People
With Disabilities are the Next Consumer Niche
Companies See a Market Ripe for All-Terrain Wheelchairs, Computers With
‘Sticky Keys’
By JOSHUA HARRIS PRAGER
Staff Reporter of the WALL STREET JOURNAL
Wednesday, December 15, 1999
Handicapitalism.
It’s a brand-new term that describes what’s behind a dawning
realization in business: People with disabilities shouldn’t be viewed as charity
cases or regulatory burdens, but rather as profitable marketing targets. Now,
mainstream companies, from financial services to cell phone makers, are going
beyond what’s mandated by law and rapidly tailoring products to attract them.
A new training video from Norwest Mortgage Inc., a unit of Wells Fargo
& Co. in Des Moines, Iowa, details a number of products it offers, including
vehicle-conversion loans and home-modification loans especially for the disabled. The
video, a call to arms for its sales force, offers a stark rationale: "Fact: People
with disabilities have money!"
In 1995, according to the latest available census figures, there were
about 48.5 million people 15 and older with disabilities in the U.S., with annual
discretionary Income totaling $175 billion. With last month’s passing of the Work
Incentives Improvement Act, a bill expected to funnel tens of thousands of disabled people
into the work force, their purchasing power will only grow.
Already, businesses are becoming more direct in their appeals.
"We’ve been called gimp, cripple, and our new favorite, retard," begins an
ad heralding the recent launch of wemedia.com, an Internet portal that posts
wheelchair-accessible real-estate listings and links to employment services that
specialize in placing job seekers with disabilities. "You can start calling us
Mr. and Mrs. $1 trillion in consolidated buying power."
"If this were charity, I wouldn’t bother," says Cary
Fields, president and chief executive officer of Wemedia, whose corporate partners Include
HotJobs.com Ltd., a job-search site. "These people are here," he adds. "If
you want their money, go deal with them."
More companies are raising their profiles among people with
disabilities, Johnson & Johnson sponsored a few sessions at last year’s annual
convention of the Society for Disability Studies. Earlier this year, the company launched
lndependence Technology, a unit that will produce and market products for people with
disabilities. Johnson & Johnson has invested more than $100 million In the company,
whose first product is the IBOT Transporter, an all-terrain wheelchair.
DalmlerChrysler AG’s Dodge brand and Barnes & Noble Inc. have
agreed to sponsor Adapti.com, another one-stop shop for the disability community, launched
last month. And, in the past year, more than 100 companies including Nike Inc., Pfizer
Inc. and portal site Snap.com have aired commercials featuring people with disabilities,
according to Advertising Age magazine.
Some of the activity has been spurred by federal regulations. In November 1998, Olli
Kallasvuo, chief financial officer of Nokia Corp., sent a letter to employees about the
Telecommunications Act of 1996, which mandated that companies in the U.S. ramp up
access to technology for people with disabilities. Passage of this law presents a
tremendous opportunity for Nokia," he wrote. "Enhancing our accessible product
line . . . offers Nokia the opportunity to reach a developing global market of almost 750
million people with disabilities."
For people with hearing problems. Nokia sells phones that flash or
vibrate. It also offers a loopset," a wire with a microphone in it that hangs around
a person’s neck and plugs into a hearing aid.
More companies are forming in-house disability teams. Last year, for
example, Microsoft Corp. created its Accessibility and Disabilities Group, with more than
40 researchers, marketers and product developers. The group has engineered such products
as a mouse that is less sensitive to tremors. For people who can’t press several keys
at once. Microsoft makes "sticky keys" configured to hit control, alt and
delete keys, say, with a single stroke.
Accessibility enhancements can be as simple as varying colors. People
with vision problems, for instance, are aided by contrasts. "The cost of white
plastic is the same as gray plastic," says Jim Tobias, president of Inclusive
Technologies, consultants on technology and disability, in Matawan, N.J. "And a few
more million people will be able to use it."
Several years ago, Bell Atlantic Corp. launched an in-house
market research project on people with disabilities. The company determined that the
market was ripe for such assistive devices as light-flashing caller-ID and voice mail that
alerts people to take their medicine.
