Disability Inclusion In The Workplace: Larry Landauer of Regional Center of Orange County (RCOC) On How Businesses Make Accommodations For Customers and Employees Who Have A Disability

An Interview With Eric Pines

Vacations are wonderful, precious and crucial. When you work in a field like this, giving your all 24 hours a day, you need to make time to recharge. I have very fond memories of our family heading out on road trips to National Parks, for example, and those times are unforgettable.

As we all know, over the past several years there has been a great deal of discussion about inclusion and diversity in the workplace. One aspect of inclusion that is not discussed enough, is how businesses can be inclusive of people with disabilities. We know that the Americans With Disabilities Act (ADA) requires businesses to make reasonable accommodations for people with disabilities. What exactly does this look like in practice? What exactly are reasonable accommodations? Aside from what is legally required, what are some best practices that can make a business place feel more welcoming and inclusive of people with disabilities? To address these questions, we are talking to successful business leaders who can share stories and insights from their experience about the “How Businesses Make Accommodations For Customers and Employees Who Are Disabled “.

As a part of this series, we had the pleasure of interviewing Larry Landauer, the Executive Director of Regional Center of Orange County (RCOC), where he has worked for more than 30 years, having started there as a service coordinator in 1988. Larry earned his undergraduate and master’s degrees in social work. RCOC is the private, nonprofit organization contracted by the state of California to coordinate services and supports for more than 23,000 Orange County residents with developmental disabilities and their families. Developmental disabilities include intellectual disability, autism, epilepsy and cerebral palsy.

Thank you so much for joining us in this interview series! Before we dive in, our readers would love to “get to know you” a bit better. Can you tell us a bit about your ‘backstory’ and how you ended up where you are?

I’ve always had a heart for service, so almost everything in my backstory led to my current role. It probably started back when I was involved in scouting. As young at eight years old, I was doing what are called “good turns” in scouting, visiting convalescent homes and participating in neighborhood projects for the city. That continued throughout my school years as I attained Eagle Scout, Scouting’s highest honor, and joined up with Scouting’s Explorer program where I was in an Emergency Services Explorer post providing first aid services at many public events, including the Special Olympics.

All of that helped channel me toward social work, which I studied in college, and that led me to Regional Center of Orange County, where I’ve spent most of my career. It’s been a great honor and very rewarding to be able to help people with developmental disabilities get the services and supports they need to lead independent, productive lives.

You are a successful leader. Which three character traits do you think were most instrumental to your success? Can you please share a story or example for each?

Steadfast: A focus on the now, while keeping bigger picture goals integrated in daily activities.

Transparent: To stay relevant and make a genuine impact on people’s lives, we must constantly engage with and have open and mutually-respectful conversations with those we serve.

Optimistic: At heart, we’re all problem solvers but it’s key to stay positive as we constantly sift through problems and focus on solutions to make life better for people with developmental disabilities and their families.

Can you share a story about one of your greatest work related struggles? Can you share what you did to overcome it?

A huge challenge that we and others in this space are facing is the ability to offer a fair and competitive wage to professional caregivers. People with developmental disabilities rely on direct care workers for critical, daily assistance — from personal assistance in the home, to job coaching, independent living help, and more. Unlike other businesses that can increase wages, our service providers are hamstrung by low rates set by the State of California and the challenges have put the service provider network statewide in crisis.

We’ve partnered with advocates and regional centers statewide to educate elected leaders about the detrimental effect low rates are having on the individuals and families we serve. We’ve also shared the critical nature of the issue with stakeholders in our community and encouraged them to make their voices heard. We’ve made a lot of noise and many legislators have listened. Decisions about that funding are being made right now, and we’re hopeful.

What are some of the most interesting or exciting projects you are working on now?

Over the past few years, we’ve embarked on a paradigm shift to transform Regional Center of Orange County into a fully person-centered organization. It’s a completely new and different way of thinking about how we go about supporting people with developmental disabilities and helping them to pursue meaningful lives in the community.

Another project I’m really excited about is an initiative of our Board of Directors, which honors successful long-term employment by people with developmental disabilities. In our experience, there just isn’t any group of employees that are more reliable, more loyal and more dedicated than the people we serve and many hold jobs with the same employer for decades. It’s a pleasure now at each Board meeting to acknowledge and celebrate individuals who have been with their employers for many years, because these folks are truly impressive — they were pioneers in the workplace, since when they started their jobs so many years ago, employment options were quite limited for those with developmental disabilities.

Fantastic. Let’s now shift to our discussion about inclusion. Can you tell our readers a bit about your experience working with initiatives to promote Diversity and Inclusion? Can you share a story with us?

At Regional Center of Orange County, we tackle diversity and inclusion on two fronts. First is the work we do with our fantastic network of service providers, who are focused on developing jobs for adults with developmental disabilities and then providing the ongoing job coaching support, as needed, to ensure that person is successful int the workplace. This is a huge and important challenge, because we know that employers often don’t immediately think about disability when having this conversation. It also requires some rethinking about actual job requirements and an assessment as to what sorts of jobs within an organization might be suitable for a person with a developmental disability. We want employers to know that there’s help for them — through regional centers and their service provider networks — to work through those things, as well as provide onsite job coaching support that’s free to the employer.

