Author: Luan

###27 Organizations Recognized for Demonstrating Exemplary Disability Hiring and Employment Practices###

NEW YORK (June 9, 2016) – The National Organization on Disability (NOD) today announced the 27 organizations that have been selected to receive the 2016 Leading Disability Employer Seal™. The Seal is a new effort by NOD to recognize companies that demonstrate exemplary hiring and employment practices for people with disabilities. This public, annual recognition is designed to applaud those organizations that are leading the way in disability hiring and encourage additional companies to tap into the many benefits of hiring talent with disabilities, including strong consumer preference for companies that employ individuals with disabilities and greater employee engagement across the workforce.

The winning organizations were announced via a video message by NOD Chairman Tom Ridge, who congratulated the inaugural Seal winners for learning what he hopes other companies soon will – that people with disabilities make outstanding contributions to the workplace.

“They have seen the untapped potential of this talent pool,” Gov. Ridge said. “They have dedicated resources to welcome individuals with disabilities into their companies. And they are reaping the rewards of a diverse and productive workforce. When he signed the Americans with Disabilities Act into law in 1990, President George H.W. Bush said employers hold the key to unlocking the great potential of the ADA. On behalf of President Bush, who proudly serves as NOD’s Honorary Chairman, let me be the first to congratulate and thank these businesses for leading the way.”

The 2016 NOD Leading Disability Employer Seal winners are:

• Accenture
• Anthem
• Bath Veterans Affairs Medical Center
• The Boeing Company
• Capital One
• Christiana Care Health System
• Colgate-Palmolive
• Colorado Cross-Disability Coalition
• Colorado Spring Utilities
• Comcast NBCUniversal
• CSC
• EMC
• EY
• Exelon Corporation
• General Motors
• The Hartford
• The Hershey Company
• Lockheed Martin 
• Monsanto
• National Grid USA
• New Editions Consulting
• Northrop Grumman
• PwC
• Procter & Gamble
• Prudential Financial
• S&P Global
• Sodexo

The NOD Leading Disability Employer Seal is awarded based on data furnished by companies in response to NOD’s Disability Employment Tracker™, a free, confidential, online assessment and benchmarking of companies’ disability inclusion programs in the following areas:

• Climate and Culture
• Identifying and Sourcing Talent
• Onboarding
• Performance Management
• Tracking and Measurement, including outcomes in the past 12 months and goals for the next 12-18 months

While the Tracker is entirely confidential, organizations may opt to be considered for the NOD Leading Disability Employer Seal. Responses are scored, taking into account both disability employment practices and performance. Scoring prioritizes practices that are associated with increased disability employment outcomes over time, in addition to current performance in disability employment. Respondents also receive points based on the percentage of people with disabilities in their workforce.

The Disability Employment Tracker™was developed by NOD in partnership with the National Business and Disability Council (NBDC) at The Viscardi Center and Sirota Consulting, a leading provider of organizational assessments. The Tracker was introduced in 2013 with lead support from the Exelon Foundation and guidance from leading research firm J.D. Power.

To be considered for the NOD 2017 Leading Disability Employer Seal, companies can sign up for the Disability Employment Tracker.  While companies can use the free Tracker assessment at any time, to be considered for the 2017 Leading Disability Employer Seal submissions must be received during the designated qualifying window, which will open in autumn 2016. Sign up here and NOD will notify you when the 2017 qualifying window opens. 

NEW YORK (June 8, 2016) – National Organization on Disability (NOD) President Carol Glazer today welcomed Susan Meirs as the organization’s new Chief Operating Officer.

“Sue brings to the National Organization on Disability a wealth of leadership experience in the management of operations, strategy development and program management, not to mention a passion for our organizational mission,” said Glazer. “As COO, Sue will oversee our suite of professional services, ensuring delivery of best-in-class disability employment products and services with high impact and exceptional quality to NOD’s corporate clients. We are so pleased to welcome Sue to the NOD team.”

