VIRGINIA COMMONWEALTH UNIVERSITY WEBCAST NEIL ROMANO OCTOBER 17, 2005 1:00 P.M. CDT CAPTIONING PROVIDED BY: CAPTION FIRST, INC. >> NEIL ROMANO: Good afternoon. And thank you for joining me today. I would like to thank Virginia Commonwealth University for this opportunity to share a little bit with you about disability and business. This is a topic that's become -- that's grown for me over the years more and more important, and there's really a number of reasons for that, not the least of which is the fact that I suffer from dyslexia, and my story is - - which I would like to share with you is that I spent my entire life with an intellectual disability and spent most of my time trying to hide it from people. It's interesting because when one take as look at my life I've owned businesses, I've worked in places, but it shocks people to find out that I never got a job that I applied for because I was always too frightened and didn't think that I would be accepted. And I think about that, and that really bothers me thinking about people who have obvious disabilities, physical disabilities, and what they feel trying to get in the job market. So over the last few years I've really kind of dedicated myself to trying to help people with disabilities find workplace employment because I realize from my own experience as well as the experience of other people that I've worked with over the years that people with disabilities have a great deal to offer and unfortunately we haven't been doing a good job in helping them find it. Helping them to find those positions. So today I want to talk a little bit about that. Let me go back and before I even get into that and go into some survey material and things that I've worked on over the last couple of years, I want to tell you how this all started. Because the way that it began for me working in this field specifically was two years ago I sold my company. I had decided that I was going to be working with various disability groups and groups across the United States helping them to communicate messages about disabilities, and employment. It actually wasn't employment that I originally wanted to work on, I just wanted to work on the whole area of letting people understand that people with disabilities had something to offer. But the more that I worked on it, the more that I realized that disability was the issue. Well, I was invited to speak before the president's committee for people with intellectual disabilities, and they invited me to begin a program to do a public relations program to help the business community and help people know that people with disabilities have abilities. Well, being a public relations man, and I think that every public relations man on the planet has a little edge thinking that they can accomplish anything overnight, I immediately assumed that I can accomplish this, I can write the perfect script, I can get the right commercial out there, and I could get it done, I could walk into a corporation and say, "Hire people with disabilities, it's good, it's the right thing to do!" Well, I'll tell you what. I have never been more surprised in my life at the response. I walked into corporations, walked into corporate headquarters, I had conversations with people, and realized that people were ready and willing and able to hire anybody who they felt could do the job. But the questions that we weren't answering, and I certainly wasn't answering, and I notice that the people in the disability community wasn't answering was, first of all, when you say someone with disability, you have to define your term. Who are you talking about? Who are these people with disabilities? People want to know why should I -- and why should I hire that person as opposed to hiring someone with an ability that I need? Thinking about that I immediately had to come back and retool. I've gotten myself in trouble frankly by just saying disabilities, and people are saying well, we talked about disabilities, we talked about sensory disabilities? The fact of the matter is that for all too long people within the disability community have gone to businesses just like I went to them. And they've made, quite frankly, the same mistake that I made, which was assuming that it was just good enough, and the reason we've assumed that it's good enough to hire someone with a disability is because we immediately believe that they're going to believe that it's good public service, or it's the right thing to do because the person with the disability then they should feel bad for that person. That is the absolutely wrong approach. It is so completely wrong because the first thing that you are doing is you are going in there instead of selling -- and I've been beat up pretty well for using the word "selling" -- but you are selling. Instead of selling a commodity that's valuable to the employer, to that business, what you are do something that you are answering them to provide you with charity. And that's an awful model for us to be part of. Because when you ask someone to provide charity, this is what happens. First of all, you are asking someone to provide a low-level job to someone who is immediately expendable. So you are not really providing a career for that person. You are not providing any kind of a career path. You are not elevating the status of that person. You are not helping that person move on in business. The way they should have an opportunity to. If you categorize them as a charity hire, you've made a mistake. I am going to say right now that any business or any group out there that hires people with disabilities for charity purposes don't. I know that will hurt people's feelings, and some people won't want to hear that but I would say that you are doing more damage than you are good hiring a person for that reason. Because