Author: Luan

Meet Jacob Waltuck, an employee at a New York prop shop, whose Autism enables him to excel at his job.

In this newly debuted video, “Employing New Sources of Talent”, created by the F.B. Heron Foundation, NOD President Carol Glazer and Jacob sit down for a candid discussion about how he contributes at work and his love for his job—and how the talents Americans with disabilities offer are proving to be a benefit to employers.

This video is one in a series commissioned by the Heron Foundation as part of a campaign, Poor U.S.: Reimagining a Path to Prosperity, which recasts the narrative around what it is to be poor in the United States and suggests ways to reinvent the economy to provide paths to prosperity. Tapping new sources of capable, motivated talent – people with disabilities – is one.

The National Organization on Disability is partnering with leading brands to promote job opportunities for the 30 million working aged Americans with disabilities.

Watch the video on the Heron Foundation website.

December 9, 2016 – The Chronicle of Philanthropy today featured a podcast with Carol Glazer, president of the National Organization on Disability, on their homepage. Glazer joined The Business of Giving radio host Denver Frederick to discuss the evolution of disability advocacy and how data and technology are undoing workplace discrimination.

Denver Frederick introduces the conversation: When the National Organization on Disability was founded 34 years ago, advocacy for people with disabilities was shifting focus from medical matters to civil rights. Today, the nonprofit is “exclusively about employment,” says its president, Carol Glazer. “It’s the single biggest barrier to a good quality of life affecting working-aged Americans with disabilities.”

That’s a population of 30 million, only 20 percent of whom are employed, as Ms. Glazer notes in this edition of the Business of Giving. That figure has remained unchanged since World War II, despite legislative milestones like the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 and the Americans With Disabilities Act, enacted in 1990 and updated in 2008. Her organization has increasingly taken on a role as coach and guide to employers, offering data tools, webinars, white papers, and lessons from corporations like Lowe’s and Starbucks that have set the pace in integrating people with disabilities into the work force.

In this conversation, Ms. Glazer details the National Organization on Disability’s efforts to remake workplace culture and overcome “the tyranny of low expectations,” promoting technology that levels the playing field for workers with disabilities and helping employers realize the benefits in productivity, persistence, and dedication that comes with hiring people used to navigating challenges on a daily basis.

Listen to the full interview below and/or read a transcript provided by the Business of Giving at the Chronicle of Philanthropy.

This post originally appeared on The Huffington Post Business Blog where NOD President Carol Glazer regularly contributes to the ongoing discussion about disability in America and how we can continue closing the gap for people with disabilities in the workforce.

The number of college graduates with disabilities is on the rise, as is the number of diversity-conscious companies looking to hire them. Yet, of the 1.4 million people with disabilities who have college degrees, only about 40% report to be working. Many are living below the poverty line.

The poor job placement of students with disabilities is not only a social justice failure, it is a lost opportunity to address the talent needs of today’s employers. It also begs the question: why aren’t colleges and universities doing more to prepare all of our students for careers?

The research Institute SRI International reported that the number of students with disabilities attending college is rising, citing that in 2010, 46% of young adults with disabilities were attending a college or university within four years of leaving high school, compared with 26% in 1990. Much of this is attributed to accommodations within the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), strengthened by the Obama administration, that better support individuals with disabilities throughout their academic trajectory.

Additionally, in 2014, the Obama administration enacted new rules for Section 503 of the Rehabilitation Act (RA), requiring employers receiving government contracts to set a 7% disabilities goal across all positions, not just those requiring low skills and limited education. The new ruling means that employers can no longer satisfy diversity criteria by hiring people with disabilities for the loading dock or mail room. They need college graduates.

The educational gains made through accommodations combined with government-imposed hiring incentives would appear to be a public policy home-run for graduates with disabilities yet the employment numbers aren’t moving despite the high supply/high demand scenario.

