented
• Too little, too late, too big
• Incentives wrongly placed
• Research expectations
• Agency driven
• Interagency
• Infrastructure
• Disability and employment

15
Making ICDR agenda work

• Agenda implementation
• White House endorsed/demanded
• Defined, targeted, solutions oriented
• Piloted and refined
• Field driven, stakeholder designed
• Create collaboration opportunities
• Business-government-academia exchanges/partnership
  s
• Science (research) within
• Trust in the work place Play nice
• Funding and incentives
• National
• State/community
• Employer/private sector laboratories
• Government as laboratory

16
Thanks