- Title: Paralyzed Army veteran works toward becoming a pilot
- Date: 30th August 2019
- Summary: HACKENSACK, NEW JERSEY, UNITED STATES (AUGUST 29, 2019) (REUTERS) T'ANGELO MAGEE, ASPIRING COMMERCIAL PILOT, WHO IS PARALYZED FROM WAIST DOWN FROM A MOTORCYCLE ACCIDENT, SPINNING IN HIS WHEELCHAIR (SOUNDBITE) (English) T'ANGELO MAGEE, ASPIRING COMMERCIAL PILOT, WHO IS PARALYZED FROM WAIST DOWN FROM A MOTORCYCLE ACCIDENT, SAYING: "So, when I applied to jobs, it's like, we're the phone, they go through my resume. I was like the perfect candidate. And then when I get to in person, then you see their, like, 'Oh, you're in a wheelchair.' And I always felt like, you know, you don't know if I could do the job. How about you have me for a day, let me do the work, and if I could do it, hire me if not set me about my way. But in the real world not like that. It's like, if you're in a wheelchair, you're just cut off. But they physically can't tell you, you know, 'Oh, we can hire you because you're in a wheelchair. They just got to say, 'Oh, you know, we found somebody else that's better candidate. When it's really because you're in a wheelchair, we don't want the liability, so we're gonna pick somebody else." MAGEE IN WHEELCHAIR ON HIS BALCONY (SOUNDBITE) (English) T'ANGELO MAGEE, ASPIRING COMMERCIAL PILOT, WHO IS PARALYZED FROM WAIST DOWN FROM A MOTORCYCLE ACCIDENT, SAYING: "Like, the last job I had, before I got it, I went to 37 interviews. In my 38th interview, that's the job I got hired for." MAGEE IN WHEELCHAIR ON HIS BALCONY (SOUNDBITE) (English) T'ANGELO MAGEE, ASPIRING COMMERCIAL PILOT, WHO IS PARALYZED FROM WAIST DOWN FROM A MOTORCYCLE ACCIDENT, SAYING: "So, I ended up getting a scholarship while I find out about a program called Able Flight, which allows you to fly as a paraplegic, which I thought wasn't true. When they first started it, I was like there's no way… I'm like there's no way they gonna let somebody in a wheelchair get in a plane." MAGEE IN WHEELCHAIR ON HIS BALCONY (SOUNDBITE) (English) T'ANGELO MAGEE, ASPIRING COMMERCIAL PILOT, WHO IS PARALYZED FROM WAIST DOWN FROM A MOTORCYCLE ACCIDENT, SAYING: "When I got selected, I thought a joke, because the person called me, you know, we had like a regular conversation, and then, so I'm just thinking, he was asking me, like, regular questions. And after, like, about eight minutes, he said, you know, but I want to first congratulate you, you know, that you got the scholarship. And in my head, I'm thinking, shouldn't you've started the conversation with that? I'm like, you're just talking up, and I'm thinking, 'oh that's it, we're gonna just hang up, and I'm getting told?' As soon as I found out, I cried on the spot, because I always wanted to be a pilot, but the fact that I had my injury, I'm, like, you know, there's no way on this no fly as a paraplegic, and then having that opportunity, that was like, I think, the best thing I have in my life." MAGEE IN WHEELCHAIR ON HIS BALCONY (SOUNDBITE) (English) T'ANGELO MAGEE, ASPIRING COMMERCIAL PILOT, WHO IS PARALYZED FROM WAIST DOWN FROM A MOTORCYCLE ACCIDENT, SAYING: "And at that time, in my head, I'm just prepping myself, like, you know, 'T'Angelo, you're about to fly a plane, you got no legs. I'm, like, how this is going to work?' So, I'm, like, you know what, just have faith in the instructor, and they don't know this, it's in my head, I was praying to god that my instructor wasn't in a wheelchair too, because I'm like "I don't know how this is going to work.' I'm like, if something goes wrong, we both can't run. I need somebody being able to, you know, be able to get one of us out of the plane." MAGEE ON HIS BALCONY (SOUNDBITE) (English) T'ANGELO MAGEE, ASPIRING COMMERCIAL PILOT, WHO IS PARALYZED FROM WAIST DOWN FROM A MOTORCYCLE ACCIDENT, SAYING: "But the first time I got in the air, I don't know if my instructor saw me, but my eyes got watery, but, since he was a guy, with me being on a meltdown, I was trying to play tough. So, I was telling myself, 'you can't cry in front of this guy,' I'm like, 'you gotta suck it up.' But just the fact that I was able to be doing something that always wanted to do, I loved it." CLOSE-UP ON MAGEE (SOUNDBITE) (English) T'ANGELO MAGEE, ASPIRING COMMERCIAL PILOT, WHO IS PARALYZED FROM WAIST DOWN FROM A MOTORCYCLE ACCIDENT, SAYING: "The hardest part is mental. It's a mental game. I mean, if you can't physically, mentally prepare yourself and fight mentally, you can forget about it. You're not going to make it." EAST HANOVER, NEW JERSEY, UNITED STATES (AUGUST 29, 2019) (REUTERS) VARIOUS OF KESSLER FOUNDATION, DIRECTOR, EMPLOYMENT & DISABILITY RESEARCH, JOHN O'NEILL (SOUNDBITE) (English) KESSLER FOUNDATION, DIRECTOR, EMPLOYMENT & DISABILITY RESEARCH, JOHN O'NEILL, SAYING: "Essentially, since the recession, the beginning of the recession, there was a downturn among people with and without disabilities, and the downturn... The lowest point for people with disabilities was about 2013. From that point on, people with disabilities have been making steady improvement. Up until just last month. For people without disabilities, which is an interesting comparison, they started to recover from the recession in 2010, three years before people with disabilities. And, as you can imagine, they've been making steady improvement since that low point as well." LITTLE FERRY, NEW JERSEY, UNITED STATES (AUGUST 29, 2019) (REUTERS) VARIOUS OF MEGAN HELSEL, KAYAKING WILDLIFE SPECIALIST, WHO SUFFERED FROM SINE TUMOR AND WENT BACK TO WORK FOR THE UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE (USDA)
