From the ADA to returning soldiers to work

Earlier this month, the country celebrated it’s 232rd birthday. We celebrated with fireworks, picnics, and parades to honor our veterans who have fought in wars past and the soldiers who are currently abroad fighting for our country. This month also marks the 18th anniversary of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). What do those two things have in common? To answer that question, we introduce you to Richard Pimentel.

After coming back from the Vietnam War with significant hearing loss, Pimentel became an unlikely hero in the “silent” civil rights movement, which focused on affording people with disabilities the same rights as those without, and his work would become a cornerstone for the creation of the ADA. Eventually, he naturally progressed to the workers’ compensation field.

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As of last year, Babson College in Newton, Massachusetts, had two diversity managers, an assistant dean charged with increasing campus-wide inclusion, and a few HR professionals focused on diversity. But the college’s senior leaders decided that wasn’t enough. In March, they appointed Elizabeth Thornton to be Babson’s first chief diversity officer (CDO).

“The senior leadership felt that the college needed one person to be part of the president’s cabinet to develop an overarching comprehensive and fully integrated strategy to help Babson be in the forefront of this issue of preparing students to be effective transcultural leaders in a global marketplace,” Thornton explains.

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Could software solve your diversity problems? The National Science Foundation thinks so. The federal agency awarded a $450,000 Small Business Innovation Research grant to the Boulder, Colorado, tech firm OptTek Systems, which plans to build a software application that can improve an organization’s ability to strategically plan and manage its workforce.

Issues such as limited talent or an aging workforce “are changes companies are going to have to contend with so they can plan out how their workforce is going to evolve and better strategize how to meet their financial goals,” says OptTek chief development officer Jay April. He says the benefits of the software, called OptForce, include integration of strategic business planning with workforce planning, cost-effective achievement of diversity goals, and increased confidence in forecasting business performance.

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The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) has announced that Wal-Mart Stores, Inc., had agreed to pay $300,000 to a Hardin, Missouri, man to settle a disability discrimination lawsuit. In addition, Wal-Mart agreed to provide training on the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) to managers at its Richmond store, notify job applicants about the settlement, and inform several Kansas City-area job service agencies that the company seeks to employ qualified individuals with disabilities. The parties expect the court to approve the settlement.

Steve Bradley has cerebral palsy and uses crutches or a wheelchair for mobility. He applied for employment with Wal-Mart when it was engaged in mass hiring for a new Supercenter in Richmond in 2001. He applied for any available position but was questioned in his interview about his ability to work using his wheelchair and was told he was “best suited” for a greeter position. Ultimately, the company refused to hire him. Afterward, he filed a disability discrimination charge, and the EEOC filed suit on his behalf in federal court in Kansas City.

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On July 26, 1990, President George H.W. Bush signed into law the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), guaranteeing equal opportunity for people with disabilities in public accommodations, commercial facilities, employment, transportation, state and local government services, and telecommunications. Here are some statistics about America’s disabled population from the U.S. Census Bureau:

• There are 41.3 million people who have some level of disability. They represent 15 percent of the civilian noninstitutionalized population age five and older.

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