SEATTLE (Reuters) Software giant Microsoft Corp. will lead a group of 21 major North American corporations in a program designed to boost hiring of people with disabilities, company officials said Monday.
Dubbed "Able to Work," the business group will set up a Web site at http://www.abletowork.org and share strategies aimed at finding jobs for the 70 percent of 17 million Americans with disabilities that are unemployed.
With the nation's overall jobless rate at a 30-year low of 4.2 percent in September, this underutilized group could offer a rich supply of workers to ease labor shortages in many industries, Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates said.
"Businesses in virtually every industry, the technology industry not excepted, are struggling today to find enough qualified applicants to fill open jobs," Gates said in remarks prepared for delivery at a conference hosted by the National Business and Disabilities Council.
"Many companies are unaware of nearby programs that can help them recruit and train employees with disabilities, often at reasonable costs." said Charles Coker, senior research scientist at the University of Wisconsin Stout. "If these companies lead the way in educating employers to rely on the resources in their communities and help overcome the reluctance to get involved with the more severely disabled, that can have a big impact," Coker said.
Employers often mistakenly believe hiring workers with disabilities will require big spending on equipment or special accommodations, said Gary Moulton, a product manager in Microsoft's accessibility and disabilities group. The average cost runs about $500, he said.
Many workers with disabilities have avoided full-time jobs for fear they would lose federal health benefits if they exceeded relatively modest caps on income. That appears likely to change with a bill that allows states to offer federal insurance to disabled people with jobs. The measure has passed overwhelmingly in the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives.
President Clinton has also vowed to boost recruiting of disabled workers within the federal government, the largest U.S. employer with nearly 1.8 million workers.
The Able to Work group, which includes corporate giants like Ford Motor Co., IBM Corp. and Johnson & Johnson, is expected to add other qualified members over time.
"Before a company can become a member it has to have a track record in recruiting and employing individuals with disabilities." Moulton said.
Microsoft does not ask employees to identify any disabilities, so it has no specific numbers on its employment of disabled workers, but it does make major efforts to recruit and accommodate them, a spokeswoman said.