Hiring People with Disabilities the Necessary Business Investment

Welcome to Disability Matters with your host Joyce Bender. All comments, views, and opinions expressed on the show are solely those of the host, guest, and callers. Now the host of Disability Matters, here's Joyce Bender.

Everyone, welcome to the show, to everyone in the United States and around the world. Oh my goodness, we have China, Canada, Saudi Arabia, Australia, so many countries listening to the show. Thank you, thank you. You know what I always say, even if it's one person, that one person, you can make a difference just by sharing with others. Just so you all know, you don't know how excited I am when I see all these listeners from China. So, thank you. Continue spreading the word because you're gonna help me change lives for people living with disabilities. Hello, Richard Roberts in Brazil, my friend that I love so much. I met Richard when I was in South Korea. Then I met with him again at the Embassy in Okinawa. He is a great disability rights leader. I love you, Richard, and I look forward to seeing you again soon. Then, Gyeong-young Cho in South Korea. Another great friend of mine, Cheryl Harris, who is with the State Department right here in the United States. Prior to that, she was in Tunisia, and Libya. She's a great person. And then you mean in Kazakhstan. We think about you all the time. And here we go, my special shout out to Yoshiko Dart. Hello, Yoshiko. For years now, I've been saying hello, Yoshiko, and I will continue Why? I love her. She's a great person, a great leader, but also she is the wife of the late and great Justin Dart Jr. And I want you to all remember Justin Dart Jr. If you don't know about him, you're missing out because he was the great general behind getting the ADA passed. Truly, a hero to all of us. Look him up, read about him. He is our history. And hi, Mark, thank you so much for once again being the sponsor of this show, the lead sponsor all these years. I mean it, I think just so highly of you. You are truly one of the best companies I have ever worked with because you do that very important thing you hire people with disabilities. So today is special for me because two of my favorite people are guests on the show, and those two people also work for the Bender family of companies, and they are a treasure to me and to everyone else living with disability. So, Gerald Homi And Leah Thomas, welcome to the show.

Thank you, Joyce.

Hi, Joyce. Hi. And Gerald, I'm going to start with you. How about if you share your background and your current role so our listeners will know more about you?

And thanks for having me on the show, Joyce Bender. I would love to. So, I am a person who is living with dysgraphia and dyslexia, two different learning disabilities. I'm I have a father who is blind, and he was the first person with a disability that Joyce, you ever placed into a job. My older sister Sherry works at Bender and really supported me in my first role at the company 15 years ago when I started as an intern 2 days a week after school doing whatever I could around the office to help out. And, you know, made my way into the recruitment team and have been working there for a long time and now am the manager of talent acquisition and technology. I get to manage the team placing and supporting people with disabilities in competitive employment. And I get to support our chief technology officer, Paula Balogh, PJ, in our technology products like our digital accessibility services and also helping with our internal technology infrastructure.

And how about your background? How did you get to your position now? I'm meaning prior. Didn't you have a connection with your father?

Yeah, so my father Jim was the first person with a disability ever placed, and he is blind and has worked for his whole career in IT, and it was because of that opportunity you gave him back when he started.

Yes, and what a great decision that was. Well, Gerald, thank you so much. LeeAnn, how about you? How about, about your background and what you do now?

Thanks, Joyce, and I appreciate the opportunity to share it with everyone. So I currently am the chief of staff to Joyce as well as an account director here at Bender Consulting Services. I've been here now over 9 years, and the time has gone by so quickly. I love working with the team, but I get the pleasure of working with Joyce and talking to our customers, talking about our services, talking to them about opportunities they have for people with disabilities, and it's a passion of mine. Before I came to work for Bender, I was actually in corporate America for over 36 years. I worked for the DuPont Company and then Computer Sciences Corporation. Which is now DXC Technology, and that's where I met the Bender team. So back in 1998, just a few years ago, I live in Delaware, we reached out to Bender and said, you know what, we want the best talent for our positions. So we want to include people with disabilities. So we reached out to Joyce and the team to start placing people across North America in IT, finance, communications, a wide range of areas because we wanted, as I said, the best talent. So that's how I got to meet the team. I was actually a customer of Bender, and then when I retired, Joyce said, would you like to be part of Bender? And I said, if I'm going to do— if I'm going to be retired and still work, this is the area that I would love to work in. So I have that pleasure now to be on the other side and talking to potential customers about what a great opportunity it is to hire people with disabilities and, and make sure that everyone is included.

