Diversity in the workplace: Creating Workplace Opportunities
for People with Disabilities
By Tamara E. Holmes
Nearly one out of every five Americans has a disability, according to the
2000 Census. Of the approximately 70 percent of people with disabilities who are
unemployed, two thirds of them would like to work, according to the National Organization
on Disability and market research firm Harris Interactive. Luckily for them, a
number of Boston-area companies and organizations are working to make that possible.
People with disabilities have a unique perspective that a smart employer can
take advantage of, says Kathleen Petkauskos, president of the Resource Partnership,
an organization based in Natick, Mass., that works to place people with disabilities in jobs.
"Customers
also have disabilities," she says. "By employing people with disabilities, companies can learn about that target market."
The number of companies Petkauskos has seen taking an interest in disability-friendly
practices has been steadily increasing over the past decade since the passage
of the Americans With Disabilities Act in 1990. The legislation, signed into law
by President George H.W. Bush, gives people with disabilities the right to equal employment opportunities.
"The passage of the [Americans with Disabilities Act] brought awareness to
the employer community," says Petkauskos. "[Companies] had to make changes around their employment practices."
Two-way benefits
But as companies searched for ways to make their workplaces friendly to people
with disabilities, many of them found that the workers weren't the only ones seeing direct benefits.
The Institute for Community Inclusion and Boston College Center for Work and
Family held a series of focus groups with regional employers and came up with
three main reasons employers seek to hire people with disabilities:
- By hiring people with disabilities, companies fill a job vacancy.
- People with disabilities add diversity to the workforce and show the company's commitment to the community.
- Companies that hire people with disabilities are viewed positively by the community at large because they are seen acting in a socially responsible manner.
A number of Massachusetts firms have taken their commitment to making the
workplace friendly to people with disabilities to a higher level by joining the
Massachusetts Business Leadership Network, a coalition of companies working to
make sure the workforce includes people with disabilities.
Among the companies that are members of the Business Leadership Network are
Citizens Bank, FleetBoston Financial, Harvard University, Massachusetts General and Progress Software.
Companies that are members of the network are "more than willing to share
best practices and strategies" with each other, says the Resource Partnership's Petkauskos.
For
example, the University of Massachusetts Medical School in Worcester, Mass., a
member company, ensures that the company retain employees who are disabled by
having a committee meet six times each year that advises the company on how best
to make the workplace more friendly to people with disabilities.
Among the initiatives the committee came up with were career fairs specifically
targeting employees with disabilities and the evaluation of all school buildings
to make sure they are accessible to people with disabilities.
Disability support groups
The University of Massachusetts isn't the only company that is addressing
the needs of people with disabilities by forming support groups of some type.
According to Joe Good, a spokesman for financial services firm FleetBoston,
the company has a Diversity Resource Group, or support group, for people with disabilities as well.
In fact, says Petkauskos, more and more companies are recognizing that people
with disabilities have unique needs and are taking steps to create groups that address those needs.
Companies that are looking to make their policies more friendly to people
with disabilities must start by making everyone in the company aware of the unique
needs of people with disabilities "from the CEO, down," says Petkauskos.
Once a company is educated about those needs, it can go about making sure
the building is wheelchair accessible, interview sites are easy for people with
disabilities to get to, and emergency procedures take into account people who
can't easily climb up and down stairs.
Sheila L. Fesko, research coordinator for the National Center on Workforce
and Disability, an organization affiliated with the University of Massachusetts,
says employers should also understand that people with disabilities have many
of the same problems that other employees have.
"Managers should understand how people's skills match with the job and assign
people based on their strengths," she says. Along those same lines, employers
should look for opportunities to assign mentors to people with disabilities, just
as they would assign mentors to other employees.
But at the same time, issues that are unique to people with disabilities should
be handled confidentially without other employees being made privy to the details if they don't need to be.
Employers also should work to make sure the workplace's culture is friendly
to people with disabilities by showing no tolerance for employees who discriminate
against people with disabilities, according to Fesko.
But the most important thing, the Resource Partnership's Petkauskos says, is that companies be willing to learn what people with disabilities need.
"Companies don't have to already be disability-friendly to work [with us,]" she says. "We will work with them."
Tamara Holmes is a freelance writer based in Largo, MD. She can be reached at maraholmes@aol.com.
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This special advertising supplement was produced under the auspices of the Advertising Department
of the Boston Globe in partnership with Shomex Diversity Career Fair presented
by NAACP Region II. It did not involve the reporting or editing staff of the Boston Globe.
