Archive for the ‘History’ Category

With the coming of World War II, the fight for jobs among people with disabilities began to fade, and people formerly considered “unemployable” found themselves in demand. In June of 1942, Crippled Child Magazine published an article on “The Physically Handicapped on the Industrial Warfront.” The article begins by pointing out that sixteen workers were needed to produce equipment and supplies for a single soldier, and that because of this fact there were labor shortages in industries that were vital. Physically disabled people made up almost a third of America’s unemployed at the time, and many of them became workers during the war effort. It is clear that efforts were made to “enlist” people with disabilities into the labor force to ease the lack of workers.

Out of every ten handicapped men and women registered with the Placement Bureau of the Society for Crippled Children in Cleveland, Ohio, eight were helped to find work in industry. The article points out how a realistic approach to unemployment due to disability can place disabled workers, and find the community resources needed to support the disabled worker. In 1940 in the city of Cleveland, a placement program was created to serve disabled men and women; a program that was meant to be a demonstration project.

The program was designed to find work for, and act as a go-between, employers and disabled job seekers. Resources were limited; though, and registration was reduced to people with a “serious” disability. The program worked intensely with people to show industry that selectively hired disabled people were productive. The program wanted to convince employers in the area that the pre-employment physical exam that many times disqualified people with even minor disabilities could be used to guide the use of people with disabilities on the job.

Efforts were made to decrease the number of obstacles confronting a handicapped worker. The number one problem the program encountered was lack of valid work experience, which was usually the first thing looked at for hiring a new employee. Disabled men and women in their twenties were very often unable to find a job during the Depression years, so they had no work experience. There were older workers, a great number of whom had been unemployed for up to ten years, and workers who had lost jobs because of sickness or injury that kept them from going back to the jobs they had been doing previously. Handicapped workers often needed a physical examination just to gain an understanding of their general health and work limitations. Attempts were made to distinguish between people in good health and a permanent disability, and people with a chronic illness that couldn’t work.

The Society for Crippled Children created a method for administering aptitude tests to job seekers with disabilities. Among the things tested for were hand and finger dexterity, muscle coordination, intelligence, and mechanical knowledge. Managers for different employers were asked to look at the relationship of the things tested for and the specific needs of jobs in their place of work. These managers showed an immense interest in the process of testing, and began to take disabled workers into greater consideration.

The Society found that very few people showing up for registration had recently visited a hospital or private physician, so a free medical examination service was created by doctors with some idea of industrial job requirements. Specific recommendations could then be made by the doctor, to the benefit of both patient and employer. Apparently this system was so successful that less than one percent of the people registering for job interviews were rejected by company doctors. The few that were rejected by company doctors usually received some assistance through receipt of appliances, medical help or sheltered shop activity. The Bureau of Vocational Rehabilitation was used as a means of training disabled workers, who were then guided toward jobs.

Before Pearl Harbor, the Society viewed this placement program as an important part of community services for people with disabilities. Results were seen in terms of the thousand persons registered, the disabled men and women who found work, the extent to which employers were cooperative, and the reactions of the public. After December 7th, the Society immediately stepped up the pace of the program in order to meet war time needs in industry. Men and women with handicaps began being trained to fill positions in factories that created tanks, planes, and guns.

Disabled workers at the Cleveland Twist Drill Company helped to eliminate a bottleneck which was threatening to slow up the entire machine tool industry. These workers put out a six hundred percent increase in the creation of reamers, drills, and cutting tools, and helped to avoid a shortage in war materials. Their hard work earned the company the first Army-Navy Merit Award presented to any company in America. For the Society, the award was a confirmation of their success. Other employers studied the production records, labor turnover and accident reports of the Cleveland Twist Drill Company and modified their policies concerning handicapped workers.

Several handicapped workers placed by the Bureau received promotions at their places of work, and promotions into jobs with greater responsibility. One worker, “Ted”, fought for his health for several years before being placed into a new job he had just been trained for. Over a two year period, Ted paid off his debts and saved more than a thousand dollars; he also invested twenty-two percent of his earning in War Bonds. A woman with a back deformity was recognized as one of the most outstanding workers in her place of employment, where she produced signaling equipment for the Navy. A young man with deformed hands tested metals to be used in Army transport trucks, while another young man helped to draft plans for airplanes that “will some day bomb Tokyio [sic].”

The article states that they were able to use the Wage Earner Tests that had been developed by Professor Joseph Kopas of Fenn College. Over a three year period, the tests were given to all persons looking for work at fifteen large employers in Cleveland who had more than sixty-thousand workers. The tests were used to measure the ability of people to develop, analyze and use human potentialities in an efficient way. Tests for mental alertness, familiarity with mechanical terminology, mathematical and scientific skills were given. The tests helped testers to determine a person’s ability to “read routine tickets”, set instruments, and do some basic math calculations. Still other tests measured emotional stability, interest in routine work, the ability to get along with fellow workers, and the ambition and drive of the person being tested.

The “Personnel Test X of the Wage Earner” series is in the form of “an upright wooden stand which has three rows of different size nuts and bolts.” The person being tested was given a pair of wrenches and a screwdriver, and told how to loosen the nuts and reverse the bolts on the stand. If you completed the test in less than five minutes you were considered to be an excellent prospect for mechanical work. The Society adopted the Wage Earner tests to use with their employment department because they felt it would enable them to match workers with jobs while speeding up the process of screening people who were registering.

As the article comes to a close, The Society for Crippled Children asserts that all their future work will be based on the continuing relationship between themselves and industry. They planned for a number of employer conferences where “all services for the handicapped will participate.” The conferences were to be patterned after the “Man Salvage Clinics”, which were conducted in Connecticut. The Society notes that the work testing program was sent to schools around America with current job information for disabled young persons. They expected teachers to help young people through counseling, work testing and career conferences with industrial leaders.

Finally, the Society acknowledged their responsibility in connection with the “physically handicapped youth and adults.” More and more jobs were becoming available, and their challenge was to meet people with disabilities with jobs they could perform as the War Effort continued.