Carol Glazer, President of the National Organization on Disability (NOD) spoke about employment opportunities – and barriers – facing the one in five Americans who have some type of protected disability. The number – 57 million – includes any potential worker with any condition that affects his or her mental health, neurological or physical health, persons with depression, hearing loss, cancer, asthma or allergies could benefit from workplace protections. Carol addressed the barriers that the environment and employers can place on the disabled, bus routes and public transportation that is not convenient or frequent enough, missing ramps on curbing and other environmental factors, and dispelled the myths that employers fall into, that disabled workers are less productive, more likely to call out, that they need costly accommodations. We discussed the stigma of claiming a disability or asking for accommodations and the fear of being labeled disabled for future employment or possibly insurance reasons. Carol notes that 20% to 40% of the disabled population are underemployed and benefits only take them to bare maintenance level, real, living-wage jobs are needed. She discussed how NOD works to educated employers on the benefits of hiring from this large talent pool, working with the disabled before they enter the job market and their advocacy work to maintain safety nets, increase accessibility and prevent discrimination.