Prior to joining NOD, Meirs was a COO and salesperson at Barclays. Her team created Barclays’ first diversity related investment products, the Return on Disability ETN and the Women in Leadership ETN, translating corporate social responsibility into bottom-line results for investors. Sue was co-head of Reach, Barclays’ disability employee network group, and initiated its disability recruiting efforts. She is a sought-after expert on the intersection between diversity and inclusion and ROI and has provided commentary to major publications including Bloomberg, Money, and The Washington Post, among others.

“I am tremendously excited, after years of focusing on disability employment from the perspective of one employer, to be able to think more broadly and impact a wider variety of employers and workers,” said Meirs. “I believe equal access to employment is, for many people, fundamental to their participation in American culture and critical for allowing economic independence. I’m thrilled to be joining an organization with such a long track record of success creating employment for people with disabilities and look forward to being part of the next stage.”

Learn more about Sue Meirs

In 1990, Congress passed and President George H.W. Bush signed into law the historic Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). I have always supported the ADA and other laws designed to increase the participation of Americans with disabilities in our society because I believe that these Americans, like all other Americans, should have the opportunity to pursue the American dream. The ADA sought to achieve this goal by bringing Americans with disabilities out of the shadows and allowing them to compete on a level playing field with their non-disabled peers. The law was also intended to combat the discrimination, born of misconceptions, stereotypes and paternalism, that Americans with disabilities face every day.

More than 25 years after its passage, the ADA has at last begun to accomplish many of its goals. But policies remain that undermine the vision of fairness and equal opportunity enshrined in this landmark law.

One of those policies is buried in the Fair Labor Standards Act, passed in 1938. While that law created better wages and working conditions for most Americans, it contained a provision that excluded people with disabilities from its protections, especially the minimum wage. Nearly 80 years later, the law still contains that provision, known as Section 14(c).

The provision allows employers who hold special wage certificates issued by the Department of Labor to pay workers with disabilities a “commensurate wage” that, generally, is less than the federal or state minimum wage. Some people working under special wage certificates earn mere pennies per hour.

Back in 1938, everyone assumed that a worker with a disability was less productive than a “normal” or “able-bodied” worker. Today, we know that workers with disabilities, given equal opportunity and appropriate tools or technologies, can perform as well as their non-disabled counterparts. Just ask employers like Lowe’s or Starbucks, outstanding companies that have partnered with the National Organization on Disability to find job opportunities for talented men and women with disabilities, and they’ll confirm this to be true. But despite that knowledge, Section 14(c) remains in force.

Some argue that the “commensurate” or subminimum wage is necessary to provide employment for some people with severe disabilities and that merely giving these individuals something to do each day provides them with dignity and pride. This argument does not make sense to me. Americans with disabilities want the things that all other Americans want: homes, families and the freedom to do with their lives as they wish. They cannot have any of those things on pennies per hour. If an American with a disability can’t even buy a meal with his or her paycheck, he or she is likely to feel demeaned and insulted rather than dignified and proud.

This system sends the message to Americans with disabilities that they are not worth the same as other Americans, that society values them less. It traps them in tedious jobs with no prospect of advancement. Finally, it leaves them in poverty, dependent for survival on overburdened federal benefit programs like Social Security Disability Insurance. Some of these Americans remain in the care of family members, but what happens when those family members are gone? Other safety net programs must then fill the gap.

The subject of the minimum wage is a hotly debated matter. Much has been said about whether it should be raised and to what level. But that question has no bearing on the plight of workers with disabilities who are currently not receiving it. Receiving the minimum wage, at whatever level it is set, is a matter of basic fairness. In 2016, there is no excuse for treating an entire class of workers differently from others based solely on the characteristic of disability. Such treatment is discriminatory, just as it would be if applied to individuals of a specific race, gender or religious affiliation.

