Employing people with disabilities, though, has nothing to do with charity. In increasing numbers, companies of all sizes are recognizing it's sound business.

        In an era of unprecedented lows in U.S. unemployment rates, the employment rate of people with disabilities is still a deplorable 60 to 70 percent, depending on whose statistics you look at. Yet, as President Clinton signed the document proclaiming this observance for 2000, it seemed to me that there is some cause for a celebration of forward movement.

        One million people with disabilities have become gainfully employed since the passage of the Americans with Disabilities Act 10 years ago. Certainly, some of these are the result of laws prohibiting discrimination.

        It is now illegal to ask a person about disabling conditions in the interview process, illegal to terminate an employee due to the acquisition of disabling condition. If a worker or potential worker can perform the “essential job functions” and can do the job once an employer has made “reasonable accommodations,” as the law's buzz words indicate, an equal opportunity must be given.

        While the high unemployment rate among 20 million working-age disabled Americans is by no means a simple problem with simple solution, the misinterpretation of such mandates plays an important part. If, for example, the primary job function is to deliver pizza and the job seeker is unable to drive because of a disability, he or she is clearly unable to perform the essential function of the job.

        If, on the other hand, the essential function of a job is to travel to the homes of potential customers and demonstrate a product, that same employee could be more than qualified. Driving, in other words, is not an essential duty to be performed, only a means to an end, and a reasonable accommodation might be for the employer to pay for a hired driver or cover public transportation costs.

        Reasonable accommodations take as many shapes as do people with disabilities, but the $50,000 building renovation that comes swiftly to the uninitiated imagination is not the typical scenario. Instead, the President's Committee on Employment of People with Disabilities reports that the majority of workplace accommodations cost less than $500.

        Raising a desk to accommodate a worker's wheelchair, allowing a diabetic to take more frequent breaks while producing the same amount of work, installing an amplified telephone for an employee with a hearing impairment — each of these are reasonable accommodations that have resulted in a win-win employment situation for employee and employer.

        At a recent seminar for employers and job placement counselors working with disabled job seekers held at the Cincinnati Association for the Blind, human resources professionals from major area corporations such as Anthem and Fifth Third Bank echoed the sentiments of corporations across the nation: “Now that I know the performance of this one employee (who has a disability), give me 10 more just like him.”

        Studies since the early 1980s have repeatedly shown that workers with disabilities are punctual, loyal, and more likely to remain in one position at rates higher than their nondisabled peers. Due to satisfaction with existing placements, such companies as Allstate and AAA are currently launching recruitment efforts specifically targeting workers with disabilities.

        Finally, the Internal Revenue Service offers yet another incentive to employers considering workers with disabilities. The Disabled Access Tax Credit allows small businesses (those with less than $1 million in gross receipts or fewer than 30 full-time employees) to take a tax credit of up to $50 percent of expenses above the initial $250 to accommodate workers with disabilities.

        Sign language interpreters, readers, transportation, or assistive technology are common examples of eligible expenditures. Covered in Section 44 of the revised IRS Code and filed on Tax Form 8826, this credit can be taken by a business every year that an accessibility purchase or improvement is made.

        In addition, businesses of any size are eligible for a barrier removal tax credit under Section 190, allowing the full deduction of costs up to $15,000 incurred in removing architectural or transportation barriers.

        Forget about “hiring the handicapped” as a charitable gesture.

        It's just good business.
       Cincinnati writer Deborah Kendrick is a nationally recognized advocate for people with disabilities. Write her at Cincinnati Enquirer, Tempo, 312 Elm St., Cincinnati 45202. E-mail: dkendrick@enquirer.com.

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