Executive Summary: Phase I Analysis
By Reid Jewett Smith, Ph.D. & Michael Lopez
Abstract
Workforce disability inclusion has historically been incentivized by compliance with government regulations. However, surging employee and investor demands for inclusive corporate culture is creating a new call to action for companies to modernize the collection, promotion, and utilization of voluntary self identification data. Well-timed outreach, multipronged communications, and workforce re/educationcan curate a company culture that supports self identification with a trusting, informed, disability inclusive community. This paper makes the case for companies to embrace an Empirical and Experiential Model of Disability and lead the way with corporate disclosure of disability inclusion to foster reciprocity that enables vibrant participation from talent with disabilities in the workforce and attracts investors interested in corporate social performance.