WASHINGTON -- Utah has put in place an alternative application process for state workers called "ASAP" that lets qualified people with disabilities bypass the regular competitive hiring process. Instead, they get the opportunity to demonstrate their ability to do the job in a trial work period.

A state program also helps workers with disabilities understand whether any of their benefits, such as Social Security, Medicaid, Medicare and housing support, would be affected if they were to get a job, and informs them of available work incentives and safety nets.

"If you cannot convince the individual that it is in their best interest to try working at a level that will get them off of benefits, increase their disposable income and improve their quality of life, nothing else you do for them in the (vocational rehabilitation) program is going to make that big of a difference," Don Uchida, executive director of the Utah State Office of Rehabilitation, said in testimony last month before the U.S. Senate Health Education, Labor and Pensions Committee.

Companies like Walgreens that have made strides in hiring and training people with disabilities say it has helped their bottom line. "This was not charity; this was business," Walgreens president and CEO Greg Wasson said at the NGA meeting.

Wasson credited the program in Connecticut and other distribution centers with lowering absenteeism, increasing retention and reducing the number of accidents and associated workers' compensation costs. The company has since launched a similar program for its retail outlets that partners with state agencies and community organizations to train and place people with disabilities as service clerks.

Stephen Wooderson, chief executive officer of the Council of State Administrators of Vocational Rehabilitation and former director of Iowa's program, says he appreciates all of the attention the NGA initiative has brought to the issue and the change it is already beginning to generate. The NGA's focus on working with businesses to meet their needs is furthering an effort that has been gradually taking hold in the vocational rehabilitation community.

"Quite honestly for many years, we have been training individuals without a clear understanding of what the marketplace was going to be when they completed their training," he says.

South Dakota Gov. Dennis Daugaard brought home the point at the NGA meeting with an emotional story about growing up on a farm in South Dakota with two deaf parents. After his father was laid off from a job making cabinets, Daugaard remembers his parents arguing in sign language over whether they should accept unemployment benefits. His father then got a job as a janitor at night while working on the farm during the day.

"I thank all the employers here who open their minds and job sites to workers with disabilities because by helping them you are helping yourselves, but your efforts also unlock doors," he said. "They give workers like my parents a chance to live their lives with dignity and provide for their little boys back at home."

Daugaard told Stateline he believes workers with disabilities have a lot to offer employers. "Many folks with disabilities have an increased level of determination because they've had to overcome adversity in the form of their disability," he says. "They can in many ways become a superior employee to those without disabilities."