Last year, Bob Baublitz, Bell Atlantic’s first manager of
marketing to the disability community, led the launch of an accessibility Web site touting
Bell Atlantic’s disability-friendly products. Earlier this year, Bell Atlantic
advertised its services in three disability-oriented magazines.
Bell Atlantic won’t disclose its sales figures but says the
products are selling well. "They’re just scooping them up," says Marilyn
Benoit, manager of Bell Atlantic’s center for customers with disabilities.
"This was a very good business decision."
Indeed, handicapitalism (a term that Johnnie Tuitel, a lecturer with a
disability, is seeking to trademark) has nothing to do with regulatory change or the
landmark Americans With Disabilities Act, passed In 1990. That law, which mandated that
companies treat people with disabilities in an evenhanded way and make "reasonable
accommodations," prompted companies to install wheelchair ramps for workers and hire
interpreters for deaf employees, among other things.
Still, pinpointing what is considered legally "reasonable"
remains tricky. Last month, the National Federation of the Blind sued America Online Inc.,
alleging that it violated the federal disabilities law by being inaccessible to
blind users. The Baltimore group’s complaint charged that AOL’s software
doesn’t work with computer programs that dictate text and otherwise help blind people
operate applications and Web sites.
"It would be more productive to everyone if we could deal with
this as a technology issue and not a legal issue," says Tricia Primrose, an AOL
spokeswoman. She says that the next version of AOL’s software will be
screen-reader-compatible and so accessible to people with visual impairments.
Other advocates for the disability community say they prefer products and services
to be spurred by profit potential, not by compliance. And targeting people with
disabilities for purely altruistic reasons "isn’t going to get the return on
investment," says Cheryl Duke, president of W.C. Duke Associates Inc. a
disability-consulting firm in Woodford, Va. "If you do it because it’s a
moneymaking project, it will continue."
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America's Largest Untapped Market:
who they are, the potential they represent
By: Patricia Digh, RealWork
FORTUNE magazine, March 1998
People with disabilities want to work for you, and
they want to buy your products. With skilled and loyal employees at a premium and
traditional market growth slowing, can you afford to ignore or stereotype them?
A vault in Kansas City, Missouri, contains every
Hallmark greeting card ever printed, neatly organized in chronological order, providing a
history of social change. Only recently has the climate-controlled room held cards for
people with disabilities. Increasingly, corporate America is looking to the market that
Hallmark discovered-as individuals, consumers, and valued employees.
The Market
Stevie Wonder wants companies to "advance the
world through their vision." He's doing his share by partnering with SAP America to
launch the SAP/Stevie Wonder Vision Awards designed to increase employment for people with
vision impairments. He also wants to separate fact from fiction about people with
disabilities. And the facts are compelling. Stevie Wonder is one of 859 million people
worldwide who have a disability. There are 54 million people with disabilities in the U.S.
alone, making them the single largest minority group in America.
They aren't just disabled-they're CEOs, secretaries,
scientists, artists, parents, children-all consumers in a market any one of us could
belong to overnight. And they don't just buy wheelchairs and TTY devices. They also buy
cars, houses, stocks, and toothpaste. It's estimated that the aggregate income of people
with disabilities, now at $796 billion, will exceed $1 trillion by the year 2001. Even
though their unemployment remains high, their discretionary income stands at $176 billion.
That's a lot of toothpaste.
Of the millions of people limited in their
activities due to long-term disability, 73% are the head of household, 48% are principal
shoppers, 46% are married, 77% have no children in the household (boosting their
disposable income and free time for travel and leisure activities), and 58% own their own
homes, according to Simmons Market Research Bureau. They spent $81.7 billion on travel in
1995, excluding the expenditures of their families, friends, and escorts, says the Society
for the Advancement of Travel for the Handicapped. The Hertz Corporation, tapping this
market, began offering assistance to travelers with disabilities as early as 1965.
It is estimated that at least one-half of all
nondisabled adults have a disabled spouse, child, parent, or friend. One in every five
houses in America has a person with a disability in it. Companies marketing to people with
disabilities can reach as many as four in every 10 consumers. Corporate America can't
afford to ignore or stereotype this market.
