Ep 246: Accessibility Solutions for Employers

Episode 246: Accessibility Solutions For
Employees

Intro: [00:00:00.21] Welcome to the Workology Podcast, a podcast for the disruptive
workplace leader. Join host Jessica Miller-Merrell, founder of Workology.com, as she sits down and gets to
the bottom of trends, tools and case studies for the business leader, H.R. and recruiting professional who is
tired of the status quo. Now, here's Jessica with this episode of Workology.
Jessica Miller-Merrell: [00:00:25.82] Two of the biggest myths when it comes to working with people with
disabilities is the belief that technology and employee accessibility is expensive. The second is the belief
that employees with disabilities hurt, not help drive business revenue. These myths are conversations we
need to talk about, and I want to work to debunk these, which is why I'm excited to talk to my podcast guests
today. This episode is part of the Workology podcast and it's part of our Future of Work series, which is
powered by PEAT, the Partnership on Employment & Accessible Technology. In honor of the 30th
anniversary of the Americans with Disabilities Act this year, we're investigating what the next 30 years will
look like for people with disabilities at work and the potential of emerging technologies to make workplaces
more inclusive and accessible.
Jessica Miller-Merrell: [00:01:17.51] Today, I'm joined by Mike Hess. Mike Hess is the founder and executive
director of the Blind Institute of Technology. After 20 years as a tech veteran managing seven figure projects
for Fortune 500 companies, one thing troubled Mike: he was always the token blind guy. Knowing that the
invaluable skills he developed because of his blindness were the keys to his success, he couldn't
understand why unemployment amongst the BVI community was so high. So Mike embarked on a journey to
change corporate America stigmas and misconceptions of BVI professionals, developing the Blind Institute
of Technology. Using the same skills that made him a success in IT, Mike has built partnerships and placed
BVI professionals and Fortune 500 companies nationwide. Mike has been featured in the Denver Post and the
Denver Business Journal, and has been honored with the 2017 Martin Luther King Jr Business Award and
the 2019 GlobalMindED Inclusive Leader Award. BIT's focus on accessible technology has garnered
invitations to present at Google Clouds next 2019 conference and Salesforce's Dreamforce in 2019. Mike is
also the co-host for Choose Inclusion, a podcast addressing the benefits of diversity and inclusion. In 2019,
Mike's vision of full access for BVI led him to develop Edge Guide, a navigation system that allows
independent navigation in previously inaccessible public spaces. Mike, welcome to the Workology podcast.
Mike Hess: [00:02:51.08] Thank you so much for having me. It's trully an honor.
Jessica Miller-Merrell: [00:02:54.50] I am just... My mind is blown with all these things and, and the work that
you're doing. Tell us a little bit more about your background.
Mike Hess: [00:03:05.52] Sure. I... It sounds, it sounds kind of, it sounds kind of impressive, like we're busy
actually doing something. It's never just a single as you know, this running a business or anybody else
running a business or managing a team like it's a, it's a team effort. And I have... I'm so fortunate to work with
such an amazing team. However, my... My background, you know, I started out way back in the mid 90s as a,
as a coder and moved on. I was, all my, almost all my career was telecommunications. And so I went from
coding for the billing system to being a network engineer. So the translations that allow your phone calls to
traverse the network, and in telecommunications, if you can, if you can build for it, you can route it. It's a
product. And so, as I was continuing on with my career, able to manage larger and larger projects and I didn't
really want to get into management, but I was curious on the kind of the art or the science of building a
Workology Podcast | www.workologypodcast.com | @workology