For more than thirty years, the National Organization on Disability (NOD) has been striving to increase job opportunities and economic self-sufficiency for the 29 million working aged Americans with disabilities. Much of our work involves connecting employers seeking to expand their diversity initiatives with work-ready candidates. For employers hoping to hire graduates with disabilities, this has been particularly challenging.

Traditional job fairs aren’t producing the number of candidates with disabilities needed to fill positions; meanwhile, the likely source for such candidates – college recruiting offices – have, thus far, not risen to the challenge. In fact, the disconnect between those who support students with disabilities on campus and those who counsel and support career-seeking students of all abilities is a major obstacle.

A new partnership between NOD and Career Opportunities for Students with Disabilities (COSD) has been working on addressing the problem, starting with exploring what’s happening – or not happening within college recruitment offices. In our 2014 report “Bridging the Employment Gap for Students with Disabilities” we found that at many schools, the career services office — which assists students in preparing for and gaining employment —lacked a connection to the office of disabled student services, which exists for a different purpose – to ensure proper accessibility and accommodations while students with disabilities are on campus.

This disconnect leaves a gap, both for employers seeking to diversify their work force and for students with disabilities who are not gaining access to the same services and opportunities as their peers without disabilities.

NOD and COSD are working with colleges and universities to close this gap by helping them implement recommendations such as the appointment of a liaison among offices dedicated to coordinating and sharing resources. Our annual conference, held this week in Boston, brings together employers, administrators and students for employment opportunities as well as strategy sessions on how to increase the students with disabilities’ pipeline.

While progress is being made in this area, we are also working on some of the less practical, more philosophical, barriers to employment such as confidentiality, stigma and bias. Historically, students with disabilities looking for jobs were encouraged to hide their disabilities from their potential employers, particularly those with “invisible” disabilities. In 2008, the ADA Amendment Act expanded protection for people with all kinds of disabilities, including dyslexia, anxiety disorders, ADHD and autism spectrum disorders. Stigma surrounding mental health disabilities continues to dissuade many students with these disabilities from disclosing them.

The consequences of not reporting are many and include the fact that students with disabilities are not getting the career support they and their peers without disabilities need to gain employment such as internship opportunities, and resume and interviewing support. This also keeps colleges and universities from gathering the information that would allow them to measure students’ progress over time and implement data bases that can be used by employers. Without this information, students with disabilities are invisible job candidates.

Finally, to fully address the employment gap for students with disabilities, we must all put aside the biases that lead to the tyranny of low expectations. Colleges and universities should presume that all of their students will seek and gain employment, including those with disabilities. Too often, we congratulate these students for having made it to college and expect little of them going forward. Doing so is a disservice to all of us.

EMPLOYEES WITH A VISIBLE DISABILITY REPORT GREATER WORK SATISFACTION THAN THOSE WITH A NON-VISIBLE DISABILITY

86% of Women and Men Respondents With A Visible Disability Disclose Their Issue at Work, Report Greater Happiness, Respect and Accommodation at Work Than Non-Visible

NEW YORK, October 20, 2016 — A new survey, released today, entitled Disabilities in the Workplace sheds important new information on how disability affects workplace experiences, employee engagement and overall career satisfaction. Conducted by the Working Mother Research Institute and sponsored by PwC, the survey of 1,368 women and men with disabilities, three-quarters of whom work full-time, reveals employees with a visible disability have much greater satisfaction at work across the board than employees with a non-visible disability, including in the hiring process, advancement opportunities, and accommodations at work.