And just like Gerald, what a great job you are doing. And by the way, Gerald Palame, if you're looking for employment, he is the person. But Gerald, where should they send their resume?

Just go to benderconsult.com/jobs. Just go there. You can see all of our open positions and provide your resume to us at benderconsult.com/jobs.

And if you are sending your resume as a result of listening to the radio show, make sure you mention that when you send in that information. And Leanne, same thing with you. If a company is interested in working with Bender Consulting Services to hire people with disabilities What should they do?

We actually have a form, and Gerald, you can share the location for that, a form that they can fill in to reach out to us, or they're also welcome to reach out to me directly at lthomas@benderconsult.com. Gerald, can you provide the site for the form?

Yeah, so it's benderconsult.com/contact-us. Us, vendorconsult.com/contact-us.

So they have two ways, Joyce, that they can reach out to me.

Okay, lthomas@vendorconsult.com. And you know, I have to say this, okay, everyone I talk to, including a customer today, telling me how they can't find people, they can't keep people in this market. As I'm sure you all know, from watching the news, we can't even find teachers. I mean, everything is upside down since the pandemic. Everything has turned around. But one thing is, it's extremely hard to find people for positions. So I'm going to use IT as an example. We are that untapped labor pool. There is a place you can go. There are people with disabilities looking for employment. They are, and we are, here to work. You know, I'm living with epilepsy, and you know that was the whole thing behind me starting the company. But I just want to point out again, don't say I can't find people. You can. Yes, you can, if you include people with disabilities benderconsult.com. Get in touch with us today, or lthomas@benderconsult.com. Just get in touch with us and we'll get back in touch with you. Gerald, when you were talking, uh, you mentioned, uh, about your father, and he was the first person with a disability that I found employment for even before there was a Bender Consulting Services. I did that on a volunteer basis early on. So what I wanted to ask you is, how did his employment impact your life? Because I think a lot of times people forget that when someone with a disability gains employment and they have a family, it's an impact to the entire family. Would you mind sharing share that with our listeners, how it impacted your family.

Sure, Joyce Bender. Well, my father was the— my blind father was the primary bread earner for my family, and I was born in 1990, just 13 days before the ADA was signed. And that was so rare to have your the blind member of the family be in competitive employment and be able to be the primary source of income to help raise that family. My grandmother became ill and was living with our family, and my mother was able to take early retirement and care for her and care for us because he had that employment. And I was able to, you know, we were able to be sustained by that. And then personally, growing up, I would get a lot of questions about my dad from teachers, peers, people just in general about how he was able to work. And they were just like amazed, like it was a miracle that my father was able to get a job in IT. Didn't understand how could he possibly program. And I just explained it very matter-of-factly about screen reader technology and Braille devices and how he would work. And I think a lot of those questions at an early age led to a lot of deep-rooted advocacy and the civil rights of inclusion of people with disabilities that I developed over the years. And when I was diagnosed with my own disabilities in the 4th grade— like I said earlier, I have dysgraphia and I also have dyslexia— I had that perspective of what I could accomplish, that what my father could do and what I could do. And I knew disability couldn't hold me back, but ableism and systems in society could. So I knew that I needed to become an advocate. And that self-advocacy led to me getting a career in driving systemic change for competitive employment for people with disabilities like my dad and like me.

