Tyrone Goodwin has made milk-shakes at an airport eatery and stocked groceries at Hill Air Force Base.
But what this unassuming man in a gray suit really, really, wants is to be a bagger at a grocery store.So, at a recent job fair, Goodwin shook hands and passed out resumes listing his assets. He's highly motivated and has an excellent attendance record in previous jobs. He completed his education at the Ogden Weber Educational Center in 1972.
This 44-year-old also has mental disabilities. And getting a job in an integrated environment is not always simple for people like Goodwin, even though they have transportation, job skills and the desire to do the work.
In the United States there are about 49 million people with disabilities.
More than half of them are unemployed.
It may be near the dawn of a new century, but there is still fear and discrimination against people who are different, said Sue Barker, spokeswoman for Enable Industries, an Ogden organization that trains and employs about 300 people with disabilities.
The reasons people with disabilities have a hard time getting jobs is not because of what they can or can't do but because nondisabled people fear, shun or ignore them, she says.
Compared to other states, Utah has fared well in helping people with disabilities find mainstream work, largely due to the state's hot economy and low unemployment rate, which translate into employers who need workers.
"They aren't as picky as they used to be about whether you've got degrees or a bunch of letters behind your name," said Bev Adcock, director of the ARC of Utah, an organization dedicated to the needs of people with mental retardation. "Our folks may not have college degrees, but they can do an incredible amount of work if given the chance."
Those who work with people with disabilities know if they can just get an employer to give someone a chance, they're often thrilled with the results.
Robert D. Fox has been a mechanic all of his adult life and owns two shops in Tooele County. When he was approached about hiring a blind mechanic, he could hardly fathom it.
"I said, `Well, send him out and I can see just how good he is,' " said Fox, owner of Fox's Auto, remembering the day he was approached by the Easter Seals of Utah about a guy named Ward McGinn. "My God, it really seemed like he was up on the mechanic stuff. It was amazing."
That was a year ago and Fox and McGinn agree the job has worked out wonderfully. McGinn said he's not treated any differently than any other mechanic. Normalcy is the best part about his job, he said.
But before finding Fox he went for interview after interview - eight months' worth - listening to people give excuses about why he wasn't quite right for a job.
"It wasn't anything you could put your finger on," said McGinn, who's been blind since he was 5. "But I don't have time for people like that so I would just move on."
He may not be able to pull the cars and pickups into the shop, but all that McGinn can do more than outweighs what he can't, Fox said.
There are many different kinds of disabilities. Some are not as hampering as others and people can get and keep upwardly mobile, competitive jobs. Other disabilities may mean people need more specialized training, some job coaching and a chance.
Only about 26 percent of Americans with a severe disability are employed, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.
Dale Blowers got his first job last year, when he was 41 years old, cleaning the University of Utah's Marriott Library. Blowers has mild mental retardation. He got job and life skills from Developmental Services of Utah Inc., which periodically sends a job coach to make sure the placement continues to work.
Job coaches can be an important tool. They accompany people to job interviews and "carve" the right job for the right person.
Bourns Inc. in Ogden has employed dozens of people with disabilities in the past decade or so. Mike Smith, director of human resources, says the three full-time employees now working at Bourns are simply good at what they do.
"They've got 100 percent attendance; they're never tardy," Smith says. "They're normal people who come to work and do a normal job."
Mayo Riddle is a friendly, outgoing man with a penchant for remembering details. He's a Special Olympics bowler, and the 64-year-old is looking forward to trying gymnastics this year.
He's been working at Enable Industries in Ogden off and on since 1995 and is looking for a job outside the workshop. He's worked in the community before, as a janitor at the Ogden City Mall and in the commissary at Hill Air Force Base.
Riddle said he learned early on to deal with people one-on-one, to try to explain to them how he isn't so different. He concedes people haven't always been nice or accepting.
The success and failures make for a lot of tears, Barker said, especially when people learn skills to take care of themselves and then get ignored once they are out in the community.
It's getting better, said Don Uchida, who has worked with people with disabilities for 29 years. Now director of the state's Division of Rehabilitation Services, Uchida says the pendulum has shifted to focus, not on what rehabilitation counselors want but what the clients' needs and goals are.
He credits Congress's passage of the American with Disabilities Act in 1990 with increasing business owners' awareness of the disabled, including those in Utah.
Last year, the U.S. Rehabilitation Services Administration ranked Utah as the second most successful state in the nation in getting people with disabilities into the work force.
The state also ranked 8th in the average weekly earnings for clients who had gone through rehabilitation services and into employment.
The goal, though, is more than just employment, Uchida says. All people, including those with disabilities, need a career with benefits and upward mobility, not just a job.
At Enable Industries between 200 and 300 people a day work in three workshops making trampoline straps, shrinkwrapping packages of detergent, boxing dog biscuits, sorting tools.
Barker has given so many tours of Enable Industries she jokes she could lead them in her sleep. Many have paid off. The private not-for-profit organization has contracts with Levolor Blinds, Morton International, American Playworld and other national businesses.
These are not pity contracts. They were put out for bid and are kept year after year because Enable's clients do good work, Barker said.
When Russell Forest Products first learned Enable had won its bid for assembling spools for electronic wire, the Hartselle, Ala., company was concerned about disabled people doing the work. After three days, Enable's workers were doing 2 1/2 times the number of spools a day as Russell's employees. Enable has kept the contract for eight years.
Likewise, in the first four years Enable had a contract with Hill Air Force Base they saved the federal government millions by sorting aircraft tools and filing down identification numbers so the tools could be reused.
Not every Enable employee is ready, or will ever be able, to leave the plant for an integrated job in the outside world. Many, however, are.
Joe Featherston just has to find them the perfect job first.
As Enable's placement director, Featherston visits more than 100 businesses a month looking for jobs for Enable's clients. Those visits usually lead to fewer than five jobs.
After visiting more than 1,000 businesses last year, Featherston found jobs in the community for 50 people. So far this year he has placed 54. Fear is what keeps people from offering jobs to someone with a disability, he said. Once employers give someone a chance they quickly realize how proficient people with disabilities can be.
Though he has a learning disability, Jeff Osness, 23, says he can do anything if given a chance. He's been a busboy and done assembly work, but he continues to look for a job. Osness said he wishes people would focus on his abilities instead of his disabilities.
"I wish I could give people some understanding and sympathy," he said. "I would just like to work."