October is Disability Employment Awareness Month #DEAM. In the U.S the month of October has been highlighted as a time to reflect on improvements to the lives of North Americas largest minority group, to celebrate some success and to advocate for change, much more change.
Here in Canada we celebrate the disability community on one day only, December 3rd. This is the United Nations day of the disabled. None of our governments across the country have seen the need to follow our friends to the south however outside of Government, stakeholder groups, advocates and activists are taking ownership of #DEAM. This is a good thing, the disability community is becoming stronger, louder and inevitably, more successful.
As we enter October I will be tweeting daily with quotes, tips, data and much more about real inclusion. What works? What approaches to business are successful? Why are employers still buying into age old myths, stereotypes and misperceptions? What is the value of real inclusion both to the worker and the employer?
You can follow these tweets @markwafer
To begin the month of October I believe it’s important to review the data as we stand today as a society that still for the most part shuns workers with disabilities, largely out of ignorance. A society that still misunderstands the sheer scope of the demographic of disability. Is still largely misinformed and unaware of the massive untapped Labour force and unaware of the education and skill levels of those unemployed workers.
It’s important to understand the landscape as it is today. Yes we have come a long way but looking at this in terms of a football game, we started on the 10 yard line ten years ago and with Herculean effort we are at the 20 yard line. It’s first downs but we are a long way away from even a simple field goal. We need new strategies and a bigger effort, we need to enhance the business case and sadly, still create more awareness if we want to get within striking distance of a touchdown.
To kick off #DEAM here are some numbers to review. Here is where we are today:-
18% of Canadians have a disability. That’s the entire population of Alberta, Saskatchewan and Manitoba
New Brunswick has the highest percentage of citizens with disabilities.
The disposable income of Canadians with disabilities is $50B+
There are 1B people world wide with a disability. That’s one in seven and moving closer to one in five
500,000 Canadian graduates with disabilities (last five years) have never worked a single day. Of those 270,000 have a post secondary education.
Number of Americans with disabilities, 56 million
Participation rates for workers with disabilities in both countries, less than 20%
Percentage of North Americans who will experience a disability lasting more than one year during their professional lives, 20%
StatsCan data shows 54% of Canadians with disabilities not working. This does not include anyone with no marketplace attachment such as the 500,000 grads therefore the real number is closer to 70%
During the great depression the unemployment rate at its peak was 24% and considered a national tragedy. Therefore at 70%, Canadians with disabilities live a perpetual depression.
Employers still largely look at the disability community as a niche market. This stifles innovation, market research for new products and growth yet…….research shows that 90% of retail customers prefer to shop at outlets who employ workers with disabilities.
Follow me this month for all the top news, data, tips, quotes and more. @markwafer
Be direct, be daring, be bold.
The Inclusion Revolution 