October is National Disability Employment Awareness Month. The full survey report, done in partnership with the National Organization on Disability,  can be found on workingmother.com, also reveals that:

• A vast majority (86%) of people with a visible disability disclose it to their employers, as opposed to only 67% with a non-visible disability—and 80% of men disclose their disability while only 68% of women say they do.
• Employees with a visible disability are more likely to say they are excited to go to work each day (75% vs. 58%).  They are also more likely to believe their supervisor cares about their career (76 vs. 66%) and they are satisfied with how their career is progressing (78% vs. 66%).
• The survey shows that employers can be less responsive to a non-visible disability. Indeed, one-third of respondents with a non-visible disability choose not to tell their employer. Of those who don’t, 43% say they keep it a secret because they want to hide their disability from their employer or don’t feel comfortable bringing it up.
• Men with disabilities are more satisfied at work than women.. The male survey respondents say they feel more positive than women about their career prospects (69 vs. 60%), support for work/family demands from supervisors (74% vs. 63%), and how much their opinion counts at work (73% vs. 61%). One striking finding is that 79% of respondents with a disability report having a spouse at home who also has a disability, which the report says “may magnify a woman’s burden.”
• The most common non-visible disabilities reported in the survey were: post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), cognitive impairments, back and spine impairments, and difficulties with hearing and vision.

Jennifer, Owens, editorial director, Working Mother Media, says, “The survey reveals a gender gap of women struggling harder with disability than men—women with a disability are less satisfied with their compensation, job security and career prospects than men with a disability. There is a tremendous opportunity for companies to tap into a huge pool of unemployed and underemployed talent, and ways for them to best serve workers who may need more flexibility and accommodation.”

Carol Glazer, president of the National Organization on Disability (NOD) says, “We find anecdotally that disclosing a disability at work can free up a huge amount of ‘emotional real estate.’…Being one’s full self at work, by disclosing a disability at a disability-friendly employer, can increase productivity by increasing trust with co-workers, bosses and lessen the stress from hiding it.” NOD served as Working Mother’s knowledge partner on the study.

Non-visible Disabilities: On the Job

• Employees with a non-visible disability report less satisfaction with their company’s process of requesting accommodations than those with a visible one.
• Thirty-one percent of women with disabilities who had an accommodation request rejected by an employer say they were told that their accommodation was “not necessary” vs. only 18% of men.
• People with non-visible disabilities express less satisfaction and ease in the workplace with an overall satisfaction index that lags behind people with visible disabilities by 13 percentage points (measured across 13 indices).  They are less likely to be satisfied with how their careers are progressing or to believe job changes are possible to accommodate their disability.

Visible Disabilities: Getting Hired

• Most respondents with a visible disability say that the hiring process went well, with 89% noting that an initial job recruiter discussed their disability respectfully with them. A majority (85%) of respondents with visible disabilities say, “my transition to the workplace went smoothly.”

Improvements in the Recruiting Process

• Fifty-nine percent of respondents say “a better understanding of the company’s policy regarding the disabled and accommodations” would be important for improving their experience with the recruiting process vs. 44% of those with a non-visible disability.
• Interestingly, 31% of those with a non-visible disability expressed that a manager who was knowledgeable about their disability would be helpful while only 17% with visible disabilities agree.

Subha V. Barry, VP, General Manager, Working Mother Media, notes, “Today 8 in 10 people with disabilities don’t have jobs. The most important issue for companies is to develop a best practices policy to foster an inclusive culture to help hire and accommodate people with disabilities.  The report found that those with a mentor have a much more positive workplace experience and higher satisfaction with their career progress than those without a mentor.”

About the Methodology

The Working Mother Research Institute developed a survey and fielded it nationally in March and April, 2016. A total of 1,882 employed people—51% men and 49% women—made up the sample. Of those,

1,368 had a disability, more than three-quarters work full-time and were hired at their current job with the disability they have now. The average age of the participants is 39 years old, 61% are married or partnered, and 55% have children under 18 at home.

About Working Mother Media

Working Mother Media (WMM), a division of Bonnier Corporation (bonnier.com), publishes Working Mother magazine and its companion website, workingmother.com. The Working Mother Research Institute (workingmother.com/wmri), the National Association for Female Executives (nafe.com) and Diversity Best Practices (diversitybestpractices.com) are also units within WMM. WMM’s mission is to serve as a champion of culture change. Working Mother magazine is the only national magazine for career-committed mothers. Follow us on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and Pinterest.

