65 Organizations Recognized for Commitment to Building an Inclusive Workforce
NEW YORK, NY (October 2, 2023) – In honor of National Disability Employment Awareness Month, the National Organization on Disability (NOD) is proud to announce and recognize the 2023 Leading Disability Employers. In its ninth year, the NOD Leading Disability Employer Seal serves as a platform to spotlight the transformative contributions made by business leaders in promoting equal employment for individuals with disabilities. It also honors those organizations that prioritize diversity, equity and importantly, accessibility–setting a high standard for others to follow.
Leading Disability Employer Seal recipients are determined based on data provided by companies on the NOD Employment Tracker™. The Tracker is the only free assessment tool that helps companies better understand how their key business practices correlate to improved talent outcomes related to hiring, retention and advancement of people with disabilities.
“These organizations understand that by harnessing the talents of people with disabilities, they reap the benefits of a more innovative, diverse and dedicated workforce,” said NOD President Carol Glazer. “The Leading Disability Employer Seal honors organizations who have not only embraced inclusivity but have taken concrete steps to break down barriers for individuals with disabilities and create an environment for all to thrive.”
The 2023 Leading Disability Employers include:
Accenture
Ally Financial
American Heart Association
Auticon US
Bell Textron Inc.
Blue Shield of California
The Boeing Company
Capital One
Centene Corporation
Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia
Cigna
Citizens Financial Group
Comcast NBCUniversal
Digital Accessibility by WeCo
Dow
Eli Lilly and Company
Ernst & Young LLP
FINRA
General Dynamics Information Technology (GDIT)
The Hershey Company
Hilton Worldwide
Hugs Café Inc
Idaho National Laboratory
Johnson & Johnson
KeyBank
KPMG LLP
Leidos
Lockhead Martin
L’Oréal USA
M&T Corporation
Martinsburg Veterans Affairs Medical Center
Mayo Clinic
Melwood Horticultural Training Center
Hope Miller Foundation
Nautilus Hyosung America, Inc.
New York Life
Northrop Grumman
Old National Bank
Omnium Circus
PRIDE Industries
Public Service Enterprise Group
Puerto Rico Industries for the Blind, Corp.
PwC
Randstad
Reed Smith LLP
Regions Financial Corporation
Roche Diagnostics
Sanofi US
Science Applications International Corporation (SAIC)
Sempra
Sony Electronics Inc.
TD Bank AMCB
Tennessee Valley Authority
TIAA
T-Mobile USA, Inc
S. Bank
UKG
Unum Group
Vectrus Inc
The Viscardi Center
VSP Vision
Grainger, Inc.
Walgreens
Wells Fargo & Company
About The NOD Employment Tracker™
The NOD Employment Tracker benchmarks organizations of any size in six disability and veterans’ inclusion focus areas, including strategy, talent outcome metrics, climate and culture, talent sourcing, people practices and workplace tools and accessibility. All participating companies receive a Tracker Scorecard to develop plans and priorities for improving employment practices and policies. The 2024 Employment Tracker will open this fall; completion of the Tracker is required to qualify for the NOD Leading Disability Employer Seal Award and the 2024 Fair360 Top 50. To learn more, visit www.nod.org/tracker.
About National Disability Employment Awareness Month (NDEAM)
National Disability Employment Awareness Month (NDEAM) is an annual observance held in the United States each October. This month-long campaign aims to raise awareness about the importance of creating inclusive workplaces that value the skills and talents of individuals with disabilities. NDEAM also highlights the contributions of workers with disabilities and encourages employers to consider the diverse abilities and perspectives that they bring to the workforce.
About National Organization on Disability (NOD)
The National Organization on Disability (NOD) is a private, non-profit organization that seeks to increase employment opportunities for the 60-percent of working age Americans with disabilities who are not employed. To achieve this goal, NOD offers a suite of employment solutions, tailored to anticipate, and meet leading companies’ workforce needs. NOD has helped some of the world’s most recognized brands be more competitive in today’s global economy by building or enriching their disability inclusion programs. For more information about NOD and how its portfolio of professional services, Leadership Council and Employment Tracker™ can help your business, visit www.nod.org.
