Asians with disabilities outreach
It has been known for years that many Asian Americans with disabilities (AAWDs) living in Chicago and surrounding areas are qualified and motivated to work but find it difficult to obtain employment at all. For most of these AAWDs, finding meaningful employment may seem impossible. A major reason for this disconnect is a lack of awareness by vocational rehabilitation (VR) and community service providers of the needs of AAWDs and how to reach out to them (Hasnain & Leung, 2010).
Asians with Disabilities Outreach Project Think-Tank (ADOPT) was designed with two main goals: 1) to help VR agencies increase their capacity to assist Chicago-based AAWDs gain access to the state VR system; and 2) to help VR agencies improve the quality of their services, to AAWDs and others, through culturally and linguistically appropriate outreach. With sustained, innovative efforts, the ADOPT team and its partners have been able to introduce a new and effective model of service delivery that has successfully increased provider capacity. Since ADOPT launched in 2010, this model has been tested, refined, and expanded on behalf of other minority groups, both locally and statewide.
ADOPT is funded by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009. The project is a collaboration between the Center for Capacity Building on Minorities with Disabilities Research at the University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC), the Division of Rehabilitation Services (DRS) of the Illinois Human Services Department (DHS), and many local agencies, businesses and advocacy groups that serve immigrants and refugees. These entities bring cooperation, focus, and determination to the many tasks involved in helping ADOPT achieve its mission.
Testimonial Heading link
“I think what [ADOPT’s work] did to our community is normalize what we talk about on disability.”
| Cambodian Association of Illinois
History Heading link
In January 2010, UIC received four years of capacity-building funding (2010-2012 and 2013-2015) to help underserved Asian immigrants and refugees with disabilities in Illinois to access culturally and linguistically relevant supports that would aid them in finding employment. Since then, the project has worked closely with the state VR system, which has a strong reputation for assisting people with disabilities and their families (AAWDs and others) in making informed choices about employment, education and independent living. The project remains housed at UIC, which also hosts the renowned Institute on Disability and Human Development—Illinois’ only federally designated University Center for Excellence in Developmental Disabilities Education, Research and Service.
ADOPT’s three continuing efforts include:
- Developing outreach strategies and tools that VR agencies and community-based organizations can use to help AAWDs and other immigrant and refugee job-seekers with disabilities find employment
- Conducting research through focus groups, studies and, qualitative and quantitative data analysis.
- Working with three ongoing task forces on high-priority, community-identified needs.
Success stories Heading link
There are many, many success stories over the course of ADOPT’s history. Below we highlight two.
A life changing connection
For 18 years, a Bhutanese woman with a significant hearing impairment, along with her family, lived in a refugee camp in Nepal. In August 2009, she and her brothers resettled in Chicago. When ADOPT connected with her, we discovered that she was unaware not only of DRS (where she was legally entitled to obtain assistance) but also of possible employment opportunities.
Through ADOPT, she was connected to a VR office and a counselor who worked with her and her family. As a result, she had a job training evaluation at a major hotel, explored transportation options with the help of an Asian-oriented job placement agency, and was able to accept employment.
This woman benefited greatly from being connected to DRS, an agency she and her brothers were not aware of despite their connections to other services and supports. Since the founding of ADOPT, DRS providers have become more aware of and have begun to work more closely with Asian-oriented associations and associations whose missions include serving Asian people, such as the National Asian Deaf Congress, World Federation of the Deaf and the Deaf Asian American Association of Chicago.
Employment for Michelle
Two days before graduating from the University of Arizona, Michelle Lee was in a car accident that fractured her C5 vertebra, leaving her with no sensory or motor functions in her legs and little in her arms. She became frustrated by her treatment at a Tucson hospital, where she was given no hope of recovery.
Michelle eventually came to the Rehabilitation Institute of Chicago (RIC) and was admitted for three months. During acute care, she started with the basics of rolling out of bed and into her wheelchair. As she progressed, she found her passion in art therapy: acrylic painting on canvas. Even though she had not believed that she would be able to engage in artistic endeavors after her injury, she incorporated various painting techniques into a style of her own.
RIC’s VR facilitated an interview for Michelle at Aon, an insurance company that hired her as a treasury analyst and provided her with essential voice-recognition software. Because of her new, secure employment, Michelle was able to consider many other educational possibilities, including law, business and fine art.