A client needed to find a flexible job. OOD wouldn't accommodate. We helped her gain access. #AdvocacyMatters

March 24, 2017 / #AdvocacyMatters

A woman with disabilities needed a full-time job with flexible hours that allowed her to work from home. She'd been working as a recruiter, but, to her great frustration, she kept getting laid off.

She came across a job board website that screens its postings to ensure every job is legitimate--not a scam--and offers flexible working hours. However, it requires a small monthly membership fee. Since she had been working with a job developer at Opportunities for Ohioans with Disabilities, she asked if OOD would pay that fee. They denied her request. She called DRO for help.

A DRO advocate helped her file an appeal and represented her at an informal hearing about her case. The advocate explained that the website is the only site she'd seen that so thoroughly pre-screens its postings, and the postings didn't seem to be available anywhere else. The OOD supervisor, whose job it was to try and resolve the appeal, agreed that the pre-screening aspect of the website was critical to the client's success at finding employment and recommended that OOD pay her membership fees for two months. The client has found the website to be helpful in her search.