Nathan said the man landed on his head and thought that he would be paralyzed for the rest of his life. But that didn't happen, he said.

"Fast forward 30 years, he's standing before you today," Nathan said, referring to himself.

While he was in the hospital recovering from the injury, he said another man with a disability encouraged him to work towards recovery and not give up hope. He said that is what he did.

"I don't talk much about it," Nathan said. "You put one step in front of the other. You can't stop and dwell on it."

Nathan spoke at the 9th annual Work Enhancement Employment Team luncheon held earlier this month at the Texas Station in recognition of National Disability Employment Awareness month. WEET is a collaboration of groups working to develop employment opportunities for people with disabilities, including the state, the Vocational Rehabilitation division of the Nevada Department of Employment, Training & Rehabilitation, Nevada JobConnect, the Southern Nevada Workforce Investment Board and the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs.

At the luncheon, the group honored four workers with disabilities and four organizations which hire disabled workers. The honorees were Pete Madrid, a dealer at Santa Fe Station Casino, Gene Shelton, a housekeeper at Palace Station, Timmon Plaid, a worker at the Las Vegas-Clark County Library District and James Allan, of the Bureau of Reclamation. The group also honored Cox Communications, the Target store at 3210 N. Tenaya Way, Saturn of Henderson and Star Nursery.

Nathan said since his fall, employers have changed their attitudes toward workers with disabilities. He said Las Vegas is now a place of opportunity for everyone, including those with disabilities.

"The good news is over the last 30 years people have stopped dwelling on it," Nathan said.

He said if employers are willing to give workers with disabilities opportunities, those workers will rise to the challenge. He said his company hires people based on their skills or abilities -- not their disabilities.

"People in general learn to get along (with) whatever they've got going," he said.

He told the story of an interview he had 25 years ago with a woman with one arm who was seeking an administrative position.

"I didn't know what to say," Nathan said. "She helped me out. She said, '105 words a minute,' " he said, referring to how many words per minute she types.

The woman demonstrated her ability by typing 104 words per minute with no mistakes. He said he hired her for the position.

Valerie Murzl, vice president of human resources for Station Casinos who also spoke during the luncheon, agreed that employers are hiring more workers with disabilities.

"Any obstacles or stereotyping that may have been going on in your organization is now vanishing," she said.

But Murzl said some workers with disabilities are still having difficulty finding work.

"We have people who have gone through 65 interviews before (finding) us," she said. "Those obstacles are biases and stereotyping that people (in hiring positions) inflict for no apparent reason. As (human resources) people, would we want someone with a college degree in a wheelchair or someone with a bad attitude? I'd take the wheelchair any day."

According to Mick Coleman, division administrator for DETR's Rehabilitation division, more people with disabilities could be working, but aren't. He said based on U.S. Census Bureau statistics, 10 percent of people ages 16 to 64 have an employment disability, which equates to 225,000 Nevadans, more than half of whom are not working.

Further, a recent study by the Cornell University Rehabilitation Research and Training Center shows that as the national economy has continued to recover, more workers have gotten back to work, but workers with disabilities haven't kept up with the growth in jobs. The 2004 Disability Status Report is also based on U.S. Census Bureau statistics.

The report shows the number of people with disabilities aged 21 to 64 nationwide who are employed dropped from 37.9 percent in 2003 to 37.5 in 2004. In Nevada, the percentage of employed people with disabilities dropped from 40.8 percent in 2003 to 38.2 percent in 2004.

The employment gap nationwide between people with and without disabilities has widened from 39.7 percent in 2003 to 40.3 percent in 2004, while that gap widened in Nevada from 36 percent to 39.1 percent.

"There's a tremendous gap between those with and without disabilities," said Andrew Houtenville, senior research associate for the Cornell University Rehabilitation Research and Training Center. "What it suggests is people with disabilities aren't participating in that recovery."

Houtenville said the most likely reason workers with disabilities are lagging behind other workers in employment is because of a fear of losing healthcare coverage provided through the Social Security administration. He said once a worker is employed they could lose health care coverage the agency provides through Social Security disability insurance or through Supplemental Security Income.

"What we think might be happening is during a time of a recession, people with disabilities who lost their jobs migrate onto those programs instead of using unemployment insurance," Houtenville said. "Once you're on it's difficult to get off because of fear of loss of health care insurance."

He said the Social Security administration is currently working to address that issue through pilot programs. Houtenville said it's difficult to determine whether the gap in employment between those with disabilities and those without disabilities is also because of discrimination.

According to the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, complaints of discrimination on the basis of disability have dropped from a high of 19,798 complaints filed in 1995 to 15,346 filed in 2004.

"Yes, people are still facing discrimination," said Chris Kuczynski, assistant legal counsel in the Americans with Disabilities Act division of the EEOC. "We're getting 15,000 to 16,000 charges of discrimination per year from individuals claiming to be discriminated against on the basis of disability. It represents (22.6 percent) of all EEOC charges."

However, he said EEOC officials don't have an exact answer for why the number of charges have dropped.

"One answer could be there's less discrimination against individuals with disabilities," Kuczynski said. "We don't know that's the case. There have been U.S. Supreme Court decisions that have narrowed down who is protected, that may account for the drop in charges."

No matter what the reasons, Nathan said employers should play their role in making the workplace fairer for workers with disabilities.

"Everyone brings something with them to an interview," Nathan said. "All they're seeking is an opportunity to prove themselves, to prove what they are and what they can do. That's what we have to provide, just a level playing field."

Alana Roberts covers courts and labor relations for In Business Las Vegas and its sister publication, the Las Vegas Sun. She can be reached by e-mail at alanar@lasvegassun.com or at (702) 259-4059.