Last Wednesday,
Kathy Martinez, assistant secretary at the Office of Disability Employment Policy, U.S. Department of Labor, urged the audience and their companies to choose inclusion in her keynote address, and that, "by being here today, you are making that smart choice."
Martinez pointed out that the current workforce is aging rapidly in the U.S., and as more and more people over the age of 55 continue to work, she said, a significant increase in working professionals with disabilities is becoming a very real possibility.
"We cannot sustain this growing population of people on benefits," Martinez said. "What started as a policy issue has become a marketing issue. People with disabilities are a huge market and the best way to tap into it is to make sure it’s represented everywhere."
Telling the audience how to best foster a culture of inclusion and getting it to spread both internally and externally, Martinez used a cooking metaphor, stating that people with disabilities, "want to be baked in, and not layered on. We need to create an environment in which people feel safe to self-identify as someone with disabilities."
Martinez additionally pointed to Employee Resource Groups (ERG's) as effective ways to impact disabilities in businesses.
Lori Golden, EY Americas abilities strategy leader, and Luke Visconti, CEO of
"You have to have numbers and have accountability—otherwise, it's like a speedometer with no numbers on it," Visconti said. "How’s your recruitment doing? How are you assisting families with disabilities? If you look at the productivity of people with disabilities, and how they feel when your organization embraces diversity, it’s a win-win." Visconti additionally pointed to
Other guests included a panel comprised of organization representatives from IBM, Cisco Systems, and Merck & Co., as well as a closing keynote from paralympian Blake Leeper.
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