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This article appeared in the October 2006 issue of DiversityInc magazine. To read the digital edition, click here.

Kathy Martinez, who is blind, was shocked to be asked questions such as "How will you find the restroom?" and "What should we do about employees who wonder if they'll have to pick up your slack?" at the end of a job interview. She felt she had proved she was well suited for the job, but those questions told her that the interviewer only saw her disability. Fortunately, she had the opportunity to choose another company.

"Now I'm managing a $2.1-million company," says Martinez, executive director of the Oakland, Calif.-based World Institute on Disability (WID).

Her experience is not unique. People with disabilities face stigmas and stereotypes daily, especially when they enter the corporate world, which is why those who are able to hide their disabilities often choose to do so. And that, Martinez believes, is a tragedy for companies, employers and potential employees.

Fear of the unknown is the main reason so many in corporate America struggle to recruit and retain its employees with disabilities. "As a person with a disability, you have a different perspective because thinking outside the box happens for someone with a disability every day," says Alan Muir, executive director of the group Career Opportunities for Students with Disabilities (COSD). "People with learning disabilities figure out how to do things differently every day, and companies want people who think outside the box and who think creatively."

However, even among the most active companies that recruit for people with disabilities, networks are relatively new. General knowledge about where to find recruits with disabilities is just beginning.

To learn how to best recruit people with disabilities, DiversityInc interviewed companies from the 2006 DiversityInc Top 10 Companies for People With Disabilities list. The companies included Merrill Lynch (No. 1), SSM Healthcare (No. 3), Eastman Kodak (No. 5) and Citigroup (No. 7).

1. Partnerships

Merrill Lynch partners with the Eden Institute, which provides services for people with autism. The firm also partners with the Special Olympics and with groups for students with disabilities for recruiting purposes on college campuses.

SSM Healthcare has found success partnering with ParaQuad, an organization designed to highlight the capabilities of people who are paraplegic or quadriplegic.

Citigroup partners with the National Business & Disability Council and the American Association of People with Disabilities. The company works as a corporate sponsor for both organizations and participates at their events.

"We've partnered with the National Business & Disability Council to bring in students and professionals from the metro area [of New York]; we tap into them to recruit and to find mentors for people with disabilities and to educate our human-resources community," says Ana Duarte-McCarthy, chief diversity officer for Citigroup.

Meanwhile, Eastman Kodak has partnered as a sponsor and employer of choice for the past three years with the National Technical Institute for the Deaf, which is associated with the Rochester Institute of Technology.

"These efforts put you in touch with folks you wouldn't otherwise meet," says Duarte-McCarthy.

Relationships with organizations are built through networking, calling disability organizations to tell them the company is interested in recruiting people with disabilities.

"We're trying to normalize disabilities," says Chris Fossel, national leader for Merrill Lynch's Disability Awareness Professional Network, adding, "Through working with the Special Olympics and having volunteers go there, it's helped employees understand disability."

 Finding qualified recruits with disabilities is so important to Merrill Lynch that the firm is creating a list of core suppliers who help candidates find jobs. "Centralizing this list and leveraging it to increase our ability to source talent will be a key focus for the remainder of 2006 and 2007," says Fossel.

2. Human-Resources Training

Sensitizing employees to the capabilities of people with disabilities and the issues they face is critical.

SSM Healthcare's Mission Awareness Team educated employees who do not have disabilities to the lives of employees with disabilities by putting them in situations that made them feel disabled for a period of time. The Mission Awareness Team put SSM Healthcare employees in wheelchairs, plugged their ears with wax and covered their eyes for up to two hours. Following the exercise, employees talked about their frustration and ways they had to think outside the box to accomplish tasks.

Training at Citigroup occurs on a local basis: "In the businesses, we do offer training, some in class, some online, and some training that occurs at the point of hire," says Duarte-McCarthy. "Citigroup is focusing on integrating disability awareness in its leadership training.

"We've always talked about the idea that anyone can be a member of this community at any time," says Duarte-McCarthy. "This is a community where you could be born with disabilities, you could become disabled, your spouse, partner or child could become disabled, and everyone knows someone with a disability."

Cingular features a disability task-force team that focuses on policies, practices, training and accommodating the needs of employees with disabilities, says Bob Reed, vice president of diversity for Cingular.

"All of our diversity training incorporates creating an inclusive work environment, which includes people with disabilities," says Reed. "We train all hiring managers in Targeted Selection, which covers EEO/AAP-appropriate questions in this area, and others."

3. Use Employee-Resource Groups

"If people [with disabilities] get a sense they're welcomed in a company, they will apply," says Martinez.

An employee group for employees with disabilities can help a company provide amenities to make recruits with disabilities feel welcome. Kodak's chief technology officer, Bill Lloyd, is the champion of its employee group for employees with disabilities. The group--along with Lloyd--meets with CEO and Chairman Antonio Perez at least once a year to update him on the various issues they face in the workplace.

At Cingular, the employee-resource group, EnAble, helps the company keep its pulse on the community, says Reed.

"EnAble helped us ensure the on-boarding experience and work environment are welcoming," says Reed. EnAble made Cingular aware that providing accessibility for employees with disabilities, such as computers screens for people who have vision impairments, attracts recruits.

At Merrill Lynch, during a discussion with his network's sponsor, Fossel recently asked what he would do in the following scenario: If two applicants, both suitable for the position, came across his desk and one of the applicants happened to be a college student with a disability while the other was not, who would he choose for the position?

"He said the one with the disability because that showed they could go through issues and deal with their disability--that shows creativity, persistence," says Fossel, whose Disability Awareness Professional Network at Merrill Lynch works with the Princeton University Development Institute for People with Autism, talking to students with disabilities about the career opportunities offered at Merrill Lynch.

4. Use Government Organizations/Job Boards

The Department of Labor's Vocational Rehabilitation and Employment Service group is geared toward helping veterans with disabilities. It is used by SSM Healthcare and Cingular.

"We publish our job openings at local military-transition offices," says Yvonne Tisdel, corporate vice president of human resources and system diversity at SSM Healthcare. Tisdel suffered a back injury while in the military.

"It is likely that people coming out of the military have a technical background," she adds.

Reed serves on the Department of Labor's Corporate Executive Advisory Council's Circle of Champions and also serves on the board of the Georgia Council for Employing People with Disabilities. Cingular, on a state-by-state basis, also taps into the databases of Employment Security Career Centers and State Workforce Commissions and the Department of Blind Services.

Companies utilize diversity-related Internet job boards, such as DiversityInc.com, where they know their job posting will be seen not only by people of color, women and GLBTs but also by people with disabilities. Besides DiversityInc.com, DiversityWorkings.com and Project EARN's online job board are used by companies on the Top 10.

"Folks with disabilities like to integrate into the work force," says Muir. "To call themselves out as different and say they need this and this, unless they have a strong advocacy sense, that could be difficult ... It all comes down to the supervising managers and how enlightened they may be."

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