In addition to promoting diversity and inclusion in workforces, we also work with business and community partners to help train their customer-facing staff in ways to make their facilities more welcoming to people with developmental disabilities and their families. This is particularly crucial for conditions, such as autism and intellectual disabilities, that aren’t outwardly visible. Our trainings focus on helping staff recognize behaviors and signs that could indicate a person has a developmental disability; help those people to understand how best to approach customers and families with developmental disabilities and deal with specific situations that might be encountered, such as customers who are lost or experiencing a “meltdown.” It’s a win-win, for our partners and their employees who are grateful to have the knowledge to be more effective in challenging circumstances, and for the families — children and adults — who encounter more welcoming environments in the community.

This may be obvious to you, but it will be helpful to spell this out. Can you articulate to our readers a few reasons why it is so important for a business or organization to have an inclusive work culture?

Building an inclusive work culture is critical for lots of reasons. First and foremost, it’s the right thing to do. Everyone deserves to be treated respectfully and with dignity. Inclusive work cultures also boost employee and customer morale and that can, ultimately, positively affect revenue and the bottom line.

For all of us, whether or not we have a disability, work is fundamental to our sense of self and provides structure and meaning to our days. When the right job match is found, the dividends are amazing, for the individual, for the employer and for the community at large. Connected, inclusive communities with people engaged in rewarding work helps create healthier communities.

The Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) requires businesses to make reasonable accommodations for people with disabilities. For the benefit of our readers, can you help explain what this looks like in practice? What exactly are reasonable accommodations? Can you please share a few examples?

With regard to people with developmental disabilities, one key example of a reasonable accommodation would be allowing the employee to have the support of a job coach. The employer doesn’t pay for the job coach — those job coaches are paid with regional centers funds through our supported employment service providers. A job coach might be side-by-side with the person with disabilities throughout their entire shift, or simply check in with the employee with disabilities on an as-needed basis. It all depends on the individual situation, but job coaches are often critical to a successful employment situation and really work to the employer’s benefit.

One success that comes to mind is a person we serve, Marcell Bassett, who has worked for IKEA for more than 25 years. Marcell’s job coach helps him improve how he delivers on the job and helps him keep on task. When he first started at IKEA, Marcell’s job was to collect shopping carts in the parking lot. After four years in that role, he was promoted to a product quality associate. It’s a great fit with his skills. He determines the condition of products that are returned by customers and how to handle their disposition. With his workplace success, he needs less support from his job coach now and he is not with him every day anymore. Marcell has become a great ambassador for IKEA and trains and guides others as a mentor. I’m proud that Marcell also served as a volunteer board member with Regional Center of Orange County for several years.

Aside from what is legally required, what are some best practices that can make a business place feel more welcoming and inclusive of people with disabilities? If you can, please share a few examples.

Integration is key. Our goal is always to ensure that the adults we serve are able to work side-by-side with other workers without disabilities. With workers with developmental disabilities, enabling job coaches in the workplace is definitely a best practice most of the businesses we work with employ. Over time, the job coach may spend less and less time onsite, but they can be so valuable for facilitating communication with a supervisor, heading off misunderstandings, and helping to keep workers focused on their tasks. Other best practices that can make a workplace more welcoming are simply offering the same competitive pay and benefits offered those who are not disabled, and taking steps to include the person with disabilities in the social side of work.

This is our signature question that we ask in many of our interviews. What are your “5 Things I Wish Someone Told Me When I First Started My Career”?

1. Serving those with developmental disabilities is so important, and that becomes more apparent as you get more involved. The lives of the people we serve can be amazing with the right supports and it’s an all-consuming endeavor. This job is 24/7, but I wouldn’t change a thing. It’s true I don’t have much of a social life, but do have a very close knit family with my wife of 31 years and our two wonderful daughters. I’m grateful for their support as they respect the long hours I have put in over the years.
2. Vacations are wonderful, precious and crucial. When you work in a field like this, giving your all 24 hours a day, you need to make time to recharge. I have very fond memories of our family heading out on road trips to National Parks, for example, and those times are unforgettable.
3. Diplomacy is key. I’m an honest, straight shooting person, leading an organization with a Board of Directors and over 23,000 individuals who rely on us for critical needs, so I have to do what is best for the greatest number of folks. I’ve learned that no matter how passionately I feel about an issue or cause, that has to be tempered. I’ve learned — the hard way — that it takes a lot more work to mend a fence than it does to keep perspective and balance.
4. Nothing feels better than what we do to enable those with developmental disabilities to live their best lives. Every day we’re doing positive things to help individuals with disabilities. There are families I’ve known and worked with for over three decades. We’ve shared countless milestones, and it’s so gratifying as they share what the Regional Center of Orange County has meant to them and to their child. Making sure the Regional Center continues to be there for those now-adult children long after their parents are gone is paramount.
5. Welcome to Holland. This is a wonderful story I wish I’d heard at the outset of my career. It’s an analogy of parents learning they have a child with a developmental disability.