I support legislation filed in the House of Representatives by Rep. Gregg Harper (R-Miss.) and in the Senate by Sen. Kelly Ayotte (R-N.H.) that would phase out the Section 14(c) program. This legislation, the Transitioning to Integrated and Meaningful Employment (TIME) Act, would rightly refocus efforts to employ Americans with disabilities on helping them train for and find jobs in the mainstream economy. This is not an impossible goal; Ayotte’s home state of New Hampshire has already eliminated subminimum wages without adverse consequences for workers with disabilities, as has the state of Vermont.

Much work needs to be done to give all Americans, including those who have disabilities, a chance to have the financial freedom and security we all desire. Repealing Section 14(c) is an easy step that we can take right now to move closer to that goal. I urge the House and Senate to pass the TIME Act with all deliberate speed. It is long past time to take this fair, commonsense step in the march to freedom for Americans with disabilities.

Ridge is chairman of the National Organization on Disability. He served as the first U.S. secretary of Homeland Security and was the 43rd governor of Pennsylvania. Today he is the founder and chairman of Ridge Global.

Read the op-ed on The Hill.com

Carol Glazer, National Organization on Disability president, joined The Business of Giving host Denver Frederick for an in-depth discussion about employment of people with disabilities—and how NOD partners with leading employers and philanthropic institutions to create disability inclusion programs.

National Organization on Disability joined DiversityInc in celebrating the Top 50 Companies for Diversity. This special event brings together more than 1,000 senior executives from companies that have demonstrated leadership and commitment to diversity and inclusion.

Carol Glazer, NOD president, was on stage to announce the Top 10 Companies for People with Disabilities, all of whom have used NOD’s free tool, the Disability Employment Tracker™, to assess and benchmark their inclusion practices.

 

Carol Glazer with board members Michele Meyer-Shipp, Esq. of Prudential Financial and Dr. Ronald Copeland of Kaiser Permanente

p>Push on to show employers those with Down syndrome can do the job

Jason Hamilton is one busy guy.

At 37 he is a full-time mail clerk at EverBank, holds season tickets to Jacksonville Jaguars games, plays poker weekends and is an usher and fraternal service organization member at St. Paul’s Catholic Church in Riverside. Sometimes, he just hangs out with friends, watching sports, going to the movies or out to dinner.

“I have a great life,” he said.

Hamilton also has Down syndrome, which causes cognitive delays and can bring an increased risk for certain medical conditions.

That has not stopped him from getting a job, having a social life or being active in the community.

“I wish everyone, when they see a person with Down syndrome, would see our abilities.” Hamilton said. “We are very capable of anything we put our minds to. If you work hard, your hard work will bring you good things in life.”

Hamilton participated last month in a National Down Syndrome Society panel at the National Press Club in Washington. Moderated by society President Sara Hart Weir, the panel discussed employment opportunities for people with Down syndrome and other disabilities.

Other members were U.S. Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers, who has a son with Down syndrome, and Tom Ridge, chairman of the National Organization on Disability, the former governor of Pennsylvania and U.S. Secretary of Homeland Security.

The panel was in conjunction with the society launch of a new employment campaign for people with Down syndrome called “#DSWORKS.” The effort aims to educate the public about how individuals with Down syndrome are employable and should be included in the work force.

The campaign also will encourage corporations and businesses to hire people with Down syndrome and increase their opportunities “to work in meaningful and competitive employment settings,” according to the society.

Nationwide, about 400,000 people have Down syndrome. About 1,500 live in the Jacksonville area, according to Debbie Revels, executive director of the Down Syndrome Association of Jacksonville.

Hamilton said he was honored to be their voice in Washington. He is already their advocate: He is on the board of The Arc Jacksonville, which serves people with intellectual and developmental disabilities, and where his mother Susan Hamilton is vice president of employment. He recently joined the society’s Self Advocates board.

“I have been working since I was 16 and believe everyone with Down syndrome, if they are capable of working and want to work, should be given the chance,” he said.

Hamilton and Revels were selected to participate in the panel because of the “long-term affiliation” between the national society and the Jacksonville organization, Revels said.