About PwC

Creating value for our clients, our people and the communities we live and work in is at the heart of PwC. We’re a member of the PwC network, which has firms in 157 countries with more than 223,000 people. We’re committed to delivering quality in assurance, tax and advisory services. And what binds us together is one common purpose – to build trust in society and solve important problems.

About NOD

The National Organization on Disability (NOD) is a private, non-profit organization that seeks to increase employment opportunities for the 79 percent of working age Americans with disabilities who are not employed. To achieve this goal, NOD offers a suite of employment solutions, tailored to 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 professional services, CEO Council of Corporate Leaders and Disability Employment Tracker™ can help your business, visit www.NOD.org.  Follow us on Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn.

Blog by Patricia A. Shiu, the director of the U.S. Department of Labor’s Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs.

Inclusive, diverse workplaces are good for business. But how can businesses find qualified workers of diverse backgrounds and abilities? How does creating a culture of inclusion affect this and other diversity issues in the modern workplace?  How can government and business work together to achieve common goals of equal employment opportunity, increased productivity and success?

These were some of the issues the Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs raised when it hosted a disability business roundtable this October, “Best Practices and Strategies for Success.” The first of its kind for OFCCP, the event attracted 60 individuals from the federal contractor community, such as Northrop Grumman, 3M, CVS, Sprint, Raytheon and Sodexo, as well as representatives from colleges, universities and disability organizations. As contractors heard and learned from others in the business community, the discussions were open and frank.

OFCCP strengthened its regulations implementing Section 503 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 in September 2013, by, among other things, creating a 7 percent aspirational goal for contractors, and focusing on data collection and data-based decision making. Since that time OFCCP has engaged in a continuing dialogue with contractors. We have listened and learned about the challenges they face in meeting that aspirational goal.

First, contractors state that they experience difficulty finding individuals with disabilities who have the skills and training necessary to fill existing job vacancies. Second, contractors have reported that they find that individuals with disabilities seldom self-identify unless reasonable accommodation is needed. Despite this, many contractors and other employers shared innovative and time-tested approaches that they have used to address these important issues.

The roundtable provided a forum for businesses to share best practices, effective strategies, experiences and lessons learned. It tapped into the knowledge and experience of corporate leaders who have demonstrated a commitment to opening the doors of opportunity and fostering a welcoming workplace.

The half-day event featured two panels of corporate leaders from different sectors, who shared their companies’ successes and promising approaches for fostering voluntary self-identification, and for increasing the hiring and retention of individuals with disabilities.

• Prudential, PNC and Merck increased self-identification rates by developing comprehensive self-identification strategies, and creating an inclusive culture in every line of business.
• First Bank of Omaha increased its employee response rate for its self-identification campaign to nearly 70 percent through high employee engagement strategies.
• Boston Scientific and General Motors focused on creating strategic partnerships with colleges and universities to identify students with disabilities in STEM programs.
• Giant Eagle and Toys R Us used job coaches and other means to recruit, hire, train, promote and retain more workers with disabilities.

An executive from United Technologies Corp. also shared why recruiting individuals with disabilities is good for business, and described the company’s challenges and successes in its efforts to recruit and retain individuals with disabilities.

The roundtable is part of our larger strategy to expand direct engagement with federal contractors to help them successfully implement Section 503 and other agency regulations. It confirmed that many employers are interested in doing more to increase the employment of individuals with disabilities, and that business and government can work together to make this happen.

It also affirmed a recent statement by Gov. Tom Ridge, chair of the National Organization for Disability, when describing the impact of the Section 503 regulations: “[W]e are already beginning to see the signs of progress. Slow and incremental for sure, but progress nonetheless.”

We look forward to building on that progress in the future. For more information about the agency and its outreach efforts, visit dol.gov/ofccp.