business case, you know, working on technology projects that sometimes, quite honestly, after, you know, a
dozen or so years of experience, I was, I was really baffled of business decisions that were being made. And
so I started raising my hand for skip level type opportunities with the C suite within organizations and kind of
really picking their brain around this, this concept of building a business case.
Mike Hess: [00:04:35.92] Because I just wanted to figure this out. I was kind of perplexed and then, so, I
started dabbling in the ability to not only run a company from that C suite perspective, but also just
recognize, you know, how to communicate effectively with a C suite type team. And so and then as my career
progressed, I started getting, sort of realizing like I was, I really was frustrated with being that token blind
person and as an engineer started doing some due diligence and just recognize there are some great
organizations and entities that are out there that advocate for blind, visually impaired, and the greater people
with disabilities community. And somewhere on their websites, they talk about employment services, and so
I, I kind of after, after talking to my wife, and my wife being such a supporter of this concept that I came up
with, colorblindness to a technology where it's an entity that solely focused on employment for people with
disabilities, I left my six figure income with a small child at home to, to start this dream seven and a half
years ago. So it was, it was a collaborative decision to do so, and it's like all startups, even though we're a
nonprofit, we faced a lot of startup challenges, just like a lot of other organizations do. And with seven and a
half years later, we're here adding value to organizations nationwide.
Jessica Miller-Merrell: [00:06:08.74] Let's talk a little bit about accessibility, especially since so much of our
life has recently shifted to telework and remote work. Can you talk to us about what digital accessibility
looks like for workplaces?
Mike Hess: [00:06:22.24] Absolutely. So I, we were kind of talking a little bit before we came on air. Just this
pandemic environment is, quite honestly, is easier for kind of the people with disabilities community from a
just a logistics perspective. When you think of how challenging mass transit or, in my case, flying from city
to city, talking to different organizations and navigating where to find the Uber stations and, and all of those
kind of environments, you know, doing just utilizing unified communications, whether it be, you know,
Microsoft teams or Zoom or any, you know, Google hangouts like these, these unified communications are
A) incredibly accessible and, B) just super convenient for, you know, people with disabilities who have just a
couple of other challenges to consider when having to travel so much. So, so I, I actually, you know, when I
say that with truly the understanding that the pandemic has permanently affected so many organizations and
so many people's lives, I don't see that, you know, with a with a smile on my face. However, you know,
always looking for that silver lining specifically for me and then others within the the professionals with
disabilities community, just recognizing that it really, this pandemic environment has made doing business
just wee bit easier.
Jessica Miller-Merrell: [00:07:54.64] Your work and your expertise in this area speaks volumes. And I wanted
to ask you about how do you work with employers when you offer accessibility technology solutions. Is, is
there a best practice or how do you go about that? What's the process?
Mike Hess: [00:08:13.15] Well, so it's a great question. And so, we, so we live with, you know, and I'm sure
you've had so many guests on the show, you know, PEATworks absolutely talks about, you know, accessible
technology, so accessible technology foundationally and fundamentally comes from WeekEd which is the
web content accessible guidelines, which, of course, is adhered to by Section 508 of the Rehabilitation Act.
So, like, there's, there's all of those best you know, the best practices and the principles all come from, you
know, tried and true requirements. So we as an organization, because, again, I said that we, Blindness to the
Technology focuses really on the employment epidemic and the unemployment epidemic for people with
disabilities. And, as I talk to organizations and partner with, I mean, juggernauts like Salesforce or CBS
nationwide, how I pitch people with disabilities to these organizations is that it is a technology solution. So in