These trends will provide the greatest fuel for
continued expansion of this consumer market:
- People with disabilities will work in greater
numbers, in part because of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). Between 1991 and
1994, the number of disabled Americans employed increased by more than 1.1 million,
according to the Census Bureau. Employment rates for young adults with severe disabilities
is triple that of their older counterparts.
- Education rates for people with disabilities are
increasing: 75% of them finished high school in 1994, up from 60% in 1986; their college
enrollment leapt from 29% to 44%.
- Technological advances are eliminating many of the
physical and informational barriers that have long existed for people with disabilities.
- Public awareness of disability issues is growing and
changing.
- America's population is aging, and disability
increases with age. The number of Americans aged 65 and older is projected to increase
135% between 1995 and 2050, according to the Census Bureau.
- People with disabilities are coalescing as an
economic and social power. In 1994, for the first time, a majority of people with
disabilities said they felt a strong sense of identity with other people with
disabilities, according to the National Organization on Disability/Harris Survey on
Americans with Disabilities.
- Cause-related marketing is increasingly effective.
Customer demands are higher than ever that corporations "stand for something."
Fifty-six percent of Americans said they shopped during the 1997 holiday season at
retailers associated with a cause.
Awareness and Brand Loyalty
"It's difficult for a company to constantly
innovate," says Carol Cone, CEO of Boston-based Cone Communications, a strategic
communications firm. "True product or service differentiation is tough. Consumers are
asking for added value. They're saying to corporate America, 'let me know who you are and
what you stand for.' In a world with so much choice, consumers are seeking companies that
look like them and are aligned with their values."
Studies by the 1996 Atlanta Paralympic Games
Committee indicated that even individuals who don't have disabilities-and don't live with
those who do-exhibit strong brand loyalty toward products affiliated with
disability-related causes. Cone remembers Dunkin' Donuts sponsoring signing for hearing
impaired guests at a business function. They got "instant recognition," she
says, "as a company that cares about this special population." To reap the
benefits of cause-related marketing, there must be a good "fit," says Cone, a
logical relationship between the company, its values, customer, community, employee, and
cause.
Three in four adults say they would be likely to
switch to a brand associated with a good cause, according to a 1997 study by Roper Starch
Worldwide for Cone Communications. That's up from 66% just three years ago and is even
more significant since consumer loyalty in general has fallen off. U.S. corporations now
lose half of their customers in five years, half of their employees in four years, and
half of their investors in a matter of months, according to Fred Reichheld, author of The
Loyalty Effect and a director of Boston-based Bain and Company, Inc.
A Boom Waiting to Happen
Unlike other minority markets being tapped by
corporate America, this one is undervalued and misunderstood, a boom waiting to happen in
a competitive environment where population growth and traditional market growth are
slowing. According to Ken Smikle, publisher of Chicago-based Target Marketing News, who
has tracked the buying power of black America for years, "the ones first in the
market catch the gold."
Companies have made fortunes targeting new and
emerging markets. But never before have American corporations begun to so vividly focused
their attention-their "inner vision" as Stevie Wonder says-on people with
disabilities. As early as 1986, McDonald's aired a commercial showing two teens talking
about Big Macs in sign language. In 1990, Citibank aired an ad starring a woman speaking
in sign language. A Kellogg's Corn Flakes commercial in 1993 was virtually silent, with
sign language and text subtitles. These commercials were as memorable to their nondisabled
audiences as they were to viewers with hearing impairments.
In a survey by the National Captioning Institute,
57% of hearing-impaired people said they were more likely to buy a product advertised in a
captioned commercial. Closed-caption viewers, they found, purchase the same products as
the general audience, but exhibit unusual brand loyalty. Seventy-eight percent nearly
always notice the funding credit that appears at the beginning of a closed-captioned
program; 53% make a special effort to purchase products from companies that underwrite
program captioning, and 38% actually change brands as a result of an advertiser's support.
Companies have begun to recognize the enormous appeal and impact that this inexpensive
accommodation can have on the millions of Americans who are deaf or hearing impaired.
