People with disabilities can be highly successful employees and entrepreneurs. Let's pull together to create a work culture that recognizes the value of diversity.
A True Game-Changer
In our opinion, Senator Tom Harkin is the most influential politician to ever fight for the advancement of disability rights. He is responsible for landmark legislation, including the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), a civil rights law that prohibits discrimination based on disability. The importance of the ADA cannot be understated; without this achievement, people with disabilities would still be restricted in schools, workplaces, public transportation, and all areas of public life.
Businesses that hire employees with disabilities see:
28% higher revenue*
30% greater profit margins*
More likely to see higher shareholder returns**
*The Employer Assistance and Resource Network on Disability Inclusion (EARN)
**Getting to Equal 2018: The Disability Inclusion Advantage (Accenture)
Despite these facts, 81% of people with disabilities remain unemployed.
Just imagine if every company had competitive, inclusive employment.
Inclusion in Business
According to the 2020 Annual Report on the Global Economics of Disability, the emerging disability market will soon be larger than China with more than $1.90 trillion in disposable income worldwide.
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People with disabilities as employees continue to outperform their non-disabled counterparts. Businesses that include people with special needs see increases in revenues, profit margins, shareholder returns, and overall workplace morale. People with disabilities want to work, want to spend, and want inclusion as customers and valuable workforce talents.
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Read and download We Include’s Including People with Disabilities in Business guide for more information on how to find applicants with disabilities, integrate employees, and best serve customers with disabilities.
Top 20 disability Employers in 2020
Source: National Organization on Disability
Inclusion in the Workplace Matters
The biggest barrier in the workforce for people with disabilities isn’t their disability. Its misperceptions that keep them from being hired. 1 in 3 people think individuals with disabilities are less productive as non-disabled people and only 4% of businesses focus on being inclusive of disability.
However, research shows people with disabilities often exhibit more loyalty, creativity, problem-solving skills, enthusiasm for work, and commitment to a routine than their counterparts.
.Companies routinely see less turnover with employees who have disabilities.? Check out the businesses below who are walking the walk and showing that inclusion works.
Inclusion in business means building a culture of belonging for people with special needs.
Check out these stories highlighting companies that are doing inclusion right and seeing amazing results.
Connecting to Candidates with Disabilities
Create a more inclusive workplace by tapping into a gold mine of talent through networks dedicated to matching companies with good applicants who have disabilities.
Employer Assistance and Resource Network
Click here for a resource hub with websites, organizations, and valuable links to finding candidates with disabilities.
Click here to find your state agency that can connect you with candidates.
U.S. Department of Labor
The U.S. Department of Labor offers several fact sheets and other resources to educate employers.
Click here to learn more about effective recruitment and hiring strategies.
Review your Job Postings
Review your job postings to make sure they don’t include arbitrary, exclusionary requirements that could deter candidates with disabilities from applying.
For example, many office job listings state “Must be able to lift up to 20 pounds,” when in reality, the heaviest object most office employees lift is a five-pound ream of paper.
To write inclusive postings, follow these three steps for writing ADA compliant job descriptions.
Adjust your interview process
Provide alternative ways for a job candidate with a disability to prove why he or she would make a good employee.
For example, use a working interview in lieu of a talking-only interview or allow candidates to write down their answers.
Interviewers should be confident asking job candidates what they need to be successful, both in the interview and in the job.
Seeing is Believing
As the presenting organization for We Include, Help Us Gather (HUG), a nonprofit serving people with disabilities in the Tampa, Florida area, knows first-hand about the mutual benefits between employees with disabilities and their employers. Dirk is one of many HUG Friends who has found meaningful work in the community, and his story is an example of the real-life effects of inclusion in business.
Creating a Culture of Inclusion in the Workplace
Business owners or hiring managers may be hesitant to hire people with special needs because of a lack of understanding about how to recruit, support, and empower employees with special needs.
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We Include has organized information and resources to make it easy for your company find and hire employees with disabilities.
The Job Accommodation Network’s online search tool explores various accommodation options for people with disabilities in workplaces and schools. Simply type in the name of a disability and the search engine returns a list of ideas.
The Job Accommodation Network also provides A to Z listings by disability, topic, and limitation. Click here for effective accommodations that comply with the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA).
This Workplace Accommodation Toolkit provides training presentations, productivity standards, role-play videos, and much more to help management maximize inclusivity.
