RespectAbility for Sunday, 2 February 2014

RespectAbility for Sunday, 2 February 2014
Friend,
I hope you enjoy tonight's big game. But know in advance -- no matter if the Seattle Seahawks or Denver Broncos have the higher Super Bowl score, the biggest winners of the Super Bowl XLVIII will be America's 56 million citizens with disabilities. Indeed, according to polling the majority of Americans have a loved one with a disability – and they will be big winners too. That is all thanks to remarkable personal statements by football legends Derrick Coleman and Steve Gleason, each of whom is staring in new ads. Both ads show that disability, or difference, is not a disqualifier for equal and successful participation in life. 
Derrick Coleman's ad, which tells his story of growing up as a deaf person, is in first person. "They told me it couldn't be done...that I was a lost cause...I was picked on and picked last...they gave up on me... and told me that I should just quit...so I didn't listen." is a story of millions of other Americans with disabilities share. Today, 70% of working age Americans with disabilities don't have a job (9 million Americans). Government benefits to these individuals cost taxpayers hundreds of billions each year, yet new polling shows that nearly 3 out of 4 people with disabilities in the sample say it is more important to them to "have a joband be independent" than it is "that there is a government safety net of benefits so that I will be taken care of." This holds true across political party lines. 
People with disabilities (PwDs) want a hand up, not a hand out. Indeed, when asked what they see as the primary barrier to finding a job with competitive wages, the first choice of people with disabilities (PwDs) polled is that "employers think I will be less successful than someone without a disability." An overwhelming 54% of family/friends/providers gave the same response. 
The disability community polled also sites the top ways to impact the work environment for PwDs as changes in employer attitudes, increased employer training on successfully recruiting, hiring, and accommodating employees with disabilities, and a change in disability benefits so that recipients could work without risking losing them altogether. Hopefully, Derrick Coleman's success, coupled with the technology highlighted in the Microsoft ad with Steve Gleason, will show that wherever there is a disability, there is also ability.
Less than 1/3 of people surveyed in the disability community think that "society expects people with a disability to work" and yet 85% of people with disabilities say that, "having a job is important to their happiness."
More than 2/3 of people with disabilities (PwDs) surveyed agree with the Derrick Coleman type attitude in that they agree with the statement "my disability gave me a challenge and I am more capable because of it" over "my disability is a barrier that limits me."  PwDs who were raised after the passage of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) and IDEA, ages 18-29, feel even more strongly about their capabilities, at 82%.
While there were 1,969 PwDs in the poll, 1 out of 5 do not consider themselves "disabled." When asked an open-ended question of what word should be used, the overwhelming response included some combination of people first language, person, individuals, or people with disabilities, and over words like "handicapped" or "special needs."
Companies such as Walgreens, EY, AMC and others have shown that people with disabilities can make outstanding employees. However, less than half of PwD respondents looking for work "have access to quality training programs, career counseling, and professional resources (e.g., job coach) needed to help with a job search." 
Seven out of ten people surveyed in the disability community are more likely to purchase or recommend products or services and to want to work places that are known to hire people with disabilities. This is good news for companies like Duracell, Microsoft, Guinness and Swiffer who are highlighting disability in their ads. The survey was fielded online November 6-December 2, 2013.  It was shared via email lists more than a dozen national organizations and leaders in the disability community, as well as on social media. More information about methodology and more poll results can be found here.
Enjoy the game – and let people of ALL abilities play in every field in the future!
Sincerely, 
Jennifer Laszlo Mizrahi
President, RespectAbilityUSA.org
(202)365-0787 
RespectAbility
4340 East-West Hwy, Suite 350
Bethesda, MD 20814
240-744-0546
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