Presented by Anthony Camuso at the Facing the Future XX Conference.

1. The National Organization on
Disability and Bridges to Business

2. National Organization on Disability: A 29 year-old, non-profit organization
with a focus on increasing employment outcomes for people with disabilities
 Mission: Expand the participation and
contribution of America’s 54 million men, women
and children with disabilities in all aspects of life.
 Focus: Increase employment opportunity and
economic self-sufficiency for the 33 million
working-aged Americans with disabilities.
It’sability,
not disability,
that counts
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3. NOD’s Innovative Approaches to
Disability Employment
Wounded Warrior Careers: Helping severely
injured veterans transition into work
Start on Success: Career opportunities for
high school students with disabilities
Kessler / NOD Surveys, by Harris Interactive:
Delivering data on disability
CEO Council: A forum for corporate leaders
seeking to diversify their workforce
Bridges to Business: Helping companies build
an inclusive workforce
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4. 2010 Kessler Foundation/NOD/Harris
Survey of Employment of Americans with Disabilities
Q710: Does your company have a policy or program for employing a diverse workforce?
Q820: Does your company have a policy or program specifically designed for the hiring
of people with disabilities?
59%
56%
33%
25%
25%
23%
15%
12%
8%
5%
Yes, has both No, has no Not sure
Diversity Policy Diversity Disability Policy Disability
a policy and a policy or
Program Program
program program
Key: Indicates responses about diversity policies and programs
Indicates responses about disability policies and programs

5. 2010 Kessler Foundation/NOD/Harris
Survey of Employment of Americans with Disabilities
Q700: Which of the following best describes your Q840: What is the reason you have not hired
Company’s plans for your workforce over the people with disabilities in the last three years?
next 12 months?
69%
66%
45%
39%
37%
23%
12%
2%
4%
We plan to We plan to We have no We plan to We plan to
significantly somewhat plans to somewhat significantly
increase the increase the increase or reduce the reduce the
size of our size of our decrease the size of our size of our
workforce workforce size of our workforce workforce
workforce

6. NOD’s Bridges to Business
Disability Employment Initiative
Bridges Goal NOD Role
1. Increase the number of  Establish annual hiring targets with employers (e.g. 10% of all
new hires with new hires will be people with disabilities)
disabilities  Identify, screen and establish partnerships with local service
providers
 Create or enhance processes for obtaining accommodations
 Deliver NOD training to managers and staff
 Establish metrics and measure success (cost/benefit analysis)
2. Retention practices of  Define training needed to ensure success of disability
employees with candidates
disabilities is equal to  Utilize job coaches to assist with employer culture and
non-disabled colleagues standards
 Utilize employer systems to track success of employees
 Measure success as above
3. Ensure that employees  Establish or enhance mentoring programs to ensure ongoing
with disabilities receive success
advancement  Provide advancement training opportunities with senior staff
opportunities
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7. NOD’s Bridges to Business
Disability Employment Initiative
Key Partnership Intended Outcomes
Elements
• Understanding business drivers that enable hiring
1 Business activity in order to effectively and efficiently respond to
Drivers the needs of the business
• Understand performance standards and metrics to
ensure effective recruiting of qualified talent
• Identified key local partners that align with NJ employers
2 Creating business drivers and the elements needed for a national
Effective demonstration
Partnerships
• Monitor ongoing progress of all partnership elements
and ensure business drivers remain paramount
3 Training & • Understand training needs of the partnership;
Develop/design training programs that will create an
Education effective environment for integrating people with
disabilities into the organization
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8. NOD’s Bridges to Business
Disability Employment Initiative
NJ Bridges is funded by the NJ Medicaid Infrastructure Grant - DiscoverAbility
Partner with select
employers for
participation in NOD’s
Bridges to Business
Assess current
Assess outcomes- disability
provide training and employment
technical support recruitment, hiring, a
as needed nd retention
practices
Interview and broker
arrangement with local Discuss areas in need of
state agencies and improvement. Identify
community service current and projected
providers for purposes hiring targets and required
of job candidate skill sets
sourcing
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9. Bridges to Business
• Lowes/NOD Bridges Partnership
– Lowes Distribution Centers
• Statesville, NC
• Finley, OH
• Rockford, IL
– Provider Partners
– Set Backs & Successes
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10. NJ Bridges to Business
• Employer Partnerships
– Sodexo
– ADP
– Aetna
• Assess employers’ diversity and inclusion needs
• Identify current and projected recruitment and hiring
practices
– Professional versus Non-Professional Positions
• Outline process for communication/sharing of job
openings
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11. NJ Bridges to Business
• Provider Partnerships
– Roles & Responsibilities
• Potential Partners
– State Agency (e.g., DVRS)
– Local supported employment provider agency
• Assessing employers’ diversity and inclusion needs
• Identifying current and projected recruitment and
hiring practices
• Outline process for communication/sharing of job
openings
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12. NJ Bridges to Business:
Solutions to Success
• Seek input from all parties
• Create partner agreements that meet
everyone's expectations
• Rather than a single provider identify regional
provider partners for Bridges employers
• Create similar partnerships between post-
secondary institutions and employers
(e.g., 2yr and 4yr colleges and universities,
professional and trade schools)
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13. NJ Bridges to Business:
Solutions to Success
• Expand NJ Bridges employer partnerships
• Include diversity of key NJ industries
– Bio/Pharmaceuticals and Life Sciences
– Transportation, Logistics, Distribution
– Finance Industry
– Advanced Manufacturing
– Health Care
– Technology
– Leisure, Hospitality and Retail
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14. Characteristics of
Disability Friendly Employers
• Actively recruit, hire, and retain people with disabilities
• Employees with disabilities are involved in business making
decisions (e.g., workplace committees to P&P)
• Supplier-diversity initiatives aimed at businesses owned by
people with disabilities
• Presence of one or more disability employer resource groups
(ERG’s) and/or affinity groups (e.g., Sodexo’s SOAR group)
• Workplace Accessibility (e.g., physical, oral and written communication)
• Promotional opportunities for employees with disabilities
• Measurable business diversity and inclusion practices, policies,
and procedures
Please refer to the Ernst Young and USBLN handouts for more information on Disability Friendly Employers/Practices.
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15. 2011 Top 10 Companies
for People With Disabilities
(Source-www.diversityinc.com)
1. IBM
2. KPMG
3. Kaiser Permanente
4. Aetna
5. Ernst &Young
6. Procter &Gamble
7. Merck & Co.
8. Deloitte
9. Sodexo
10. Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide
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16. It’s Ability, Not Disability that Counts.
www.NOD.org
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