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Throughout Alabama, more and more companies are
turning to the expertise of Vocational Rehabilitation Service (VRS),
a subsidiary of the Alabama Department of Rehabilitation Services.
They know that they can get straight answers when it comes to disability
issues and workplace accommodations. We are your business solution
to disability issues—so you can focus on your success. We
can provide assistance in the following areas:
Managing disability in the workplace is literally costing business
millions of dollars. VRS can assist you in minimizing those costs
while retaining your valued workers. RAVE, Retaining A
Valued Employee, is a unique program of the Alabama
Department of Rehabilitation Services that helps businesses find
solutions to issues involving employees injured on or off the job,
or employees whose performance is affected by a disabling condition.
The program’s goal is the same as yours: to retain a valued
employee, with or without accommodations. The disability management
team includes a rehabilitation counselor, a rehabilitation engineer
and an employment specialist. Our statewide disability management
teams network with Alabama’s Workers’ Compensation Ombudsman
Program as well as the Occupational Health Nurses Association to
offer technical assistance with work-site accommodations and other
job retention or return-to- work issues.
When it comes to the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), VRS
is your education and resource link. Not a compliance or enforcement
agency, VRS provides your company with technical assistance and
training on the ADA. Our expertise covers a variety of ADA topics
including Employment Mandates, Interviewing issues, Reasonable Accommodations,
Undue Burden, and Architectural Accessibility. In addition to inservice
training for your company, VRS is also available for one-on-one
consulting. We serve as your link to accommodation resources including
brailling printed materials, finding a qualified interpreter for
an individual who is deaf, or even how you can make a meeting room
accessible. As part of our services, VRS also provides an on-site
accessibility review and offers solutions for improvements. Whether
you need a refresher course on accessibility and accommodations
under the Americans with Disabilities Act or an examination of your
site to determine potential trouble spots, VRS is your resource
on the ADA.
VRS can serve as your trainer or one-on-one consultant on disability
issues. We can design and implement-training programs focused on
the specific needs of your business. Here’s a quick list of
some of the training programs we offer:
Accommodation options in the Workplace
Interviewing Do’s and Don’ts
Disability Etiquette in the workplace
How to Identify the Essential Functions in a Job
Disability Awareness
ABLE Network now links to the Alabama Department of Rehabilitation
Services Internet Employment Management System (EMS) and provides
you with a direct link to prescreen job applicants and useful information
on disabilities. Our “inter-networking” service does
the research of you so you can focus on your business. The EMS is
a vital information database with two main components: the Job
Candidate Pool which assist businesses with recruitment by providing
your company with access to thousands of qualified applicants in
Alabama who are work-ready; and the Job Bank which gives
your business the opportunity to list job vacancies within your
company. Once your job is listed, our team of rehabilitation professionals
will seek the best job match. The system is easy to use and well
suited for all businesses----particularly affirmative action employers.
VRS has one of the most valuable resources for any business---employees.
As the number of qualified job applicants shrinks, you can tap into
one of the largest pools of minority employees—qualified applicants
who happen to have disabilities. As your recruiter, we can match
your needs and job requirements with a qualified job-ready applicant.
Prescreening. We know your most pressing concern is whether
an applicant can do the job. Each job-ready applicant is prescreened
to ensure that his or her knowledge, skills and abilities are well
suited for the job vacancies in your company.
Job-site Training. VRS can provide on –site trainers
who work side-by side with the newly hired worker who may need a
“little extra help” to learn the tasks required on the
job at no cost to you.
Post-hire follow-up. VRS is always available to assist you with
questions or special issues related to an employee you have hired
from us. We continue to work with you to meet your future needs
as your business demands change.
No-obligation tryout. The U. S. Department of Labor has
created pre-hire work options for selected VRS job applicants. If
you have never hired a person with a disability before, or you are
not sure that a particular position can be filled by someone with
a disability, you can use our free, no-obligation tryout of an employee.
During this trial period, VRS will work with you and your potential
employee to make sure that he or she can do the job you require
and to make any accommodations as needed to enable the person to
get the job done.
Outplacement Assistance. As your outplacement specialist,
VRS can assist individuals with disabilities who can no longer work
for your company.
The majority of people with disabilities in today’s workforce
do not need accommodations in order to be productive. For those
applicants and employees whom do need accommodations, VRS can
Provide cost-effective solutions. We can provide rehabilitation
technology services to employers who have employees with accommodation
needs: Physical and functional capacity assessments, workplace modification
and design, ergonomics, job Task Analysis, Product modification
and design, Accommodation Implementation.
WOTC – WORK OPPORTUNITIES TAX CREDIT PROGRAM (IRS FORM
8850)
This program provides federal tax credit for employers who hire
employees with disabilities through VRS. The credit applies to the
first $6000 of wages paid subject to the Federal Unemployment Tax
Act.
DISABLED TAX CREDIT (IRS FORM 8826---DISABLED ACCESS CREDIT
OR FORM 3800—GENERAL BUSINESS)
The disabled Tax Credit is specifically geared toward eligible small
businesses to meet increased expenses incurred in complying with
the ADA. To qualify, a business must have fewer than 30 employees
or gross receipts of less than $1million. The allowable amount of
tax credit is equal to 50 percent of the expenditures in excess
of $250, but not more than 410,250. In other words, the maximum
that can be claimed in any tax year under this provision is $5,125.
Eligible expenditures many include removing architectural, communication
or transportation barriers; providing qualified readers, taped texts,
interpreters, technical assistive devices; or offsetting the purchase
or modification of equipment and devices for individuals with disabilities.
ARCHITECTURAL AND TRANSPORTATION BARRIER REMOVAL TAX DEDUCTION
(Title 26, IRS, Section 190)
Any private business may claim up to $15,000 per tax year for making
its premises or public transportation vehicles more accessible to
persons with disabilities or the elderly, Eligible expenditures
may include installing ramps, widening doorways, modifying restrooms,
or equipping a shuttle van with a lift.
ON THE JOB TRAINING REIMBURSEMENT
Financial reimbursement is available from VRS to offset the training
costs of a newly hired employee with a disability. |