when you have your cuts, your layoffs, when things have to happen, they're the first ones out the door, and you are not providing any continuity and you are not really providing help. I know that you think you are providing help in your heart, but in reality for what we really want to achieve, which is a respect and understanding that people with disabilities have abilities, you are really not doing it. So we have two questions. Who? Who are these people with disabilities? Well, defining who is a person is with a disability to me is a fundamental question. You have to really think about it. You really have to go back to the root. First of all, I always tell this story. I talk about Abraham Lincoln. Abraham Lincoln always said that any good argument, any good conversation was truly a arithmetic equation, and 1 plus 1 had to equal 2, otherwise I won't believe 2. I first have to believe that a person with a disability is a human being. Is a person. Now, I know that this is going to be another thing that people will call me on. But I am going to tell you, if you're in the field, and you don't believe that that person with a disability is your equal. If you don't truly believe that they have value, then you are not putting them on the stage, and you are not putting them at the level that they need to be at in order for you to be effectively helping that person. If you are looking down at them, then you are looking at it as a charity model. You are helping them. You are saying I've got to pull them up. That's not the case. That simply is not the case. So I first believe that people with disabilities are human beings. And if I believe they're human beings, then I believe that they're entitled, that's one. I believe they're entitled to every single promise given within the constitution of the United States. that says they're entitled to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. If I believe that, then the answer to 1 plus 1 is that they should be educated, and if they desire they should work. It's a simple equation. But if I don't at the outset believe that, and I can't convince someone that people with disabilities are human beings that have rights and can do things, then I am not bringing the kind of person to the job force that they're going to want. Because I have to explain, I have to define as a businessman to you that businesses are not paper. It's not a conglomeration of notes and things. They're human beings. They're hue ban beings that need to be convinced. There are people that work in accounting. And there are people that work in the law offices as a CEO, there are the stockholders, the people that stock the shelves. They're people. We have to convince them at every stage that a person with a disability comes on that job and is going to contribute. Now, how important is it to say that they can contribute? For better or for worse, America is a success- oriented society. Let's face it. Everybody wants to know what you are going to add to the equation? You have to bring something to the table. When you start bringing something to the table, you will become valuable. You become valuable to the employer, you become valuable to yourself, and even more importantly is you become valuable to society. Until people with disabilities are perceived as a value to society, nobody will care if they're valuable or invaluable. You see, whether it's the -- I'm big on sports. I love baseball. And you look at someone joining the team. I don't care if he can't hit, but if he is valuable as a short stop and he can catch the ball, I'm delighted. He brings value. But if you bring me someone to a baseball team who you tell me this, guy has a IQ of 177 and can he do quantum mechanics, he is of no value to me. Disabilities, it's all about making the sale. And you can't make the sale until you believe it. So when you come to the why, the why becomes somewhat ethereal, it becomes somewhat touchy-feely, which I am really not, but it does become -- but the answer is fundamental to who we are as Americans. It's a constitutional answer. They deserve it. It's not unless you are truly believing those people are human beings. So that's my first fundamental thing that if you are not -- if we can't meet on that, then almost everything else I am going to say is not going to work for you. It's foundational principle. People always look at me when I say that and say, "Well, Neil, of course they're human beings," and then they run off and start treating people with disabilities as if they're totally incapable of doing things and they've got to lead them through it. That mind-set has to be broken. And it's that mind-set that needs to be broken in employment that will move us to more employment for people with disabilities. I often say that why is important -- let me go back and say that why is -- why is it so important in my mind that people with disabilities, first of all, become employed and get employment? You know, I've had people say to me, "Surely, Neil, there are other people that need employment. We have unemployment. Why people with disabilities?" The answer for me is very simple to the why. People with disabilities when they become employed and become part of the engine of society, once they become part of the mechanism and business starts hiring more people with disabilities, they will then want them to be more educated. They'll do manned more education for people with disabilities. And then the schools will have to follow. All American society follows business. I believe that business is a engine of social change when it comes to people with disabilities. People with disabilities start to work and then you who works with that person across the desk who has a disability suddenly perceives that person differently. I'm now going home and talking about that