Ensure your workplace has wheelchair-accessible entrances. Ramps can be easy and affordable to purchase or build.
Create flexible seating options, like tables where a chair can be removed so people in wheelchairs can access the conference table.
Make sure you are providing enough room for individuals in wheelchairs or power chairs to easily navigate to where they need to go. The ADA recommends a 5″ diameter area for a turning radius in this Guidelines for Accessibility document.
Landing a job and building the perfect resume should be simple. Resume Builder offers tools and resources to help candidates with disabilities take control of their careers.
Be willing to adjust lighting or overhead music. People with sensory sensitivities process light, sound, smell, and texture in ways that can often be painful. If possible, decorate your business with muted colors and natural lighting.
Ethan Holt
Ethan Holt is an exceptionally talented model with Down syndrome with experience in print, digital and commercial TV marketing. Check out Ethan’s work here.
Grace Strobel
Grace Strobel is a groundbreaking model and speaker with Down syndrome who’s been featured on the Today show, Lady Gaga’s Channel Kindness and Born This Way Foundation, and worked with top-tier brands like Obaji Skincare. See Grace’s work here.
Zebedee Management
Zebedee is a specialist talent agency created to increase the representation of people with disabilities or alternative appearances and trans/non-binary individuals in media. Learn more about Zebedee here.
Gamut Management
Gamut Management represents people with disabilities to create a marketplace where businesses and industries can connect with them. This also gives Gamut’s clients an opportunity to have a say in how brands market to them, create products for them and represent them in pop culture. Learn more about Gamut here.
The Ethan Effect
Even though 1 in 4 U.S. adults lives with a disability, mainstream advertising campaigns rarely include people with special needs.
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In 2019, Ethan Holt, a young man with Down syndrome, attended a photoshoot hosted by Help Us Gather (HUG), the presenting nonprofit organization for We Include. Ethan stunned the HUG team with his good looks and natural talent for modeling. HUG decided that he should have the opportunity to achieve his dream of becoming a professional model.
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When local talent agencies turned down the opportunity to work with Ethan, the HUG team went straight to the brand and companies’ marketing teams, knowing that the demand for inclusive marketing existed. They were right.
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Ethan landed a job as Surf Style’s first model with a disability and the story went viral, reaching millions of people across the globe.
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Ethan’s success is proof: People want advertising that reflects their reality, and savvy companies large and small are realizing the value of true diversity. In fact, featuring disabilities in advertising was recognized as the #1 brand humanity trend by Biz Community in 2020.
The Ethan Effect
Even though 1 in 4 U.S. adults lives with a disability, mainstream advertising campaigns rarely include people with special needs.
.
In 2019, Ethan Holt, a young man with Down syndrome, attended a photoshoot hosted by Help Us Gather (HUG), the presenting nonprofit organization for We Include. Ethan stunned the HUG team with his good looks and natural talent for modeling. HUG decided that he should have the opportunity to achieve his dream of becoming a professional model.
.
When local talent agencies turned down the opportunity to work with Ethan, the HUG team went straight to the brand and companies’ marketing teams, knowing that the demand for inclusive marketing existed. They were right.
.
Ethan landed a job as Surf Style’s first model with a disability and the story went viral, reaching millions of people across the globe.
.
Ethan’s success is proof: People want advertising that reflects their reality, and savvy companies large and small are realizing the value of true diversity. In fact, featuring disabilities in advertising was recognized as the #1 brand humanity trend by Biz Community in 2020.
Ethan Holt
Ethan Holt is an exceptionally talented model with Down syndrome with experience in print, digital and commercial TV marketing. Check out Ethan’s work here.
Grace Strobel
Grace Strobel is a groundbreaking model and speaker with Down syndrome who’s been featured on the Today show, Lady Gaga’s Channel Kindness and Born This Way Foundation, and worked with top-tier brands like Obaji Skincare. See Grace’s work here.
Zebedee Management
Zebedee is a specialist talent agency created to increase the representation of people with disabilities or alternative appearances and trans/non-binary individuals in media. Learn more about Zebedee here.
Gamut Management
Gamut Management represents people with disabilities to create a marketplace where businesses and industries can connect with them. This also gives Gamut’s clients an opportunity to have a say in how brands market to them, create products for them and represent them in pop culture. Learn more about Gamut here.