Yeah, and it is so different. There are so many occasions where Gerald's family went shopping for something, including once a car, and the entire time the salesperson talked to Gerald's mother, never dreaming this could be the breadwinner, this man who is blind. So then at the very end, when he said, "Well, where do you work?" And his mother said, "Nowhere," you know, there was this gasp. And then Jim said, "I work." Which, of course, there was another gasp because people can't envision this happening. And hopefully now we've made a lot of progress today, but still, still I have people that say to me, "That is amazing. What a wonderful thing that a blind person could be a software developer." So let me just tell you, with technology today, people who are blind can work, people who are deaf can work, people with learning disabilities as which Cheryl mentioned can work with mobility issues, with speech difficulty. Technology today has leveled the playing field. So if you think that's, you know, an issue, get it out of your mind because it isn't. It is not an issue. Lee Ann, you mentioned while you worked with Computer Sciences Corporation, you were the liaison, and you were, you were the person that all the executives, directors, managers went to when they had an opening and would consider hiring a person with a disability from Bender. They would go to you, and then you would call me. And prior to that, as you mentioned, you worked in corporate America. So you certainly have been close to the perspective of business leaders on employing people with disabilities. How do you feel managers feel about hiring people with disabilities? You know, what's the difference when they view it as a nice thing to do versus a business decision?

Well, Joyce, everything in corporate America or any company has to be a business decision. Not charity. You have to have— there's a bottom line, and for whomever you hire, you need to make sure that they're going to be able to do the job, and that's what Bender provides when we get— when we provide candidates where the candidate had the skills for the position. It wasn't something of, oh, here's this person, they really need a job, can you find something for them? We had job opportunities. I talked to managers all the time. Here's this position I need to fill. I want the best talent. Well, then Bender's the place to go. They have many great people that have done fabulous work in many different companies, and especially when I was at CSC. I saw that very upfront and personal by working with them. So when you have a job to fill, you expect the person to come in and do that job. It is not charity. They have a business to run, and each person and what they do affects the bottom line, especially if they're— when they're working with customers, whether it's software development. All of that has an impact to the bottom line. So when we reached out to Bender, we did that specifically for a business reason. Again, we want the best talent. We want to include everyone, but we also need them to do the job. And that's where we found that we were so successful. And I do have to share one quick thing is Joyce Bender: I worked with a number of different managers, and when we first started out, we had different managers that we spoke to and said, "Hey, you know, we're starting this partnership with Bender. We'd like it to be in your area." So they brought someone on, and they did such a great job that now another manager in the group would say, "Well, how come you're getting people from Bender and I'm not? I want to be a part of the success." So what we found was when somebody came in, success breeds success. We all know that. So when one person did well, then the next manager wanted to hire someone, then the next person. So it's that whole success that continued through the years where all of our company across the US wanted to be a part of this great effort, not because of charity, but because of the business reason behind it, and the skills that the people brought to the table.

And at Bender, we are all about no pity. I know my listeners have heard me say so many times through the past 20 years, paychecks, not pity. But that is the way it is. If you do a great job, if we place you and you do a great job, You move up, you make more money, you keep the job. If you do a bad job, you don't have a job. And my point is equal treatment. Do you know why equal treatment? Because people with disabilities should be entitled to make the same level of income as their peers and the same opportunity to move into an executive level position. And that's why it has to be equal across the board. People with disabilities, they do not want pity. They don't want you to feel sorry for them. They just want a chance to work. And LeeAnn, we work at different levels at Bender. Do you want to talk about that?

Sure. So, within Bender, we have a wide range of candidates that we can provide to any company. So, They can be directly out of college and starting out their career and be a part of a company's pipeline of where they start out and work their way up. We have people that have, you know, mid-level experience all the way up to HR execs and other executives in companies. So we have a wide range of experience levels that we can provide as well as skill sets. You know, as I said before, You know, anything in IT, we can do anything in HR, communications. So, there's a wide range of areas of talent that we can bring to the table for a company. We just need you to reach out to us and let us know. We would be more than happy to work with you in providing great candidates.