The 1988 DuPont commercial featuring Bill Demby
playing basketball with artificial feet made a lasting impression, not only on the
quarter-million amputees in the U.S.-a number that grows by 60,000 to 70,000 every
year-but also on nondisabled viewers. Toys "R" Us Vice Chairman and CEO Michael
Goldstein says that his company's catalog for disabled children "is something that
our customers love, whether or not they have a child with a disability. It's good for our
business because it improves how we stand with all our customers." In fact, research
conducted by the Atlanta Paralympic Games Committee revealed that 52% of all households
pay more attention to advertising that features people with disabilities.
From Pictures to Paychecks
Consumers increasingly look beyond advertising to
question the deeper commitment of the company to people with disabilities. When he
travels, Urban Miyares likes to stay in Marriott Hotels, not because of their ad campaigns
but "because they hire people with disabilities," he says. Miyares is president
of the San Diego-based Disabled Businesspersons Association. His perception is
correct-Marriott consistently supports the inclusion and employment of people with
disabilities. The Marriott Foundation for People with Disabilities facilitates the
employment of young people with disabilities; 87% of the students they've placed with over
900 employers have been offered continued employment, says Mark Donovan, executive
director of the program.
According to Niki Archambeau, senior director of
diversity at Merck, "we value a productive workplace that is agile-not in physical
terms, but able to respond quickly in a changing marketplace. We need people who are
multitalented and an environment that lets all employees contribute to their maximum
potential. There is talent out there that we need to attract and retain," she says.
At UNUM Life Insurance Company of America, a unique three-day program, "A Day in the
Life," ensures that all UNUM employees-from the president down-learn about disability
issues firsthand.
There is heightened demand for qualified personnel
in corporate America. Business solutions may be right in front of us: 74% of people with
severe disabilities are unemployed; 70% of people who are blind and visually impaired are
under- or unemployed. Among people with non-severe disabilities, unemployment hovers
around 23%. Increasing numbers of these people believe they can work and say they want to
work.
NationsBank, headquartered in Charlotte, NC, puts
its money where its mouth is. The bank has earmarked $100,000 in scholarships for students
with disabilities, and it hires scholarship recipients as interns after they graduate. A
corporate budget of $250,000 is in place, says Sandy Spoonemore, manager of corporate
resources for the disabled, to ensure that managers have what they need to hire and
eliminate barriers for people with disabilities.
The nation's largest employer with over 800,000
employees annually, Manpower, Inc. uses a "funnel approach" to skills testing,
focusing on what job candidates can do, not what they can't do. The company's proven
ability to accommodate and maximize the potential of people with disabilities is the focus
of a landmark nationwide study being conducted by Peter Blanck, professor of law and
medicine at the University of Iowa and member of the President's Committee on Employment
of People with Disabilities, on whether the staffing industry can play a key role in
transitioning people with disabilities into the workplace.
Hiring Employees with Disabilities
The passage of the ADA in 1990, outlawing
discrimination against people with disabilities, was a turning point. Companies moving
into compliance quickly learned that the benefits of hiring workers with disabilities far
outweighed the costs. Many of the participants in Pizza Hut, Inc.'s Jobs Plus™
Program are people with mental retardation. Their turnover rate is only 20%, compared to a
150% turnover rate among nondisabled employees. After Carolina Fine Snacks in Greensboro,
NC, started hiring people with disabilities in 1988, absenteeism dropped from 20% to less
than 5%; and tardiness dropped from 30% of staff to zero.
The cost of accommodating workers with disabilities
is not nearly as burdensome as some employers fear, either. Almost 70% of people with
disabilities say they don't need any special equipment to perform their jobs.
Accommodations that are needed cost an average of $45 and almost 75% cost nothing, notes
Blanck. "The cost of accommodating qualified workers with disabilities is forty times
less than the cost of training and replacing workers," he says.
The Role of Technology
By the year 2000, it's estimated that 95% of jobs in
the U.S. will require workers familiar with computers and other information-processing
technologies, advancements that are key to the greater inclusion of people with
disabilities in the workplace. High tech companies lead the way in providing Internet and
World Wide Web access for people with disabilities. Microsoft Corporation will launch an
"accessibility wizard" with Windows '98 to help users find all the accessibility
options of their products. "We have an obligation to our users," says
accessibility product manager Luanne LaLonde, "and we also have a responsibility to
the industry."