person as someone who is valuable, and their disability disappears for me. That's how you incorporate in society. When you start perceiving this value, and you start seeing it, then all of a sudden the questions become answered as to why they should work, because they can. Now, that's still, from my point of view and from a business point of view that still doesn't help me answer all of my questions. That's really nice, Neil, and I will go out and hire other groups of people need to be employed. Know, I will look to poor people, minorities, so on, and all of that is wonderful! I want to know as a businessman, I need to understand how it's going to help my business. Okay. After working with the president's committee for people with intellectual disabilities, and finding out that I didn't know a great deal, and finding out how little I knew and how much more I needed to know I decided that the most important thing that we could do at my organization which is America's Strength Foundation was to go out and find out the questions businesses most wanted answers with regard to people with disabilities. And I was really surprised to find out that there were a lot of big holes, and nobody -- we really hadn't been answering these questions for business. As I said, business is like any other group. They need questions answered, and they're ready to buy-in. They're ready to do this. They're ready to hire anybody that can help them. But you have to answer some fundamental questions. The first question business wanted to know was how do people feel about people with disabilities? So I went out and I worked with Dr. Gary Sipperstein at the University of Massachusetts, and we went out and asked the American people that very question. How do people feel with people with disabilities in the workplace? Well, the answer to the first question that we asked was, do you have a family member with a disability? 44% of the American people believed they have a family member with a disability. Now, I am a businessman. That's 44% of the entire American market. That immediately makes me look up. When people think about the various small sectors and segments of business that businesses compete over, 2%, 5%, 3%, a 2% shift for a corporation can mean the difference between a red year and a black year. It can mean the difference between good profitability for that year, or no profitability for that year. So the very first thing that we know that 44% of the American people think or believe they have a person with a disability in the family. Now, notice right off the bat here we didn't ask them what kind of disability. Just a disability. And disability in this case is in the mind of the person answering the question. But the fact of the matter is that by leaving it open like that, business leaves it that way. Business doesn't care what the disability is. They're not allowed to care just need to know if there is a market. They can't functionally say, well, we have "X" number of people that are blind that we care about. We have "X" number of people that use wheelchairs that we care about. Fundamentally they have to compare about the community which is where we want them to be. We want a business to care. If the next question that we asked was, you have ever worked with a person with a disability? This was probably in the survey one of the more astounding pieces of information. 71% of all Americans at one point or another have worked with a person with a disability. Now, that surprised even the social scientists. They were not aware. Part of the reason that they believe is because as people are on the job more people recognize the disabilities in others that they may not have known before. Like myself, I didn't go around telling people that I had dyslexia. You know, I would have walked around asking the people to type for me, check my spelling for me, or correct things for me because I couldn't do it. And after awhile I would be forthright with some employers and say I need help with some of these things, I will dictate it to you. And they were okay with it. But I wasn't hired with the concept that I had a disability. Nobody knew. I didn't start the job or the business with the idea that I had a disability. So one of the beliefs is that if as you are on the job longer you start to understand the different disabilities the person may have. But at that point you are already working with them and you respect it. So the next piece that you see here is that 55% of the people who have worked with people who have disabilities reported their work to be very good. And by the which, it's even higher than that, it's in the 90s who consider the work to be good to very good. But at the very good range it's 55%. Now, I am a business. I am sitting there and I am worried about hiring a person with a disability because I am worried that fellow employees are going to say that this person can't do the job. They're going to grouse because we hired so-and-so, and the only reason that we hired them is because they're disabled and we're trying to look good, and we're not going to hire people with disabilities because we don't want to create tension in the workforce. It's simply not the case. Once a person with a disability is in the workforce and begins to perform, people begin to as soon as they add what we said in the beginning, as soon as they begin adding value to the job, as soon as they begin doing their share, which they can, then immediately people with -- people recognize their abilities and are accepting. Now, want to hesitate here because I want to explain that that means more than just acceptance on the job. Means acceptance across the board. When you accept that a person can do the job that you are doing, when you readily can see the ability that that person has, then you have put