What is In a Message?

Business often tries to develop a message that will attract customers to the product they are trying to sell. Yet often times it seems to me that what most corporations seem to miss is that messaging goes far beyond just the general conventions of marketing and branding but must see it as an overall philosophy. Business must begin to understand there consumer – there needs, motivations and the patterns by which they live their lives. For the disability community this “niche market” has been an enigma for most businesses to truly get a handle on what the right type of message to send would be. Partly because it is a fairly fractured community with many different types of disability, however, I feel if we begin to really assess the issue we can come to a greater understanding of how to project certain messages that will attract the 56 million Americans with disabilities and be able to adapt it to other communities of those with disabilities globally.
To start off, American business must understand a basic truth that people with disabilities are people first! They want to live lives that are as productive, rewarding and fulfilling as everyone else. They have the same hopes, aspirations as any able bodied person. As I’ve said many times before disability is part of the human experience, it is an element that defines a person but in most cases is NOT the whole person. This is critical for business to understand when developing an overall strategy in developing a message that caters to not only the individual with a disability but family & friends. What is important to understand is that an individual’s disability impacts the people around them. If companies can begin with this premise they will start to understand how to frame the messaging to meet not only the individual with a disability but see the profound impact it can have on the market at large. To be continued…..

Network Affinity Groups: The Disability Perspective

I recently spoke and attended at a conference in New York City devoted to Affinity Groups/Employee Network Groups. The two day conference was truly an eye opening event because it allowed me insight into the inner works of how Affinity groups work within various corporate cultures. Looking at both the strengths and weaknesses I was able to think about how we can leverage this to meet the needs of workers with disabilities.
Affinity Groups were initially developed as small, informal, self started employee groups for people with common interests and issues. Now they are developed to help not only members but the companies they are part of to look strategically of how to utilize them to benefit the organizations.
What I have realized is that disability affinity groups are mostly small in size and comprise of some members with disabilities but also those that are family members. What I came to realize is something that has coincided with my philosophy for a while – disability is much more than a diversity issue – but a human one! In thinking about how to grow a Network Affinity Group around disability there are some challenges, the major one being self identification. How does one do it? Should one do it? There are some obvious answers because many with more profound disabilities can’t hide their disability but others with more “invisible” disabilities can stay away from it. The argument has been it will hide them from the stigma and possible ridicule if people knew. Secondly, it may give them some more job security.
While there is certain logic to that argument my answer is that disability is part of the human experience. For business to avoid this issue it is essential for them to see Network Groups as value added services than can help them with issues of human capital, retention to market innovation. Business must see disability as a cornerstone to their overall business strategy. The role that affinity groups can play are twofold, one create a central resource for employees to a variety of resources about how they can deal with their disability which will in turn increase workplace efficiency but also see themselves as a conduit to building larger coalitions with other groups to how to serve the issue of disability in their communities. It can be a win/win for all!