In the United States, approximately 6.5 million people have autism, an intellectual and/or developmental differences. And, of these adults, an astounding 8 out of 10 with developmental differences are unemployed because of the lack of job opportunities in their communities, despite having the skill sets and expertise to excel in the workplace. Now is the time for this perception to finally change.
Research from the Harvard Business Review shows that employing people with autism, intellectual and/or developmental differences leads to positive business impacts, including better morale and improved products, services and bottom lines.
Working Nation is a journalism and film unit that exists to expose hard truths about the looming unemployment crisis and bring the country together through storytelling around solutions for a changing economy. Art Bilger, Founder & CEO, has built and oversees a team of journalists and Academy Award-winning directors and producers who create a wide range of compelling stories and programming to highlight the issues.
More than just telling stories, Working Nation provides a clear call to action to diagnose systemic labor issues and generate solutions that can address these issues at the requisite scale.
Working Nation starts by capturing the fundamental workforce challenges in a targeted geography, demographic, or work sector, and then partner with emerging leaders who are committed to finding a solution, chronicling how the solution took shape over time and is being implemented. Working Nation’s distribution of stories amplifies these efforts so that their success can be replicated in other cities, sectors, and c-suites.
The innovations that have led to universally beneficial advancements such as accessible technology, accessible transportation, accessible education, and accessible employment have been driven by employees who have had to work in a world that wasn’t originally designed for them.
Accessibility, assistive technology, and authentic representation are three areas companies can focus on to help employees with disabilities find their voice and reach their full potential.
Finding and defining the appropriate terms to use for any given group is an ongoing process that happens with every movement, but the best approach to navigating it is to be willing to ask others what words they are most comfortable using.
Every company has people with different needs in their workforce, so how can we shatter the stigma around disability and foster open and honest dialogue in the workplace?
Spectrum Designs is a custom apparel and promotional products business with a social mission to create employment opportunities for those on the autism spectrum – a population of 5.6 million Americans that currently faces an 85% unemployment rate, according to Autism Speaks.
Today, Dan Berschinski is a happily engaged senior consultant at IBM, but in 2009 he was serving as a first lieutenant in the U.S. Army, leading a 35-soldier infantry platoon through an area of Afghanistan that was home to the Taliban – until an explosion robbed him not only of his legs but also of his lifelong goal of being an army officer.
Ever since a childhood diagnosis that resulted in the amputation of a limb, Ted Kennedy, Jr., has been an advocate for the civil rights of people with disabilities.
A conversation with Anthony Shriver, founder, chairman, and CEO of Best Buddies
A conversation with Todd Greene, executive director, WorkRise
For the past two years, the Delivering Jobs campaign has been running public service announcements to bring attention to that fact, with the mission of opening doors to employment for men and women with autism or other intellectual development differences.
Employers with open positions are always searching for the right person to fill the job. But what if the right person doesn’t fit the traditional definition of what an employer might be seeking?
A collaborative partnership between CAI and the West Virginia Autism Training Center (WV ATC) at Marshall University aims to create career opportunity for people with autism.
The just released Disability Equality Index (DEI) – a joint initiative between Disability:IN and the American Association of People with Disabilities (AAPD) – is the latest “comprehensive benchmarking tool for disability inclusion in business.”
Tomorrow marks the beginning of National Disability Employment Awareness Month (NDEAM). Recognizing the contributions to the workforce by Americans with disabilities, this year’s theme is Disability: Part of the Equity Equation.