NOD President Carol Glazer commented today on the Mega Construction Project Program announced by the U.S. Dept. of Labor’s Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs (OFCCP). Funded by the landmark Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, this announcement holds tremendous opportunity for people with disabilities seeking employment with federal contractors in the construction trades working on large federally funded projects.
“When the National Organization on Disability, along with other leading disability groups, met recently with leadership at the U.S. Department of Labor, the issue of disability employment by federal contractors was one of our top priorities. So we were gratified and thankful to see this news about Megaprojects. Federal contractors from all sectors – including construction – can and must do better in hiring people with disabilities.
“NOD looks forward to supporting OFCCP’s promotion of Megaprojects workforce opportunities to people with disabilities, so they can meaningfully contribute to projects in their communities. Partnerships with disability organizations will be essential, as project managers endeavor to source talent with disabilities and fill workplace gaps across the country.
“A diverse workforce that includes people with disabilities makes good business sense. I’ve seen companies do this successfully when they make it a priority, and NOD stands at the ready to assist those federal contractors that need the help.”
About the Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs
The Dept. of Labor’s Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs (OFCCP) provides extensive and no-cost compliance assistance to contractors and subcontractors to strengthen recruitment, hiring, and employment practices, removing hiring barriers and promoting consideration of a diverse pool of qualified workers for jobs in the trades, including women, people of color, veterans, and people with disabilities.
By Carol Glazer, President of the National Organization on Disability
So as troubling and reprehensible as Elon Musk’s recent public questioning of an employee’s disability and use of a wheelchair was, there’s the more important and larger issue at Twitter: the total dismantling of their accessibility team.
Accessibility for users with disabilities has been compromised due to changes to the platform since Musk’s arrival. I agree with Senator Ed Markey of Massachusetts who this week said the changes under Musk’s leadership signal a disregard for the needs of disabled people. This could happen elsewhere and NOD joins him in his call to have accessibility features restored.
Explore how the updated 2023 NOD Employment Tracker™ provides essential data to companies seeking to become more disability inclusive and how L’Oréal USA used this tool to advance their workplace inclusion initiatives.
Plus discover trends and correlations, derived from 200+ companies that participated in the Tracker last year, including the most important disability employment practices that lead to the strongest outcomes, insights on how corporate America is progressing along the disability employment maturity curve, and what critical gaps remain and how your company can successfully address them.
Featuring:
Nick Iadevaio, VP, Diversity & Inclusion, L’Oréal USA
Felicia M. Nurmsen, Managing Director, Employer Services, NOD
WASHINGTON, D.C. (Feb. 15, 2023) – Recently the National Organization on Disability (NOD) in partnership with corporate members of its Leadership Council, convened their Policy Roundtable for a special meeting with U.S. Department of Labor Secretary Marty Walsh to discuss employment issues critical to people with disabilities.
Comprised of the leading disability organizations from across the country, NOD’s Policy Roundtable members and corporate partners talked to Secretary Walsh and other Labor Department officials about phasing out 14(c) certificates, which allow employers to pay workers with disabilities a sub-minimum wage. The group also discussed enforcing the Section 503-rule change for federal contractors, which sets a 7% target for disability workforce representation.
Photo of 2018 Policy Roundtable meeting, with NOD Chairman Emeritus, Gov. Tom Ridge, and representatives from disability organizations.
On behalf of all participants, NOD’s leadership thanks Secretary Walsh for sharing his time with our Policy Roundtable members to discuss these critical issues regarding the fair and inclusive employment of Americans with disabilities.
We are grateful for the U.S. Department of Labor’s attention to and engagement with these policy and legislative concerns of the disability community.
Photo of 2018 Policy Roundtable participants gathered at a conference table
The following national disability rights organizations attended the Policy Roundtable meeting:
National Organization on Disability: Luke Visconti, NOD Board Chair and Founder, DiversityInc; Carol Glazer, President; Charles Catherine, Director, Corporate and Government Relations; Josef Pevsner, Senior Manager, Research & Innovation Programs; and Charlotte Ohl, Executive Assistant to the President.