other words, whether you're, whether you're blind, whether you're deaf, whether you're on the spectrum,
whether you have an anxiety disorder, there are technologies in place to help individuals with disabilities to
be able to overcome those challenges and be able to perform and produce for that organization. And so it's,
it's not a that we are, I mean, there are so many A11Y organizations that are out there and we help several
very large clients nationwide with their A11Y. However, our kind of our GM, our bailiwick is, is not just
selling, oh, here's how you make this environment accessible. So, too many, quite honestly, that market is
saturated. So our, our way into organizations is helping them with their diversity, equity and inclusion hiring
practices in and around people with disabilities. So because we speak that language first, our organization,
we are experts in workforce development and that's the language we speak for these organizations and that's
why we're creating partnerships nationwide.
Jessica Miller-Merrell: [00:10:25.06] One of the other reasons that I wanted to talk to you about this topic of
accessible technology is on the subject of productivity. Unfortunately, there are a lot of stereotypes and
opinions that tie productivity challenges to people with disabilities because they do or do not need
accommodation. Can you talk to me a little bit about your work in this area and why this is personally
important to you?
Mike Hess: [00:10:50.32] Sure. Again, another good question. The, so, I honestly, there is a lot of anecdotal
stuff out there and there are some horror stories. I get that. So if you start, if you dig around and poke around
the Internet long enough or if you just start asking around like everybody knows somebody that has some
kind of a situation. So all I can do is explain, you know, what we as an organization Blindness to the
Technology, we, we, we personally, as an organization or we as an organization have a 96.7% retention rate
with the individuals that we place within companies. So, so in other words, companies spend a lot more
money on attrition based on the talent that we find them. So kind of a bonus. So, they're not just keeping
these folks on board because they're unable to produce. So starting with that. So our own this is our data,
our organizational data. Then if we move on to the the most recent Accenture report where they talk about
organizations that embrace people with disabilities from an employment perspective, have a 28% higher
revenue, a 30% higher profit margin and two times net income higher than their industry peers. So when you
start thinking of that as a data set, OK, those are, those are just numbers, right? That, that absolutely, you
could easily connect the dots or make the argument that these organizations are obviously finding some
kind of value, some kind of productivity with these teammates that maybe other organizations who haven't
found out what I consider the greatest untapped resource in the world, which is the professionals with
disabilities community, have not.
Jessica Miller-Merrell: [00:12:44.71] Let's take a reset. This is Jessica Miller-Merrell, and you are listening to
the Workology podcast. Today, we are talking with Mike Hess about workplace accessibility. This podcast is
sponsored by Workology and is part of our Future of Work series in partnership with PEAT. They're the
Partnership on Employment & Accessible Technology.
Break: [00:13:04.53] The Workology podcast, Future of Work series, is supported by PEAT, the Partnership
on Employment and Accessible Technology. PEAT's initiative is to foster collaboration and action around
accessible technology in the workplace. PEAT is funded by the U.S. Department of Labor's Office of
Disability Employment Policy (ODEP). Learn more about PEAT at peatworks.org, That's peatworks.org.
Jessica Miller-Merrell: [00:13:31.39] One of the things that H.R. leaders are pretty familiar with is
accommodation requests. And I wondered if you could maybe provide me with, I know you mentioned the
Accenture report, but possibly another example of how accessibility and accommodation requests drive
performance, especially with the work that you're doing and the people that you're bringing into these
organizations.

