Transcript

Interviewer: There are a number of strategies for assisting an individual in achieving competitive employment. Now, some of those terms are supported employment, self-employment, job restructuring, job carving, person-centered planning, and I'm sure there are many more that I haven't mentioned. Do you see the term customized employment as another strategy or is it a broader term that includes these other things that I've just mentioned?

Michael Callahan: Very, very important question. I think the first way that I will try to answer it is: I don't see it as another strategy. The interesting thing is, I'm not sure if it's a broader term or a sub-term. And, I'm not sure even if it matters. But, I think what does matter in terms of this question is that customized employment is completely compatible and either resides within or above supported employment, self-employment, job restructuring, etc.

Meaning that within, let's say the broadest of these terms would be supported employment. Within supported employment, to me, the basic concept is the support that we offer. We can do that in any number of ways. But, the traditional supports that were tethered to buildings are unhitched and allowed to follow the individual as needed in the community.

And obviously with that, a person who has a job customized might need supported employment. It might also be possible, I think, to customize a job for an individual with a disability or anyone else for that matter, who might not need the supports of supported employment. So, in that sense, customized employment would be a broader term. But, within supported employment we have many perspectives, and there might be individuals who need supported employment, who might not need a customized job. So in that sense the term exists within supported employment.

I think it's important, from my perspective, not to set up a distinction between customized employment and supported employment that puts us at odds. We just have to embrace the concept whether it is an overall concept or concept embedded within the defining issue of supported employment and use it when an individual wants or needs the relationship with an employer to be customized from the arbitrary. And, that's the main issue for me. So maybe that will help the audience get a perspective. And we're really not saying, well there has been supported employment and now there's this new thing and you need to decide. In fact, it is a concept completely compatible with all of these issues.

Interviewer: Well that makes it a lot clearer. I think what I've been trying to do is say, "here's supported employment and here's customized employment." But as you've just explained it, it really is a concept that can merge in and out of each other.

Michael Callahan: That's exactly what I'm thinking. And the good news here is, going back to Secretary Chao's comments that she made in her speech, she linked the issues of customization with all of us. So, wouldn't it be nice, in the area of supported employment, to have a concept that is actually rooted in the employment relationship of all workers and not just for people with disabilities?

Now, it's accurate to say that the Department of Labor's initiatives that I referred to earlier, are focused on people with disabilities using customized strategies within One-Stop Career Centers to welcome people with disabilities. I actually hope that the Department of Labor will broaden that concept to anyone who might need [customized employment], say a welfare mom with a complex life or a woman returning from raising kids to the job market who wants to go to work but doesn't necessarily want to fit into a regular job description but would like to have something customized. Or, a person getting a little older in life and wanting to continue to work and not just on a part-time job but really customizing their skills to meet some needs of an employer. Any of us could use this concept, so in that sense, it's nice to have something that supported employment can be totally compatible with and yet not necessarily have to be totally defined by either. So, I think if we can keep it from being an “either-or” but an inclusive term, we can all embrace it, use it when it's necessary and probably help define it, because this is still an emerging term in terms our understanding of it in the use of employment.