[Congressional Record Volume 156, Number 17 (Thursday, February 4, 2010)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E167-E168]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




  INNOVATIVE EFFORT TO INCREASE EMPLOYMENT OF PEOPLE WITH DISABILITIES

                                 ______
                                 

                       HON. JANICE D. SCHAKOWSKY

                              of illinois

                    in the house of representatives

                       Thursday, February 4, 2010

  Ms. SCHAKOWSKY. Madam Speaker, I would like to draw my colleagues' 
attention to a new and extremely innovative campaign to encourage 
businesses to employ workers with disabilities. I also want to 
congratulate Health and Disability Advocates for overseeing the 
campaign. Health and Disability Advocates, a non-profit organization 
located in Chicago, is a leading voice on disability issues and, under 
the talented leadership of Barbara Otto, has been a valuable resource 
for Illinois and the nation.
  As of December 2008, 54.4 million people in the United States--18.7 
percent of our population, or nearly one in five Americans--reported 
some level of disability. Official figures show that unemployment among 
persons with a disability was 13.8 percent this past November, compared 
to 9.5 percent among nondisabled people, but this doesn't include many 
people who are too discouraged to even look for work. When disabled 
persons are employed, promotion opportunities may be scarce.
  The cost of employing a person with a disability is minimal, 
averaging only $313 in 2007. Employees with disabilities had nearly 
identical job performance ratings to those without disabilities 
according to a 2007 study by DePaul University researchers. Employers 
say that employing a disabled person is well worth the expense, finding 
these individuals to be loyal, reliable, and hard-working, serving long 
tenures with low absenteeism rates. Additionally, hiring disabled 
employees serves to diversify the work environment, which has an 
overall positive impact.
  Health and Disability Advocates has undertaken a campaign to 
highlight the importance of hiring people with disabilities that is 
imaginative and persuasive. I hope that my colleagues will take an 
opportunity to read the following article that ran in the New York 
Times on January 29 to read about it.

          Using Humor in a Campaign Supporting Disabled People

       A national effort to encourage businesses to employ workers 
     with disabilities is not your father's hire the handicapped 
     campaign.
       One difference is that the new ads are paid rather than pro 
     bono, with an estimated budget of $4 million for the first 
     two quarters of 2010. The ads will appear on television, in 
     print, online and outdoors; there is also a sponsorship deal 
     with NPR.
       The ads are being financed largely by agencies in 30 states 
     that provide employment services as well as health and human 
     services to their citizens who are disabled. The agencies 
     have set a goal of raising $10 million for the campaign's 
     budget for the full year.
       Typically, ads that seek to make a case for employing 
     people with disabilities run as public service announcements. 
     That makes them dependent on the kindness of media outlets to 
     place them prominently on television, in print or online.
       ``We'll never have enough money to oversaturate the 
     media,'' said Barbara Otto, executive director at Health and 
     Disability Advocates in Chicago, which is overseeing the 
     campaign, ``but we wanted to do something different, 
     something that didn't look like a P.S.A.''
       To that end, the campaign takes a light-hearted tack rather 
     than a sober or earnest tone. The ads try to challenge 
     conventional wisdom about workers with disabilities by 
     offering humorous examples of people with ``differences'' 
     already employed.
       For instance, in a television commercial, a worker in a 
     wheelchair points out her colleagues who ``you could label as 
     `different.' '' Among them are a woman dressed in a nightmare 
     wardrobe of clashing patterns, who is ``fashion deficient''; 
     a klutzy young man at the copier, who is ``copy incapable''; 
     and a shouting man who suffers from ``volume control 
     syndrome.''
       The punch line of the commercial is that the worker in the 
     wheelchair is different, too: Her skills at a basic office 
     function are so bad that she is labeled ``coffee-making 
     impaired.''
       Print ads introduce employers to a man in a suit whose 
     awkward dance moves make him ``rhythm impaired'' and an 
     awkward man who is hard to understand because he is ``jargon 
     prone.''
       The text of the ads elaborates on the point the campaign 
     strives to make.
       The ad with the worker who is rhythm impaired declares: 
     ``Just because someone moves a little differently doesn't 
     mean they can't help move your business forward. The same 
     goes for people with disabilities.''
       The ad with the jargon-spouting worker reads: ``Just 
     because someone talks differently doesn't mean they don't 
     bring something of value to the conversation. The same goes 
     for people with disabilities.''
       The tongue-in-cheek differences in each ad appear as Dymo-
     style labels across the faces of the employees, to set up the 
     theme of the campaign, ``Think beyond the label.'' The theme 
     is repeated in the address of a microsite, or special Web 
     site (thinkbeyondthelabel.com), where additional information 
     is available about, as the home page puts it, ``just how 
     silly labels can be.''
       The concept was tested, Ms. Otto, said ``to get that 
     employment decision-maker thinking that everyone in the 
     workplace is different,'' but not so much that it would make 
     anyone--with disabilities or otherwise--feel uncomfortable.
       ``We knew it needed to be disruptive,'' Ms. Otto said, 
     ``but we wanted it to be tasteful.'' In the research, 
     ``people said they liked the funny and human tone,'' she 
     added.
       The tenor of the campaign was endorsed by the actor in the 
     wheelchair, Alana Wallace, who is an advocate for people with 
     disabilities as well as a performer.
       ``I knew I needed to be a part of this campaign,'' Ms. 
     Wallace said, because ``there were enough of the pity-party 
     approaches'' to the subject.
       The commercial ``speaks to our similarities in that we all 
     have a label someone

[[Page E168]]

     could put on us,'' she added. ``We never use the word 
     `disability' throughout the entire ad.''
       Among those collaborating on the campaign are Wirestone; 
     Kelly, Scott & Madison; and Fuor Digital, a unit of Kelly, 
     Scott & Madison, all based in Chicago.
       ``People go through life labeling other people: `the funny 
     guy,' `the bald guy,' `the girl with the glasses,' '' said 
     Brian Addison, director for brand strategy at Wirestone. 
     ``The labels can go from harmless to hurtful.''
       ``We're saying, before you label someone, think twice 
     whether it correlates to productivity in the workplace,'' he 
     added.
       In developing the creative approach, ``we wanted it to be 
     on that fine line of provocative but not polarizing,'' Mr. 
     Addison said, adding that he believed the campaign 
     accomplished being ``human instead of being overly serious.''
       The ads are being concentrated in media outlets preferred 
     by the intended audience of people who ought to, as the 
     campaign suggests, ``evolve your work force,'' those who 
     influence hiring decisions at small, midsize or large 
     companies. They include senior managers, executives and staff 
     members of human resources departments and hiring managers.
       The commercial is to run during Sunday morning news 
     programs on ABC, CBS and NBC and on cable channels like BBC 
     America, CNN, ESPN and HLN.
       The print ads are to appear in publications like Fast 
     Company, HR Magazine, Inc., Time, The Wall Street Journal and 
     The Week.
       Among the Web sites scheduled to run the digital ads are 
     CNN.com, ESPN.com and WSJ.com. There will also be search-
     engine marketing tied to keywords on Web sites like Google.

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