Most Jobs in Most U.S. Companies are Beyond the Capabilities of People with Disabilities - and the World is Flat

In a recent (November 2008) survey of employers conducted by the Department of Labor’s Office of Disability Employment Policy, 72.6% of the senior executives who were interviewed stated that the particular nature of the work done in their workplaces could not effectively be performed by someone with a disability.

Startling as it is, that statistic says less about the ability of people with disabilities than it does about how pervasively uninformed and misguided the majority of employers are. Beyond being a testament to the erroneous beliefs held by those respondents themselves, the premise that the nature of their work precludes people with disabilities from performing it has no validity whatsoever. It does, however, speak volumes about why, in the same study, only 19.1% of companies report that they employ people with disabilities and only 13.6% report that they actively recruit people with disabilities.

In the context of these statistics, is it any wonder that unemployment rate for people with disabilities in the labor force is more than twice as high as for people without disabilities - and that it remains virtually unchanged since the passage of the ADA?

Let’s think about it… over 70% of the most senior decision-makers in U.S. companies, over 70% the people who have significant influence on policies and practices in their companies… hold a basic belief that people with disabilities are incapable of being productively employed in their workforces. How many years ago was it that senior executives in those same companies would have readily said that, because of the nature of their work, women or African Americans or members of other minority groups couldn’t effectively perform many of the jobs in their company? They were wrong then, and they are wrong now.

Author and speaker, Richard Pimentel succinctly asserts the contrary; “There are no good jobs for people with disabilities in your company, but there are good people with disabilities for every job in your company.” (To make this point even more poignant, Richard sometimes adds; “… including C.E.O.”)

I don’t believe that this is malicious thinking on the part of employers. I just think that they don’t know any better. Like the rest of us, without the benefit of convincing information and evidence, or the benefit of a pervasive social belief to the contrary, they would think the world was flat. We have yet to achieve a pervasive social belief that the workforce represented by people with disabilities can be as capable and productive as any other. The flat-worlders are still in the majority! We have a long way to go to reach the point of critical mass where belief in the capabilities of people with disabilities is held by the majority. In the meantime, we have to work towards that day company-by-company, employer-by-employer, with the education and experiences that enable them to see the folly of their current preconceptions. This recent study just shows us what a long row remains for us to hoe in the hard ground of employer attitudes.

For me, the Pick-a-Disability exercise in the Windmills Attitudinal Training Program is a particularly powerful way to open employers’ eyes to the fact that there are competent people with disabilities for all jobs. Early in the exercise, attendees are asked to choose from amongst several disabilities – to choose the one that they might acquire tomorrow. Following much discussion and discourse, they are asked to raise their hand if they believe that, should they actually acquire that disability, benefit from a period of adjustment and rehabilitation, and have the appropriate job accommodations, they would be able to continue capably in their present jobs. Typically a solid majority of hands in the room are lifted. Attendees are then asked to leave their hands up only if they believe that, had they been born with that disability, they would have been hired into the jobs they currently hold. Preconceptions crumble in concert with the loud swoosh of dropping hands. This is explained as the difference between ability and opportunity.

Most employers don’t have a vision for the productive participation of people with disabilities. They haven’t seen it – so they don’t believe it exists. I believe that is important that we continue to profile and highlight individuals with disabilities who are thriving and excelling in a wide variety of careers. At the beginning, most employers are likely to see these people as anomalies, as “super crips”, as exceptions to the rule of the inability of people with disabilities. Eventually, as they encounter more and more instances of people with disabilities who are successfully contributing to the economy, they will come to realize that these individuals are not exceptions to the rule of inability, but exceptions to the rule of opportunity – that it is again the limitations of opportunity, not ability, that are keeping people with disabilities from readily contributing to our workplaces.

So, fellow change agents, let this recent report be a little wake-up call as we enter this New Year. Let it bolster our efforts. Let it be a reminder that we are all playing an important role in an effort to bring about a sweeping social change. We need to do all we can to change the current imperfect vision of our economic community that holds it as a flat and finite plain with sparse opportunity for people with disabilities. We need to open new eyes to the vision of our economic community as a full and robust planet, unendingly ripe for the full participation and rich contribution that people with disabilities will bring.

© Rob McInnes, Diversity World, January, 2009 (If not used for commercial purposes, this article may be reproduced, all or in part, providing it is credited to "Rob McInnes, Diversity World - www.diversityworld.com". If included in a newsletter or other publication, we would appreciate receiving a copy.)

Comment? Do you have a comment to share on this article? Please send us your thoughts by email. We enjoy hearing from our readers.

Email your feedback on this article... DNET@diversityworld.com

QUOTE: Workforce Diversity

“If you think managing conflict and managing diversity are loaded with problems, then you haven’t; thought through the problems of managing sameness. I’d rather be faced with trying to achieve harmony and goodwill among people what at one another’s throats than try to squeeze an ounce of innovation or creativity or risk out of a company full of photocopies of each other.”

- Jim Autry, poet, lecturer, and management consultant.

FACT SHEET: Making Workplace Accommodations: Reasonable Costs, Big Benefits

This new fact sheet from the U.S. Office of Disability Employment Policy features interesting results from customer service interviews conducted by the Job Accommodation Network (JAN). Of the 1182 employers interviewed,

• 80% use the services of JAN do so to retain or promote current employees who have or acquire a disability.
   

• 46% reported that the required accommodations cost nothing. 45% reported that the accommodation was a one-time cost. The median one-time cost was only $500.
   

• 56% reported that the accommodation increased their company’s overall productivity.

  See: http://www.dol.gov/odep/documents/reasonableaccomodatations.pdf

Are you interested in learning more about disability and employment issues? Are you an employer? An educator? A service provider? A job seeker with a disability? In our store, DiversityShop, we carry over 20 of the best books and videos that we have found on issues of disability and employment. Check them out now!

Would you like information or advice on a particular issue related to disability & employment? Tie into our network of over 5000 readers! Send us an email and we will post your question in our next newsletter.

Send us your question: DNET@diversityworld.com 

Is your organization holding an event that might be of interest to our 5000+ readers? Would you like to add your event to our listings?

NOTE: This Newsletter is available in both plain text and HTML formats. (HTML format has colorful pictures and graphics.) To change your format, click on the "change profile" link below.

Was this Newsletter forwarded to you? For your own free subscription, click here.