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Aaron Kaufman currently serves as the Senior Legislative Associate at the Jewish Federations of North America. In this final podcast episode celebrating National Disability Employment Awareness Month (NDEAM), Aaron shares his employment journey, including how the Vocational Rehabilitation (VR) program played a positive role as he worked toward his employment outcome. Aaron offers tips to people with disabilities about everything from navigating the VR system to things to avoid doing during job interviews.
Transcript
Amy Scherer:
Aaron. Thank you so much. Let’s just start, I guess, with what your current job is and what your duties are as part of that job.
Aaron Kaufman:
I’m the senior legislative associate for disability policy at the Jewish Federations of North America. And in that job, I am responsible for all of our disability policy priorities. And so I spend a lot of time on the Hill executing our desires, working on things like protecting Medicaid, protecting the Americans With Disabilities Act, fighting for an extension of the Money Follows the Person program, working on issues related to competitive integrated employment. But then there is another fun side to my job, and that is that I work with our federations, which are sort of like our affiliates. There are 146 federations, and JFNA’s the umbrella organization of all of them. And so I work with our clients on … Working with them on giving and giving advice on how to be more welcoming and inclusive to people with disabilities at their federations and at their beneficiary agencies, whether it’s a JCC or a Jewish family service agency. And I also provide technical assistance to my colleagues within JFNA to make sure that all of our events are truly inclusive for people with disabilities.
Amy Scherer:
Fantastic. That sounds like a job that will keep you busy. Is that a full-time position? I’m assuming?
Aaron Kaufman:
Yes. I would say it’s a six-day a week job. To get everything done right, you have to work some Sundays.
Amy Scherer:
Yes. And then my other question related to that is how many years have you been in that position?
Aaron Kaufman:
It’ll be five years in January. And prior to that I was a lobbyist for the Arc of Maryland, lobbying the Maryland legislature on behalf of the 99,000 Marylanders with developmental disabilities. So I’ve been a lobbyist for seven years.
Amy Scherer:
Fantastic. So from what I know about you Aaron, I believe that you had some involvement with the vocational rehabilitation system as a VR client. And I just wanted to touch on that to see what your experience was like with them, and what type of services that they provided to you. Because a lot of times individuals go into VR to get services, but they don’t necessarily know what their job goal is and what kind of career they want to pursue. And so sometimes there’s a lot of time spent on identifying the job goal. And I was just wondering what your experience was. Did you go into VR knowing what you were looking for, or did you participate in the assessment process to try to figure that out?
Aaron Kaufman:
Well, I started earlier than what I think you’re talking about, because my transition support teacher, which is a position in the Montgomery County public schools brought me to the DORS office, because I live in Maryland and that’s what VR is called, Department of Rehabilitation Services, when I was 16 as part of the transition process. So my DORS counselor participated in my exit meeting and then she helped me get a lot of assistive technology for college, and orientation and mobility training, and got a PT and OT to come out to my colleges and assess and assist me. She also … In Maryland there’s an assistive technology center where you get to try out a bunch of devices. So she made a referral to that center and they helped, I think, bought me a laptop, and a Victor reader and other things.
Aaron Kaufman:
So, by the time that it was time to get a job, my case was closed. But that it was fine because I knew exactly what I wanted to do. But I want to be very clear that I would not have gotten through higher education without my DORS counselor and all the things that she provided for me. They did get a benefit though, financially. Because when I did get my first full-time job, I was on SSI at the time and I assigned my ticket to work to them. And as it was back then, as I understand it, if I stayed in that job for at least 10 months, they got a lot of the money back. So, I was glad to be able to do that for them after all that they had done for me.
Amy Scherer:
I’m really glad to hear that your counselor was involved from the beginning while you were still in high school, through the transition period. Again, that’s how the law is written and that is how the process should occur. But we do often hear that a lot of times VR is reluctant to get involved until the person is actually on their way to college or graduated from high school.
Aaron Kaufman:
I was very fortunate to go to the Montgomery County Public Schools, which is one of the school systems in the country. So some of my colleagues, and now that I’m a disability advocate, tease me saying that I got spoiled by going to public schools in rich Montgomery County, and that’s not the typical experience.
Amy Scherer:
Well, it’s still good to hear that it was positive. And it sounds like you had support throughout the college experience. And then was VR also involved in helping you obtain your first job upon graduation?
Aaron Kaufman:
No, I got that on my own based on my own credentials and networking.
Amy Scherer:
Okay. So was your case closed at that point when you graduated from college, or were they still providing any type of support services once you were working in the community?
Aaron Kaufman:
No, they did not provide any support services at that time.
Amy Scherer:
Are there any other advice that you would give to people in terms of trying to successfully navigate the VR system?
