Understanding Workforce Customers with Disabilities: Why it Matters

Abstract

[Excerpt] More and more, individuals with disabilities are recognizing that work fulfills the need to be productive and economically self-sufficient. Work promotes independence, enhances self-esteem, and contributes productively to the community. People with disabilities are valuable members of the workforce. In order to increase the pool of skilled workers that the business community needs, we need to increase the labor market participation rates of all our workforce customers — especially those with disabilities. To give you a sense of what an important part of the economy they are, individuals with disabilities represent $220 billion in buying power, according to the National Organization on Disability (2004).