Hidden in the boughs of a nearby spruce tree – I could see it staring at me. As I stood at our living room window, its black, beady little eyes were quick to catch my slightest movement. I froze in my place. Even from this distance I could see its blood-red head twitching from side to side as it deliberated its next move. Suddenly, it exploded into motion and literally flew across the yard, straight at me!

Landing softly on the lip of our bird feeder and sensing no threat from me, it carelessly fluffed its feathers and started pecking at the ready store of black oil sunflower seeds. I was transfixed as, against the backdrop of the yard’s snowy white coverlet, the pine grosbeak, this rare crimson visitor, enjoyed its little winter feast.

While not counting ourselves among the ranks of serious bird watchers, my wife and I certainly take great delight in the many birds that show up in our yard. So much so, that we take care to make our yard inviting to them. Our property offers them a wide variety of trees and shrubs to perch upon and to nest in. Our summer birdbath is replaced by a heated one for the cold winter months. Because different birds are attracted to different seeds, we have several birdfeeders – millet for the sparrows, niger for the finches, safflower for the doves and sunflower seeds for the jays, grosbeaks, chickadees, and others.

Our yard is ever more successfully becoming a welcoming environment for a wider and wider variety of birds. It isn’t happening accidentally, but intentionally - deliberately. As we learn more about the needs and wants of each type of bird, we are able to craft and tune our yard to be a more attractive place to each of them – slowly transforming the environment so that it responds to their unique and individual needs and helps them to flourish here.

No, this hasn’t turned into a newsletter about bird watching. Rather, it recently occurred to me that our little hobby has some striking parallels and common themes with issues of workforce diversity and the inclusion of people with disabilities. Playing on this analogy, I’d like to share some thoughts with you. My comments are going to be framed around what I believe to be the three predominant employer responses to the issues workforce diversity. 

Resistant Employers

If Resistant employers lived in our neighborhood, behind the “Welcome All Birds” sign on their house (likely hung to impress the government), they would probably have a big plastic owl on their roof, scarecrows planted on their lawns, and foil ribbons tied to their tree branches to scare off any birds that might think of landing anywhere near. No doubt, they would also have a few cats prowling the property.

While these companies would have begrudgingly installed ramps, widened doors, allocated parking spaces and otherwise complied with equity-intended legislation, they would have absolutely no true desire to employ people with disabilities. Their attitudes and cultures would, in fact, be covertly hostile to people with disabilities. To their own detriment, the actions of these companies would be flying in the face of the new workforce realities. In numbers alone, their traditional labor pools are shrinking. In the ever-increasing competition for talent, they are ignoring, if not avoiding, a ready and talented workforce.

Their resistance to employing people with disabilities can come from a variety of sources. Some of these might include:

• Disbelief in the changing workforce demographics. (They likely belong to the Flat Earth Society as well!)

• Discomfort with changing anything about “the way things have always been done.”

• Erroneous beliefs and stereotypes about people with disabilities being unproductive in the workplace.

• Lack of confidence in their own abilities to be comfortable and effective in working with people with disabilities.

Happenstantial Employers

If Happenstantial employers lived in your neighborhood, these folks would have the same “Welcome All Birds” sign on their house but they wouldn’t have done anything unusual or proactive to make their yard an inviting destination for them. Over the fence and at neighborhood gatherings they would frequently be heard saying “We love birds. We wish we had more birds in our yard – but they just don’t come here.” You might even see them intently peering out their windows – hoping to see a bird alight on one of their trees – and reacting in sheer delight whenever one happens to do so.

At their offices, they would have happily made the required modifications to their buildings and websites to make them accessible to people with disabilities. They would have been genuinely disappointed when, with the installation of their new automatic front doors, there wasn’t the expected surge of people with disabilities scurrying in to drop off their resumes. When the occasional person with a disability or person from another under-represented minority did happen to apply, they would excitedly go out of their way to make them feel welcome and to ensure that they were equitably and respectfully treated throughout the recruiting and employment processes.

Unfortunately, most of their efforts are rather shallow window dressing. In-depth attention wouldn't have been given to the to the factors that determine the long-term job satisfaction and retention of folks who bring uncommon differences to their workplace. Like the birds who visit their yards for a short rest or a quick meal before moving on, these companies will likely find that, even if hired, most of these new employees will soon move on to more hospitable workplaces.

Deliberate Employers

In your neighborhood, the homes of Deliberate employers would be easy to pick out. Their yards would be alive with the sounds of happy chirping and the melodies of songbirds. Fluttering wings and flashes of color would be seen darting from tree to tree. There would be several feeders throughout their yard holding a variety of different grains – feeders hung near bushes for the goldfinches and shy songbirds - feeders with larger perching areas to accommodate the blue jays and other big birds – feeders on open ground for the morning doves. A similar array of birdhouses would be scattered throughout the yard – some with small holes for diminutive wrens and other tiny birds - some with still bigger entrances for bluebirds and other large birds - and even a multi-storied one for the communally-inclined purple martins. Tall trees in their yards would offer perfect nesting branches, evergreens would provide shelter against the cold winter winds, and a variety of shrubs and fruit trees would serve up alternate food sources.

