Innovative Ideas from the Disability Forum

What do a professional skier, a Hollywood consultant and a business blogger have in common? A disability, of course. On Tuesday I attended the Disability Innovation Forum in Washington, and met a great group of people who are leading the conversation on hiring and marketing to people with disabilities. The keynote speaker was Bonnie St. John, an African-American leg amputee who became a Paralympic medalist in downhill skiing in 1984. Using comedy and an authenic voice, Bonnie broke down the sterotypes surrounding disability and made everyone in the room feel comfortable. The forum was organized by Working Mother Media's Diversity Best Practices division, with the help of Jonathan Kaufman of DisabilityWorks. An education and policy extraordinaire, Jonathan told me he's about to begin creating a ph.D program in Disability Studies at Columbia University's medical school. He also consults with Hollywood on movies that feature disabled characters. Some lively afternoon panels included executives from Wal-Mart, Verizon and Harrah's Entertainment, who offered their perspectives on hiring the disabled to shore up a worker shortage and build a more representative workplace culture. Jennifer Croft at the U.S. Dept. of Commerce emphasized the Clinton-era Executive Order 13173, which President-elect Obama will reinstate, that will require federal goverment to hire 100,000 workers with disabilities in the next five years. A very successful day, indeed.

Extreme Makeover's Disability Message

Last night I watched the latest episode of ABC’s Extreme Makeover: Home Edition, where Ty Pennington and his crew helped two St. Louis-area families, the Martirizes and the Maleks, who are struggling to live life with major disabilities. Emmanual and Dawn Martirez's home was refurbished to make it accessible to their twin boys, Evan and Alec, who have rare neurological diseases that cause extreme physical and cognitive disabilities. And Egyptian-born Sam Malek, who has cerebal palsy, owns a small coffee shop that was demoed and rebuilt to make it accessible to him and his employees with disabilities. In doing so, ABC makes a strong statement for supporting small-business and equal-employment opportunities for the disabled. Since its start in 2003, Extreme Makeover has touched the lives of dozens of people with disabilities by renovating their inaccessible or otherwise unlivable homes for free. Each project, which takes seven days, results in significant structural and design improvements to every room in the house, often bringing tears or joy to those who have lived with the difficulty of navigating through the place they call home. With more than 13 million U.S. viewers, the program gives a high profile to disability issues and inspires Americans to give back to their communities. Equally important is the primetime face-time for vendors that donate the funds to make these homes a reality. For example, Sears provides home appliances, CVS provides medical supplies and scholarships to families and Ford Motor occassionally donates vehicles. Southwest Airlines donates airfare for the families’ vacations, which include trips to Disneyworld, donated by Disney. Hilton and Marriott donate accommodations. These initiatives send a powerful message that companies are serious about reaching the disabled market, which holds a collective $300 billion in discretionary income. Families who want to be considered for Extreme Makeover: Home Edition can submit a video, complete an application, and mail both to the show's producers. They can also ask a non-profit organization, church or neighborhood association to submit an application on their behalf.

New Disability Career Sites

Up until recently, job seekers with disabilities have had to reverse-engineer their job search. First, they sought out disability-friendly companies, such as those lauded by DiversityInc. and Careers & the Disabled magazines. Then they set about seeking open positions within those companies. Some disability-career sites are trying to make the job search easier. The newest, GettingHired.com, launched on Nov. 12. The site’s resume-builder tool is one of the smartest on the web, and the site has signed on a half-dozen corporations including CIGNA and Pep Boys. GettingHired also hosts a series of videos to prepare a job seeker for potential interviews; the videos are fully accessible and can be viewed with full voiceover and captioning. Another valuable job board for people with disabilities is Disaboom. Launched in late 2007, Disaboom’s job board has gotten more robust and claims to have more than 500,000 job listings. Job listings include those for temporary-staffing agencies, which can be a good way to get your foot in the door. Big-name job board Monster.com has also gotten into the disability-hiring game. It recently hosted a virtual career fair for job hunters with disabilities. Its job listings include those from Spherion, MetLife, H-P, and Schering. One site that’s geared towards more entry-level job seekers is HirePotential, whose small job board includes listings from IBM and Microsoft. The less-experienced set may want to try the disabled alumni network at LimeConnect, an organization that recruits disabled college graduates. While most of the site’s job listings are culled from the web, an icon next to the job post alerts the member that someone in the LimeConnect network has a connection to the company. LimeConnect also features jobs from companies that are dedicated to hiring the disabled, such as Google, Credit Suisse, Enterprise Rent-a-Car and Verizon Telecom.

Obama Gives Disabled a Voice in Victory Speech

Americans with disabilities were given a voice last night with President-elect Obama's victory speech in Chicago. "If there is anyone out there who still doubts that America is a place where all things are possible; who still wonders if the dream of our founders is alive in our time; who still questions the power of our democracy, tonight is your answer...It's the answer spoken by young and old, rich and poor, Democrat and Republican, black, white, Latino, Asian, Native American, gay, straight, disabled and not disabled -- Americans who sent a message to the world that we have never been a collection of Red States and Blue States: we are, and always will be, the United States of America." By including the disabled as a specific group, Obama has sent a message that he will put disability issues on the map. No other president of our time has done this before, not even Franklin Delano Roosevelt, the 32nd president, who struggled with an illness that left him paralyzed from the waist down. In order to win the re-election, FDR believed he had to convince Americans that he was getting better; he wore iron braces and leaned on his sons or aides in public, but used a wheelchair in private. Today is a new day for Americans with disabilities, and the opportunities are vast. Take employment: Of the 22 million working-age Americans with disabilities, only 38% are employed, vs. 78% of those without disabilities, which I wrote in a Wall Street Journal article. Soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan who are returning home with severed limbs and brain injuries need rehabilitation. Children who are being diagnosed with special needs require a strengthened education plan. An aging population that can benefit from new technologies such as hearing aids needs better healthcare options. Obama has made it clear throughout his campaign that his vision for America includes the needs of the disabled, the nation's largest minority group. His task in 2009 will be to listen to these issues and find comprehensive solutions that help all Americans -- disabled or not disabled. A rising tide lifts all boats.