Mike Hess: [00:13:54.42] Sure. Well, when so when we talk to organizations, we are so in the in the
conversations are very, very unique, depending on the leader within the organization. And so when we're
talking to H.R. leaders, we begin reasonable accommodations is a topic. And I submit that the same coin,
just flip side of the coin of reasonable accommodation, is the term accessible technology. And when we're
able to prove that there are organizations such as Microsoft, such as Google, such as Salesforce, a very key
strategic partner for the ITC that have completely committed to making technology, their technology
completely accessible. So I start I start a process of elimination at this point in time when I'm talking to these
organizations like, OK, are you a Microsoft shop? Well, of course. OK, I did some Google infrastructure.
Yeah, probably. Are you a sales force up there? The largest CRM in the world. So there's a really good
chance that some part of the organization or in many cases the entire organization has some kind of
enterprise wide sales force solution. So when I start talking to them about technologies that these
organizations currently have in place, I let them know that, you know, many times the work has already been
done for that coin of reasonable accommodation. So from a digital perspective, many times that business
case has already been made, so on the flip side of that, when I start talking to, let's say, technology leaders.
Right. And literally I've been asked by CEOs and CEOs and CEOs of organizations who are super bright
people, super, super bright individuals. And they're like my give me a solid example, like I have been in
technology a long time. I don't explain what accessible technology is. And I'm like, OK, it's simple, simple
example. I said for a user interface, I said to be able to navigate a user interface without using a mouse.
Mike Hess: [00:16:02.41] Right. I said, it's super. You know, you're focused on tab control, you're focused on
your dom. And I ask them I ask these technology leaders what kind of a list is it to make those user
interfaces, you know, implement that that tab control. And they're like, oh, it's a low level of effort. And I'm
like, exactly. So from a zeros and ones perspective, like making technology. And when you start doing taking
away the mouse and you're doing keyboard control, all of a sudden now it's not just the blind visually
impaired community, right? It's the motor skills impaired community. It's so many for power users that that is
absolutely a key driver for power users. Productivity is making sure that user interfaces are strictly navigable
based on the keyboard. And so those are the kind of conversations. And then then let's flip over to let's say
I'm talking to somebody from a contact center perspective, a tier one or sales organization. What I'm selling
that people with disabilities when I'm selling, let's say, blind, visually impaired people from an assets
perspective, because, again, I always lead with we add value. We as an organization or as a community, add
value to your organization's bottom line and your culture. And for the Accenture report, we actually have
some hard data that proves that point. However, when I'm talking to these different parts of the organization,
I explain to them, if you can come up with another demographic who has the patent on active listening other
than the blind visually impaired, I'd like to know who they are. So, again, I'm always focused on the assets,
how it is that we add value to organizations.
Jessica Miller-Merrell: [00:17:41.91] Businesses are focused on ROI or return on investment. Can you talk
about how accessibility contributes to an organization's success, financial and otherwise?
Mike Hess: [00:17:52.68] Sure. It's an estimated six hundred and forty five billion dollars of disposable
income from the people with disabilities community in the United States alone estimated six hundred and
forty five billion dollars. And so if you look at it just from that, that spending power for businesses who are
reluctant to, let's say, not jump in based on all the I mean, very public lawsuits, right. I mean, from Harbor to
Domino's to Nike to five guys. I mean, there's Winn-Dixie. I mean, these these are really public national
brands, international brands, very recent. Twenty nineteen. You know, these are all really recent lawsuits that
have taken their turn in the spotlight, which isn't always a good spotlight. And when you think of
organizations who have not jumped on the bandwagon of accessibility, they're missing out on a market
share. The people with disabilities. The reason why, let's say from a technology, just a mobile device
perspective, when Steve Jobs when in my opinion, when the more brilliant things that he did early on with a
very early onset of the iPhone, i.e., devices to ensure that all all those devices had accessibility back then.