These are the employers who love and embrace the concept of diversity in their workforces. They are the ones who think there is a richer performance to be enjoyed from an orchestra than from just a roomful of French horns. These are the employers who understand that fresh ideas and new initiatives spring more readily from the excitement and energy of a diverse team they do from the established patterns and doldrums and of a homogeneous one. It is these employers who see the rich diversity in their customer bases and know that they will be more successful with their products and services if they have that same diversity represented on their design teams, their sales force and, indeed, throughout their entire organizations. It is these employers who will go out of their way to attract, support, retain and enhance the talents of people with disabilities and those from other groups that have previously been underrepresented I their workforce.

These employers won’t just do their best to be fair to people with disabilities who happen to apply for their jobs. As with all groups of people who are in their communities, but underrepresented in their workplace, they will proactively seek out and court applicants. They will make contact with community groups that assist job seekers with disabilities and with educational programs that assist students with disabilities to transition into the workforce. They will get involved with mentoring days and career fairs that focus on students with disabilities. They will offer part-time employment and internships to students with disabilities. 

These employers won’t just formally “accommodate” employees with disabilities. They will earnestly sit down with every employee, disabled or not, to collaboratively determine the working conditions, environments and tools that will enable them, individually, to make their best contribution to the success of the company. Knowing that accommodation is an ongoing process – that job tasks, individual needs, and assistive technologies regularly change, they will be prepared to make ongoing changes and adaptations as needed.

These employers won’t remain satisfied with the fact that individuals with disabilities hold jobs in their company. They will work to ensure that each and every employee also finds an integral sense of belonging in the workplace. They will make internal mentors available who will introduce the new employee to the workplace and to guide them through the early days of their employment period. Larger companies will foster affinity groups where people with disabilities can meet with each other to address issues of common concern and to develop another sense of community within the company.

These employers won’t be content simply because an employee is productive on the first job that they were hired to do. As they do with other employees, they will invest in developing the experience, talents and skill sets of each employee – encouraging and supporting them to take on greater responsibilities and to advance into new roles that will make their contribution to the company even more valuable.

Effective and full inclusion of people with disabilities in the workplace will never be achieved just by taking a positive, hopeful stance. It is not going to happen through luck or happenstance. Like most other worthwhile goals, It requires proactive and intentional action.

Interestingly too, success here builds on success. There is nothing that more effectively attracts birds to your yard than the sight of other birds already there. When passing birds sight other birds flitting about your yard and feeding, they naturally assume that your place is bird-friendly and are drawn to join in the activity. It is not so very different for people with disabilities who have experienced barriers and discrimination in the workplace. As employees from different minority groups and those with disabilities begin to be visible in your workplace, your workplace will become recognizable as diversity-friendly and attractive to other job seekers from under-represented groups.

We so love the vitality, the activity, and the interplay of the many birds who visit our yard! May more and more employers come to appreciate the vibrancy of a diverse workforce and may they more readily take the deliberate actions needed to make their workplaces a frequented destination for job seekers with disabilities. If, as an employer, you want to attract and retain some great fresh talent, you must take a deliberate path – and the skills, productivity and enthusiasm of new employees with disabilities will be yours… deliberately yours.

~ Rob McInnes

© Rob McInnes, Diversity World, January, 2008 (If not used for commercial purposes, this article may be reproduced, all or in part, providing it is credited to "Rob McInnes, Diversity World - www.diversityworld.com". If included in a newsletter or other publication, we would appreciate receiving a copy.)

FACT SHEET: Individualized Support Needs and Traumatic Brain Injury

The Rehabilitation Research and Training Center on Workplace Supports and Job Retention at Virginia Commonwealth University has released a fact sheet on supporting individuals with traumatic brain injuries (TBI) in the workplace. 

See: http://www.crp-rcep.org/resources/viewContent.cfm/621 

ENTREPRENEURIAL FOCUS: Silent Conversations

Gary E. Bachers never planned to become a visual artist.  He was a popular family practice physician in northeast Texas, where he lived with his wife and three children after moving from Winnipeg, Canada, in 1977.  In 1987, at the age of 38, he suffered a debilitating stroke that forced him to retire from medicine.  The stroke robbed him of the ability to speak or produce conventional language (a condition called expressive aphasia), and he also lost the use of the right side of his body.

Part of Bachers's therapy after the stroke was to learn to hold a pencil in his left hand.  After struggling to form words, he started fluently sketching flowers from his wife's garden.  With colored pencils, he began perfecting his compositions, often depicting lilies, peonies, irises, and birds of paradise. In this new language uniquely suited to his condition and innate talents, Bachers's artworks evolved from simple sketches to meticulous and complex designs.

Several solo exhibits of Bachers’s work have been titled “Silent Conversations,” a phrase referring both to his loss of speech and to each composition’s ability to express complex ideas and feelings beyond linguistic expression.  Having lost conventional means of communication, Bachers learned this new language, as richly articulate as speech, as universal as the moon.

See: http://pages.prodigy.net/gabrielle.bachers/GARY_BACHERS.COM/index.htm 

Keynote by: Richard Pimentel

employmentAccess 2008 (eA '08) is a national conference that unites persons with disabilities, employers, educators, rehabilitation specialists, technical developers, and manufacturers in more than 20 sessions on topics such as access technology for the workplace, ergonomics, and integrating persons with disabilities into the workforce..

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