A Brief Pause Part II: A Question About Schooling

I recently had the opportunity to meet with a group of parents with very young children. All of whom are dealing with some form of physical disability. The major question that all of them had on their mind was - how do I find the approriate place to send my child? Where is a place that would provide the right services & adaptive tools that would benefit my child?

The one issue that was most surprising is that there was a minimal amount of services to meet the needs of these group of parents. Now what makes this situation a bit problematic is that this is in New York City. In this metropolitian city it is hard to believe that innovative services & education is not provided to this demographic.

The question one asks is why not? The second question is what can be done? There is a moral question that arises - why isn't a society providing the infastructure to help the needs of these children that can be active and productive members of society if given the chance. There are many questions here, my hope is that we can find some answers.

A Brief Pause

There has been a brief pause in my writing - partly due to some circumstances that one could not control but the other was getting back to the work at hand. I wanted to begin to go foward with focusing on concrete strategies to look at the "what" & "how" of strategy development for job recrutiment for government agencies.

We must begin with the over arching theme that there must be a shift in thinking - why disabled employees? What use can they & do they serve & finally what is the competitive advantage? This where we will begin this week!

New Works: Books of Interests

Over the past few weeks I have come across and started reading what I believe two seminal works in the field of disability and aging and the intersection between the private and public sectors. The first is Bill Novelli's "50+ : Igniting A Revolution to Reinvent America" Novelli is the CEO of AARP and has some very poignant things to say about this demographic and how they are and will be redefining healthcare policy, work, retirement and the notion of community. The second, and my recent discovery is Charles Riley's book " Disability & Business: Best Practices and Strategies for Inclusion". Riley is professor of Business Journalism at the City University of New York. Each should be an interesting read and provide hopefully some new insight into much of what I discuss on this blog. Over the course of the next few weeks I will provide a more in depth analysis of my thoughts of each book and maybe even expound on some of their ideas.

I must admit it is good to know that suddenly the world is beginning to catch up to the needs of this community and see the value and importance in tackling these very issues.

having deviated a bit from the qustions I wanted to begin to explore at the end of the last blog I will return to those thoughts very shortly.

The talent war - what must people know?

In this new war for talent, what must organizations know to access this talent - particularly talent among the disability and aging communities? In my last post I said I would begin to discuss these very issues, but also discuss why government agencies MUST be the model for both private industry and non for profits.

To begin the first key element that needs to be addressed is attitudnal change. This is often overlooked when discussing hiring practices. The disability and aging communities are often stereotyped and are not seen in the larger context of their true potential. These communities ARE valuable assets to ANY government agency and can provide tremendous opportunity for a myriad of organizations. The question becomes, can organizations - like the government overcome the traditional attitudes that have pervaded and in many ways prevented from hiring or retaining this valuable community? Inorder to step out of that shadow hiring managers must begin to focus on ability - not disability and see how these individuals can truly benefit the organization as a whole.

Secondly, government MUST take a two pronged approach in this hiring process. From one end, they must begin to look at younger under employed or unemployed job applicants with disabilities and ask themselves why this is the case? Lack of resources or is it the fact that these applicants still may not feel welcome throughout the application process - or perhaps other issues?. With 12 to 15% of all college graduates in 2006 having some form of a disability government agencies must see this as fertile ground for recruting. Even after 15 years since the signing of the ADA I believe that we as a country are still in the embryonic stage when it comes to employment for people with disabilities.

On the other end government agencies must begin to think about retention of older workers. In my next post I will begin to focus on this area.

The battle for brainpower

I recently had a conversation with one of the Commissioners of the EEOC. One of the new initiatives that they are launching is the "LEAD" initiative. LEAD stands for Leadership for the Employment of Americans with Disabilities. I believe it is vritical for government agencies to take the lead in employing people with disabilities. They are the ones that will provide model by which all other organizations should follow when it comes to employing people with disabilities. However, before entering this initiative one of the vital pieces to understand about this community is the valuable human capital that they provide. In a speech at Harvard University in 1943 Winston Churchill stated that "the empires of the future will be empires of the mind". Going foward government agencies must highlight this very idea. As talent becomes one of the world's most sought after commidity's it is essential that the disability & aging communities be seen as an important demographic when it comes to searching for future brainpower.