American Network of Community Options and Resources (ANCOR): Barbara Merrill, Chief Executive Officer ·
Association of People Supporting Employment First (APSE): Julie J. Christensen, LMSW, PhD, Executive Director
Association of University Centers on Disabilities (AUCD): Cindy Smith, Director of Public Policy
Autism Society of America: Kim Musheno, Vice President, Public Policy
National Association of the Deaf (NAD): Howard Rosenblum, Chief Executive Officer
National Council on Independent Living (NCIL): Jessica Podesva, Director of Advocacy and Public Policy
National Down Syndrome Society (NDSS): Bart Devon, Senior Director, Public Policy
Ridge Policy Group: Mark Holman, Partner; Becky Wolfkiel, Director of Federal Affairs; Zaida Ricker, Senior Associate; and Charlie Moffat, Legislative Assistant
The Hershey Company: Alicia Petross; Chief Diversity Officer
L’Oréal USA: Nicholas Iadevaio, Vice President Diversity, Equity and Inclusion
Toyota North America: Javier Moreno, Chief of Staff, Office of the President & CEO
Federal officials in attendance included:
Secretary Martin Walsh, U.S. Dept. of Labor
Allison Zelman, Chief of Staff, U.S. Dept. of Labor
John Towle, Deputy Chief of Staff, U.S. Dept. of Labor
Peach Soltris, Counselor to the Secretary, U.S. Dept. of Labor
Taryn Williams, Assistant Secretary for Office of Disability Employment Policy (ODEP), U.S. Dept. of Labor
Jenny Yang, Director of Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs (OFCCP), U.S. Dept. of Labor
Kristen Garcia, Chief of Staff for Wage and Hour Division (WHD), U.S. Dept. of Labor
In 2018, NOD spearheaded the Policy Roundtable, convening the leading the nation’s leading disability rights organizations to speak with a unified voice on issues critical to ensuring meaningful and equitable employment for the 57 million Americans with disabilities.
New Report from National Organization on Disability Details Troubling Trends Within Corporate America; Findings Available for Download
NEW YORK (February 3, 2023) – Despite the recent surge of employment for people with disabilities, due to remote working, a new report released by the National Organization on Disability (NOD), finds those higher employment rates do not tell the entire story when 59% of companies tracking retention of people with disabilities reported a 40% turnover rate.
The 2022 NOD Employment Tracker report, part of a multi-year survey of hundreds of major employers that collectively employ more than 10 million people, reveals that while much progress has been made to improve disability workforce inclusion practices, key metrics like Self-ID tracking rates continue to decline year after year. This trend will likely continue unless employers can create a work environment that allows employees to feel comfortable disclosing their disabilities.
“The report card for disability management in large corporations is measured by Self-ID rates,” said NOD Chairperson Luke Visconti. “Not only are federal contractors — which employ 25% of America’s workforce — required to track and report Self-ID rates, the rates also provide an insight into how inclusive a company’s culture is and whether employees possess the trust and psychological safety to ‘come out ’ with a disability. Self-ID rates have decreased by 15 percent and 11 percent over a two-year period (2021 and 2022, respectively) and only 72 percent of companies track Self-ID rates for employees with disabilities. This declining trend is one that we are working hard to reverse in the future for all people with visible and non-visible disabilities.”
In its 10th year, the NOD Employment Tracker, the only free assessment tool that helps companies better understand how their key business practices correlate to improved talent outcomes related to hiring, retention and tenure, helps employers to make disability inclusion part of their overall business strategy and to find the right talent while removing employment barriers for good. According to this latest report, companies that not only track Self-ID rates, but other talent outcome metrics such as promotions of employees with disabilities; improved accessibility from the start of the hiring process; rates of job applications with disabilities; and having a C-level leader disclose their own disability, revealed self-identification rates three times higher than those that only examined Self-ID.
“It’s important to note that while the simple act of measuring does not in itself produce higher Self-ID rates, it does reveal the value a company places on improving at disability inclusion in their workforce,” said NOD President Carol Glazer. “Employees notice these visible signs and can trust that their employer is indeed ‘walking the talk.’ I would encourage all employers to take advantage of our Employment Tracker to access how they benchmark against participating companies and receive the information they need to create a more diverse and inclusive workforce.”
NOD has also kept a pulse on the area of mental health. While companies know this is an area of great concern, they are still in the formative stages of providing the support necessary to be successful in providing employees with the appropriate tools and resources. Report findings show an increase in companies considering adding mental health ambassadors to their workforce and hiring consultants to educate their employees about this significant topic.
