Disability Awareness Month

October is Disability Awareness Month.

It’s a time to educate the public about issues related to disabilities and employment.

Educate the public about issues related to disabilities and employment.

Newschannel 2's kirk tupaj tells us about one local man who may change your mind about hiring someone with a disability.

Jason smith has a developmental and physical dibility.

He haa nuer of job respoibilitieshere r about eight years now, but that's not slowing him down.

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None sot: jason smith, yorkville resident everyone tells me i'm the best worker that they ever had.

Valerie swift is an employment specialist that stops in from time to time to check up on how he's doing, but jason's work ethic makes that check-up a difficult task.

Sot: jason smith, yorkville resident my job coach valerie always has a hard time keeping up with me.

Jason is just one of a hundred and fifty people with disabilities working around the mohawk valley.

Jason may be hard to keep up with, but that's one of the qualities that makes many people with disabilities good candidates for hire.

Sot: valerie swift, employment speclist arconeida le doesn't want to let people down.

He wants to be out of the house, being an active member of the community.

He has the drive and the potential to do everything everyone else does.

If you happen to be an employer looking to hire someone with this kind of drive, you should know the employee you're looking for must want to work for you.

Sot: mark dudek, chief communications officer arc oneida lewis one of the misconceptions is that we have a pool of people, and we'll just place people in jobs as they come up.

It really is person centered planning, so it's putting someone in a job where they're going to be successful because it's something they want to do.

Sot: kirk tupaj the work that men and women with disabilities do help to keep the economy strong, but it wouldn't be possible if it weren't for employers like chanatry's providing equal opportunities to all citizens.

In utica, i'm kirk tupaj reporting for newschannel 2.

> next time you're in chanatry's....tell jason llo.onu will ever meet.

With this school year anything but normal.... the