Apple Computer's Worldwide Disability Solutions
Group has worked with partners worldwide since 1985 to ensure that people with
disabilities aren't overlooked in the computer revolution. The World Wide Web Consortium
(W3C) recently launched an effort to achieve Web functionality for people with
disabilities. IBM's recent launch of ViaVoice software that allows users to talk to their
computers in normal conversational tones is but one sign of the world that is opening up
for people with disabilities-and their employers.
Telecommuting offers even greater opportunities for
people with disabilities to enter the workforce. "The last barrier to telecommuting
is not the technology," says Burke Stinson, senior public relations director for
AT&T. Rather, he says, "it is managerial attitudes about people working from
home."
Our Graying Population
With age comes a greater chance of disability-and
we're all living longer. Though the elderly are just 12% of the population, they comprise
34% of those with a disability and 43% of persons with a severe disability, according to
the Census Bureau. In the next ten years, the number of Americans over 50 will increase by
40%. With age also comes the highest income, greatest wealth, and most discretionary time.
American Demographics reports that the one quarter of Americans who are 50 or older
control one half of the nation's buying power and three-fourths of its assets,
representing $150 billion in annual discretionary income, and billions more for
necessities like housing and food.
Toward Universal Design
Many products geared toward the disability market
are now finding wider, and more imaginative, application. The Reader's Digest Large
Edition for Easier Reading is useful not only to people with vision impairments, says
spokesperson Lesta Cordil, but also to a much larger market-it helps 30 million people
learning English as a second language, 12 million children learning to read, and 27
million adults with literacy problems. General Motor Corporation's Paragon Project
explores ease of entry into vehicles, user controls, and legibility of icons, among other
items. Improvements in these areas not only benefit people with disabilities, but the
public as a whole.
Economic IEconomic Impact
Hiring people with disabilities makes good economic
sense for the nation, as well as the individual employer. "More than $109 billion
annually goes to support people with disabilities who are unemployed," says Blanck.
If only one million more people with disabilities found work, there would be an annual
increase of as much as $21.2 billion in earned income. There would be annual decreases of
$1.2 billion in means-tested cash income payments; $286 million in Food Stamps; and $1.8
billion in Supplemental Security Income payments; 284,000 people fewer people would be
using Medicaid, and 166,000 fewer would be using Medicare, according to a report by
Rutgers University labor economist Douglas L. Kruse.
Roll a Roll a Mile in my
Chair
Only 15% of people with disabilities in the U.S.
were born with them. One in six Americans will be disabled sometime in their lives. And as
compelling as such statistics are, it's when nondisabled people experience disability
themselves-whether short- or long-term-that they "get it," understanding not
only the potential and rights of people with disabilities, but also the challenges and
frustrations of living and working in a world that creates barriers for them.
Arthur "Arte" Nathan, vice president of
human resources for the Mirage Resorts in Las Vegas, must be doing a lot of things right.
The Mirage had already ranked second on FORTUNE's Most Admired Companies list. But it
wasn't until Nathan severely tore his Achilles tendon and relied on a motorized cart for transportation that he
experienced first-hand what it was like for wheelchair users to visit the Mirage.
"There were places in the hotel I just couldn't get to." says Nathan. "We changed that."
Experiences like Nathan's can and do alert
executives to the fact that they need to provide opportunities-and eliminate barriers-for
people with disabilities. Other companies have found their way to good business practices
by more philosophical routes. AT&T spokesman Stinson echoes their sentiments:
"We're grateful for the acknowledgment we've received for employing people with
disabilities, but there are miles to go before business is where it should be."
Smart companies already know that
one key to better bottom-line performance is empowering workers to do their best for the
organization. Another is making it easy for customers to buy and use their products.
That's why eliminating barriers for employees and customers fits solidly into every
forward-looking business plan. As Stevie Wonder put it, "The more you make people
independent, the more money you can make-and that benefits everyone."
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