Matt Lawrence is a 29-year-old with a bachelor's degree in journalism and a master's degree in counseling, education, and social work. Sounds like a bright and capable person who could easily find satisfying employment, right? Yes to the "bright and capable" part, but employment was another story. When he was 13, Matt was diagnosed with a rare progressive neurological disorder called distonia. The condition has rendered him virtually unable to walk, move his hands, or speak easily.

Despite earning honors in college and graduate school and a desire to work with those with disabilities, Matt could not find work and was on the verge of suicide.

Things started to turn around when he interviewed at NetworkIP, a Dallas-based telecommunications company. Matt shared his vision for an employment website for the disabled that he'd been thinking about since college. With the help of NetworkIP, Matt created and recently launched the site, http://www.JobEnable.com.

Jobseekers Wanted

The website is specifically marketed to potential employees with disabilities who post their résumés and other information. Traffic to the JobEnable site has quadrupled over the past few months thanks to efforts to optimize visibility on major search engines.

The site also reaches out to "spread the word and evangelize" about JobEnable among employers, as well as nonprofit groups and associations that serve the disabled. There is no cost to the jobseeker.

According to Matt Lawrence, current job offerings on the site skew heavily toward the information-technology sector and also include financial and other professional-service postings.

Asked how JobEnable differs from other sites with similar purposes, Lawrence notes the easy-to-navigate design and the low job-posting cost for employers. "We're not out there to compete with other sites," he explains. "We're out there to be one more tool for people with disabilities to find employment."

Employers are often concerned about the cost of providing necessary accommodations for workers with disabilities. But most are relatively inexpensive (under $500) and can be as simple as screen-reading equipment for a computer.

In other cases, it's a matter of providing a work area that is accessible by a wheelchair or permitting a disabled worker a flexible schedule that includes some at-home work hours. Sometimes state rehabilitation departments will pay for the accommodations, says Lawrence.

Good Value

Hiring the disabled is good business, according to a report by the United Nations' International Labor Organization. Equality at Work: Tackling the Challenges found that about 650 million people, or 1 out of every 10 on the planet, live with a disability, either physical or mental.

Many employers surveyed said the cost of workplace accommodations was negligible, as only about 4 percent of disabled people of working age required additional adjustments.

Some businesses even found that they reduced employment expenses by hiring disabled workers.

Other long-term studies, including those by DuPont, have found that employees with disabilities perform equally well as, or better than, their nondisabled colleagues.

Other Resources

The U.S. Department of Labor's Office of Disability Employment Policy (ODEP) leads the federal government's efforts to expand employment opportunities for people with disabilities.

According to ODEP, there are more than 33 million people in the United States with disabilities between ages 16 and 64. Of these, just over half are employed.

The office provides policy analysis, technical assistance, and education and outreach. It also develops practices and strategies for the community of the disabled. Among its activities is a grant program. Learn more about the work of ODEP at http://www.dol.gov/odep.

[Source: OSHA Compliance Advisor. Subscribe today!]