Special Article

“Let's Keep it Real”

By Joyce Bender [view bio]
President and CEO of Bender Consulting Services.

This year, many of you watched American Idol and saw a 17 year old young woman go from high school to great fame, as she was named the American Idol, Ms. Jordin Sparks. She is a very talented young woman.

Many of you who watch the show know the judges, Simon Cowell, Randy Jackson, and Paula Abdul more than you know the names of the contestants or past winners. Randy Jackson, one of the judges, has a quote he uses frequently when maintaining the integrity of the show and to say what he really thinks about the singer who performed. He does not want to “sugar coat” a mediocre performance, and often says, “Let's keep it real” and follows up with what he really thinks about the performance.

I am going to use this quote in reference to the high unemployment rate of Americans with significant disabilities that continues to soar, with only 35% of Americans with significant disabilities gaining real employment. This is a national disgrace! This is a tragedy! In addition, minorities with significant disabilities experience the highest unemployment within that group!

So – what are the reasons people with significant disabilities are unemployed in the United States? I would like to “keep it real” and look at some of those issues.

Many people tell me this high unemployment is because people with significant disabilities do not want to work. They tell me “those people are happy to stay at home and remain on social security.” Although I concede that not every single person with a significant disability in the United States wants to work, I will maintain that since I founded Bender Consulting Services, Inc. in 1995, I have only met a handful of people who did not want to work. I have met thousands and thousands of people with disabilities who do want to work and have hired over 300 employees with significant disabilities. I will maintain that the majority of this group really does want to work. As Tony Coelho, the author of the Americans with Disabilities Act once told President Clinton, there is one group of people who really do want to pay taxes – people with disabilities.

I realize there are people with significant disabilities who are not able to work full-time, or who do not want to work, but they are not in the majority. The majority of people with significant disabilities I meet when I speak at conferences, receive calls from my radio show, or interview people at Bender Consulting Services, Inc. want to pay taxes. It is hard to imagine that the majority of people with significant disabilities would want to live on the minimal social security check they receive. Let's keep it real.

Next, many corporations tell me they do not hire people with significant disabilities because they say they cannot find them, and never see them anywhere. “No one with a disability ever applies here for a position. I have never seen a person with a disability apply here for a job in 10 years. We told our staff to look for people with significant disabilities and we cannot find them.” I am sure you have heard this statement many, many times. I know that I have.

The question that must be asked is to what level are you seeking people with significant disabilities to work at your organization? How hard is your corporation or Federal agency looking for people with disabilities? What level of effort is your staffing group making? Are you working with groups like the American Association of People with Disabilities (www.aapd.com)? AAPD is a sponsor of Disability Mentoring Day, which occurs on the third Wednesday of every October. On Disability Mentoring Day, companies/Federal agencies host high-school or college students with significant disabilities for a day of job shadowing. This is a great way to build a pipeline of students. Do you work with Career Opportunities for Students with Disabilities (COSD) (www.cosdonline.com)? COSD provides a database of students with significant disabilities for employers. Do you work with the Office of Disability Employment Policy (ODEP) ( www.dol/odep.gov)? ODEP is part of the Federal Department of Labor and has a wonderful program called WRP that provides employers with access to a database of students with disabilities. Have you called them or gone to their website.

In addition, every state has a vocational rehabilitation services agency. You can go to RSA at www.ed.gov/offices/OSERS/RSA/ to locate an office near to you, to assist you in outreach to identify people with disabilities. Also, every college in the United States has a disability services coordinator or career services office that you can contact at any time. Finally, at Bender Consulting Services, Inc. (www.benderconsult.com), we partner with companies in the United States like Computer Sciences Corporation, WellPoint, Highmark, Bayer, and many others. We refer people with significant disabilities in Information Technology, Finance and Accounting all across the US. As I stated earlier, does your recruitment staff make a concerted effort over time, to recruit and hire people with significant disabilities, or do they go to one job fair and then check it off the list? Let's keep it real.

Another reason cited by employers when I talk to them about hiring Americans with significant disabilities is that they can only hire people who have experience. Well, with only 35% of Americans with significant disabilities working, do the mathematics. Of course, the majority of people with significant disabilities that you meet will have academic training, but they may be entry-level in experience. Don't you hire college students? How did you get hired? In addition, with the year 2010 not far off and a 10 million person labor shortage coming your way, you need to think about hiring at the entry-level. If you do not start hiring at the entry-level, you will be in economic peril in the next few years. Let's keep it real.

This brings me to what I know is one of the real reasons people with significant disabilities are not getting hired – that is called old fashioned discrimination. Some people do not want to hire people who do not look like themselves. Some people do not want to hire people who are different than they are. We all know this by witnessing racism which is still live and well in the United States.

I believe there is a built in belief that people with significant disabilities would be “too hard to work with” and “take up too much time” and therefore cost employers money. I believe this is one of the major misconceptions that exist in the American workforce today. I have had numerous town hall meetings with supervisors who spoke up and said, “we would not have time” or “this would take away from our productivity”. The actual reality is that people with significant disabilities may need an accommodation, but other than that, most will perform at a high level if you stop lowering the bar. Let's keep it real.

If your reason for not hiring Americans with significant disabilities is because you cannot see the “business benefit”, or if you do not understand the marketing power of people with disabilities at your workplace, call Carmen Jones, the President of Solutions Marketing Group, www.disability-marketing.com. She will meet with your entire leadership team and will certainly amaze them when she talks about the consumer purchasing power you are missing out on today. Let's keep it real.

I am tired of excuses. We need to do something today about this terrible unemployment rate. We need to target positions for people with significant disabilities today. It is time, today to “keep it real.”

Joyce Bender is President and CEO of Bender Consulting Services. Please direct questions for Joyce to info@disability-marketing.com.