And that is true. We work at all levels. People with disabilities work at all levels, and they are right now. They work at your company right now. They have bipolar disorder, depression, epilepsy, post-traumatic stress disorder, MS, diabetes. I could go on and on. It's just they aren't telling you. So, remember that. If you make the mistake of saying to someone, "You know, I don't know. I feel uncomfortable hiring people with disabilities," there could be a lawsuit. There will be cost in accommodations. You could be talking to a person with a disability disability, always remember there are people right now with non-apparent disabilities working with you that are top performers, and I hope the day would come that people would not feel ashamed to say, "I am a person with a disability." And, Gerald, we also place veterans with disabilities, and I was just thinking when Leigh Ann was talking, you know, about these opportunities and about it being a business decision, you can share. I'm thinking of one person in particular, but there are so many that we have hired. How thrilled have you seen people when you tell them they have an opportunity, and how do they react as a veteran?

This is life-changing for, for those people and their families. You want to talk about appreciation. I mean, when's the last time you extended a job offer and the person has tears in their eyes? I had somebody recently who told me when they go to work and they're working for our customer, it's like they're putting on their uniform again. And they have— a job to do and they represent more than themselves because through that opportunity they prove what people like them, veterans with disabilities, are capable of and the worth that they have by going into that company and being a top performer and therefore opening the door for more people like them And the pride that they get from that work every day that they bring to the job, not only does that have a great impact on them, it has a great impact on the employer, on the team that they're working with, and that contagious positivity and the bottom line because of the great work that they do.

Yeah, I mean, that one story saying, "Every day I go to work, I feel as if I'm putting my uniform on." I mean, that just says it all. And you know what? If you're not hiring veterans with disabilities, here's what I say: Shame on you. People that don't even know you that go fight for this country have an accident or an injury and have a disability and come back, and then we can't hire you? That is shameful. Absolutely shameful. So, with that, we're on soon the half hour, but we haven't talked to our great anchor for a while. So, I'm going to go ahead and get her on here. So, on the half hour is Advocacy Matters every show, and we have the national disability rights leader and CEO of Disability Rights of Pennsylvania, Perry Juratisik, as our reporter. Perry, how are you today?

Joyce, I'm fine. I'm listening to the show, and always it's a great opportunity to talk about employment of people with disabilities, and I'm disabled myself, so I always I really appreciate my job, and so just thank you for what you do.

Well, I'll tell you what, Perry, you are a great example of a leader with a disability doing a phenomenal job. And as I said, Perry is a national disability rights leader, and I'm so honored to be on the board of Disability Rights of Pennsylvania. And since I'm talking about that, Perry, if someone's listening to the show, could you just very briefly tell them what you do at Pennsylvania— Disability Rights of PA?

Absolutely, Joyce Bender. Thank you. Disability Rights Pennsylvania is one of 57, what's called protection and advocacy agencies across the country. So, there's one of us in every state and territory. We're called Disability Rights Pennsylvania. Pennsylvania. And our focus is to prevent the abuse and neglect and discrimination of people with disabilities. And we do that through a number of tools. We engage in public policy advocacy. We engage in intake, education, and training. We work on direct representation for people with disabilities with a disability-related legal issue. And so— and our activities include things like special education education, voting rights, Medicaid, Medicare, housing discrimination, transportation, public accommodations access. I mean, the list just goes on. And we get some 5,000 phone calls a year from people in Pennsylvania seeking our legal and advocacy services.

Yeah, and it's really a great service. Joyce Bender. I just wanted to mention because, Perry, you know, I think you know that we're starting Rev Up in Pennsylvania, Bender Leadership Academy, which of course Register, Educate, Vote is an initiative from the American Association of People with Disabilities. And since you're so involved in all of this, you know, you know we have a major election soon coming up this fall. What advice do you have for people who are worried about having access to voting, people with disabilities?

