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Hi. My name is Jason Davis and I live in Pittsford, Vermont. I am 22 years old and was born with cerebral palsy. I started working when I was 16 years old because all my friends were going out to get jobs and I felt I shouldn’t be any different.
After trying other jobs, one day a friend’s mom said to me “You love to talk. Have you ever thought about radio? That would be a good job for you.” That sounded like something I would be interested in, and here I am now – I’ve worked in radio for three years in July. I am a production assistant and do a little part-time DJ-ing on the air. They keep me very busy.
One of the reasons that I am as far as I am in my career is that I’ve worked with a benefits counselor in Vocational Rehabilitation. I always felt like I really didn’t understand my benefits and the system very well. After meeting with the benefits counselor, I was able to ask for an Impairment Related Work Expense (IRWE) for transportation as I needed a ride to and from work every day, and that allowed me to increase what I was earning to compensate for that expense. I also asked for a pay raise, and that felt great as I had turned down so many in the past because I didn’t know how they might affect my benefits; my counselor reviewed my hours in relation to my benefits and helped me understand my options. I definitely would recommend benefits counseling because the system that is out there is very complicated and this is a nice resource to help me understand it better.
Contributed by Jason Davis and Richard Giddings.
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Citation: Gaylord, V., Golden, T.P., O'Mara, S., and Johnson, D.R. (Eds.). (2002). Impact: Feature Issue on Young Adults with Disabilities & Social Security Administration Employment Support Programs, 15(1) [online]. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota, Institute on Community Integration. Available from http://ici.umn.edu/products/impact/151.
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