Diversifying the U.S. Workforce to Include People with Disabilities

Over the past decade, the business community and diversity experts have started to see the value of integrating people with disabilities into their diversity and marketing programs. In 2004, DiversityInc.’s Top 50 Companies for Diversity survey began to include questions regarding people with disabilities. In the following several years, a number of companies made great strides to include people with disabilities in their workforces. However, even with these advances, the diversity paradigm has not shifted. A 2007 HR Magazine article provided a summary of findings from the State of Workplace Diversity Management Report that included the following subtitle, “Majority of Companies Say They Haven’t Defined Diversity.” In addition to this reported weakness, the survey participants also reported another major challenge – that of the field’s focus on ethnicity and gender.

By all accounts, the percentage of people with disabilities in the workforce will continue to rise. Young people with disabilities are more educated and qualified than ever. With declining resources for retirement, many aging employees with disabilities are unable to retire as planned. More assistive technologies are available to provide cost effective strategies for accommodating workplace challenges faced by employees with disabilities. While these workplace demographics continue to change, the needs of business have not. They still need to hire and retain the best, most qualified person for a job – whether the employee needs to flex his schedule to ensure regular meals to stabilize his insulin levels, use a computer monitor magnifier to make documents easier to read, or use a screen reader to access his electronic work tools.

A number of legislative initiatives are being discussed to enable a productive but realistic work life balance. Many of these are designed for a more flexible work arrangement for the generation sandwiched between care of children and care of parents. In 2008, the Congress amended the Americans with Disabilities Act broadening the definition of disability from how it had been interpreted for the past decade or so. President Obama has increased the budget of the Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs (OFCCP) to include a significant number of new regulators. At the same time, technology is enabling employees to work from home or other temporary locations in completing their tasks. Whether employers are ready or not, the convergence of all of these trends ensures more people with disabilities will be engaged in the workforce.


- Louis E. Orslene, MPIA, MSW, Co-Director