So what can government agencies do to access this 'untapped' demographic? Well, that will be in my next post!

The Revolution Will Not Be Televised: Transforming Corporate Culture

When the poet Gil Scott Heron wrote those prophetic words, "the revolution will not be televised" about the turbelent sixities and early seventies I don't think he had any idea how that would apply to the disability and aging communities. As I have begun to discuss we are at a critical moment, not just in America but globally. With the dawn of the digital revolution new opportunities are avaliable to the disability and aging community ranging from areas of employment, education, healthcare to the access to goods and services. However, even with the great strides that have been made it is my opinion that we as a culture have not moved quick enough. In part that is due to both cultural and attidunal barriers. It is my belief that private industry can take the lead in helping these communities cross the chasm and adopt an attutide of openess and understanding to the disability and aging communities which will in turn be beneficial for all.

Why must corporations adopt this attitude and why is it is essential for the health of not only American business but a global economy? Inorder to truly understand the ramification of this we must look at several basic facts. In the United States alone there are 56 million people with disabilities or 20% of the population. According to AARP there are will be over 80+ million babyboomers by 2010. Of those 80+ million close to 70% will be dealing with some form of disability in their lifetime. Now that being said, there is a large majority of people with disabilities who are either under employed or unemployed. As for the baby boomer community who are on the cusp of retirement many do not want to retire or want to find alternative ways to continue to work. These workers have valuable expertise and expierence which can be very hard to replace. All of this being said, what should corporations be paying attention to?

1. Within both the disability and aging communities there is untapped resource of talent

2. Recrutiment, Hiring and Retention Strategies will be critical for the health and growth of corporations

Along with this demographic shift we are beginning to see the over all value of the disability and aging communities. The disability community is $1 trillion dollar market and the babyboomers is a $2 trillion dollar market- much of which is untapped. We are slowly beginning to see that Madison Avenue is starting to catch on. Commercials by companies such as L'Oreal with Diane Keaton and Americaprise Financial with Dennis Hopper are focusing on the aging markets. The disability markets are a bit slower to catch on but that has usually begin the case. What I find interesting though is that as I mentioned at the outset, the revolution will not be televised - the real revolution is taking place in the digital universe. Corporations must grasp the fact that to truly change corporate culture they must begin to understand that to gain access to this community they must first create an infastructure that allows for the hiring and retention of these communities. Technology becomes a key component and adapting both the work enviornment internally and externally will be critical. Using new avenues such as the internet, assistive technology, universal design, mobile technology and other digital platforms will open new options for corporations both from a human capital perspective and build greater brand loyalty which will only provide a competitive advantage in the overall scheme of things.

A Wake Up Call for Corporate America

Over the past year I have been reading a variety of pieces about things such as the search for talent, globalization and corporate social responsibility. Yet within all that reading there has been almost no mention of the effect that the disability and aging communities are having as a critical demographic. What I find quite disturbing is that we are at the dawn of a new revolution, with the convergengence of both the digital revolution and the age wave there are new opportunities never thought imaginable even a decade ago. Corporate America must begin to open up their eyes and see the inherint value that this community can bring to the table both in terms of human capital as well as how it will drive the marketplace to reinvent itself.

Throughout the course of the next few weeks I want to explore this very idea and focus on the impact that disability and aging can have on the infastructure, market growth and strategy of an organization. My hope is that this will serve as a wake up call for corporations to see that we are at a critical juncture, and it is my belief that corporations can only gain a competitive advantage by really discussing these issues and seeing the impact that these communities are having and will continue to have on their organizations.

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Welcome to disabilityworks,inc. new blog. We will discuss everything from politics to popular culture and how that impacts the disability and aging communities. Stay tuned for many new postings to come with valuable information as we move foward throughout the new year.