Welcome to SMG eNEWS™
2006, July 1st

The Solutions Marketing Group’s eNews is a bi-monthly communiqué that connects business to the market of people with disabilities.

Message From The Founder

Reflections since July 26, 1990
By Carmen Jones, Founder and President

Sixteen years ago I attended the signing of the Americans with Disabilities Act at the White House. Over 3,000 people came, making it the largest signing ceremony in White House history. It was a great day. Energy and excitement filled the air. I watched many who are now friends wipe tears away from their eyes as they watched President Bush sign the ADA into law. These friends had endured discrimination in employment and other arenas and been denied access to buildings and businesses. That day, they witnessed a vindication that would benefit them and millions of others, including future generations.

It was an instance when a law affected all Americans - regardless of sexual orientation, race, religion, age, income or education. At the time, I was a neophyte to the disability community, being a card carrying member for a little under 4 years. I was still in the process of fully embracing my disability. However, I that did not keep me from being in awe of champions in the disability community and their supporters in the U.S. Congress. Many had fought hard and sacrificed much to advance this civil rights legislation. I will never forget the events of July 26, 1990.

The ADA created the critical first steps to craft the legal framework that can level the playing field for 54 million people with disabilities. The law covers employment, access to state and local buildings, public transportation, buildings and telecommunications services. I believe that as companies realize the powerful potential of recruiting from an under-utilized talent pool for employment and reaching an untapped segment with more than $220 billion in discretionary income, the ADA will be viewed as a springboard to leverage compliance into gaining market share and competitive advantage. In short, companies should target the disability market to make money.

Over the summer, I urge you to reflect on the questions and viewpoints that John Kemp and Joyce Bender offer in their columns within the SMG eNewsletter. You may consider jotting down answers to these questions to begin formulating your company's disability inclusion strategy. John and Joyce stand by to answer your questions. My team and I are ready to facilitate solutions that impact your company's bottom-line. We look forward to hearing from you.

Warm best!

Carmen D. Jones
President/Founder
info@disability-marketing.com

Profiles in Excellence
Profiles in Excellence is a monthly article, published by SMG, that features companies and organizations that demonstrate leadership in accessibility, employment, customer service and marketing to the nation's 54 million Americans with Disabilities.

Bender Consulting Services—Slaying Employment Dragons
By Joan Leotta

Joyce Bender slays dragons and teaches others to do the same. As founder and CEO of Pittsburgh-based Bender Consulting Services, Inc., she helps people with disabilities "slay" barriers to career employment. Her placement firm employs, trains, and secures jobs for people with disabilities in fifteen US states and two Canadian provinces. Committed as she is to providing jobs that offer worthwhile careers, Bender's consultancy is a far cry from the sheltered workshops of the past for people with disabilities. Bender puts it this way: "My crusade is competitive employment for all with disabilities." Her motivation? "I know that there are many qualified people with disabilities out there," she says, "who like me just need an opportunity."...
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Featured Article
Special to Disability-Marketing.com

Employment is a Critical Factor with DDQ By John Kemp, Disability-rights advocate

It’s no secret that American businesses are preparing for what will be one of the greatest challenges of the 21st century. After enjoying the fruitful labors of the baby boom generation, companies are faced with a continuously shrinking workforce and lingering questions on where they will find the human resources needed to continue to grow and perform. Nonetheless, as with any challenge, this dynamic can be viewed as an opportunity rather than a crisis. True, you may not be able to find an abundant supply of qualified employees in the places you are used to looking -- What a perfect time to tap into those resources you may have overlooked!....
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Featured Article
Special to Disability-Marketing.com

The Stigma with Hidden Disabilities By Joyce Bender, President and CEO of Bender Consulting Services

I have a great way to quiet a room – start talking about my epilepsy to a group of strangers. There is always a look of surprise and shock when they discover that I am a person with epilepsy. I can read the “balloon” above the heads of those who suddenly look like “deer in the headlights”. In cartoons, the “balloon” above the characters tell us what they are really thinking. I know the words in their “balloon” include; “I thought you were fine” or “I never knew she had this terrible problem” or “Oh, no, epilepsy, I do not want to talk to you about it.”...
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Accessibility
sponsored by Universal Design Newsletter

Americans With Disabilities Act Transforms Lives: An ADA Primer By Michael Jay Friedman

While court decisions since Brown v. Board of Education and laws like the Civil Rights Act of 1964 assured that African-American Rosa Parks could ride in the front of the bus, they did not secure any seat for Judith Heumann. Heumann was a victim of polio, confined to a wheelchair, and unable to navigate her chair up the bus stairs. “It's not my disability that handicaps me," she told the Washington Post in 1980. "It is society that handicaps me and my disabled brothers and sisters by building inaccessible schools, theaters, buses, house and on and on and on."...
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National Council on Disability Calls for Tougher Standards for Accessible Airline Self-Service Kiosk Systems From the National Council on Disability

National Council on Disability calls on the U.S. Department of Transportation to adopt an updated Air Carrier Access Act (ACAA) standard for accessible design applicable to kiosk systems and that DOT then initiate settlement negotiations with covered air carriers and airports to bring their kiosk systems into full compliance. According to NCD chairperson Lex Frieden, "U.S. air carriers and airports have obligations under federal accessibility laws and regulations to provide cross-disability access to their kiosk systems. Those carriers and airports operating kiosk systems not in conformity with the Americans with Disabilities Act's standard for accessible design, which is also ACAA's standard, are out of compliance."...
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Customer Service
sponsored by W.C. Duke Associates, Inc.

American Airlines Wins Award as Airline of Choice for Travelers With a Disability at the OAG Awards 2006 From PRNewswire-FirstCall

American Airlines has been voted the "Airline of Choice for Travelers with a Disability" by OAG's worldwide customer base of business travelers. This is a new award for 2006 and was introduced in response to OAG's customers asking for airlines to be recognized for making travel as easy as possible for disabled people. OAG is a global travel and transport information company....
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Employment

Investing in Independence Is Good For All
By Daniel Weintraub, Sacramento Bee

A California Assemblyman votes for a big increase in spending on a social program that he says is a can't-miss investment for taxpayers: employment help for the developmentally disabled. Assemblyman Roger Niello backed an increase of almost 50 percent - about $27 million - to expand a service that helps create private-sector jobs for the disabled and then provides counselors to keep the clients employed, sometimes even supervising them at the work site....
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Marketing

Safe and Sleek: ADA-compliant Products Are In Vogue for Bathrooms By Stephanie Herzfeld

Rosemarie Rossetti was an active, healthy woman until a 3 1/2-ton tree crushed her spinal cord in 1998. Before then, she never dreamed that the simple act of getting in and out of the shower would be so complex. Now the public speaker/writer is a self-appointed spokesperson for mainstreaming universal design, the concept of maximum accessibility for all people, regardless of their abilities. She and her husband are constructing a house in Ohio loaded with universal design features and products compliant with the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA)....
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News & Announcements

AXIS Dance Company Hosts Their 2nd Annual Physically Integrated Dance Summer Intensive
From AXIS Dance Company

MIT Poet Helps Create Seeing Machine
By Barry Levine, newsfactor.com

RSA National Employment Conference 2006: Transition into High Demand Job Sectors