Personal Assistance Services
Many people with disabilities use Personal Assistance Services (PAS) to carry on activities of daily living. Depending on an individual's needs, this can include assistance getting up and ready for work, bathing, dressing, meal preparation, house cleaning, or running errands.
PAS in the workplace vary, but may involve such things as retrieving work materials that are out of reach or providing travel assistance for an employee with a mobility impairment; helping employees with cognitive disabilities in decision-making; reading handwritten materials to an employee with a visual impairment; or ensuring a sign language interpreter is present during staff meetings to accommodate an employee with a hearing impairment.
Related Links
- Center for Personal Assistance Services at the University of California, San Francisco
The Center is funded by a grant from the National Institute on Disability and Rehabilitation Research (NIDDR). The Center provides research, training, dissemination and technical assistance on issues of personal assistance services in the United States.
- PAS in the Workplace, a publication of the Job Accommodation Network (JAN)
JAN, a service of the Office of Disability Employment Policy of the U.S. Department of Labor, has developed a publication that discusses PAS in the workplace. The publication provides a definition of PAS; information about using PAS to accommodate people with sensory, cognitive, mental health, and motor impairments; a discussion about PAS and the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA); and a list of resources for additional information.
- Personal Assistance Services in the Workplace
A publication of the U. S. Department of Labor's Office of Disability Employment Policy
- Directory of Publicly-Funded PAS Programs
The information in this document is derived from the World Institute on Disability's 1999 Survey of Publicly-Funded PAS programs.
- U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Study on Consumer-Directed PAS
This study was initiated to identify best practices for implementing consumer-directed personal assistance (CD-PAS) programs through the use of various service models. Twenty-three state and Medicaid-funded CD-PAS programs that used these models in eleven states were examined in the study. The study provides practical advice to state program administrators regarding the implementation of CD-PAS programs including information about how they can make available supportive services that some consumers may want or need.
- Centers for Independent Living (CILs)
These private, nonprofit organizations provide services to maximize the independence of individuals with disabilities and the accessibility of communities. Centers are funded in part by the Department of Education's Rehabilitation Services Administration to provide several core services, including advocacy, independent living skills training, information and referral, and peer counseling.
