5 Things Every Company Needs to Know About People With Disabilities

e-mail article |  print | post comments | NEWSLETTER

Keywords: Americans with Disabilities Act, George W. Bush, deaf, hard of hearing, blind, wheelchair, disability, work force, disabilities, retention

A truly diversified work force includes not only a varied group of races and ethnicities but also people with disabilities. Of the 49.7 million people in the United States who have a disability, roughly 30.6 million are of working age, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.

How can you recruit and retain this talent pool of employees? Accommodations. A study from the University of Iowa states that "the primary economic benefits to an employer of providing accommodations may be in retaining employees and avoiding the costs of job searches, hiring and training replacement employees." So it stands to reason that those companies that are considered "friendly" toward people with disabilities have better employee recruitment and retention rates.

"Ever since [IBM] was formed, it's had this philosophy of standing up, even before legislation, for people who've been underserved," says Millie DesBiens, diversity program manager for IBM, No. 1 in The 2008 DiversityInc Top 10 Companies for People with Disabilities and No. 9 in The 2008 DiversityInc Top 50 Companies for Diversity^®.

"We hired our first person with a disability in 1914," DesBiens says. "And then of course during World War II, we brought in a lot of people with disabilities … So when you look at our history, which is long--over a hundred years--we had a history of inclusion before it was 'fashionable' or legislated."

The Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 was signed into law on July 26, 1990, by President George H.W. Bush and is a wide-ranging civil-rights law that prohibits discrimination based on disability. Still, after 18 years, some companies are still falling behind in their accessibility for employees with disabilities.

As a leader in inclusion of people with disabilities, IBM uses the following guidelines on strengthening its work force by displaying sensitivity and acceptance of all people, including those with disabilities:

Make it a part of your company's culture

When a company creates a culture of inclusion, people pay attention--and everyone benefits.

"Our culture is constantly evolving, but some things never change, and the inclusion [of people with disabilities] is something that has never changed," says DesBiens. "When you look at people with disabilities, in the early days, we were bringing them in for job-training programs. We hired a blind psychologist to look into and hire people with disabilities in the '40s. Now we're looking at bringing people in through internship programs so they get a chance to see what the company is like, all the different things you can do in IBM."

Think globally

Currently, about 10 percent of the total world population, approximately 650 million people, live with a disability, according to World Disability Facts and Statistics. So being aware of what's needed to accommodate employees with disabilities globally is essential to the success of a company, especially companies that do business in various countries.

"We created global building guidelines so no matter where you go in the world, if you're an employee or a customer, you would expect certain kinds of building accommodations [in IBM facilities]," says DesBiens.

Making your workplace accessible

"People with disabilities" is a broad term that covers many things. But regardless of your disability, the company you work for should have multiple accessibilities.

"We do a building walk-through that would generally apply to the blind and mobility, but it could apply to deaf and hard of hearing to be sure that in any critical areas that they are going to be, if there's an emergency, we make sure that we have the proper signals in place for them," says DesBiens.

Signals may include strobe lights to alert of a fire alarm or backup pagers in case the employee is not at his or her work station and needs to be alerted to an emergency.

"We try to keep everybody whole so if they are at the computer or not at the computer, they have the Blackberry," says DesBiens. "Of course, we offer interpreters; we offer something called video remote interpreting, which is a setup at their desk where they can see an interpreter at a remote location through a television screen and they can communicate with that person through interpreting. We offer real-time captioning, which … you can see on your computer as long as you have access to the Internet."

What about those who have limited mobility?

"We have the ramps, the lower water fountains, etc., but I think what sets us apart is this building walk-through that we do because we do things generally for our buildings but we also look at our employees on a case-by-case basis," she says. "For people with wheelchairs, we would go through the building and go through areas that they would have to frequent and make sure that, for example, the doors open or can be opened remotely. That they can get into the building, move around, [easily] use the restrooms and get to meetings. Then if they need anything at their work station, ergonomically or software-wise, we would provide that as well."

Support groups

Having other employees understand your experience in the workplace is something that can build confidence and help with recruitment and retention.

"We have a deaf forum so employees who are deaf or hard of hearing can help each other, help mentor each other," says DesBiens. "We have diversity network groups. We have diversity counsels at the major sites … looking at the different groups and making sure that they feel comfortable and feel welcomed."

Paying homage to people with disabilities

IBM does its part to celebrate people with disabilities not only because they make up an important part of the work force but also because of how they contribute to the overall makeup of the company.

"Everything I'm talking about, I'd put under what we call 'natural support,' and that would be our network groups, our internships, our course recovery, our guidelines, our people-with-disabilities web page," says DesBiens. "We have brown-bag lunches that we offer, particularly during July or October, the anniversary of the ADA or Disability Month, or even in December on Global Disability Day to educate or inform the rest of our employee population. We create a poster for Disability Awareness Month--again, another way to send a signal that inclusion is important to us. We have a few videos that we offer through department meetings, one on the business case as to why you should hire someone with a disability and the other one … on the 'natural supports,' many of the things I mentioned."

Overall, it's key to understand that people with disabilities are just as able to be productive in the work force and excel at their chosen career as people without disabilities.

"Often when you talk to people with disabilities, they're natural problem-solvers," says DesBiens. "They are solving problems every day, all day long, that you and I don't have to think about. So they come with a little extra intuitiveness sometimes. That doesn't mean they have the market over anybody else, because it still goes by skill, but they're problem-solving from pretty early on."  

e-mail article |  print | post comments | NEWSLETTER

Send Your Comments About This Article Now