Crippled Child Highlights From The Crippled Child, June, 1942. A Guidance Service for Disabled Workers by RUTH J. MAYER THE ADULT who is crippled, or who is handicapped by the loss of sight or hearing, constitutes a special placement problem. The value of vocational guidance, which is increasingly recognized for the physically normal individual, assumes a special significance in the life story of the disabled. It is vital that such an individual be given the earliest possible opportunity to assay his abilities and aptitudes, that he be assisted in directing his vocational choice wisely, that he be trained in a trade or profession which not only is within his physical limitations, but which utilizes his assets to the fullest extent. What one community is doing to make psychological measurement devices available to the individual at the crossroads of vocational choice is the subject of this article. In November of 1940, the Vocational Guidance Service of the Division of Public Relief of the City of Minneapolis was organized. Until February, 1943, the clerical staff and the technical supervision were supplied by WPA. Since the closing of the WPA program the Division of Public Relief, under the jurisdiction of the Minneapolis Board of Public Welfare, has assumed the entire cost of the service. While this service was designed to assist in the vocational rehabilitation of the relief client, other individuals have always been accepted by permission of Mr. 0. A. Pearson, Superintendent of the Division of Public Relief, and in March, 1943, the Board of Public Welfare authorized the opening of the service to the community at large on a fee basis. To date the total number of individuals tested and counseled is over five thousand. For the purposes of this paper only those with marked Physical disabilities will be mentioned, although, in fact, the handicapped constitute a minority of the total case load. TAKE John, VGS No. 3023, interviewed first in January, 1943. The counselor noted he was 5 feet 5 inches tall and his weight was 220 pounds. Enough of a handicap already, but John had poliomyelitis when he was seven and he must use two crutches. His job history? Not bad, all things considered. He stayed on the farm with his parents until he was 21, then drove team in the lumber industry, working for various companies and finding the work sporadic so that occasionally he must apply for relief. Sometimes his wife worked to help out. He made an attempt to go into farming, packed family and furniture into an old truck lent to him by his father, and went to one of the northern counties of Minnesota. The land he rented wasn't too good, the season was a bad one, and again the family faced the intake desk of a relief office. Residence regulations made county relief impossible and the family was returned to Minneapolis. John's next venture was to buy five trucks on credit and hire men to drive them. He secured a contract to haul construction material for a war plant but he ad no capital and couldn't meet the bills. The trucks were repossessed and in 1943, at 40, he again found himself without resources. Relief records at this date showed that over a period of ten years this family had received $2423 in direct relief and WPA funds. The relief was issued intermittently interrupted by John’s various attempts to get settled in a kind of work that would pay his family’s way. In January, 1943, when he reapplied for relief, he was referred by his investigator to the Vocational Guidance Service. Here for the first time he was given an opportunity to analyze, with the cooperation of a trained job counselor, his work history, his abilities and aptitudes. During the first interview, the counselor questioned him concerning his education, job history and vocational interests, and recorded: “John C. completed the eighth grade in a small town in Minnesota. He has had no further training.” His job history we have already reviewed. At this interview he expressed interest in machine operation. He said, however, that his family was in urgent need and that he could not afford to spend any time in training courses. The counselor explained to John the purpose of aptitude testing. Tests were selected which would measure his general ability to learn, his ability to use his hands, his vocational interests and personality adjustment. When the Counselor. saw John for his second interview, the test data were in the file to be used as tools in selecting a job just his size. Counselor and client worked together during the hour long interview. The counselor knew that John would learn quickly and that he had better than average dexterity in the use of his hands. Measured interests and social adjustment were considered. It was decided that John be referred for inplant training in machine operating. On the counselor’s desk was an order from C. & S. Tool Company for men. In June of 1942, Mr. T. S. Castner of that company came to V. G. S. to discuss his problems of selection of personnel. He needed men that could be quickly trained to operate machines. Urgent subcontracts for one of the local ordnance plants demanded immediate expansion of C. & S. facilities. Mr. Castner and his partner, Mr. H. V. Sadler, knew that they must make the best possible choice of men. They could not afford the loss of time which would result from random selections. THE FIRST class recommended by V. G. S. was made up of men with no machine experience, selected in terms of general ability to learn, measured dexterity and measured preference for machine work. The partners were so well satisfied with the performance of the first group that they determined to hire only men recommended by V. G. S. for inplant training. As able-bodied men became increasingly hard to find, it was agreed that handicapped men be referred. These men were given every opportunity to perform a satisfactory job; they proved to the complete satisfaction of the partners that they could work on an even basis with able-bodied men when given work within their limitations. It was to this plant that John was referred. He was given a stool of the correct height to bring him within easy reach of his machine. The instructions given him were clear-cut and he had no difficulty in remembering them. When he began processing parts, he soon reached a production level that equaled that of anyone in the plant. After he had been working at the plant for a month, he returned to his counselor to express his satisfaction with his newly acquired skills. The plant owners were equally satisfied. Men like John have enabled Mr. Castner to say that after the war he intends to keep the present high percentage of handicapped men on his payroll. One man and one plant as an example of utilization of the handicapped worker! We had hoped for space in which to review other cases. We thought of the man so crippled with arthritis that when we visited the plant where he was placed, we found him sitting on a low wheeled platform which he pulled around with his hands to reach the stock which he was polishing; and of another man who had lost both legs in a railroad accident, and who was now doing an intricate bench assembly job in an instrument plant. Several such outstanding cases are in our files. But one case will serve to illustrate many. And the one plant that we have described will show that handicapped men can be used to excellent advantage in industry. AS WE were writing this last paragraph, Mr.Castner called us to discuss a spastic who had been referred to him, a young man of twenty- three. The man will be given his chance at the C. & S. Tool Co. He spoiled the first piece he was given to machine and the foreman wondered whether he should go on with the training. Mr. Castner said, “I told him, when you want to work with handicapped people, you don’t give up with the first sign of difficulty. If an employer is willing to make adjustments, the adjustments he must make are small because the men have already adapted themselves to their handicaps. They need only a fair chance to prove themselves equal to able-bodied in selected operations.” And this plant goes on making its “small” adjustments, providing stools for those who can’t stand, platforms to put the machines within reach of men without legs, assigning one-armed men to punch presses, filling its contracts ahead of schedule because its owners have the insight to see that the handicapped man in a job that suits his aptitudes and abilities is no longer handicapped. THE PRESENT manpower shortage has given these men their chance. It is for you who work with crippled people from babyhood to ensure that these gains that have come during this period of our country’s emergency shall not be lost. Publicity is needed for the production records of handicapped men and women for their success in operating various kinds of machines, for results of studies which have shown that absenteeism is less frequent. Insofar as is possible, these men and women have proved their worth to industry, should retain their places. Young people with physical disabilities should be given their chance. Are you willing as individuals or organizations to investigate participation of the handicapped in the war effort and work for means to ensure successful adult placement of your crippled children?