The following is a chart capturing some of the employer practices. It includes advantages and possible drawbacks as discussed in the session. This chart is not intended to endorse nor criticize any one practice, but to provide a picture of what was discussed. It can also be used to weigh/consider options.

Practice	Possible Advantages	Possible Drawbacks
Add the word "disability" to the employer's diversity statement	Immediately recognizes disability as an equally important diversity characteristic such as gender, age, race, etc It might be a good starting point to gain support for disability issues Diversity Council could endorse it	Does adding "disability" to a diversity statement result in progress or is it just lip service? Is it best to leave the listing of protected categories to an EEO statement? Should a diversity statement be different?
Share a handout on terminology regarding disabilities	Helps managers and employees find proper language to begin talking about disability. It creates comfort level. Contact Alan Muir @ COSD for handout	Could create further obstacles by adding political correctness to the issue
Voluntary Self-Identification	Allows employer to gain insight on possible demographics/numbers of employees with disabilities	Extremely important to abide by legal requirements on when and how self-identification process occurs. Consult your legal department Federal, State & Private sector all have different requirements regarding Self-ID. Make sure to understand your parameters
Ensuring offices, buildings, equipment is accessible. Building audits by professionals recommended	May prevent possible accessibility problems for employees & customers May prevent lawsuits Sends strong signal that employer welcomes people with disabilities	Certain problem areas can be expensive to fix Work closely with consultants and architecture/systems teams to select long-term solutions (short-term solutions may result in more cost)
Integrate issues of disability into existing processes. Instead of developing a disability office, ensure that all departments consider disability issues.	Avoids reinventing the wheel resulting in less expense· Avoids creating dual responsibility/accountability structures Creates sustainability	Takes time to educate each department (i.e.: Staffing/recruiting, facilities, real estate) Departments may not feel they need to champion these issues without decree from senior management
Generate an external business case	Impacts the bottom line thereby creating buy-in	Not every employer has easily identifiable external business case
Generate an internal business case	Can impact bottom line via employee ROI/retention Builds Employer of Choice reputation	From a short term perspective, it may be considered a cost which will result in possible resistance to implement
Networking Groups	Can become a resource to identify issues for employees with disabilities Can deliver messages to senior management regarding needs/support By using executives as sponsors, both the group and the executive can learn from each other Can become resource to building planners, facilities, etc	As in all networking groups, meetings need to be properly facilitated to ensure needs/ideas do not become demands/legal risks It's best if membership is open to all interested parties (disabled & non-disabled)

Practices to obtain Senior Management Buy-In for the hiring/retention of employees with disabilities.

Identify a champion within Senior Management/Board

• Ask the CEO to request senior managers to support it
• Facilitate a disability awareness session for the top 100 execs
• Ask members of senior management to sponsor an event/networking group
• Match up senior executives in mentoring program (National Disability Mentoring Day)
• If appropriate rapport exists, approach a member of senior management who has a disability to "influence" peers for support