In the Eye of The Perfect Storm:
Organizations Creating Accessibility – BOOST, IBM, and GM
Power Point to accompany Opportunities and Challenges of
Workplace Diversity by Kathryn A. Cañas and Harris Sondak
Prepared by Melissa Greensides, Kathryn A. Cañas, and Harris
Sondak
Case Overview
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Critical Disadvantage
The Perfect Storm
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Inadequate Social Structure
Cultural Assumptions
Disincentives
Creating Accessibility
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BOOST
IBM
GM
Critical Disadvantage
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Americans with disabilities are estimated to be
over 20% of the population or 49 million people.
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There is an 80% chance that an average person will
have some form of disability during his or her lifetime.
Critical Disadvantage
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Americans with disabilities face a “critical
disadvantage” when compared to Americans
without disabilities (2004 National Organization
on Disability/Harris Survey).
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35% of people with disabilities report being employed
full or part time compared to 78% of those who do not
have disabilities.
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People with disabilities are 3 times as likely to live in
poverty with annual household incomes below
$15,000.
Critical Disadvantage
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Critical disadvantage is characterized by
challenges on a number of fundamental
dimensions:
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employment
transportation
health insurance
concerns about future
general life satisfaction
emergency planning
The Perfect Storm
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The Perfect Storm is created by 3 systems of
discrimination:
1.
2.
3.
Inadequate social structure for people with
disabilities.
Pervasive cultural assumptions about hiring people
with disabilities.
Two-sided disincentives for both employee and
employer to create an employment relationship.
The Perfect Storm: Inadequate Social Structure
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Activism on behalf of people with disabilities is
comparatively new, thus resulting in a weak institutional
social structure.
People with disabilities are just beginning to experience
some equality with the Americans with Disabilities Act
(ADA) passed in 1990 and the Individuals with
Disabilities Education Act Amendments (IDEA) passed
in 1997.
Because there is extensive diversity represented among
members of the disabled community, it is difficult to
create one unified voice.
The Perfect Storm: Cultural Assumptions
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Some commonly held cultural assumptions
about hiring people with disabilities:
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People with disabilities are unreliable because they
often call in sick, come to work late, etc.
It is expensive to employ people with disabilities
because of accommodation costs.
People with disabilities are likely to sue the
company for failure to accommodate them or for
wrongful employment.
Assumption 1
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Assumption 1: People with disabilities are unreliable.
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Surveys indicate that people with disabilities, like people
without disabilities, want to live productive lives.
Surveys indicate that employers find employees with
disabilities just as reliable as employees without disabilities.
Executive Director of the Disability Law Center of Salt Lake
City, Fraser Nelson, said:
“Being disabled is not an illness, it is a condition;
understanding this distinction is important to discrediting
the assumption that being disabled translates to taking
more sick days.”
Assumption 2
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Assumption 2: Accommodating people with
disabilities in the workplace is costly.
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Costs of accommodating employees with disabilities
are small: 34% of businesses spent on average
$100 or less and 71% spent $500 or less (National
Organization on Disability).
Substantial costs that businesses spend can often
be absorbed through offered tax incentives.
Assumption 3
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Assumption 3: People with disabilities are likely to sue
their employer.
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Employers are often fearful of being sued for failure to
accommodate and/or wrongful termination and therefore may
avoid hiring people with disabilities.
This fear, in addition to the disabilities-rights cases that are
currently in litigation, could be the result of the complexity of
the ADA.
This complexity may create uncertainty among employers
about how to comply with the law.
While the ADA was created to help the employment of people
with disabilities, it also protects the employer.
The Perfect Storm: Disincentives
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Disincentives
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The American health care and insurance systems,
specifically as they relate to people with disabilities, are
complicated.
With the rising health care costs, it is difficult for employers to
offer insurance for people with disabilities and not have it
affect all employees’ benefits.
The Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI) and the
Supplemental Security Income (SSI) are two options of public
insurance for people with disabilities and the receipt of these
benefits might be jeopardized by employment.
Creating Accessibility
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Creating Accessibility
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There are two approaches to creating accessibility
in the workplace:
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First, for organizations to work with outside
programs to help bring qualified employees with
disabilities into the workforce.
Second, for organizational leaders to create models
of recruitment and retention of employees with
disabilities within their own companies.
Creating Accessibility: BOOST
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BOOST, Inc.
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Debbie Inkley, the founder and president of BOOST,
helps to bridge the gap between the employer and
people with disabilities.
The BOOST program is “a business, community,
and volunteer-based program that provides
opportunity for employment through customer
service and other skills training to people with
physical, emotional, financial, and domestic
challenges.”
Creating Accessibility: IBM
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International Business Machines Corp. (IBM)
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In 1914, IBM hired their first employee with a
disability, 76 years before the ADA was enacted.
Today at IBM about 2-3% of the corporation’s
355,000 staff represents people with disabilities.
IBM’s model of accessibility “means going beyond
product compliance with regulations to include a
better user experience and the vision to ultimately
improve a person’s total quality of life.”
Creating Accessibility: IBM
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IBM
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IBM’s internship program, called Entry Point, gives
students with disabilities a chance to get on-the-job
experience.
Recruiting programs like Project View and Project
Able help to reach candidates with disabilities.
IBM takes accommodating their employees
seriously; they offer travel assistance, power doors,
ramps, parking facilities, recorded company
publications on cassettes, etc.
Creating Accessibility: GM
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General Motors (GM)
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GM understands the importance of hiring people
with disabilities. The GM philosophy:
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“GM has long been committed throughout its global
operations to hiring people with varied backgrounds.”
GM’s strength has been its open communication
between the employer and employee; management
responds quickly to requests and concerns.
Creating Accessibility: GM
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GM
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The GM Affinity Group for People with Disabilities
consists of GM employees and retirees with
disabilities that meet once a month to discuss
accessibility issues in the workplace.
GM affinity groups are links between employees
and employer/management. The group is formed
around “employee initiatives” and is “employeedriven.”
Discussion Questions
1. Why are people with disabilities at a disadvantage
when compared to people without disabilities?
Why do you think this is still the case when the ADA
was passed in 1990?
2. What are the various provisions of the two most
significant pieces of legislation for people with
disabilities: The ADA and the IDEA?
Discussion Questions
3. What can society in general and people with
disabilities in particular do to change the cultural
assumptions that cast people with disabilities as
unreliable, expensive, and likely to sue their
employer?
4. Why haven’t other companies followed the lead of
those organizations, like IBM, that have effectively
embraced disabilities as a significant component of
diversity—viewing the recruitment and the retention
of people with disabilities as a competitive
advantage?