Visconti added, “We know that most corporations are not intentionally trying to exclude people with disabilities from the workforce. However, we do know from the data we collect in our Employment Tracker survey that all companies are not at the same level of competency. The Tracker survey is open right now, it’s free and you get a free score card — yet we will only have on average 300 companies who take the survey annually. If your company is not taking the Employment Tracker, you have no excuse for professing ignorance.”
The Employment Tracker, powered by Talmetrix, ranks any size organization in six disability and veterans’ inclusion focus areas including strategy, talent outcome metrics, climate and culture, talent sourcing, people practices and workplace tools and accessibility. The deadline to take the 2023 Employment Tracker and qualify for the NOD Leading Disability Employer Seal Award and the 2023 DiversityInc Top 50 is March 10, 2023. All participating companies receive a Tracker Scorecard to develop plans and priorities for improving employment practices and policies.
To download a free copy of the complete NOD Employment Tracker report, click here.
His performance was a courageous example of a person rising above, willing to suffer indignities from people trying to take advantage of his disability as well as simply cruel and ignorant people.
Living in Florida, I can’t say I have been closely tracking Fetterman’s brave campaign against celebrity doctor Mehmet Oz. But I sure took notice last week of their first televised debate and the shameful way the Oz campaign – and many of those who support him – have belittled and bullied Fetterman.
I learned that Oz’s senior communications adviser has said, “If John Fetterman had ever eaten a vegetable in his life, then maybe he wouldn’t have had a major stroke and wouldn’t be in the position of having to lie about it constantly.”
I’ve also learned that his campaign, upon Fetterman initially declining to debate Oz in September as he worked to regain his ability to speak with authority, released what is clearly a mocking list of concessions they would make to get Fetterman to debate. It’s shameful.
Fetterman is stronger than most
As I watched Fetterman’s debate performance, I did so with great pride and admiration.
Pennsylvania Lt. Gov. Fetterman is clearly stronger than most people. Average people are often crushed by the circumstances he’s fighting to rise above. I don’t think it was “painful” to watch him in his debate, as some have suggested. It was a courageous example of a person rising above an obstacle in his path, willing to suffer indignities from people trying to take advantage of his disability as well as simply cruel and ignorant people.
Equating an auditory processing disorder, or what others might describe as aphasia, with a lack of intelligence or cognition is commonplace and bigotry. This type of bullying cannot be accepted. The fact that anyone would leverage a widely held misconception for political gain, especially a medical doctor, is disgusting.
The sad truth is that ignorant criticism of Fetterman’s disabilities are bound to intimidate others with disabilities. The loss of their productivity already has a demonstrable impact on our gross domestic product. People with disabilities have the lowest labor participation rate of any group.
At the National Organization on Disability, we collect data from hundreds of companies to help improve human capital management of people with disabilities. Our mission is to help people with disabilities who want work to find it – and to help their employers maximize the potential, productivity and innovation of their entire workforce.
Helping people with disabilities move forward
Inhospitable work environments, transit and building facilities as well as belittling or bullying people with disabilities cause low labor participation rates of people with disabilities. It also destabilizes families. Gaining an advantage by expressing an “opinion” borne of ignorance (purposeful or not) is not harmless – it’s cruel and inexcusable.
It takes hard work to overcome a stroke, especially if there are visible signs and/or pain. It’s not hard to imagine why many people give up, and indeed, half of stroke survivors don’t return to work.
With almost 200,000 Americans under 65 having a stroke every year, this is not only a tragedy for those people and their families; it’s a major economic problem.
John Fetterman has demonstrated himself to be a fighter – a man with courage, drive and a remarkable lack of self-pity. He also must have a great support system around him, especially a supportive and loving family. I couldn’t have come back without my family, especially my wife, and my then chief operating officer, who is now my CEO.
No matter how one feels about his political opinions, I think having leaders who have overcome substantial challenges with enough humility to expose themselves to public scrutiny encourage and embolden others who face challenges. Even if the Senate candidate doesn’t win on Nov. 8, Pennsylvanians should be proud of Lt. Gov. Fetterman – a leader with grit.
People have told me that I’m a nicer person since my stroke. I certainly know I’m more perceptive and empathetic. Don’t we all need more empathy?
Luke Visconti, the founder of DiversityInc., is chairman of the National Organization on Disability.