“It was absolutely thrilling to have Jason … as a representative of what individuals with Down syndrome can achieve — full employment with benefits and a 401(k) plan,” she said. “Here in Northeast Florida most individuals with Down syndrome are employed nine to 12 hours a week. This is not because of their ability or desire to work. It is because the lack of opportunity for employment.

“The panel brought attention at a national level to the barriers currently existing for individuals with disabilities in regards to employment,” Revels said.

People with Down syndrome in particular tend to make ideal employees, said Nancy Keating, CEO of Challenge Enterprises of North Florida Inc., a Green Cove Springs-based nonprofit that provides programs, services and work opportunities for individuals with disabilities, including Down syndrome.

“If an employer is looking for a dependable, trustworthy, reliable employee, they should consider people to come to them with a heart for the job and who have Down syndrome,” she said. “They want to succeed, they strive to succeed. They have the desire to be independent as we all do and they love to get a paycheck as we all do. They’re really not all that different.”

They love social interaction, she said, and workplaces that include them will see their “environment … change for the better.”

On the society panel, Hamilton talked about his almost 15-year EverBank career. He talked about his duties as a mail clerk, which include sorting and delivering mail, scanning incoming and outgoing FedEx packages and operating folding and postage machines. He also talked about his “big news” of 2015 — receiving a promotion and salary increase.

His bosses give him rave reviews.

“Jason is a wonderful employee. He’s hardworking, always willing to learn. He strives to learn,” said Kirk Whitlow, EverBank’s mailroom center supervisor.

When Whitlow first started at the job, Hamilton made a point of asking him if he had any concerns about working with people who have special needs. Whitlow said he did not and that was that.

Another of Jason’s supervisors, mailroom lead Helen Mitchell, said she regarded herself as Jason’s “daytime mother.”

“He’s a jewel,” she said. “He has a true heart.”

He is also intelligent and “literal-minded,” she said.

“Just explain things on a level he can understand,” Mitchell said.

EverBank is one of about 30 local workplaces that partner with The Arc Jacksonville to employ people with disabilities.

“Diversity and Inclusion are part of our mission, vision and overall strategy,” said Claudia Amlie, chief human resources officer. “We believe that our associates are the driving force behind our growth and success, and we value the diverse backgrounds, perspectives and skills of all our associates. We have partnered with The ARC of Jacksonville in order to continue learning and discovering ways to serve people with intellectual and developmental disabilities. Together, we have great momentum and we look forward to what we can accomplish ahead.”

Hamilton and Revels return to Washington this week for the society’s annual conference and to lobby members of Congress.

“I’m going to the big leagues,” Hamilton said.

He said he hopes his success story can help pave the way for others.

“Sometime the world does not think we are capable of working and I say, ‘Yes we are, just look at me,’” Hamilton said.

READ FULL ARTICLE

LEADER OF THE ‘CEO FORCE FOR GOOD’ JOINS DISTINGUISHED BOARD

NEW YORK (March 17, 2016) – The National Organization on Disability today announced that Daryl Brewster has been elected to its Board of Directors. The unanimous vote came at NOD’s recent Board of Directors meeting. Mr. Brewster is CEO of CECP: The CEO Force for Good, a coalition of CEOs who believe that societal improvement is an essential measure of business performance.

“In supporting our mission, NOD’s corporate partners distinguish themselves as leaders in diversity and employers of choice for people with disabilities. Few people understand corporate culture better than Daryl Brewster,” said NOD Chairman, Gov. Tom Ridge. “CECP’s mission is to create a better world through business. And NOD helps business connect with talented men and women with disabilities. It’s a great fit. We think Daryl’s talents – including his remarkable leadership at companies such as Kraft, Krispy Kreme and Campbell’s – will be of tremendous value to our team. We are thrilled to welcome him.”

Brewster has nearly 30 years of executive experience in the US and abroad, including as an officer for several Fortune 500 companies, the turnaround CEO of a publicly-traded company, and the head of five multi-billion dollar business units.