So, the first thing is make sure you have a plan to vote. There's so much misinformation in the news about how people can vote. So, I think it's important, and the most important thing is to have a plan to vote. Are you going to vote by mail? If you're going to vote by mail, check out the dates to request your mail-in ballot and return that mail-in ballot. If you want to drop it off at a drop box, check to see if your county has a drop box for you to take it. If you're going to vote in person, let's check to see if that polling place is accessible so that you know you're going to go to that polling place and vote on Election Day. So it's really important that people with disabilities have a plan, verify the information,. And you can do that by calling places like Disability Rights Pennsylvania. We have intake every day from 9:00 till 3:00. We're happy to answer your questions as you prepare your voting plan for the November election.

Okay, that's good. You know what, we'll have you remind our listeners about that on the calls. And Gerald is working with Rev Up REVOP, which we're leading here in Pennsylvania. Carol, have you talked to Perry already?

Me and Perry had a wonderful conversation about where we need to be focusing for the state of PA, and thank you for that conversation, Perry Juden. So excited for that continued conversation tomorrow.

Yes, I got the invitation to the REVOP REV UP Pennsylvania meeting tomorrow. I'm excited about it. It was great talking to Gerald, and I really appreciate the leadership that you, Joyce Bender, and the Bender staff are showing for REV UP and bringing it to Pennsylvania. It's a great project, and we're happy to support it in any way.

Well, you know Justin Dart's words, vote as if your life depends upon it, because it does. And so true to the disability community. So, Perry, what news do you have for us today?

Well, Joyce, I want to continue our conversation about voting, and today is a very special day. Today is the Help America Vote Day. So, Help America Vote Day is a national effort to recruit poll workers to literally help us vote, to help America vote. Help America Vote Day was established by the Election Assistance Commission back in 2020. It's really a national day of action to help communities across the country recruit poll workers. And if, if some activists have been paying attention to the news, they know there's a critical shortage of poll workers across the country and even in some communities in Pennsylvania. We also know that a poll worker is so vital to our democracy. Poll workers are trained to ensure free and fair elections. They staff polling places. They set up the polling place. They deploy temporary modifications to ensure accessibility of disabled voters. A poll worker can assist people with disabilities to vote private and independently. The poll worker, as you know, when you go to the polls, they greet you. They make sure you're registered in the district. You may have to sign some something or mark something indicating that, that that line is you so that you can then get a ballot and go vote. Advocacy matters. It's really important that we help spread the word that poll worker recruitment is underway across the country. Now, you could learn more about what poll workers do and how you can sign up to be a poll worker in your state. We have a link to Pennsylvania PA poll worker recruitment website and the national Help America Vote Day recruitment tool.

How do you find out about this?

You go to disabilityrightsPA.org. That's disabilityrightsPA.org. Click on today's advocacy matters segment, and then you can get all the information you need to become a poll worker or get that information to someone you know who could be a great poll worker.

Oh, and yeah, I'm sure there are people who would be interested in that, Perry, and they should include people with disabilities as poll workers, right?

Oh, absolutely. Absolutely, people with disabilities should step up and become poll workers.

I mean, because that really makes a statement right there. Well, thank you, Perry. We will keep talking about that. Thank you for joining us today, and your website again It's disabilityrightspa.org. All right, everyone, make sure you go to Advocacy Matters, and thank you, Perry, and have a great day. Thank you, Joyce.

You too.

Bye-bye. She is so awesome. I just love having her on the show. She is so awesome. Boy, boy, Gerald, your Rev Up meeting is timely. This is Help America Vote Day. Yeah. Gerald and LeeAnn, there are major things happening right now, initiatives in the U.S. with the Securities and Exchange Commission and Chairman Gensler, and they could really, really impact employment. Gerald, could you talk about that?