Read the blog on the USDOL website.

This post originally appeared on The Huffington Post Business Blog where NOD President Carol Glazer regularly contributes to the ongoing discussion about disability in America and how we can continue closing the gap for people with disabilities in the workforce.

Over a remarkable ten-day stretch, the issue of employment for Americans with disabilities suddenly found itself in the front pages of national papers and a topic of discussion among our nation’s most influential philanthropies and those who seek their funding. For those of us who spend our lives trying to find solutions to why millions of Americans with disabilities can’t find jobs, these two events have rattled our walls in a very positive way.

It started in mid-September with a remarkable mea culpa; a surprising admission from the highly respected leader of the Ford Foundation. President Darren Walker used the occasion of his annual letter to his constituents to admit that a new effort by his foundation, the nation’s second-largest philanthropy, to disrupt inequality had neglected people with disabilities. Walker didn’t just own the mistake, rather he pledged to raise the issue on a national stage so that disability is a consideration in all future grant-making decisions by his organization – and hopefully many others. It was a game-changing pledge.

Then just days later, as reverberations from Walker’s letter were subsiding, Hillary Clinton thrust the issue right back onto center stage by announcing her new vision of more job opportunities for people with disabilities. Up to this point, the issue had largely been absent from the presidential campaign since the conventions. That ended suddenly with Secretary Clinton’s more policy-oriented discussion of an “inclusive economy” with expanded job opportunities for what she called “a group of Americans who are, too often, invisible, overlooked and undervalued – who have so much to offer, but are given far too few chances to prove it.”

While Walker’s admission and Clinton’s policy proposal unexpectedly ignited much-needed focus on this vexing national problem, the reality is we as a nation have a pretty good handle on how to get more people with disabilities into the workforce. Now we need more action to go along with the talk.

The Bureau of Labor Statistics projects that more than 50 million jobs will need to be filled between 2012 and 2022, accounting for both new job creation and replacing retiring workers. The majority of these new job openings will be long-term, career-track positions that require at least some postsecondary education.

The race for highly educated professional talent is on, and American businesses are increasingly looking to the untapped potential of people with disabilities to stay competitive and get ahead. The number of people with disabilities attending college has climbed from 29 percent to 44 percent in the last decade, and two million people with disabilities are enrolled today.

However, there is a disconnect between employers looking for talent on the one hand, and college-educated people with disabilities who could supply it on the other. Only 40 percent of people with disabilities with college educations are currently employed.

That is why the National Organization on Disability is partnering with Career Opportunities for Students with Disabilities (COSD) and Work Without Limits on an exciting new project in Boston set to launch this fall. COSD is a widely respected organization that has worked for 17 years to connect college students with disabilities and employers. Work Without Limits is a consortium of more than 30 leading Boston employers, committed to disability workforce inclusion. The rich ecosystem of higher education institutions in Boston and employers who are motived to hire talented young people with disabilities as they transition from college to careers provides the ideal setting.

Starting with employer’s talent needs, NOD together with COSD will develop, test and refine a campus employment pipeline for college students with disabilities in the Boston area. Results will be tracked – including employment outcomes for students, as well as for participating campuses and employers – and we will report out for broader adoption nationally.

Years of research by our organization and others reveals how companies can attract, recruit and develop professional talent with disabilities. According to recent polling data, the most important criterion jobseekers with disabilities consider when selecting a place to work is the disability/diversity friendliness of the employer. A welcoming and responsive attitude toward disability outranked compensation – most important to jobseekers without disabilities – by ten percentage points, and also exceeded flexibility, benefits, advancement for career opportunities, and other selection factors.

My organization works closely with large employers to teach their leadership ways to enhance a company’s organizational culture and hiring practices to improve the work environment for people with disabilities – and the company’s bottom line.

The buzz created over the last several weeks certainly was helpful, but soon will dissipate. Our resolve to close this unacceptable employment gap must not do the same.