What is the benefit to businesses of hiring workers with disabilities?

Joyce Bender

“To increase revenue,” Joyce Bender, CEO of an international consulting company for the employment of people with disabilities, said in an interview with Forbes.kz. She visited Kazakhstan and on her return to the United States intends to meet with corporations to develop a plan for employment of Kazakhstanis with disabilities in local offices of international companies.

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The company, Bender Consulting Services Joyce Bender founded in 1995, works across all the states of America and Canada. The company was repeatedly awarded the "Employer of the Year" award, and Joyce herself in 1999 and 2003 received the presidential prize, including the "New Freedom Initiative" Award. In addition, she is the vice-chair of the board of the American Association of People with Disabilities and the former chair of the board of the National Epilepsy Foundation. Prior to 1985, Joyce lived a normal life, until she had a seizure, due to epilepsy, which resulted in a serious head injury and a 70% hearing loss in one ear.

In late August, Joyce Bender, at the invitation of the public organization "Commission on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities” named after Kairat Imanaliev" and through the US Embassy’s Speakers Program arrived in Kazakhstan to learn about disability rights and employment and conduct an expert assessment of the situation with the employment of people with disabilities.

F: Joyce, with whom you met, and before your expert conclusion you can share your impressions - how are things in Kazakhstan with the employment of people with disabilities?

- I was in Almaty, Astana and Pavlodar, and met with representatives of local employment offices and social programs, and, of course, local NGOs. I can name the official figure, which I heard from representatives of state bodies - the level of employment of people with disabilities in Kazakhstan is 5% of the working age population. In total, there are 650,000 people with disabilities in Kazakhstan - 3% of the total population. Of them, the working age population is 400 thousand people. And from this figure only 5% have a job.

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I leave it to your readers to evaluate this figure, but I can say that representatives of civil society with a disability want this level to increase. Therefore, when I return to the states, I want to meet with the leadership of such large corporations as Microsoft, IBM, and Marriott to develop an action plan with them to increase employment of people with disabilities in Kazakhstan.

F: Kazakhstan, as we like to explain, is a developing country and we are still ahead. And what about the employment of people with disabilities in the US?

- I know first hand based on my personal story from 1985, when I had my accident. Before President Bush signed the Americans with Disabilities Act into law in 1990, it was difficult to talk about the level of employment of people with disabilities, since before that there was no firm law in place. I can only say that everything was not as beautiful as it is now. After the signing of this law, the question of an accessible environment was raised, because first of all, a person with a disability should be able to freely get to work and be independent. After that, people with disabilities had better access to the workplace.

For today, people with disabilities make up 12.8% of the total population of the United States, 35.9% of the working age population are working. They are working in many job roles including as IT specialists, managers, and bank employees.

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It is also important to note the types of disability. This does not only include wheelchair users or individuals who are deaf or head for hearing; there are also other forms of disability such as mental health disabilities and intellectual disabilities such as autism or Down's syndrome, and hidden disabilities, such as epilepsy.  Also, in the U.S., it is important that in employment there is no discrimination on the types of disability - for example, we do not say we allow people who are blind to work, but not people with autism. In Kazakhstan, of course, people with a psychosocial or intellectual disability are a separate issue. These individuals are not included in work. I can also note that in Asia, many people with disabilities simply stay at home.

F: If you remove such concepts as discrimination, equal rights, and focus on the issue of employment of people with disabilities by business, then why do business employees who have a disability and need accommodations?

- Business is primarily interested in profit, income. People with disabilities will be at work every day. They have attendance that is as good or better than other employees due to the fact that they are grateful for the opportunity given. The second component of increasing profitability is the image of being inclusive. Consumers, especially those with relatives with disabilities, will appreciate the services and goods of the company in whose ranks there are employees with disabilities.

By the way, recently in the states there is a trend to focus on equality of rights in the corporate sector for people with disabilities. Large companies began to think about their image in the key of equality - in addition to the fact that people with disabilities work in these corporations, such people should also be working in ranks of their international operations. I'm talking about this for a reason. In July, I participated in a national conference, Disability:IN, where the executives from corporate America spoke about the global employment of people with disabilities.