October is National Disability Employment Awareness Month
NEW YORK, NY (October 26, 2022) – Today Carol Glazer was named one of Women’s eNews ‘21 Leaders for the 21st Century’ honorees for 2022 for her innovative leadership while serving as president of the National Organization on Disability (NOD), which champions disability-inclusive diversity in the workplace, marketplace, and communities. Ms. Glazer, along with 20 other honorees, received the award on behalf of NOD at a Gala held at The United Nations in New York City.
In addition to celebrating this year’s honorees, the Gala included, for the first time in Women’s eNews’ 22-year history, a series of panel discussions addressing some of the most important issues impacting women and girls today including disability, health, business, diversity, leadership, and philanthropy. Glazer, along with other industry leaders and disability activists, participated on a disability awareness panel entitled Redefining Disability.
“Women’s eNews selected these 21 individuals and organizations for their unwavering and pioneering support for gender equality from the health, technology and business sectors to the voting booth,” says Lori Sokol, PhD., Executive Director and Editor-in-Chief.
“I am truly honored to be recognized by Women’s eNews, especially during National Disability Employment Awareness Month.” said NOD President Carol Glazer. “I am a firm believer in emphasizing what individuals with disabilities can do instead of what we can’t do, especially as it relates to employment. It is society’s obligation to make sure everyone can be an active and contributing participant in the world we live in.”
Under her leadership as NOD President, Ms. Glazer has transformed NOD into the country’s premier resource and ambassador on disability inclusion with an employment-focused agenda. As a result, NOD partners with corporate America to create new career opportunities for the sixty percent of Americans with disabilities, including our wounded veterans, that are not in the workforce. She continues to be an advocate and change leader for Americans with disabilities and all underrepresented groups, working diligently to foster greater opportunities to be part of our culture and community.
Ms. Glazer shared the vision for the future of disability inclusion: “Our mission is to change the paradigm of people with disabilities from deficit requiring charity, to talent requiring opportunity.”
Finally, Ms. Glazer urged others to spark change, saying, “My call to action is two words: ’Come out!’ Let people know you have a disability. It demystifies and destigmatizes disability.”
For more information about Women’s eNews, the award-winning, non-profit global news organization, click here.
AboutNational Organization on Disability (NOD)
The National Organization on Disability (NOD) is a private, non-profit organization that seeks to increase employment opportunities for the 60-percent of working age Americans with disabilities who are not employed. To achieve this goal, NOD offers a suite of employment solutions, tailored to anticipate, and meet leading companies’ workforce needs. NOD has helped some of the world’s most recognized brands be more competitive in today’s global economy by building or enriching their disability inclusion programs. For more information about NOD and how its portfolio of professional services, Leadership Council and Employment Tracker™ can help your business, visit www.NOD.org.
With Covid prompting more employers to consider remote arrangements, employment has soared among adults with disabilities.
Before the pandemic, Kathryn Wiltz repeatedly asked her employer to let her work from home because of her disability, but was denied. Credit: Sarah Rice for The New York Times
Ben Casselman |Oct. 25, 2022
The strong late-pandemic labor market is giving a lift to a group often left on the margins of the economy: workers with disabilities.
Employers, desperate for workers, are reconsidering job requirements, overhauling hiring processes and working with nonprofit groups to recruit candidates they might once have overlooked. At the same time, companies’ newfound openness to remote work has led to opportunities for people whose disabilities make in-person work — and the taxing daily commute it requires — difficult or impossible.
As a result, the share of disabled adults who are working has soared in the past two years, far surpassing its prepandemic level and outpacing gains among people without disabilities.
Share employed, change since Jan. 2020
In interviews and surveys, people with disabilities report that they are getting not only more job offers, but better ones, with higher pay, more flexibility and more openness to providing accommodations that once would have required a fight, if they were offered at all.
“The new world we live in has opened the door a little bit more,” said Gene Boes, president and chief executive of the Northwest Center, a Seattle organization that helps people with disabilities become more independent. “The doors are opening wider because there’s just more demand for labor.”
Samir Patel, who lives in the Seattle area, has a college degree and certifications in accounting. But he also has autism spectrum disorder, which has made it difficult for him to find steady work. He has spent most of his career in temporary jobs found through staffing agencies. His longest job lasted a little over a year; many lasted only a few months.
