The Accessible Workforce

“We consider diversity strategic to our organization. We don’t hire people who are disabled just because it’s a nice thing to do. We do it because it’s the right thing to do from a business standpoint.”

“Roy Grizzard, assistant secretary of labor at the U.S. Office of Disability Employment Policy, recalls being at a meeting with an IBM vice president who told him straightforwardly that the company could not afford to overlook a potential employee because of a disability. ‘The executive told me that individual might develop the next iteration of a software or hardware product that could make the company a great deal of money,’ Grizzard says.”

“A disability is not something that takes away from you. As a matter of fact, if you have a disability, you are probably a natural problem solver.”

“It’s no longer a case of ‘do we want to’ when it comes to features of accessibility. We have to. The government will buy from our competitors if we don’t.”

“IBM knows that to truly understand the market, they have to employ people that genuinely represent the marketplace. That’s why the company has a cost recovery fund at the corporate level to pay for accommodations including assistive technologies, enabling managers to hire the best person for a position without having to worry about the cost of supporting them. For IBM, this makes business sense and it is a competitive advantage.”

“I lost my hands in Vietnam. I never thought of myself as a disabled person. I was a change person, not a disabled one. IBM offered me a job that put me out front with its best customers. Not a lot of companies would take that risk.”

“I was very worried about my future. I had no idea what people who can’t see can do with their lives. It took a while to find out what I could do ... Taking the job [as a student researcher at IBM Research - Tokyo] meant moving away from home for the first time—a big step when you’re blind. But my father encouraged me, and joining IBM changed my life—and it’s been changing my life ever since.”

“[My manager] compliments me greatly on my work and performance. My disability doesn’t matter to him. He doesn’t see what I can’t do; he’s given me work that includes more than just my function test role—a broader spectrum of work with lots of face-to-face interaction with colleagues. He sees me as just another IBMer—almost like my disability is invisible to him.”