Welcome to SMG eNEWS™
2008, Dec 1st

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

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.

Cincinnati Children’s Hospital: From High Turnover to High Retention with Project Search
By Joan Leotta

Employee searches for high-turnover positions can cost companies thousands or even tens of thousands of dollars per year. But, when faced with jobs that have a typical turnover rate of as much as 47%, how can employers break the cycle? At Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center, the solution has been to employ those equally capable but most in need of employment opportunities: people with disabilities. And the idea is catching on. In addition to keeping internal human resources costs down and retaining quality employees, Project Search at Cincinnati Children’s has become a model program for employers around the world....
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Featured Article
Special to Disability-Marketing.com

Competitive Employment for People with Intellectual Disabilities – Real World Experience in Changing the Paradigm of the Way We Think
By Joyce Bender, President and CEO of Bender Consulting Services

The title of this speech is what is so needed in the world of competitive employment for people with intellectual disabilities – a Paradigm Shift in the way we think. We know that people with intellectual disabilities have a very high unemployment rate and are more likely to live in poverty. We know that many employers think about people with intellectual disabilities as people who should be taken care of – not employed, and if employed, frequently underemployed. We must change the way we think if we want to see a change in the competitive employment of people with intellectual disabilities and if we want to see people with intellectual disabilities acquire a higher level of self-efficacy....
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Accessibility
sponsored by Universal Design Newsletter

U.S. Says Many Apartments Violate Law on Disabled
By Charles V. Bagli, New York Times, via Mediatalk listserv

Facing potential lawsuits by the federal government, developers and landlords in New York City may need to spend tens of millions of dollars to renovate more than 100,000 apartments built since 1991 to comply with federal housing laws barring discrimination against tenants who use wheelchairs, real estate industry officials say...
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Marketing

Disabled Travelers Could Get Network of Specialist Agents
By Travel Weekly

A network of independent travel agents to drive cruise holiday sales and specialist service to disabled travelers could soon be a reality. Leading Cruise Agents is to discuss the possibility following calls by cruise lines during a round-table debate on disabled cruise travel on how to tap into a market of 2.5 million registered disabled travelers in the UK. The disabled market has £50 billion in revenue to spend and many disabled travelers feel they are not receiving the service they need from travel agents and cruise lines....
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News & Announcements

Ernst & Young Receives U.S. Department of Labor's New Freedom Initiative Award for Enhancing the Participation of Americans with Disabilities in the 21st Century Workforce
By Ernst & Young LLP PR Newswire via Comtex

Macro International Awarded ABLEDATA Contract
By Business Wire

Blind Activists Plan Protest of Movie 'Blindness'
By Ben Nuckols, News Outlet: The Associated Press