And still to this day, when you go to, let's say, a blindness convention or conference and yes, believe it or
not, there are many of those I call him, you know, cane and dog conferences, because that's there's a whole
lot of those there. They're practically an iPhone conference because early on that technology company and it
used to be I haven't even looked recently, but it used to be the fourth value on the Apple website was
accessibility. And so when organizations tap into that purchasing power, there's a very loyal, very loyal
demographic to absolutely will keep coming back because we do not, unfortunately, have as many options
as our fully able bodied peers.
Jessica Miller-Merrell: [00:20:01.68] You know, working with PEAT and being and my time spent on this
Future Work podcast is really opened my eyes to this area because I think I take for granted things like
ramps or electric doors or simple things on the iPhone that make my life so much easier than I love, like Siri.
For example, and different futures, but they were first built for people with disabilities to be able to use
different technologies, that is truly universal design. But the purpose was to make this technology
accessible for for everyone, including people with disabilities. Sometimes we forget the why behind why
something like Apple, which is so very simple and I'm a huge Apple fan, was developed and how it came
about, the simple design, easy to use, it's really accessible for everyone.
Jessica Miller-Merrell: [00:20:57.39] What have you found are the best approaches to broach subjects like
this to senior leadership? I find that H.R. leaders generally have big hearts, but unfortunately, sometimes
translating the need to provide support and resources to marginalized groups in the workplace, like people
with disabilities, often gets lost in translation. What suggestions do you have?
Mike Hess: [00:21:17.09] I so I, I love this question and quite honestly, I feel like it's what delineates blindness
to technology with any other organization that's out there right now. And I've I've met with so many of the
senior leaders of the the blindness organizations or the greater people with disabilities communications.
Quite honestly, it's rare to find a leader within any of those organizations, quite honestly, who is somebody
with a disability? Or if you do find one that with a disability, they have zero experience within corporate
America. So they don't even speak for ten. Ten thousand speak. And so the reason why I was very, very
specific on saying that I you know, during my corporate career, I spent a lot of time with the C suite because
it actually is what delineates us, Abberline, into the technology. I'm able to speak, you know, the business
case and the cost benefit analysis and it actually talking about the value proposition that people with
disabilities bring. It's not this shouldn't be a philanthropic endeavor. They should absolutely be something
that organizations buy into and start realizing like. Oh, yeah, yeah. So OK. So a again, let's let's forget about
all the Accenture numbers, which are pretty impressive numbers. Right. Let's start focusing on that. People
with disabilities are less likely to leave their jobs because again, when you think about it, we're not going to
job hop.
Mike Hess: [00:22:51.54] We don't get jobs to begin with. We don't have the same opportunities as our fully
able bodied peers. We recognize that. And again, from a business perspective, there's cost to attrition. So
every one of the data points that we come to the organization with, it's all about adding value to their
organizations and recognizing that reasonable accommodations really are reasonable. And more than likely,
you already probably have several of them baked in you just didn't know about. And so senior leaders and
not all of them, it's no different than call it the Black Lives Matter movement or whatnot. There are a lot of
organizations who talk a big game when it comes to. Oh, yeah, we're totally we're totally inclusive. We're
totally this, we're told. So you can go back to their hiring practices where you're recruiting from. If you
continue just to recruit from the elite schools and you're and who is attending those elite schools, you
cannot tell me. Thank you for writing the great big old check over to BLM or some other organization.
However, it's within the people with disabilities community and these other marginalized communities. Quite
honestly, the word gets out there, which organizations are truly walking the walk or not?