This summer, however, Mr. Patel, 42, got a full-time, permanent job as an accountant for a local nonprofit group. The job brought a 30 percent raise, along with retirement benefits, more predictable hours and other perks. Now he is thinking about buying a home, traveling and dating — steps that seemed impossible without the stability of a steady job.
“It’s a boost in confidence,” he said. “There were times when I felt like I was behind.”
Mr. Patel, whose disability affects his speech and can make conversation difficult, worked with an employment coach at the Northwest Center to help him request accommodations both during the interview process and once he started the job. And while Mr. Patel usually prefers to work in the office, his new employer also allows him to work remotely when he needs to — a big help on days when he finds the sensory overload of the office overwhelming.
“If I have my bad days, I just pick up the laptop and work from home,” he said.
Workers with disabilities have long seen their fortunes ebb and flow with the economy. Federal law prohibits most employers from discriminating against people with disabilities, and it requires them to make reasonable accommodations. But research has found that discrimination remains common: One 2017 study found that job applications that disclosed a disability were 26 percent less likely to receive interest from prospective employers. And even when they can find jobs, workers with disabilities frequently encounter barriers to success, from bathroom doors they cannot open without assistance to hostile co-workers.
Workers with disabilities — like other groups that face obstacles to employment, such as those with criminal records — tend to benefit disproportionately from strong job markets, when employers have more of an incentive to seek out untapped pools of talent. But when recessions hit, those opportunities quickly dry up.
“We have a last-in, first-out labor market, and disabled people are often among the last in and the first out,” said Adam Ozimek, chief economist at the Economic Innovation Group, a Washington research organization.
Remote work, however, has the potential to break that cycle, at least for some workers. In a new study, Mr. Ozimek found that employment had risen for workers with disabilities across industries as the labor market improved, consistent with the usual pattern. But it has improved especially rapidly in industries and occupations where remote work is more common. And many economists believe that the shift toward remote work, unlike the red-hot labor market, is likely to prove lasting.
More than 35 percent of disabled Americans ages 18 to 64 had jobs in September. That was up from 31 percent just before the pandemic and is a record in the 15 years the government has kept track. Among adults without disabilities, 78 percent had jobs, but their employment rates have only just returned to the level before the pandemic.
“Disabled adults have seen employment rates recover much faster,” Mr. Ozimek said. “That’s good news, and it’s important to understand whether that’s a temporary thing or a permanent thing. And my conclusion is that not only is it a permanent thing, but it’s going to improve.”
Before the pandemic, Kathryn Wiltz repeatedly asked her employer to let her work from home because of her disability, a chronic autoimmune disorder whose symptoms include pain and severe fatigue. Her requests were denied.
Ms. Wiltz’s new job allows her to work from home permanently. Credit…Sarah Rice for The New York Time
When the pandemic hit, however, the hospital in Grand Rapids, Mich., where Ms. Wiltz worked in the medical billing department sent her home along with many of her colleagues. Last month, she started a job with a new employer, an insurance company, in which she will be permanently able to work remotely.
Being able to work from home was a high priority for Ms. Wiltz, 31, because the treatments she receives suppress her immune system, leaving her vulnerable to the coronavirus. And even if that risk subsides, she said, she finds in-person work taxing: Getting ready for work, commuting to the office and interacting with colleagues all drain energy reserves that are thin to begin with. As she struggled through one particularly difficult day recently, she said, she reflected on how hard it would have been to need to go into the office.
“It would have been almost impossible,” she said. “I would have pushed myself and I would have pushed my body, and there’s a very real possibility that I would have ended up in the hospital.”
There are also subtler benefits. Ms. Wiltz can get the monthly drug infusions she receives to treat her disorder during her lunch break, rather than taking time off work. She can turn down the lights to stave off migraines. She doesn’t have to worry that her colleagues are staring at her and wondering what is wrong. All of that, she said, makes her a more productive employee.
“It makes me a lot more comfortable and able to think more clearly and do a better job anyway,” she said.
The sudden embrace of remote work during the pandemic was met with some exasperation from some disability-rights leaders, who had spent years trying, mostly without success, to persuade employers to offer more flexibility to their employees.
“Remote work and remote-work options are something that our community has been advocating for for decades, and it’s a little frustrating that for decades corporate America was saying it’s too complicated, we’ll lose productivity, and now suddenly it’s like, sure, let’s do it,” said Charles-Edouard Catherine, director of corporate and government relations for the National Organization on Disability.
