The effort to educate the American public about issues relating to disability actually began in 1945 when congress enacted a law declaring the first week in October, each year, as National Employ the Physically Handicapped Week. In 1962 the “physically” was removed to acknowledge the employment needs and contributions of individuals with all types of disabilities. In 1988, Congress expanded the week to a month and changed the title to National Disability Employment Awareness Month.

To think that the effort to educate the public about hiring people with disabilities began 53 years ago, seems quite amazing today when the effort is still in full force. Currently, there are 58,731,081 people 16 and older in the United States that have some sort of disability. Out of this number only 32,790,775 are actually employed.

In this world of opportunity, as the numbers show, barriers still exist in many areas for people with disabilities; although, it has been proven many times over that the myths concerning people with disabilities as employees are just that - myths.

ECVC opened as a day activity center in 1965. Today ECVC operates as a not-for-profit self-sustained company with a social mission - “to help people with disabilities attain a higher quality of life through achievement of their vocational goals.”

Within the last fiscal year (2007-2008), 92 people were placed into competitive employment which was a 30% increase from the prior year. Why such a large increase within one year?
There are a couple of factors that influenced this: ECVC’s staff doing an excellent job and an evolving policy change, especially from large corporations, concerning the makeup of their workforce.

Realizing that the customer base today is extremely diversified, companies are striving to make their workforce mirror this diversity. This has been a very smart move not only to increase customer base but to tap into a groups that have been underutilized.

Over 40 companies in the surrounding area including Martin, Beaufort, Pitt and Craven Counties have hired or currently have employees from ECVC’s program. Some of the most common responses from these employers when questioned about their employees from ECVC’s program are, “He or she does an excellent job” or “he or she is always willing to help others finish their work when he or she is done.” I have been told by one supervisor that her employee would rather walk to work in bad weather than not show up if something happened to his transportation. One of the best comments is that the employer always wishes that “all of the other employees had the same work ethic as the person with disabilities.”

You hear it all the time, “good employees are hard to find.” That is a myth in itself if you are willing to look outside of the box at a person who has a disability. These clients or consumers of ECVC’s, if given a chance, could be the best thing that has happened to you and your business in a long time.