With recent articles on the number of people receiving federal disability benefits rising (“Unfit for Work” by Chana Joffe-Walt, NPR) and the growing employment gap between people with and without disabilities (“Scant Progress on Jobs for Disabled Americans” by Jennifer Kerr, Associated Press), concerns are high regarding people with disabilities—their disparity in their rates of employment, the reasons for the increase in disability benefits, and especially, their economic contributions to or drains on society.
Joffe-Walt discloses that 14 million people receive a disability check from the federal government each month—a check that is often seen as a disincentive to find work, though the average payment is at poverty level—and also discloses that states actually pay companies like Public Consulting Group to move as many people as possible onto federal disability.
Kerr points out that although the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 was passed over twenty years ago, the job numbers for people with disabilities haven’t budged, and that the number of people with disabilities working has actually decreased in the last four years.
This is, quite obviously, a massive issue, with billions of dollars spent by the federal government only to result in fewer people with disabilities actually participating in the labor force.
But it doesn’t represent the entire picture. There are organizations and businesses successfully working on the opposite side—actively creating viable employment opportunities for people with disabilities and reducing the number of people on federal disability programs. Most people with disabilities truly want to work, and when given the right opportunity (and in some cases the right accommodations, which average less than $500) can become extremely dedicated and valuable employees. The right conduit—an organization that is able to speak to the needs of both people with disabilities and the businesses where the jobs are—will make that happen on a large scale. It’s just going to take an effort on the part of commercial business to want to engage with that conduit, to tap into this overlooked and under-leveraged workforce as a strategic advantage.
There is a solution here: We need to realize that disability doesn’t have to be seen as a detriment to a successful worker. In fact, in some cases it can be an asset, with statistics showing that workers with disabilities are often more loyal, less absent, and more productive. Commercial companies hire workers with disabilities from successful conduit organizations like DePaul Industries and others because they’re right for the job and get the job done—and, as a bonus, they benefit from a healthy dose of corporate social responsibility.
If we’re really serious about moving more people with disabilities off of federal and other governmental support and into the workforce, the biggest slice of new hires needs to be in the commercial sector. Running the numbers on the Bureau of Labor Statistics disability figures, it will require that approximately six million jobs will need to be filled by people with disabilities in order to close this employment gap between people with and without disabilities. The 110 million job commercial sector, five to six times the size of the public sector, is the only sector with the realistic capacity to create those jobs.
There will always be individuals who, unfortunately, will try to game the system. But the reality is that many people with disabilities are already key assets to commercial companies, and many more want to be—they just need to be matched to the right jobs. To eliminate barriers and to benefit businesses, individuals, and the federal government, it’s going to take strategic efforts on the part of business to collaborate with organizations making that match.