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Diversity Matters
is edited by
Annette Merritt Cummings
Vice President,
Diversity Services
800.438.9911

National Disability Employment Awareness Month

Toward our goal of highlighting National Disability Employment Awareness month, Diversity Matters is reminded of a statistic from Military.com: as of last November, six percent of wounded US troops have lost a limb, double the rate of past wars. Many of these veterans will seek gainful employment, flooding the workforce with talent. In this issue, we spotlight disabled workers and what employers should know about successfully hiring them. 

“Employers cannot afford to overlook any available talent pool, particularly given the projected labor shortage within a few years,” says Annette Merritt Cummings, vice president, Diversity Services. “And many,” she adds “are beginning to actively recruit the disabled.”

Engaging the disabled workforce

Exceprts of our interview with Jennifer Todd McDonough, M.S., C.R.C., a training associate at the Virginia Commonwealth University Rehabilitation Research and Training Center.

Would you tell our readers a little bit about your organization?

Our goal as a Rehabilitation Research and Training Center is to study the support systems that are most effective for helping individuals with disabilities maintain employment and advance their careers. The primary stakeholders for this project are persons with disabilities, with an emphasis on those who are unemployed, underemployed or at risk of losing employment. 

What are some of the fallacies about hiring this workforce?

Many people believe that it is expensive to accommodate workers with disabilities. The fact is that most workers with disabilities require no special accommodations and the cost for those who do is minimal or much lower than many employers believe. Studies show that 15 percent of accommodations cost $0, 51 percent cost between $1 and $500, 12 percent cost between $501 and $1,000 and 22 percent cost more than $1,000.

Some employers believe that workers with disabilities will use more sick-leave and won’t be as productive as other employees. In reality, employees with disabilities have the same absentee and sick rates as their non-disabled coworkers. Industry reports consistently rate workers with disabilities as average or above average in quality, attendance, safety, and being flexible to work demands.

Another myth is that workers with disabilities will not be able to meet performance standards, thus making them an employment risk. Research from DuPont and VCU RRTC shows otherwise, indicating that employees with disabilities are as capable and productive in timeliness, punctuality, task consistency and work speed.

Read the rest of Jennifer Todd McDonough's interview >

Fast facts on workers with disabilities

The total number of people in the U.S. with disabilities aged 16-64 is 33,153,211 (Source: U.S. Census Bureau).

• The percent of people with disabilities aged 16-64 employed is 55.8 percent.
• Of the 18.6 million people with disabilities employed aged 16-64, 60.1 percent of men with disabilities are employed, and 51.4 percent of women with disabilities are employed. (Source: Department of Labor)
• For purposes of nondiscrimination laws, a person with a disability is generally defined as someone who (1) has a physical or mental impairment that substantially limits one or more "major life activities," (2) has a record of such an impairment, or (3) is regarded as having such an impairment. (Source: Department of Labor)

 

RELEVANT DIVERSITY SITES

National Multicultural Institute
www.nmci.org

Global Diversity at Work
www.diversityatwork.com

Diversity Inc.
www.diversityinc.com

American Institute for Managing Diversity
www.aimd.org

Catalyst
www.catalystwomen.org

Diversity Leadership Forum
www.diversityleadershipforum.org

Diversity Best Practices
www.diversitybestpractices.com/lead.html

Society of Human Resources Professionals: Diversity Forum
www.shrm.org/diversity

Bernard Hodes Group Diversity Services
Workshops & Presentations/Exhibitions & Sponsorships

Annette Merritt Cummings, vice president, Diversity Services, Bernard Hodes Group, will participate in the following:

October 23, 2006
National Association of African Americans in Human Resources
Workshop
Miami, FL
www.naaahr.org

October 15-18, 2006
Society for Human Resource Management
Diversity Conference
Los Angeles, CA
Note: Hodes will be an exhibitor at this event
www.shrm.org