Still, he said the shift is a welcome one. For Mr. Catherine, who is blind, not needing to commute to work means not coming home with cuts on his forehead and bruises on his leg. And for people with more serious mobility limitations, remote work is the only option.
Many employers are now scaling back remote work and are encouraging or requiring employees to return to the office. But experts expect remote and hybrid work to remain much more common and more widely accepted than it was before the pandemic. That may make it easier for disabled employees to continue to work remotely.
The pandemic may also reshape the legal landscape. In the past, employers often resisted offering remote work as an accommodation to disabled workers, and judges rarely required them to do so. But that may change now that so many companies were able to adapt to remote work in 2020, said Arlene S. Kanter, director of the Disability Law and Policy Program at the Syracuse University law school.
“If other people can show that they can perform their work well at home, as they did during Covid, then people with disabilities, as a matter of accommodation, shouldn’t be denied that right,” Ms. Kanter said.
Ms. Kanter and other experts caution that not all people with disabilities want to work remotely. And many jobs cannot be done from home. A disproportionate share of workers with disabilities are employed in retail and other industries where remote work is uncommon. Despite recent gains, people with disabilities are still far less likely to have jobs, and more likely to live in poverty, than people without them.
“When we say it’s historically high, that’s absolutely true, but we don’t want to send the wrong message and give ourselves a pat on the back,” Mr. Catherine said. “Because we’re still twice as likely to be unemployed and we’re still underpaid when we’re lucky enough to be employed.”
Disability issues are likely to become more prominent in coming years because the pandemic has left potentially millions of adults dealing with a disability. A recent study by the Federal Reserve Bank of New York estimated that close to two million working-age Americans had become disabled because of long Covid.
Employers that don’t find ways to accommodate workers with disabilities — whether through remote work or other adjustments — are going to continue to struggle to find employees, said Mason Ameri, a Rutgers University business professor who studies disability.
“Employers have to shape up,” he said. “Employers have to pivot. Otherwise this labor shortage may be more permanent.”
Ben Casselman writes about economics, with a particular focus on stories involving data. He previously reported for FiveThirtyEight and The Wall Street Journal.
NEW YORK, NY (September 20, 2022) – National Organization on Disability (NOD) President Carol Glazer was named one of Women’s eNews ‘21 Leaders for the 21st Century’ honorees for 2022 for championing disability-inclusive diversity in the workplace, marketplace, and communities. Ms. Glazer, along with 20 other honorees, will be recognized at an Awards Gala on Wednesday, Oct. 26, 2002, at The United Nations in New York City from 10am – 3pm. As part of the celebration, Glazer will also be participating on a disability awareness panel.
“Women’s eNews selected these 21 individuals and organizations for their unwavering and pioneering support for gender equality from the health, technology and business sectors to the voting booth,” says Lori Sokol, PhD., Executive Director and Editor-in-Chief.
Under her leadership as NOD President, Ms. Glazer has transformed NOD into the country’s premier resource and ambassador on disability inclusion with an employment-focused agenda. As a result, NOD partners with Corporate America to create new career opportunities for the sixty percent of Americans with disabilities, including our wounded veterans, that are not in the workforce. She continues to be an advocate and change leader for Americans with disabilities and all underrepresented groups, working diligently to foster greater opportunities to be part of our culture and community.
“I am truly honored to be recognized by Women’s eNews, especially in October as its National Disability Employment Awareness Month.” said NOD President Carol Glazer. “I am a firm believer in emphasizing what individuals with disabilities can do instead of what we can’t do, especially as it relates to employment. It is society’s obligation to make sure everyone can be an active and contributing participant in the world we live in.”
In addition to celebrating this year’s honorees, the Gala will include, for the first time in Women’s eNews’ 22-year history, a series of panel discussions addressing some of the most important issues impacting women and girls today including disability, health, business, diversity, leadership, and philanthropy.
For more information about Women’s eNews, the award-winning, non-profit global news organization, click here.
For more information about NOD@40 Annual Forum on September 29th in Washington, DC visit www.NOD.org.
Welcome to the NOD Leadership Council site where members enjoy exclusive access to leading disability inclusion resources, tools and events.
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