Response to NYT article on ADA

In the New York Times Sunday Magazine's "Unintended Consequences" (Jan. 20, 2008), authors Stephen J. Dubner and Steven D. Levitt pose the argument that some “special-interest” laws, such as the American with Disabilities Act (ADA), may hurt the very people it intended to benefit.

Dubner and Levitt, who are also the authors of the best-selling book “Freakonomics” and a blog of the same name, give a qualitative and quantitative example supporting their case. First up: A Deaf patient from Los Angeles sought medical advice and treatment for her knee from Dr. Andrew Brooks. She asked the doctor to hire and pay for a sign language interpreter, and told him that she was well within her rights to do so under the ADA.

Brooks agreed to pay, but surmised that he'd lose money by treating the patient: "As it turned out, an interpreter would cost $120 an hour, with a two-hour minimum, and the expense wasn’t covered by insurance...That would mean laying out $240 to conduct an exam for which the woman’s insurance company would pay him $58 — a loss of more than $180 even before accounting for taxes and overhead."

I am also Deaf. Like the Deaf patient, I value my independence. During undergraduate and graduate school I asked for and got an interpreter for my larger classes and the college paid for it. Universities must do so under Section 504 of the ADA because nearly all post-secondary institutions receive federal funds. But Section 504 explicity says: "Although the student must request necessary accommodations, the institution must demonstrate that the accommodations it provides are effective."

In other words, a student may request a number of accommodations, but the institution only need provide accommodations that result in effective participation. So, for my smaller classes I chose to read lips. I even finangled a way for a classmate to receive extra credit for taking notes for me. And I used technology as much as I could to help me get through the every day.

My advice to the Deaf patient would have been to meet the doctor halfway. She might have helped to pay for an interpreter, or used an interpreter for the first couple of sessions. She might have had him write notes on his pad (Brooks did suggest this solution, but she refused.) She might have brought a hearing friend or relative with her. Even better, she might have used technology such as Instant Messaging (a universally accepted form of communication for both deaf and hearing people.) The good doctor on his Blackberry and she on her Sidekick. Fun, no?

There is one solution that would have worked perfectly, if the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) would consider funding it. It's called Video Remote Interpreting (VRI). On this type of call, both the deaf and hearing parties can be in the same room and a sign-language interpreter will sign/translate from a remote location on a Videophone. It's currently offered as a paid service by Sorenson Communications, but it's cheaper than hiring an interpreter on site.

Sorenson does offer a free, FCC-funded solution called Video Relay Service (VRS). In this scenario, the doctor dials 888-FAST-VRS and connects to a sign-language operator who calls the patient on a Videophone. The doctor speaks to the operator, who in turn signs to the patient....the patient signs back to the interpreter....and the interpreter speaks her words to the doctor.

Several years ago I met the CEO, Jim Sorenson, when I was an Assistive Technology reporter at BusinessWeek. He's a smart and well-intentioned guy. I tried out the Videophone at the Lexington School for the Deaf in Queens, New York. I also sat in one of their new Videophone booths that is designed for public spaces, like universities and airports. The Videophone booth looks like one of those $3 photo booths at Coney Island -- sparse, but private.



At the end of the day, the Deaf patient's attempt to get her needs fulfilled (her way and only her way) is at odds with the spirit of the ADA and its "reasonable accommodation" premise. These types of situations could backfire and hurt others who are disabled, which is the argument that Levitt and Dubner make.

In the end, the Deaf patient didn't need the knee surgery. But I can't help but wonder if the doctor felt ambushed. Would he ever accept a Deaf (or disabled) patient again?

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Dubner and Levitt’s next example from their article cites findings from two economists who say the ADA has had a negative effect on the employment of the disabled. “Employers, concerned that they wouldn’t be able to discipline or fire disabled workers who happened to be incompetent, apparently avoided hiring them in the first place,” Dubner and Levitt said.

I think Dubner and Levitt make a good case, but I am going to need to do some of my own research. I believe that employers are not as concerned about incompetence (a complete inability to function) as they are about the disabled employee’s ability to consistently perform a job to par.

That's because more of Corporate America has adopted Six Sigma, performance management systems and merit-based pool bonus structures. The result is that one person's performance is intrinsically tied to his or her team's output. Much like nobody wanted the handicapped kid on their Dodge Ball team, it has become harder for the disabled to be given a chance to prove themselves because the stakes are higher for everyone involved. Simply put, it's a trust issue.

That's why it is so pressing that people with disabilities go above and beyond to educate themselves and their employers about their disability. They must also capitalize on technological advances, such as video relay, text readers and speech applications, that will help them dispel notions that they can't pull their own weight for the team. What might look like incompetence is really just ineffectiveness -- because the person with a disability hasn't asked for or been given the right tools.

All in all, getting to par is possible and doable. But it takes chutzpah on behalf of the disabled employee, and education and understanding from the able-bodied boss that given the right accommodations, his employee can succeed.

The economists’ results were published in the Journal of Political Economy in 2001 -- nine years after the ADA was enacted -- but the data could be older than 2001. Advances in technology today and tomorrow will continue to help build the bridge between the able-bodied and people with disabilities in the workplace.

In summary, everyone should rise to meet the "reasonable accommodations" of the disabled. But the disabled should also take responsibility for ensuring their requests will be effective, are mutually accommodating and don't overstep the boundaries of the law's good intentions.