Walgreens puts high priority on hiring people with disabilities
February 12th, 2008
Son with autism inspired executive to set up employment opportunity
ABC World News visits the Walgreens distribution center in Anderson, S.C., where more than 40 percent of the 700 workers have disabilities. The plant is more productive than the company’s other facilities.
“I hope that from my work and from this program, I’m showing that disability or not, we all have potential. We all have value,” said job recruiter Angela Mackey, who has cerebral palsy.
… Though the job market continues to be a bright spot in an otherwise troubled economy, with the unemployment rate still just 4.7 percent, the national unemployment rate for disabled Americans is more than 44 percent. Almost two decades after the first President Bush signed the Americans with Disabilities Act into law, disabled Americans continue to face enormous barriers in the workplace. But in this building, abled and disabled workers do many of the same jobs and earn the same pay.
… The program is giving many jobs and financial independence to people, sometimes for the first time in their lives. And Walgreen’s executive Randy Lewis makes it clear that the disabled people are eager and capable.
“This building is not about charity. It’s about opportunity.” he said. “These folks that work out here perform just as well as anybody at their job.”
The story links to:
- Start on Success, an introductory job training and internship program for high school students with physical, mental or sensory disabilities, sponsored by the National Organization on Disability; and
- Disabilityinfo.gov, a source of disability-related information provided by the federal government.
See video of earlier NBC report on the Walgreen program; earlier post here.
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February 21st, 2008 at 8:39 am
Walgreen’s is truly making a difference in people’s lives. Angie is one of my best friends, and has been for the last 22 years. I saw her struggle after graduating with her Masters degree (4.0 GPA, by the way!) to find appropriate work, at a real and honest wage fitting her experience and education. So many employers think that if someone has a disability -physical, mental, or emotional- that they are somehow less desirable than a so-called able-bodied employee. I can only hope that through the example Walgreen’s -and Angie through her instrumental work there- herald the winds of change across corporate America.