A Hope Becomes a Reality . . .

PHYSICALLY HANDICAPPED VETERAN in every possible job. That was the hope of Captain Gerald D. Linke, Commanding Officer of the U. S. Naval Ordnance Plant. But how to accomplish it? Fourteen hundred jobs were under Civil Service with precise requirements as to skill and experience. About 75 percent of these jobs were broken into groups under such broad Civil Service titles as Ordnance Worker, Machine Operator, General Helper, and Laborer. Just what specific jobs were covered by these inclusive titles was not clear, but it was obvious that such titles included jobs requiring markedly different physical effort.

The employer-visitor at the Oak Park office of the Illinois State Employment Service learned of the problem and suggested that use of the physical demands technique might help to solve the problem. Occupational analysts met the Navy officials-the head of the Industrial Relations Department, the plant physician, and the Chief Counselor-and together they worked out a plan along the following lines: Production and maintenance occupations were to be studied and the physical demands of these determined in order (1) to facilitate the employment of veterans with physical handicaps who could meet the Civil Service requirements for employment; and (2) to convert the broad Civil Service classifications into specific classifications as set down in the DICTIONARY OF OCCUPATIONAL TITLES to facilitate the work of the Employment Service in locating the physically handicapped veterans with the requisite job knowledge or experience.

After the initial meetings, all arrangements with the Naval Ordnance Plant were carried on through the Chief Counselor. He presented the analysts to supervisors and department heads as it became necessary to work in their individual units. The purpose of the undertaking was explained, and the techniques. demonstrated. Before the technician undertook a detailed observation and analysis of the jobs to be studied, the ES crew were conducted on a general tour of the Ordnance Plant.

Methods Adapted to Plant System Analysis methods were adapted to the system of occupational grouping and labor utilization in the plant. It was quickly discovered that the title "Ordnance Worker" covered such widely different occupations as Crib Attendants, Bench and Floor Assemblers, Solders and Brazers. "Machine Operator" included operators of Engine Lathes, Drill

Presses, Milling Machines, and Screw Machines, as well as workers who could operate more than one machine and other machine shop equipment. Similarly, "Laborer" included Sweeper, Window Washer, Trucker and Groundskeeper. To prepare physical demands analyses on only these inclusive titles would have been useless for placement purposes. As a consequence, it was necessary to observe all the workers and each position in each department and to prepare physical demands analyses on the basis of actual duties performed by each worker.

Some Composite Analyses

The practice of rotating workers from position to position made it necessary to prepare composite physical demands analyses for jobs in certain departments. For example, an Ordnanceman in the War Head or in the Torpedo Exploder department might regularly rotate among the jobs of Bench Assembler. Floor Assembler, Bench Machinist, versed in the use of hand and machine tools such as scrapers, laps. drill presses and bench lathes, Welder, or Solderer, as required by production demands or material supplies. A single physical demands analysis was prepared for the variety of activities required of the worker shifting from job to job or position to position, after the physical demands at each station had been observed. In assigning classifications to jobs analyzed, the Civil Service classification was used as the plant title and an additional title was selected from the DicTIONARY OF OCCUPATIONAL TITLES to cover the minimum job-knowledge requirements as recorded in the schedules of the Civil Service Commission. This plan was adopted in order to facilitate selection at the plant employment office and the recruitment of workers through the local offices of the Illinois State Employment Service.

In all, 39 departments were visited, and 915 workers and positions were observed by the analysts; 150 occupations were covered and 80 Physical Demands Forms prepared.

As a part of the whole program, the plant's examining physician was given instruction in the preparation of the Physical Capacities Appraisal Form. Specific suggestions were made for the use of the Physical Demands Analyses by the plant. It was suggested that, while comparing the physical capacities of the worker, as indicated by the medical examination, with the physical demands of the job, as shown on the form, the Placement Officer should note the (Continued on p. 32)

Approval came through under both Public Laws 16 and 346. The building leased, recruitment of veteran students began and within 6 months 70 students were enrolled; some had been reached through the school's advertising; others entered the classes after receiving information in counseling interviews in the VESUSES.

The course of training ran to 34 weeks. Applicants were considered for admission on the strength of their mechanical aptitudes and were enrolled only if they seemed qualified and capable of learning the trade. They were provided with training manuals and chests of tools were furnished by the Veterans Administration. The instructors, too, were "handpicked."

The school has made progress in the 2 years of its operation. It features and emphasizes individual instruction. Classes are arranged so that not more than 20 students are assigned to any one instructor. Extensive use is made of colored visual training aids. The art of salesmanship is also included in the training curriculum.

For proper training purposes, the school installed a spray paint shop equipped with oven facilities so that old parts may be cleaned and a new finish applied. Metal lathes, jig-saws, welding equipment and other items are on hand for the students' use.

