Workers with disabilities can be assets

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October 2, 2009

Anonymous The Tribune-Democrat Fri Oct 02, 2009, 02:39 PM EDT

October is National Disability Employment Awareness Month.

Employers are encouraged to avoid stereotypical thinking about applicants with disabilities.

National Disability Employment Awareness Month began with the Presidential Proclamation of Public Law 100-630 (Title III, Sec 301a) in 1988, replacing the National Employ the Handicapped Week, which occurred annually since

1945 during the first week of October. The new law also recognized a change in terminology, replacing “handicapped” with “disability.”

With Goodwill Industries ranking as the nation’s largest nonprofit provider of job services for people with disabilities, we at Goodwill Industries of the Conemaugh Valley Inc. would like to take the opportunity to run down some of the top reasons for hiring a worker with a disability.

Here are six:

-- Your assumptions may be wrong. Just because someone has a disability doesn’t mean he or she is defined by that disability. People with disabilities have a variety of skills and talents – the same is true of the entire work population. You may be under the impression that just because someone has a disability, he or she is unable to perform a certain task. Often, that’s an incorrect assumption.

-- It’s all about performance. A 30-year study by Dupont found that employees with disabilities have above-average records in job performance, attendance, dependability and safety. Many employers mistakenly believe that workers with disabilities have higher absentee rates or cannot be trained to perform certain tasks.

-- It won’t affect your insurance premium. Some employers worry that if they hire a worker with a disability, their insurance premiums will rise. In fact, insurance rates are based on the relative hazards of the job and the accident history of the workplace, not on whether workers have disabilities.

-- Accommodations? Not so much. You might be surprised how many worker disabilities simply go unnoticed in the workplace. That’s because most workers with disabilities need little or no accommodations to perform their jobs. The bottom line, according to the Job Accommodation Network, is that nearly half of all job accommodations cost nothing to implement. And for those that do require a cost, almost three out of four have a price tag under $500.

-- Technology is helping. Technological advances are leading to increases in productivity for all kinds of workers, including those with disabilities. Dictating software, screen readers and special keyboards are just a few of the many advancements in the modern workplace. And nearly half of the adults with disabilities say that the Internet has helped to improve their quality of life.

-- What you don’t know can help you. It’s true that we all bring our own life experiences to our jobs. A life lesson learned along the way can prove invaluable to a worker down the road. Workers with disabilities often have distinctive perspectives on life based on their own experiences, adding to the diversity and vitality of the workplace.

There are many more reasons for hiring a worker with a disability. But we hope these will get you thinking about some of the many ways that workers with disabilities can be valuable assets to your workplace.

Phyllis J. Bandstra is president and CEO of Goodwill Industries of the Conemaugh Valley, Inc.

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