- Embargoed: 13th September 2019 10:50
- Keywords: Megan Helsel employment disabled labor Kessler Foundation laborforce work workforce T'Angelo Magee paralyzed handicapped
- Location: HACKENSACK, + EAST HANOVER, + LITTLE FERRY, NEW JERSEY, UNITED STATES / UNKNOWN LOCATION
- City: HACKENSACK, + EAST HANOVER, + LITTLE FERRY, NEW JERSEY, UNITED STATES / UNKNOWN LOCATION
- Country: USA
- Topics: Society/Social Issues
- Reuters ID: LVA001AUEV0WP
- Aspect Ratio: 16:9
- Story Text: Megan Helsel, a kayaking wildlife specialist, has her dream job, and T'angelo Magee is making headway toward his, a commercial pilot. Both say work is central to their identity. Both are disabled.
Americans with disabilities, physical and cognitive, in recent months have been joining the workforce at a faster pace than those without disabilities, according to data collected by organizations that work with the disabled.
Labor Day on Sept. 2 may be the first time the disabled regain an employment rate that was upended by the 2008 Great Recession.
The gains are the result of both technological advances and workplace flexibility that lessens commuting barriers, according to experts on disabled workers. But the gains also reflect the pull of a tight labor market.
With the U.S. unemployment rate at just 3.7% - roughly a half-century low - employers have increasingly considered job applicants they often overlooked in the first stages of what is now a record-long economic expansion.
The recent uptick is basically 'the full employment story' - it makes firms look at other populations they haven't previously considered, according to the University of New Hampshire.
Helsel, 32, was working in her kayak on bird counts and other wildlife projects for the U.S. Department of Agriculture in New Jersey in 2016 when a previously undetected tumor burst in her spine, leaving her paralyzed from the waist down. When her doctor broke the news about her sudden life altering disability, Helsel's first question concerned returning to work.
Doctors told her that she would never walk again. But kayaking was an option.
New technology has helped Helsel and other disabled people to get on an employer's payroll. Widely-used apps include Venmo, which allows mobility-challenged workers to easily bill customers, and iPhone's VoiceOver, which lets visually impaired workers conduct business.
More specialized breakthroughs include an electronic-stimulating leg cuff Helsel wears instead of a bulkier brace that restricts her to wearing sneakers. The cuff enables her to don thermal boots needed to kayak through frigid winter waters.
Helsel is among the roughly 15 million disabled Americans ages 16 to 64, which represents about 7% of all working age Americans, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics' Current Population Survey for July.
Labor force participation for working-age disabled Americans increased 6.5% in July from a year earlier, compared to a 0.3% increase for working-age Americans without disabilities, according to national Trends in Disability Employment (nTIDE), a monthly report issued by the Kessler Foundation, a non-profit organization, and the University of New Hampshire's Institute on Disability.
It is part of a two-year strengthening of the job market for disabled Americans, a rebound from the 2008 recession, which obliterated jobs for disabled workers at a faster rate than for those without disabilities, said John O'Neill, director of employment and disability research at Kessler Foundation.
The employment rate for disabled workers was 32.7% in 2008 and plunged to 24.1% in 2014.
While workers without disabilities also suffered job losses, they regained pre-recession employment rates by June 2017 and, maintaining momentum, their job numbers are higher than ever.
Disabled workers have yet to reach that recovery milestone, although experts say it is now in sight.
Slow and steady growth started in 2015 and boosted employment to 31.2% last month, according to the most recent nTIDE report. By Labor Day, the rate could possibly reach 32.7% again, said Sarah Boege, a UNH policy analyst.
Less clear, however, is whether that hard-won recovery can last through what some economists say is an impending recession.
Despite the upswing in employment rates for disabled workers, some employers have outdated notions about disabled workers that create barriers to landing a job.
Magee, a heavy equipment operator who was paralyzed from the chest down in a motorcycle accident, has gone on 26 job interviews in the past six months for such positions as office administrator for a building complex and front desk receptionist for a law firm.
"When apply to jobs, we're the phone, they go through my resume. I was, like, the perfect candidate. And then when I get to in person, then you see their, like, 'Oh, you're in a wheelchair,' said Magee, 32, who ended up starting his own mobile notary business in Hackensack, New Jersey.
His career goal is to pilot small aircraft for commercial U.S. travelers.
The U.S. Army veteran who is married with a 3-year-old daughter this year was trained in an aircraft with adaptive controls. He was among 10 students selected out of 27,000 applicants for the Able Flight program. Now he is searching for similar training to earn his commercial license.
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