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How Merrill Lynch Helps Special Needs Families

Suzanne Robitaille — Tue, 27 Mar 2012 12:28:02 +0000

For Bill Christiaanse, business is often personal. At Bank of America Merrill Lynch, he helps families of children with special needs figure out how to financially provide for their child over a lifetime. He’s also the father of Matt, a 26-year-old who has autism, which means he knows firsthand what it’s like to worry about [...]

“If London Can Run an Accessible Fleet…”

Suzanne Robitaille — Wed, 18 Jan 2012 14:19:28 +0000

Two prominent disability organizations responded to the January 5 New York Times Op-Ed by Matthew Daus, a former chairman of the New York City Taxi and Limousine Commission regarding the availability of accessible taxis in New York. I had written a post about the Op-Ed, saying that Daus’s proposed plan — to create a “dial-a-ride” [...]

NYC Needs to Mellow over Accessible Yellow Cabs

Suzanne Robitaille — Thu, 05 Jan 2012 20:33:09 +0000

There are 13,000 taxis plying their trade each day in New York City, yet people with disabilities have no “meaningful access” to them: Only around 230 cabs, or 2%, are accessible to people using wheelchairs. So when a U.S. judge ruled in December that the city would need to come up with a way to [...]

Hire Gauge Reveals ROI Around Inclusive Hiring

Megan McDonnell — Mon, 12 Dec 2011 15:51:24 +0000

If you’re running a business – small, medium-sized or large – you should check out Think Beyond the Label’s Hire Gauge. I would argue it’s a must. Hire Gauge is the first-ever online tool to calculate the return on the investment (ROI) your organization can generate from hiring qualified workers with disabilities. For a typical [...]

Labor Dept. Sets 7% Hiring Goal for Disabled Workers

Suzanne Robitaille — Thu, 08 Dec 2011 17:04:23 +0000

The U.S. Department of Labor has proposed a move it calls necessary for helping more people with disabilities get hired amid a dismal unemployment rate: A new rule that would require federal contractors and subcontractors to set a hiring goal of 7% for the employment of people with disabilities. The new rule, if passed into [...]

New Jobs Portal for People with Disabilities

Suzanne Robitaille — Tue, 29 Nov 2011 20:03:31 +0000

Think Beyond the Label today launched an online jobs portal that connects job seekers with disabilities to employers, including those that are actively seeking to hire them. The job-search engine gives candidates with disabilities access to 860,000 jobs listings from large and small employers that have been “vetted”. With a nearly 15% unemployment rate among [...]

Inclusive Designs: Could the Answer be in a Capsule?

Stephanie Thomas — Fri, 14 Oct 2011 14:56:54 +0000

October is National Disability Employment Awareness Month (NDEAM), the time we reflect on the contributions of workers with disabilities. The focus of the awareness campaign this year is “Profit by Investing in Workers with Disabilities.” This awareness campaign is often overlooked even though it’s been around since 1988. As I contemplated NDEAM and what it [...]

Companies that Shine through Universal Design

Suzanne Robitaille — Wed, 21 Sep 2011 14:43:55 +0000

Amid a new Fast Company report of American companies that “get” innovative design are a handful of manufacturers whose wares vastly improve the lives of people with disabilities. It is marvelous to see these products get their due. The collection of superbly designed goods is considered so iconic, Fast Company sketches them as ice-blue abstract [...]

Film Shows Tourette’s Can’t Thwart Teen’s Dreams

Suzanne Robitaille — Mon, 19 Sep 2011 13:51:02 +0000

Different Is the New Normal follows the adolescence of Ariel Small, whose family learned he has Tourette syndrome when he was five years old –- noticing his unique motor tics such as blinking. His parents, Robin and David Small, who produced and provided major support for the documentary, struggle to help Ariel fit in at [...]

Film Shows Tourette’s Can’t Thwart Teen’s Dreams

Suzanne Robitaille — Fri, 16 Sep 2011 18:20:17 +0000

Different Is the New Normal, which premiered last night on WNET, follows the adolescence of Ariel Small, whose family learned he has Tourette syndrome when he was five years old –- noticing his unique motor tics such as blinking. His parents, Robin and David Small, who produced and provided major support for the documentary, struggle [...]