Yeah, so right now the SEC is already requiring that all companies listed in the NASDAQ in the US publicly disclose diversity stats regarding their board of directors, which is great. However, right now the AAPD and Disability:IN organizations are imploring that the SEC require companies to include disability demographics in their diversity statistics. So right now, companies are already required to disclose statistics about other minorities and their inclusion, but not disability. And those organizations and Ted Kennedy Jr. especially is highly involved in the effort to make that happen. And it appears to only be a matter of time before we see this change happen with how much advocacy there is in this space. So when this happens and companies are starting to disclose this information, it's going to have a massive impact on our community. In this current work climate, the American people will know this information and use that to make choices on what companies to buy goods and services from, or where they want to apply for jobs, because diversity is highly important to attracting talent in today's workforce. People want to work in organizations that are doing well in these areas. And even more important, thanks to Accenture's recent report, Getting to Equal the Disability Inclusion Advantage. Investors now know that companies that are including with people with disabilities successfully are more profitable. And there's $3 trillion in assets from these investors that are calling on corporations to make disability inclusion a top strategic priority. So the impact this is going to have You better get started on your disability including and your hiring and making sure that that's a part of your strategy because it is going to be the way of the future.

You would not want to be left behind. You know, Highmark is nationally just unbelievable. I mean, hiring people with disabilities. And I'm very excited to say that PNC wants to put forth an initiative to continue filling their openings with people with disabilities. But unlike Highmark, I mean, this comes from the CEO down about the importance of hiring people with disabilities since a big initiative that started in 1995, which was helping me to found Bender Consulting Services. I'm sad to say there aren't a lot of companies like that. You need to start now. Because, uh, Leigh Ann, what do you think is going to happen when the board of directors get that notice from the Security and Exchange Commission?

Well, as you know, um, boards are there to make sure that their shareholders, right, that add value.. And if they have people out there looking to invest, whether it's for pension funds or even within a company and buy shares, they're going to know that that company is hiring people with disabilities. And the board's going to have to then, once this comes through, share that information, right, with everyone to see. Right now, there's a lot of companies that will say, oh, I want to hire people with disabilities, but they don't share any information about what they're actually doing. They're not showing any numbers, and people want to see that. They— as Gerald mentioned, you want to know that that company is a diverse company, that they're hiring people in all areas, including people with disabilities, in order to invest in them. The other thing I think too is with the board piece of having diversity within the board, they always say, you hire someone like you. That's what happens a lot of times in companies. They hire someone like them. Well, just think if we have somebody at the board level that has a disability and people see that, they're actually seeing that a company really means what they're saying and they're actually putting value into that, and then that actually will then trickle down to the company itself because the board is going to make sure that the company is meeting these initiatives and sharing this information across the board and that there are hiring initiatives for people with disabilities. Because they're going to be held accountable to that. The board will make sure the CEO and everyone below that is held accountable to meet those initiatives. So it can have a huge impact across the whole disability area as well as making changes within the company.

Yeah, I think it will be— I agree with you, both of you. It will be enormous because we know That once it hits money, everyone knows the impact that that has. So, and with that Accenture report, I want to say my hat's off to Nedra Dixon and Lori Hineborn for the work they did, and Ted Kennedy, who once again was behind getting this started. But if you want to know more, go to the Accenture report. You can either find that at AAPD.com or you can find it at Disability:IN or Accenture. Look for the Accenture report on disability. You'll find it, and you'll see— read about those statistics that Gerald was talking about earlier. Gerald and Leanne, do you think that workplace mentoring has had a huge impact on our success? Gerald, what do you think?

Yeah, I think so. I think that's one of the biggest reasons we've seen and maintained over the entirety of our company over a 90% retention rate.

Wow.

Of the people with disabilities we've placed.

Yeah, thank you. With that, I think, Leigh Ann, since you've been so behind all of this— once again, Leigh Ann's my chief of staff, but she's also the accountant. Director. Why don't you explain to our listeners what workplace mentoring is and the impact you feel it has?

