“Shoot for the moon. Even if you miss, you will land among the stars.”
PWD are the largest and most spendy demographic in the world , one in five individuals globally. According to Rich Donovan, CIO of Wingsail Capital, Graduate of Columbia University Business School, “With 1.1 billion people globally having a disability, controlling over $4 trillion annually, this market is about the size of China. Stakeholders in disability, friends and family, represent an additional 2 billion people with a disposable income of $8 trillion.” In this recessionary economy, who would not want to capture that market?
Cornell University’s ADA Trainer program was created by a grant from the National Institute on Disability and Rehabilitation Research (NIDRR). The purpose of this innovative program is for trainers to present in person, on-site, to those in positions of influence, to assess attitudinal barriers that private and public entities have toward the inclusion of people with disabilities.
Twenty-one years ago this summer after the passage of the ADA, are the barriers can’t, won’t, or don’t know? With a 30% employment rate that has held for about a century, these barriers to employment do exist. As architectural barriers are being removed, attitudinal ones remain.
I’m not sure why. Thomas Edison, who had both a learning and a hearing disability, created the incandescent light bulb in 1879 and founded General Electric. This country had its first mainstreamed college student, Helen Keller, in 1900. Herman Hollerith, who had a cognitive processing disorder, created the first data tabulating machine and established IBM in 1924. A president with polio, FDR, ran the country from 1933–1945.
What are your company’s concerns and dilemmas regarding awareness and sensitivity training, hiring and retention, position and promotion, communication and teamwork, inclusion and diversity, accessibility and accommodation, marketing and sales, etc.? There are some, certainly. Legal compliance by federal mandates is one matter, intentional application in corporate culture is another.
More importantly, how can companies be award-winning and remarkable when it comes to including this demographic? I believe PWD – employees, visitors, vendors, other partners, and customers – are purple cows in a field of hum-drum cows. See Seth Godin’s theories on permission marketing. Best practices for herding them in the door of your company need to be shared. Economic survival is at stake.
With 70% unemployment, historically, where do they get all this money? Wages earned before disability was incurred – most become disabled at peak of earning power between 45-55, savings earned over a lifetime of work, insurance settlements from wrongful injury, disability income, family inheritances.
You should care about demographic trends for 4 reasons. One, an aging workforce. As the Boomers retire en-masse, there is going to be a serious brain drain in this country. Kiplingers had an article about it. There will be pressure from stakeholders to cease the outsourcing and source homegrown talent. Two, the economy. We have been through 2 recessions in a decade. Workers need to stay in the workforce longer, and we need new taxpayers that are qualified, ready and willing to be in the workforce supporting the economy – if they were recruited to and welcomed. Three, our vets. They are surviving their obvious and non-obvious injuries on the battlefield, and they have the right to earn a livelihood for themselves and their families. Four, our children. Our future workers are not growing up to be healthy. They will begin to experience disability due to poor nutrtion and other cultural factors in modern life sooner than their parents and grandparents ever did.
Are companies prepared for these work/life realities at their doors? Demographics are destiny.
disabilitytrainingalliance 
Leave a comment