Aaron Kaufman:
Well, I would say the DORS counselors or VR counselors are not created equal. I was a special education teacher for students in a job training program called Project Search. And this will be a podcast, so I’ll be careful, but some of the counselors that my student had … Students had have, rather, were outstanding and just really great to work with. And some of them didn’t have their heart into it and were really pushing paper and didn’t seem committed to their client at all. And you had to nag them to get involved. So what I would say is, if you’re not happy with your counselor, don’t settle for mediocrity. Has to be given another counselor.
Amy Scherer:
A great piece of advice, and definitely something that’s good to remind the people that are listening because people sometimes do forget that is an option to request another counselor. You’re not necessarily just limited to the one that you start with. So I think that’s a great piece of advice.
Amy Scherer:
So I believe you also mentioned that you worked with VR on a professional basis as well. So do you want to talk a little bit about that experience?
Aaron Kaufman:
Yes. I worked in … You’ve probably heard of Project Search. It’s a job training program for people with intellectual and developmental disabilities. And I worked with 12 individuals that had a variety of disabilities, such as intellectual disabilities, Williams Syndrome, down syndrome, autism, et cetera. And each of the people had a DORS counselor because DORS provided a lot of the funding for my students, what we called interns, to participate in the programs. And so we would have a meeting about the intern every three months, and the DORS counselor would go to the meetings and a lot of instances, and in other instances, they would purchase work place equipment for people that needed it. For example, one of my student interns, his job was … He needed hard work boots for the physical labor that he was doing. It was required. And so DORS bought him some work boots, for example. Each of the students had iPod minis and I believe DORS paid for those as well.
Amy Scherer:
Was it weird at all going from the perspective of a VR client to then working with the VR professionals?
Aaron Kaufman:
No, it was a neat transition. And to be honest, maybe they could tell, but I didn’t share with the VR counselors that were working with my students, that I was a DORS client in the past. But I also felt that that situation, having been a DORS client, was actually beneficial for my interns.
Amy Scherer:
That is a great thing, and I’m sure it was very helpful to your students.
Aaron Kaufman:
Yes.
Amy Scherer:
More generally, as we wrap this up, as someone who has successfully obtained competitive integrated employment and has been working in a professional position for over five years, do you have any advice to people with disabilities in general, in terms of how to make sure that you are successful on the job and get any accommodations that you might need?
Aaron Kaufman:
Yes. Two things. I did not have a … My first job, I did not really have that great of an experience. Because the job played straight into my weaknesses. So after just a year doing what I was doing, I quit. When people are unhappy, it takes two to tango, but I really thought hard about how I was just getting out of college and I was just so eager to have a job because everyone was asking me, and I took the first job I was offered. And the fact is, it was not a good move because what my employer needed didn’t match my strengths. And so it was a difficult year for both parties, and I didn’t get fired or anything, I just chose to leave. So we, as people with disabilities, Amy, or told when we are little, oh we can do anything. We can do anything, it’s just a little harder. But the fact is we must be honest with ourselves about does this particular job play to my strengths? And if not, it probably isn’t right for me. Particularly with me with my learning disabilities.
Aaron Kaufman:
Because here’s the damage you do. Your self-esteem is shot, and then the employer’s like, “Well, I had such a bad experience with Aaron. I’m not going to hire somebody with a disability again.” And there’s such stigma about hiring people with disabilities generally. So you really have to be honest with yourself about really, “Am I going to be good at this?”
Aaron Kaufman:
The other piece of advice that I would give is to find out from people that already work there whether or not an employer is truly inclusive. Because everybody in 2020 says nice rhetoric about wanting a diverse workforce, including people with disabilities, but they don’t always mean it or put in the work to make you successful, because let’s be frank Amy, because we’re both disabled, it does in many instances take more time to supervise somebody with a disability, or at least an open mind. And you want to see if that’s the culture of the organization. I think a lot of people make mistakes about … Well, they go into an interview. “Well, I have this disability, I have this disability and I need this accommodation and I need that accommodation, and I need this one.” Don’t do that until you’re offered the job, because that scares employers if you go into an interview and say, “I need six accommodations.” Talk about your strengths during an interview, not your needs. And what value you’d bring to the employer.
Amy Scherer:
Excellent points, excellent points. And I think things that hopefully people can take and use in their current situation as they’re meeting with future employers. So I really appreciate your time and your expertise and advice. Hope you have a great afternoon.
Aaron Kaufman:
I hope you do too. And thanks to NDRN. You’re true giants in the disability field.
Amy Scherer:
Thanks a lot.
Aaron Kaufman:
Bye-bye.
Amy Scherer:
Bye.
Curt Decker:
Hello. I’m Curt Decker, Executive Director of NDRN. And thank you for celebrating National Disability Employment Awareness Month with us and our members. We hope you enjoy these podcasts, and we look forward to talking with you more in the future about the important issues impacting the lives of people with disabilities.
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