I'd love to. Thanks, Joyce. So workplace mentoring, I have it from both perspectives, from being a customer and also talking to our customers. So what workplace mentoring is, it helps as a person is brought on board by a company that once they're there, we're there as a resource to help. And what we do is we have a manager that keeps in touch with the company, the company's hiring manager of that employee, to see how things are going. We're a resource to them for any questions that they have. We also have a Bender account manager that talks and is in touch with the employee to say, how are things going? Do you need anything? Do you have any questions? And from a business perspective and a hiring manager perspective, that gives them comfort because they know they can reach out to us for anything. We, Bender, as the expert— and I know that from our fact, that was a selling point for working with Bender's because we're there as a partner. We have the experience and knowledge around accommodations and working in this area. So managers sometimes are afraid to actually ask questions. But they can ask us anything, and I can tell you honestly, they do reach out to me quite often, and they actually share with me, you know what, this made the biggest difference for me. I know you're there. We're all working together, and that's how we've had that success rate is by having this program in place that the hiring manager feels comfortable as well as the employee, and we're all here working together to make that person successful in that role.

Yeah, and I know, Leigh Ann, just as you were talking about when you did this before, people feel comfortable calling you asking questions that normally they would not feel comfortable going directly to the person with a disability and asking. Wouldn't you agree with that?

Totally, because, you know, we keep the avenues open and And, you know, before I came to work for Bender, I was in HR for over 9 years. So I understand the positions and some of the questions that the managers might have. But they have my number and they can ask anything because they, as you said, Joyce, they don't feel comfortable asking the employee. But they can come to me and ask any question and we can work through it. So that gives them a comfort level of us all working together and bringing that person in and making sure. It's because they just don't know. Let's be honest. They just don't know. They don't— might not know about accommodations. They don't know, but they know if they call us, they can get that answer, and we're all going to be able to work together to make it happen.

Yes, and it does make a difference because included in that before they even start working is career reality training, which when you think about career reality training is not one day because that's the Bible, so to speak, that runs the rest of the time they work for us because that's what we've taught them. Gerald, could you tell them about that training?

Yeah, we cover, you know, the— we call it our 10 A's. These are the key areas that will make you successful in employment. At any level from your appearance to your attitude to your advocacy to communication skills and what to do when you need time off, all of those core important issues that make anybody successful in the world of work. And then we reinforce those trainings in our workplace mentoring one-on-one with our staff and our community discussions of the employees with disabilities we've placed.

Yeah. Joyce, can I add to that? Yes, please. If you don't mind. Please, go ahead.

So just let's say when I was at CSC, I had the pleasure of sitting in on some of the training sessions that Joyce did. For the career reality training because they all— every employee before they started a company have to go through that. And I always told Joyce afterwards, you know what, I think every employee needs this training. This is the found— this training is the foundation to help them be successful. And I truly believe that all of our employees needed this type of training to help them.

Yeah, I do too, because whether you're a person with or without a disability, and you have— especially if you haven't worked before, you have no idea about the impact some things can have. Or even if you have years of experience, you may not understand the politics and what certain things you do, the impact it can have. I was just this weekend with the president of a company, a huge company, and she was telling me how one of her really top performers that does a great job was called into, you know, a meeting they were having with one of that company's customers. And she came, you know, this was of course on virtual, and she had on a yellow sweatshirt and it had a hoodie. She didn't have the hoodie up, but you know, you could see it. There was a hoodie and she, she died. This president said, "I died," and she'll never do that again. And the only reason that she probably didn't lose her job is she's a top performer. But I just want to tell you, even though, you know, things have changed in the workforce now that we're working from home, Well, it still matters. That first impression still matters because your coworkers at your age may say to you, "Hey, it doesn't matter. Don't worry about it. This is how I dress. It's fine. You're fine." But wait till you move up. Wait till you move up and see how they react. So, you dress up to move up. You dress down to move down, and you dress the same to be mediocre and right where you are, because people do notice. Gerald, do you agree with that?

Absolutely. And especially working from home, don't take that excuse to just stay off video on your meetings. Dress up and take that opportunity to dress to be seen. As a person working in your job, don't hide.

