Personal assistance services in the workplace: Voices from the field

Lewis Kraus, MPH, MCP and Susan Stoddard, PhD. InfoUse, 2560 Ninth Street, Suite 216, Berkeley, CA 94710

Personal Assistance Services (PAS), also called personal attendant services or personal care, refer to help provided to people with disabilities to assist them with tasks essential for daily living. These tasks include bathing, dressing, getting around, toileting, eating, shopping, remembering things, and other activities. PAS, along with assistive technology such as wheelchairs, text readers, and hearing aids, help people with disabilities to participate in activities at home, at work, and in the community. For many working-age people with a disability, barriers exist that prevent working or returning to work. One barrier is the need for PAS at work. Workplace Personal Assistance Services (Workplace PAS) include task-related assistance at work, such as readers, interpreters, help with lifting or reaching, re-assignment of non-essential duties to co-workers, and other help related to performing work tasks and personal care-related assistance such as helping someone with toileting, eating, or drinking while at work. This session will report on the findings of focus groups and a survey of employers, and personal interviews with employers, employment system organization representatives, and workplace PAS users. Findings to be presented include available public funding for workplace PAS, ADA requirements for employer-provided PAS, perceived liability of employers to providing PAS, and estimates of cost. Successes in workplace personal assistance services also will be presented.

Learning Objectives:

At the conclusion of the session, the participant in this session will be able to:
* Recognize the barriers to workplace Personal Assistance Services (PAS)
* Discuss the perspectives of employers, employment system personnel, and PAS users toward PAS in the workplace