yourself in a position of mentally believing that that person is your equal. And you then have lost this -- the lines between ability and disability gray. And that's what I mean when I say that business can be the engine of social change. When I have someone next to me who is doing what I can do, I perceive that person as my equal immediately. And when have more of that across business, we'll have more and more people that it's going to change the dynamic. Part of the dynamic that I am talking about unfortunately is who don't perceive people with disabilities as capable especially young people. Which is one of the reasons that we have so many complaints and problems at the school level with special ed and teaching issues. Because they don't -- a lot of people don't understand why a person with a disability should be educated if they're not going To go on and do anything or work. If you force that pressure backwards, and you suddenly are working with someone with a disability that question is eliminated in your mind. So societally, You've changed quite a bit. The next question is how do you feel about people with disabilities in the workplace? Now this, is a question that goes to the issue of how do you feel? When you see them, how do you feel about them? You have ever received any service from someone? Well, the interesting thing is that 99% -- 99% of all people who have ever been serviced by people with disabilities have considered service they received satisfactory. Now, this is one of the major stumbling blocks I've encountered With corporations and with businesses and with people in the job field.'s absolutely sure that people will not be accepting of people with physical disabilities servicing them -- with disabilities physical or intellectual, any form of disability servicing them. They're concerned that people won't understand a little bit of slowness, or won't understand if someone is not exactly like them. Fact of the matter is that the American people are way ahead of American business in this area. They really outshine them in terms of being totally accepting and understanding. Once again, let me stop and back up. When a business hires a person, even a person with a disability to do a particular job, and it's not done on a charity basis, it's done on a basis where they believe that person can do that job, what happens is that, indeed, that person can do that job, and they're providing good service. And the American people recognize it immediately. So part of the goal then here is in looking at people with disabilities, and having to go way back to the beginning, I said don't hire people for charity purposes. If we go way back there, if we look at people, we have to look at them through a set of eyes to say, "What can they do, and what can they achieve?" As opposed to, " What can't they do and where can't I put them?" You see, I've always considered -- well, I've considered over the last two years having worked with some really magnificent people including the people at children's hospital in Cincinnati, project search, and people like that. If you look to people with disabilities and try to glean what it is that they can do and put them in a place where they can do that job, they're going To do a great job. As a matter of fact, everything that we see and this survey demonstrates that everything that -- every time a person encounters a person who is given a job that they can do, want to do, they excel at, it and the American people accept their work. So I am a business. I now know two things. With regard to the labor market. With regard to people, I have two issues. My first issue is people within my business are not going To have problems with people on the job. Now, if you remember, when they said who back when I was going In and just thinking that I could answer this question in an hour, and they would say, well, who do you want me to hire and how am I going To fit it in with the folks in my employment, in my office or in my company, or in my warehouse, or wherever they're going To be, I had no answer. We now have an answer. They're going To fit in beautifully. If you pick the right person to do the right job, give them the opportunity to do the job, they'll do fine. The second question was and if I hire these people, how is the public going To react to them? Well, the fact of the matter is that with regard to service. Let's just start with what we've answered here so far and that's with regard to service is that they accept it. They're very happy. They're pleased. Now, what does that translate to me? You remember, the basic question is, is it good business, or is it good public relations? Now, the answer to the question hopefully is getting clearer. Is it good business or good public relations? We're also saying that it's good business. It is good business. If you have people doing the job, if fellow employees are happy with them, and if the customer is happy, there isn't a problem. There really isn't a problem. How about does it help the business any other way? Well, the next question we're going To want to answer is what information about a company would give you a favorable impression of that company? This is a really interesting question. We wanted to know if you knew something about a company that gave you a favorable impression, what would it be? Tell me something that you think would give you a favorable impression of that company? Now, I want to just say something about the structure of the survey about this particular survey that we did. The way that we developed this survey was that we asked this question first. People who were taking this survey, the 800 people who took this instrument had no idea that this was a survey about disabilities. None at all. So when we asked them, we wanted to know from their own mouths what