Star of Hope is looking to place adults with developmental disabilities in the workforce. The organization will have a steep unemployment rate to contend with, but that may actually help.

Since 2007, Star of Hope’s labor force has provided services, such as landscaping, parking lot cleaning and document shredding, to more than 200 businesses.

With layoffs across most sectors, there are a lot of duties being left undone. Perhaps these people can help pick up the slack.

“It may be a benefit to us,” Executive Director Gerald Miller said of the economy.

He is the executive director of the 45-year-old nonprofit that provides vocational training and residential services to disabled adults. Many of them work in its Coos Bay facility, shredding papers, scrubbing wine bottles and assembling products for Oregon Connection, the organization’s retail arm.

The aim now is to market their abilities to prospective employers who may take them on as full- or part-time help.

The state’s Office of Developmental Disabilities Services is encouraging the effort as a means to help disabled individuals become more self sufficient and more integrated in the community.

“It’s not only for the betterment of us, it’s for the betterment of the community,” said Belinda Strotheide, development director.

In the past, businesses have hired several clients after vocational training, but the organization is broadening its placement efforts.

“On this scale, this is very new for Star of Hope,” Miller said.

To do that, it will have to challenge the perception that people with physical and mental shortcomings are not able to meet an employer’s needs, explained Mariah Forrest, regional coordinator for the state’s Office of Developmental Disabilities Services.

“Some people look at their disabilities, rather than their abilities,” Forrest said.

It will be a matter of educating people, Miller said.

“We need to demystify this issue of what being handicapped is �” what it means and doesn’t mean,” he said.

Marshall Wagner, Star of Hope program manager, is working with state officials to learn how to effectively reach out to employers. He’ll help them find tasks that could be delegated to disabled adults.

Wagner noted that it’s no one’s intention to take anyone’s job away. Instead, he believes he can find tasks in the workplace that a disabled person can handle to increase efficiency.

“They can probably find something a higher paid person is doing” and assign those duties to an impaired individual, he said.

It’s a process Forrest calls “job carving.”

Jobs are assessed to see which tasks a mentally or physically impaired adult can accomplish.

“It’s taking what they like and what they’re able to do and matching that with what the business needs,” Forrest said.

Star of Hope will offer training to employers who hire a disabled person and will provide ongoing support.

Employers may have to make some accommodations, depending on the disability, said Beth Loy, principal consultant with the Job Accommodation Network, a national federally funded organization that facilitates employment for disabled people.

Accommodations are relatively inexpensive or cost nothing at all. Some methods include color coding various tasks, using pictures and symbols for instructions and allowing for extra time for training.

“These are easy types of accommodations an employee can make to integrate them into the workplace,” Loy said.

As far as following the federal Americans with Disabilities Act, “It’s not any different than any other labor laws an employer would have to follow,” Loy added.

Developmentally disabled adults can earn less than minimum wage. The Labor Department has created a “special wage,” which is based on productivity.

To establish a special wage, an able-bodied worker will be given a task �” like shredding documents, for example �” to be completed in a certain amount of time. Then that same task will be handled by someone with a disability. The difference in production will be a factor in configuring an hourly wage.

Loy has seen an increase in employers who recognize the benefits of hiring an impaired individual, but the prospect of paying lower wages has little to do with it, she said. Other benefits include employee retention, dependability and increased diversity in the workplace.

“Wage might be an incentive for some employers,” said Loy. “But most are saying, ‘Hey, we just want a quality employee.’”