Jessica Miller-Merrell: [00:24:03.54] Well, I love the consultative approach that you're taking, and I love that
you're speaking the language of executive leaders because I feel like you hit the nail on the head saying a lot
of it is is lost in translation or they don't understand the business itself to be able to to use the words and
and talk about the return on investment in a way that is going to resonate with executive leadership. Can you
share about how your consultative approach has helped you at achieving success and supporting
organizations in the way that you have?
Mike Hess: [00:24:33.78] Absolutely. Thank you for that. So BIT Blind Institute of technology. And just again,
this is the kind of nerd I am, is that I, I took the binary bit, the zero in one right machine language and created
the acronym Blind Institute of Technology. So that's my claim to marketing. Same. However, I truly believe
that technology is the greatest mitigator for all of humanity, from the Wright brothers to the pencil, always
helping humanity overcome its obstacles. And in the digital age, it's absolutely essential for our quality of
life, let alone our ability to earn our own. So when I think of our success in getting getting people place, when
I again, because of my approach of leading with. He has that reasonable accommodation that you probably
already had in place when I come to these organizations, there are still there are still some risks and some
objections to these organizations. So we as an organization have said we're a nonprofit staffing agency. So
we set organizations just like, you know, the big staffing agencies like a Robert Hass or something like that.
They you know, if you go to them and you're like, oh, man, find us a Java developer. Right. And fine. OK, so
what's your placement? So their placement fee is somewhere north of twenty five percent.
Mike Hess: [00:25:58.27] I think it's north of 30 percent. But so for the first year annual salary, they'll take 30
percent for you to find that individual. So we as a nonprofit aren't any close to that. We charge 12 percent for
our direct placements to these organizations and we found senior directors, we found vice presidents, we
found very high level. We have multiple, very high, one thousand one hundred thousands. I mean, salaries
that we've helped do retainer searches for and finding talent, which all of them have stuck. We've also found
some contact centers. But at the end of the day, the the best model that we found, organizations who want to
dip their toe in the pond of professionals with disabilities as we do a contract to hire model, which is very
common in the staffing industry. So we keep those individuals on our books and we offer benefits and paid
time off. And we do not charge back our clients because again, we want to be an employer of choice as well.
But we want to remove any risk that organizations might have or any objection. So we've created the models
that work really well with our industry partners.
Jessica Miller-Merrell: [00:27:13.75] Talk to me about how technology is essential. I think that sometimes
people, including myself, are focused on accommodations like wide doors, screen readers, ramps and other
physical accommodations. However, the rules have changed. We're all all mostly working remote. So talk to
me about what's essential right now.
Mike Hess: [00:27:35.06] Sure. No, I mean, here's the beautiful thing. Like, you have so many from Amazon
and Apple and and Microsoft, Salesforce, like you have all these Google, you have all these juggernaut
technology companies who have completely adopted some type of cloud type environment. Right. And so
the tools within these cloud environments, quite honestly, you know, so you sent me over some questions
using a Google, Google, Google doc. And so I literally just you know, I clicked on the link. I listen to it, you
know, right there on my phone. I was able to consume and digest that information right at my fingertips.
Right. Sounds just like any other user of technology. So that's the beautiful thing. And so running an
organization. Right. So even though we're a nonprofit, I have a board of directors who are completely
focused on how great Mike, you got got a handful of placements. Let's get some more. Let's look at your
pipeline. Well, guess what? On the dashboard with my with my very accessible Salesforce dashboard, I am
able to take a look and say, OK, what opportunities, what are our highest revenue opportunities? What's in
the queue right now? How can we move it along in the sales process? Stage one, stage two, stage three. It's
all right there at my fingertips, just like any other executive. So when you think about, you know, from

regardless of where you are in and we as an organization, so again, I'm it's like a rotating commercial. Not
only the president, I'm a customer, too. So my I have an organization where we have six teammates all
identifying with disabilities.
Mike Hess: [00:29:24.61] Multiple of us are totally blind, and yet we do exactly what any other organization, a
staffing agency would do. So we have we have we have a statement of work generator that's one hundred
percent accessible. We have an applicant tracking system that's one hundred percent accessible. We've
created this environment, by the way. It's the reason why we were invited to speak at Google next last year
and at Dreamforce for Salesforce, this conference. And because we use our primary infrastructure that we
built all this completely accessible technology on is the G suite for the Google Productivity Suite, the Sweet
and Salesforce. So we literally built in-house a completely accessible infrastructure. So that way, again, we
as the team scales, we're focused on scaling with individuals that need our talent needs. So technology is
absolutely the game changer. And by the way, this is this is out of the box. Out of the box, this is like we
didn't we didn't, you know, do some some plug in that cost a million dollars, this is out of the box. So when it
went, that's why we were invited to speak at those two prestigious conferences, because we're not just
talking accessibility to our conference or title at the Google next conference was actually empowering
entrepreneurship and employment using Google productivity and accessibility. So it was empowering.
Again, I go back to that empowering entrepreneurship and employment by just leveraging the technology
that's out of the box. So the technology is truly what levels the playing field for our community.
Jessica Miller-Merrell: [00:31:03.77] I love it. And it's such a great example of, like you said, out of the box,
there wasn't anything additional that you had to buy, any new technology that you had to develop. It was all
already there for for you. As we look to the next 30 years of work, what emerging workplace trends or
technologies do you think will have the biggest impact on people with disabilities?
Mike Hess: [00:31:23.99] You know, it's a great question. I, I truly I truly, truly believe that actually the the I
believe it's more than a fad this time with the Black Lives Matter. I truly believe and we as again, we as an
organization, we pitch us as a diversity and inclusion solutions provider for professionals with disabilities.
That's how we pitch our organization and our services to organizations. And with the Black Lives Matter,
really, it's so refreshing to hear, you know, the momentum continue to move on with that. We're just
leveraging, saying, OK, hey, while your organization is focused on, you know, inclusion, we're just asking
you to be inclusive with your inclusion conversations. So in other words, as organizations truly, you know,
the ones who are walking the talk rights, those organizations who are truly doing that, we're all we want to do
is we want to be included in those conversations. So as you are really looking at your recruiting practices,
that you're looking at your hiring practices all that the time is now like doo doo doo. The you know, adding
the professionals with disabilities community to those efforts is seamless and it absolutely fits fine. So we're
not we're not asking you to ignore rights, the very important racial injustices and the institutional disparities
that absolutely exist. So we're just we want you to also recognize while those institutional inequities have
been in place for marginalized groups, the byproduct of black indigenous people of color, community, they
are also in place for the greater people with disabilities community. So I truly believe that it's not the next 30
years. I believe it's going to be the next thirty six months.
Jessica Miller-Merrell: [00:33:15.84] I love this. And I'm going to repeat what you said. You ask to be inclusive
with your inclusive conversations. Sounds simple, but it is very complicated. But the time is now why we're
we're starting to have those conversations to include everyone that should and must be included in hiring,
engagement and employment. One hundred percent. I love it. I love it. And I love how, again, how simple it is
it sounds. But y you're already having these conversations. Let's think about truly being inclusive and
involving employing and hiring everyone.
Mike Hess: [00:33:54.72] Absolutely. Absolutely.