are the things that attract you the most to a company? What are the things that make you think highly of a company? And we gave them no pre-disposed answers. We just asked the question. The first thing that they said was do they offer health insurance? Well, that's a universally-asked question. I don't even think that's really a social question. I don't even think that deals in the area of social science as much as I believe that deals primarily with -- I think that a good company is a company that provides health insurance. Well, so do I. I think that's fundamental. The whole issue of health insurance is so front burner in the United States and with regard to employment. There are so many people concerned being from business to business, and moving their insurance, so that's fundamental. That's one of those questions when you get that answer you can throw that out as the top answer. But it's fundamentally important. But that was the first thing that they said. The second thing that people said was, do they protect the environment? Well that is also another one of those universal questions, and I think that's also terrific. But these are answers that they came up with on their own, the American people. What was stunning was that the number 3 answer was, do they hire people with disabilities? Now, is it good public relations, or is it good business? Well, it's good business, but that question essentially answers for us fundamentally that it's also good public relations. Here is why I have to hesitate for a moment. I have to hesitate and go back to Marcus. Now know that 44% of the American people think -- believe that they have a person with a disability in their family. We also know that the third most important thing to them in thinking that a company is a good company is that they hire people with disabilities. Does anyone out there see a really good ad campaign? Does anyone out there see a remarkable advertising campaign? They're not there. That's one of the fundamental problems. If you are a business and you are involved with businesses, and you want to give them an opportunity to increase their markets, without any doubt reading a business survey, reading the business material developed, I'm looking at a market, and I'm looking at a reality that says to me, if I highlight people with disabilities in my advertising, it's going To help me with a market that's almost half of the American people, number one. And number two, it's going To leave a good impression. You have close to 90% of the American people who consider it a good thing in a business to hire people with disability. I can't think of -- I mean, I sincerely cannot think of another single issue that could be more encouraging to a business trying to break into a market. I tell you, quite frankly, as I go down the list here you'll notice that number 4 on the list is donate to disaster leaf. Well, this survey was done within weeks of the tsunami. And everyone was lining up to do tsunami support which is tile appropriate. But it doesn't rank as high in people's mind as someone as steady as hiring people with disabilities. As a matter of fact, if you go down this list, you'll also notice that other things that gave people a good impression were things like stop doing business with countries known to treat workers poorly, or have a diverse ethnic workforce, or support a cause that I care about, or employ people in poor countries that work for less money is obviously a negative question. But all of those fall underneath here. Businesses fight for every single one of those other causes with the exception of number 8 which is the negative question which is put in deliberately to make sure that the answers were noted and sincere. But in looking at that, if a business can't frame the issue around that, I would find it very difficult for them to understand what issues they really could frame well. But why don't they do it? Why haven't they done it? Frankly they haven't done it because they haven't had the answers. Another thing that I think I can say to you all very honestly without any doubt is that businesses will always try to do what's business for business. That's just one of those basic rules. Given this kind of information, a business can responsibly make a decision to hire people with disabilities, and not only to hire them, but also to let the market mow that they have people with disabilities. Unfortunately, there are some wonderful businesses out there. I mean, truly wonderful businesses that choose not to highlight their employment of people with disabilities. And I've said many times that I consider that very, very -- that's a very sad, very unfortunate for a number of reasons. Number one is that it deprives other businesses of good role models. If I see a company that I admire, and they're highlighting the fact that they're hiring people with disabilities, trust me, I am going To get the message that they've done the research that it's a good thing to do. And I am going To follow suit. I'm going To try to find that out. So any business that does hire people with disabilities, I would recommend to them almost immediately as a advisor and consultant to them that they consider subtle advertising. Obviously some places it's difficult. You know, you can't show certain intellectual disabilities obviously, but to glad to your advertising has to be considered a positive for the business. It has to be. So it's not only good business because they work well with the consumer, the consumer likes people with disabilities on the job, and has no problems with them, the employees are not going To have any problems with people with disabilities on the job, but there are also the business itself is perceived as doing a good job and doing a good thing, and as a better business simply by having