By means of pregraduation contact with various typewriter companies, an outlet has been developed for all students who satisfactorily complete the course. There is, for example, an arm-amputee who has done so well that he was sent to the National Business Show held in New York City from September 29 to October 4, 1947 to appear in connection with the Veterans Administration exhibit. The school paid expenses-it was interested in convincing any "doubting Thomas" that a man with a prosthetic appliance could completely dismantle and reassemble typewriter.

a

A disabled veteran from Charleston, W. Va., provides another outstanding example of the benefits of good training. This veteran was of the opinion that no one wanted to help him. During the time he was in training he was continually in "hot water." Nevertheless, discerning school heads and instructors were convinced of this veteran's abilities as a mechanic. They patiently put up with his vagaries and saw him through to graduation. Their patience has been rewarded he is a changed man-the disgruntled outlook is no more. He is a contented veteran now, employed as a typewriter repairman in a typewriter agency in Charleston, his home town. He earns $300 a month with bonus, and is planning to take over the business in about a year.

Others, too, are satisfactorily employed in jobs paying weekly salaries of $50 upward, but these two cases will suffice to show how training opportunities and establishments in a community can be a means to assist disabled veterans who have slim prospects of finding jobs because they lack skill in any trade.

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information which would enable him to answer tw questions: "Do the physical limitations of the worke prevent him from doing the job?" and, "Is there ar way to circumvent the worker's physical limitatio for the job?" This latter might be done by changin work sequences, dividing duties among other worke using special fixtures or attachments, or limiting jej rotation to only those jobs which the worker can per form. Recommended procedures included (a) care ful determination of the physical capacities of a applicants certified by the Civil Service Commission according to information given on the Physical Cal pacities Appraisal; (b) a comparison of these limita tions with the Physical Demands of the jobs for which he was considered qualified by the Commission; an (c) if the applicant does not appear capable of per forming the job, or his referral to a particular depar ment involves adjustment problems or special a rangements, then a conference should be held with the appropriate supervisor or department head and rep resentatives of personnel, safety, and medical de partments.

The study was completed in August 1947, and wa immediately acted upon. Physical demands form prepared then are still applicable and still in use Recourse is not made to them in all cases, since some nonhandicapped applicants are hired and others who are handicapped are not vocationally limited. A late example of their use has been in the placement of an applicant with poliomyelitis.

The Naval Ordnance Plant believes that this special approach has been of real value in achieving its pur pose. The Oak Park local office also uses the physica demands forms in their referrals.

This experiment with selective employment of handicapped veterans once again confirms the fact that there is usually a compensating ability for ev impairment and, in selected tasks, handicapped inc viduals become exceptional employees. The Nava Ordnance Plant applying the man-job matching technique has successfully placed a blind veteran in a precision inspection job. A husky ex-Coast Guardsman who lost much of his right arm in the North African invasion and is unable to wear an artificia limb has proved adept as an ordnance worker Another one-armed veteran has mastered a job in the compressor room. Two former sailors who sustained hip-paralyzing injuries in combat are holding down productive jobs, one at a desk as a trouble-shooter. the other in identification of tools on the shop floor The physical demands technique, applied in the cas of a veteran who lost the sight of one eye showed that the restriction did not prevent him from pursuing the same type of inspection job that he had done prior his war service.

The plan applied so usefully in the case of seriou impairments has also helped those with minor di abilities that are nevertheless limiting as far as en ployment is concerned.

U. S GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE: 1949

DISSATISFIED With the spurts and subsidings

of placements that occurred during and following NEPH Week, Connecticut worked out a pattern of year-round activity, the pivot of which was a local committee with a zest for teamwork in the community's endeavor to better its placement record for the handicapped. Offering what he calls a logical format for the formation of such committees, Cyrus G. Flanders suggests other communities can follow it with the hope of duplicating in some measure the benefit which has occurred in his State. P. 16

THROUGH ENCOURAGEMENT extended to individual employers, The American Legion has given impetus to the employment of disabled veterans. Together with the Legion's description of its Role-ofHonor Plan for employers who have recognized the ability of the handicapped, are articles from two of its award winnersThe Ben Pearson Co. of Pine Bluff, Ark., and the Weirton Steel Co. of Weirton, W. Va. pp. 18-23

HOW SPECIALIZED is the selective placement process in local offices? Manuscripts coming from Massachusetts and California show how patterns in these localities are shaping up, and how concentration

on

an objective cannot fail to bring it closer. P. 24

IF

THE HANDICAPPED were at one time the forgotten ones among us, this can no longer be said to be true. Employment counseling and selective placement, the twin services that have made the physically handicapped their special concern, are giving them more and more opportunity to compete with the able-bodied for employment opportunities. New York's Hannah Baumann cites a series of case records, among them several dealing with selective placement of the more severely impaired among the physically handicapped. p. 26

AN ARTICLE with reference to the use of selective placement techniques in a Naval Ordnance Plant substantiates the claim that usually there is a compensating ability for every impairment. p. 30