Jessica Miller-Merrell: [00:33:56.69] Mike, thank you so much for taking the time to join us today. I wanted to
ask you where we can go to learn more about you and the work that you do.
Mike Hess: [00:34:06.97] Oh, sure, thank you. It's were pretty easy to find which Blind Institute of Technology
dot org or we also have the domain of blind IG .org so blind as an unable to see blind IT.org So we're we're
on LinkedIn. We're on Facebook. We're on Twitter. We we'd love to talk to any organization who is, you know,
wanting to have some of those amazing financial and cultural results that are absolutely documented now.
Jessica Miller-Merrell: [00:34:41.23] Awesome. Well, we will link to your website as well as your LinkedIn
profile. I also will make sure to include a lot of the amazing reporting that you mentioned. You mentioned
Extensors 2020 Disability Equality Index report. So those things are going to be included in the resources
section in our schnitz, too. So connect with Mike and they get access to all the goodness that he mentioned
throughout this podcast interview. Thank you so much, Mike, for for taking the time to chat with us.
Mike Hess: [00:35:08.80] Thank you so much for inviting me. It was really my honor.
Jessica Miller-Merrell: [00:35:11.80] The Accenture report getting to equal the disability inclusion advantage
found the companies that offered inclusive working environments for employees with disabilities achieved
on average a 28 percent higher revenue, 30 percent higher economic profit margins and two times net
income of their industry peers. I'm linking to this Accenture report in the resources section of our podcast
notes over on work ology, and I appreciate Mike sharing his time and expertise. Today he is on a mission to
change not just an industry, but the business and workplace world. And I love it. And together we can really
make change happen in this area and help drive employment for all, including people with disabilities. This
Future of Work series is in partnership with Pete and it is one of my favorites. Thank you to Pete as well as
our work ology podcast sponsor Recology.
Closing: [00:36:10.99] Join me for the first ever virtual HR Expo, October 5th through 9th Demo and meet 35
companies just like at the Conference Expo Hall. But all online let me and work help connect you with great
technology and service providers at virtual H.R. Expo Dotcom. That's W w w dot virtual H.R. Expo dot com.

Ep 246: Accessibility Solutions for Employers

More Related Content

What's hot

Similar to Ep 246: Accessibility Solutions for Employers

More from Workology

Recently uploaded

Ep 246: Accessibility Solutions for Employers