people with disabilities. So answer to is it better public relations or better business? It's better both. It's actually both. And there are very few issues in business that cut that well on both sides, both public relations-wise and business-wise. Usually, they don't balance themselves out that well. Continuing on with the whole concept of how do people feel about businesses that employ people with disabilities, we know that 90% of the people surveyed believe that businesses that employ people with disabilities help those employees lead more productive lives. We also know that they across the board considered more caring about their workforce. Period. Not just workers with disabilities, across the board they're considered. So another indicator in this survey shows us that not only is it -- it's not just an emotional reaction that we're getting, because, you know, there's always this sense that people want to potentially say the right thing on a survey. But when you move to a question like this which helps to demonstrate intensity, it demonstrates very, very clearly that they not only believe it, but they believe it, but they believe that the business is the fundamentally a sound and good business, and that they could be trusted with all of their employees which makes me more interested in them. Here is the one question that's probably more important to businesses than any other. And everything else in this survey, if you remember our arithmetic equation, everything needs to add up to something. We have all of these little pieces and parts, it's an equation, what does it add up to? It adds up to this particular line. 88% of everyone surveyed preferred -- would prefer to give their business to companies that employ people with disabilities. Quite frankly, I can't think of any other -- and I've looked at many, many, many surveys. People will not be motivated to give their business to a company that gives health insurance. That is not a cutting issue. That is not. They may consider it a good business, and it doesn't mean that it's going To cut for them to get more business. This is, once again, showing us an even deeper intensity because what they're saying here is that we truly fundamentally believe that this business is going To do all the right things. It's going To provide us with value. It's going To provide -- if it's concerned about the community, it's concerned about me. If it's concerned about people with disabilities, it's concerned about their other employees. Fits concerned about people who hire people with disabilities, it shows that it's in touch with community in general and me. And, quite frankly, when you go back to the very first question, and you see that 44% of the American people have a member of their family with a disability this is a monstrously large answer to a very, very important question. What value do people with disabilities bring? They bring a lot of value. They bring an inordinate amount of value. As a matter of fact, they probably bring more value than any other single component of the workforce that you can put in and make a change today. So, to say that we've tried to answer that question with this survey, we have. By the way, this does change things. The people that we worked with at the University of Massachusetts have been doing these surveys for years, surveys in this area, and they've never experienced this response. This is a change in the last 20 or so years, and it's a change that business has to catch up with. But even more importantly and more fundamentally it's a change that those of us in the advocacy community, and those of house are trying to get people with disabilities employed have to use. This is the model that we need to use. These are the answers that we need to walk into a business with. We're not going To walk in there anymore saying, "Please hire this person because it's a nice thing to do." I guess that we call it -- I guess that I've said this before and it's the get up off your knees model. You know, stop going To the desk begging and saying, you now have a portfolio of something valuable. You now have something in your portfolio that will sell. You not only have, quite frankly in people with disabilities good employees, you know, almost across the board, almost every survey that you read. I know that some surveys out of ECU that show that people consider people with disabilities to be wonderful employees. Managers consider them to be wonderful employees. Better than other employees? Not necessarily. As good? Definitely. On time, get to the job site do their job, are conscientious in everyone of the major indicators. A great group of people. A great group of people. Stereotypical we're not going To say they're a better group of people, but it's a good product. Forgive me for calling me a product. But I am a product, you are a product. We're all products. It's a good product. Not only do you have a good product that you are trying to sell, but you have a good product that offers a huge amount of value beyond their actual value in the workplace. Beyond the actual workday do. They do provide a public relations benefit for that company, and they do provide an opportunity for the company to be perceived as a better company. So all those things in conjunction are very helpful to you as you speak to businesses, or if you are a business trying to get people with disabilities in the workforce. I'd like to invite anybody would like see some more of this survey to get in touch with Virginia Commonwealth University, and they'll help you with that. I would like to thank you for this opportunity to share this material with you. I hope that this gives you some encourage. It's certainly given me encouragement as I go into businesses and they're a lot more excited about having me answer questions.