“I am often asked to describe the experience of raising a child with a disability — to try to help people who have not shared that unique experience to understand it, to imagine how it would feel. It’s like this…… When you’re going to have a baby, it’s like planning a fabulous vacation trip — to Italy. You buy a bunch of guide books and make your wonderful plans. The Coliseum. The Michelangelo David. The gondolas in Venice. You may learn some handy phrases in Italian. It’s all very exciting. After months of eager anticipation, the day finally arrives. You pack your bags and off you go. Several hours later, the plane lands. The stewardess comes in and says, “Welcome to Holland.” “Holland?!?” you say. “What do you mean Holland?? I signed up for Italy! I’m supposed to be in Italy. All my life I’ve dreamed of going to Italy.” But there’s been a change in the flight plan. They’ve landed in Holland and there you must stay. The important thing is that they haven’t taken you to a horrible, disgusting, filthy place, full of pestilence, famine and disease. It’s just a different place. So you must go out and buy new guide books. And you must learn a whole new language. And you will meet a whole new group of people you would never have met. It’s just a different place. It’s slower-paced than Italy, less flashy than Italy. But after you’ve been there for a while and you catch your breath, you look around…. and you begin to notice that Holland has windmills….and Holland has tulips. Holland even has Rembrandts. But everyone you know is busy coming and going from Italy… and they’re all bragging about what a wonderful time they had there. And for the rest of your life, you will say “Yes, that’s where I was supposed to go. That’s what I had planned.” And the pain of that will never, ever, ever, ever go away… because the loss of that dream is a very very significant loss. But… if you spend your life mourning the fact that you didn’t get to Italy, you may never be free to enjoy the very special, the very lovely things … about Holland.”

• Emily Perl Kingsley 1987

Can you please give us your favorite “Life Lesson Quote”? Can you share a story about how that was relevant in your own life?

“Find a job you enjoy, and you will never have to work a day in your life”

• Mark Twain

Work ethic was always stressed by my parents as they raised me and my sisters. Whether we were fixing a plumbing problem, painting a room or the house, roofing the house, mowing the lawn, or helping others with a project, my father always insisted on working hard and doing every job the best you can. I’ve taken that to heart and to this day, I love hard work and the satisfaction that comes from a job well-done, whether it’s professional work or a project around the house.

It’s a habit really. People often focus on bad habits, and those are challenging to change, but you set yourself up for success — personally and professionally — when you focus on creating good habits that can help you achieve your goals.

You are a person of enormous influence. If you could inspire a movement that would bring the most amount of good to the most amount of people, what would that be? You never know what your idea can trigger. :-)

I would advocate that the principles that underpin the Regional Center system in California take hold worldwide. In California, we have a law called the Lanterman Act that is a promise of community-based services and supports for people with developmental disabilities. It’s unique in the nation and has played an enormous role in advancing and enabling those we serve to live meaningful lives in the community. I’d like to see that happen for every child and adult with developmental disabilities, no matter where they live.

How can our readers further follow your work online?

Find us on our website: www.rcocdd.com

This was very inspiring. Thank you so much for the time you spent with this. We wish you continued success and good health!

About the Interviewer: Eric L. Pines is a nationally recognized federal employment lawyer, mediator, and attorney business coach. He represents federal employees and acts as in-house counsel for over fifty thousand federal employees through his work as a federal employee labor union representative. A formal federal employee himself, Mr. Pines began his federal employment law career as in-house counsel for AFGE Local 1923 which is in Social Security Administration’s headquarters and is the largest federal union local in the world. He presently serves as AFGE 1923’s Chief Counsel as well as in-house counsel for all FEMA bargaining unit employees and numerous Department of Defense and Veteran Affairs unions.

While he and his firm specialize in representing federal employees from all federal agencies and in reference to virtually all federal employee matters, his firm has placed special attention on representing Veteran Affairs doctors and nurses hired under the authority of Title. He and his firm have a particular passion in representing disabled federal employees with their requests for medical and religious reasonable accommodations when those accommodations are warranted under the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 (ADA). He also represents them with their requests for Federal Employee Disability Retirement (OPM) when an accommodation would not be possible.

Mr. Pines has also served as a mediator for numerous federal agencies including serving a year as the Library of Congress’ in-house EEO Mediator. He has also served as an expert witness in federal court for federal employee matters. He has also worked as an EEO technical writer drafting hundreds of Final Agency Decisions for the federal sector.

Mr. Pines’ firm is headquartered in Houston, Texas and has offices in Baltimore, Maryland and Atlanta, Georgia. His first passion is his wife and five children. He plays classical and rock guitar and enjoys playing ice hockey, running, and biking. Please visit his websites at www.pinesfederal.com and www.toughinjurylawyers.com. He can also be reached at eric@pinesfederal.com.