For Ryan Bellows, having a job carries special meaning.
"I got my own new car. I'm even thinking that now because I'm making more money, I'm going to be able to get a new, new car," he said. "I bought my own vehicles, I've had to pay my own bills. Those kinds of things never went away just beacuse I was disabled."
Bellows is one of 5,000 or so New Yorkers who have a disability who has gotten a job through the non-profit New York State Industries for Disabled, or NYSID, an organization that works with the public and private sector to create jobs.
"It was either make my own opportunities or fight for my own opportunities and thank God I was able to make my own opportunities," Bellows said.
The statewide non-profit organization and a Mohawk Valley company are teaming up to boost employment prospects for people with disabilities.
Bellows is among the workers at Hill & Markes, a Montgomery County business with 175 employees that is now working with NYSID to streamline warehousing and delivery of the products produced by organizations that hire people with disabilities.
"They're in an integrated environment," said Maureen O'Brien, NYSID's CEO and president. "They're willing and capable to practice inclusion and bring individuals here to work in their warehouse as well."
The goal is to boost jobless rates among people with disabilities in New York by linking them with employers, she said.
"We'd like to grow that number. Individuals with disabillities have a 67% unemployment rate in the state of New York," O'Brien said.
Hill & Markes CEO Jason Packer said the agreement helps his family-run company's goal of doing business with or hiring workers with disabilities. He also wants to expand his company's work with people of color and veterans.
"We want 25 percent of our business to be partnered with those organizations, 25 percent of our employees to come from those populations and then we also have sustainability goals," Packer said.
And the hope is an agreement like this could be replicated across the state.