He served as President of Kraft’s $6 billion North American Snacks, Confections, Cereal, and Pet portfolio; President of the Planters Specialty Products Company; the turnaround CEO of Krispy Kreme Doughnuts, Inc.; and Managing Director of Campbell’s $300 million UK operations. In addition, Daryl served on the board of E*Trade Financial Holding Company and Krispy Kreme, Inc, and currently serves on the board of several privately-held companies.

He also has an extensive background in non-profits, having served on the boards of the American Marketing Association; several colleges & university councils; the Y Alliance; CIFF-Funded MANA (Mother Administered Nutritive Assistance), which is focused on reducing childhood hunger around the world; and the RWJohnson-supported Partnership for Healthy Kids, which is working to decrease childhood obesity in the US.

“The National Organization on Disability plays an important role in today’s society,” said Brewster. “I routinely hear from CEOs about the need for outstanding talent to fill critical vacancies. People with disabilities must be part of that solution, and NOD is doing great work to help make that happen. I’m very much looking forward to joining the Board and helping to push their timely agenda forward.”

Did you hear who won the election in Illinois this week? No, not that election. I’m talking about the election for United States Senate. Representative Tammy Duckworth won Illinois’ Democratic Senate primary. She represents Chicago’s northwest suburbs and had been expected to easily defeat her opponent. She will face incumbent, Senator Mark Kirk, in the general election in November.

What has me particularly intrigued about the Illinois senate race is that it will pit – perhaps for the first time in U.S. political history – two people with severe disabilities who are choosing to speak openly about their disability and how it shapes their lives and policy agendas.

Rep. Duckworth is the first female veteran with a disability to serve in Congress. She lost both legs during the Iraq War when the Blackhawk helicopter she was piloting was shot down. Sen. Kirk continues to recover from a massive stroke in 2012. Both Duckworth and Kirk speak candidly about their disabilities and showcase their stories in campaign materials.

READ THE FULL ARTICLE

NEW YORK (March 9, 2016) – The National Organization on Disability today announced that Brad Hopton has been elected to its Board of Directors. The unanimous vote came at NOD’s Board of Directors meeting. Mr. Hopton is a Partner in Corporate Tax Advisory Services at PwC, where he helped to create the Ability Reveals Itself initiative that is helping to attract talented people with disabilities to the PwC workforce.

“Brad has not only distinguished himself as a leading tax consultant, he has spearheaded efforts inside PwC to create a culture that is laser focused on identifying and hiring skilled employees with disabilities,” said NOD Chairman, Gov. Tom Ridge. “As the parent of a 10-year-old son with Down Syndrome, Brad knows it is critical that companies like PwC create opportunities for talented men and women with disabilities to shine. Brad will play an invaluable role in helping to shape NOD’s agenda and we are delighted to welcome him to our Board.”

Brad leads high-performing, multidimensional teams that are intensely focused on driving value and delivering quality service to some of PwC’s largest multinational clients. His overall responsibilities include the delivery of tax-related consulting, compliance and advisory services, primarily focused on the Pharmaceutical & Life Sciences and Industrial Products industry sectors. He is a published author and speaker on tax issues affecting multinational companies and has organized innovative and thought-provoking roundtables with senior industry executives.

In addition to his client responsibilities, Brad is PwC’s Tax Operations Leader for the New York Metro region, as well as a key partner champion of the Firm’s talent and acquisition strategy under the Ability Reveals Itself initiative that seeks to match talented people with disabilities to job opportunities within PwC.

“When I first learned about the National Organization on Disability and its focus on finding employment opportunities for people with disabilities, I knew I wanted to be a part of that effort,” Hopton said. “At PwC, we are all about identifying and placing talent to better serve our clients. Through that process, we learned just how many people with disabilities already work at PwC and have worked hard to maximize their experience. It has been tremendously rewarding. I am honored to join such a distinguished board and welcome the chance to share my personal and work experiences with others who share my passion for this issue.”