Yeah, because, Leigh Ann, when there's a meeting, I know with our students at the Bender Leadership Academy, the not-for-profit that we have where we train high school students with disabilities about the world of work, you know, when we have classes, if the students are not on They don't tell them to be on video. Guess what? That same president told me— now remember, she is like known nationally— she told me she tells her direct reports, that would be like senior vice presidents, "I want to see you. That's just how it is. No being off screen. I want to see you." And we tell our students that when we teach them. And Leigh Ann, don't you feel that if every single call, like you have a, you work in corporate America and they're having some big meeting, how important do you feel it is what you look like when you're on screen and the environment behind you?

It's extremely important. And people want to see you on screen. They want to have that contact. And sometimes leadership will feel if you're not on screen, that are you really— I hate to say this— are you really paying attention? Are you really involved in it? And people feed off of each other. When you see everybody there on screen, they're asking different questions. Everybody's interacting. And it's different than when people are off screen because sometimes it's like they're not really paying attention to what's going on. And it's important for the students, Joyce, because you're teaching them how to be prepared for the world of work. That's an expectation in work. So you want them to be on screen, and you actually have seen you tell them, hey, put your screen on. I want to see you. But that's what leadership wants to know. They want to know you're involved, you're paying attention, and you're really a part of that team that is working.

Well, I want to— oh, that's so true, Leigh Ann. I just want to mention before we wrap up, before we end the show today, Gerald, would you mind quickly giving our listening audience an idea? First of all, you have to have a disability. I must tell you, I do not fill positions unless the person has a disability because only 70% of people with disabilities are counted in the workforce, so we have to do everything we can in our power that when there is an opportunity give that opportunity to a person with a disability. But for our listeners with disabilities, Gerald, what type of positions do we have open? What areas do we work in right now?

Well, we work with positions, as LeeAnn said earlier, at all levels. In IT, we work from help desk to project management. In HR, from recruiters to vice presidents. Finance, we hire analysts. Analysts and actuaries, buyers and procurement, nurses, medical coders, and other roles in hospitals. So many different competitive jobs, and that's the key is we focus on competitive employment. And once again, to apply for those jobs, you just go to benderconsult.com/jobs.

And remember something about us. I don't want you to just get a job. I want you to move up. So my interest is not just only you getting a job. My interest is you getting a job and building a career. So know this, if you're working with us, we have your vested interest. We are people with disabilities, you know, running the company. We do care about what happens. To us, it's a civil right act and civil right issue. And LeeAnn, did you want to add anything about the type of positions we work for on?

We have a lot of different positions. We have great managers that we work with who are excited to have somebody from Bender be a part of their team. So, as Gerald said, we have a wide range of opportunities. So depending on what you're interested in, we certainly can work with you to help you find that next position. And as Joyce says, we want you to move up because guess what? When you move up to higher roles, then you can hire other people with disabilities so that you can help others and give back. But we are here to help in any way that we can. The managers are always reaching out to me with great opportunities, and we would love to have you be a part of Bender.

Yes, thank you so much, Gerald and Lee Ann. That's Gerald Helmy and Lee Ann Thomas, both in executive positions at Bender Consulting Services. And before we end the show today, to businesses listening to the show, I am so honored that I have received awards and accolades over the year, like the President's Award at the White House, New Freedom Initiative during the Bush administration, and so forth and so on. But I always tell people, don't tell me how nice I am or how wonderful I am. Hire someone. Where the rubber meets the road is employment. That's where it counts, hiring people. This is Joyce Bender, America's Voice, where disability matters, at voiceamerica.com. We end every show with a quote, and today this just had to be it. This had to be it. And that is a quote that they think started from an activist in South Africa, but it has been attributed to others, but it is the mantra of the disability community, and that is, "Nothing about us without us." without us. I look forward to talking to you all next week. Stay safe, and in the words of Mary Brooker, remember, choose joy.

Voice America would like to thank you for tuning in. Please join us next Tuesday at 11:00 AM Pacific time and 2:00 PM Eastern time for another installment of Disability Matters right here on The Voice America Variety Channel. We are the leader in live internet talk radio. VoiceAmerica.com.