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!

A Fundamental Question: Disability, Fear & How Far Have we really come?

I recently watched the little known film “The Music Within” based on the life of Richard Pimentel one of the great champions of the American with Disabilities Act and a pioneer in employment policy. The film looks at the trajectory of his life from young child dealing with a mentally ill mother to his tour in Vietnam where he lost a good part of his hearing to his journey to becoming a disability activist.
Where Pimentel made his mark was developing the first training manual for hiring people with disabilities called “Tilting at Windmills” in the mid 1970s. This was revolutionary for its time because it shed light on a community that had been ostracized for far too long. It provided government agencies the blueprint to hiring persons with disabilities.
In watching the film I kept thinking to myself even though Pimentel really set the groundwork for the enactment of The American with Disabilities Act how far have we really come in hiring, retaining & creating productive environment for workers with disabilities? In continuing to ponder this question I realized there are some real correlations between the time that Pimentel was working on “Tilting at Windmills” and now. During that time Vietnam vets were returning home many newly disabled and trying to adjust into civilian life find work and just live a productive life. Today in the midst’s of a war in Iraq and Afghanistan there are soldier returning dealing with the same issues as their counterparts did close to forty years ago. We have to begin to ask ourselves the questions, how far have we come in hiring, retaining and developing workers with disabilities. In a post Americans with Disabilities Act era are we any better than we were in the Vietnam era? The simple answer is yes, however, it is never really that cut and dry. There have certainly been strides made since Pimentel’s training manual was published and the enactment of the ADA but with a shifting demographic and most business inability to grasp that these types of hiring practices is not just but about good will but rather a valued business decision that will have a tremendous ripple effect far beyond this much continued parochial view point that still persists about the disability community it is only then that we will make strides. A universal design model that shows what is good for people with disabilities in fact impacts society as a whole.
We must continue the work that Pimentel started and create new opportunities that show we are not just limiting this to a disability issue but rather a see it as a human one.

Politics, Disability & The Cult of Personality

Gordon Brown, the Prime Minister of Britian and more recently Governor of New York David Patterson are two political figures who are disabled and have been very vocal about saying so. I guess the first question that comes to mind is can this by a viable political tool or is this a product of 'Identity Politics' that is pervasive across western society. The fact is that while the argument can be made concerning both I believe there is a third alternative. That is humanizing disability - showing that through ones inconviences it does not impact ones ability to do the task at hand but just as important is the ability to unite people under a common understanding of a human expierence. After hearing Patterson's speech a few weeks ago based on his own expierence with disability he humanized the concept of reaching out to the disenfranchized and has an innate capacity to see the synergy.

Spasms....

Spasms have dominated my life for the past several weeks. The winter in the North East with the shifting weather patterns have always made my physical life tough. The physical pain can be grueling and has made my daily life tough to handle over the past few weeks which are the reason I haven’t posted. Thankfully back in the saddle and will be blogging again real soon!

Aging, Disability & A Global Policy

We are at a critical moment in human history. With an age revolution both developed nations and the developing world need to take a new look at aging and disability like never before. This must become a critical component of the fabric of any nation’s public policy and its impact on everything from employment to education is profound. After the spending several days at the United Nations 46th Session of the Commission on Social Development sitting in on events discussing areas from active aging, employment to emergency preparedness it has become evident that the social understanding of aging and disability must be reassessed based upon not only regional cultural understanding but as a human rights issues that resonates on a global level.
I have spent the last several years looking at certain types of disability issues and its impact on a micro level focusing on the personal issues and the dynamics that go along with that. I do believe that we need truly find the link between the fundamental issues that one faces on a micro level and see how to take these elements to perfect public policy on a macro level. Often times there are a top down approach & we don’t find the middle ground, or the connection between the individual and society.

Going forward one of my goals is to make that connection between the needs of the individual with that of the larger society. Now, we go forward!

A Virtual Universe : Disability , Employment & The Future of The Job Interview

We are in a virtual age, the internet has redefined how we live , work and play. It is creating a whole new cultural landscape of how we conduct our lives to such a degree that essential part of our dailyt existence. For people with disabilities this new 'virtul universe' has opened up a plethora of opportunities providing access to new possibilities that was not avaliable previously. One of these new access points is the job interview. Companies like TMP Worldwide is using the platform of Second Life, an online social networking community that uses 3D graphics to create a fully integrated virtual community where individuals and businesses can connect with one another. This platform is growing in popularity by leaps and bounds to the point where millions of dollars are being spent on the site on a monthly basis. Companies as diverse as Cisco Systems to Major League Baseball have made there presence known. Even universities like Stamford and John Hopkins are providing seminars on Second Life.

What makes this type of platform valuable for people with disabilities isa virtual access to major corporations which can lead to eventual jobs in the 'real' world. But by being using this accessible enviornment to conduct interviews, connect with business leaders TMP Worldwide is creating a new paradigm by which people with disabilities can gain access to the job market. Now, there are still a lot of hurdles to be overcome but this a huge leap foward in progress.