Tuesday, April 26, 2011

Diversity Inc. Top 10 Companies for Persons with Disabilities

Diversity, Inc. publishes its list of the top 10 companies for persons with disabilities.  http://www.diversityinc.com/article/8389/The-DiversityInc-Top-10-Companies-for-People-with-Disabilities.

These companies stand out for a number of reasons:

·         They all have employee resource groups (ERG’s) for employees with disabilities, averaging 7.1 percent of all their employees.
·         They all have formal recruitment programs for persons with disabilities. 
·         62% of them do business with certified suppliers owned by persons with disabilities.

In reading the profiles, you can see that these companies go further in their efforts to be inclusive.  The CEO of one of the companies is a person with a disability.  Another company specifically advertises that it is a disability-friendly company. 

They all do much more than provide low-paying jobs.  They recruit, retain and promote persons with disabilities as part of their routine talent development.  They provide benefits that are disability friendly and offer training programs for all employees on disability awareness.

When diversity professionals choke on how to deal with employment of persons with disabilities, promoting call centers and work-at-home programs as the only answers, they should look to these companies as models.  The skills and talents of persons with disabilities run the same range as the skills and talents of all other people.  When that is understood, the gap in employment between persons with disabilities and those without, as well as the gap in salaries, will begin to close.

Kudos to these companies!

Annette Bourbonniere
401-846-1960
Fax:  401-846-1944
Twitter:  @AccessInclude


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