The Israeli Defense Force (IDF) Special intelligence Unit 9900 is specialized in everything linked to geography, including mapping, interpretation of aerial and satellite photographs, and space research. In this unit there's another, smaller unit of highly qualified soldiers who can detect even the smallest details-the ones usually undetectable to many people.
These soldiers all have one thing in common; they are on the autism spectrum. Their job is always to take visual materials from satellite images and sensors in the air. With the aid of officers and decoding tools, they analyze the images and find specific objects within the images which can be necessary to provide the most effective data to those planning missions. The IDF has also unearthed that soldiers with autism can focus for longer amounts of time than their neurotypical counterparts.
This story speaks to me personally. My son Trevor was diagnosed with autism at age five. The thing I knew about autism at the time was Dustin Hoffman's Rainman character. Raising a boy on the spectrum drastically changed my perspective on disability inclusion, seeing strengths through the challenges, and cultivating those strengths while accommodating the challenges. He's a grown man today, living on his own, working, paying his bills, saving money, and building relationships. His strengths outweigh his challenges.
The exact same reckoning along with his strengths and challenges can cause success with overseeing how an organization thrives, but how do you begin to ensure inclusion of disabled people's strength in the workplace at scale with at an organization level? It has to start at the board and C-suite level.
The Center for Disease Control and Prevention defines an impairment as "any condition of the body or mind (impairment) that makes it more difficult for anyone with the situation to complete certain activities (activity limitation) and talk with the world around them (participation restrictions)." An impairment can:
In 2018 Accenture published a highly skilled research report entitled Getting to Equal: The Disability Inclusion Advantage.A number of the statistics in the report are eye-opening:
The Disability Equality Index (DEI) is a joint project between the American Association of Individuals with Disabilities and Disability:IN (formerly referred to as the US Business Leadership Network). DEI's primary goal is to provide a benchmarking tool to greatly help companies assess disability inclusion policies and practices in six key areas:
VA disability rates
Organizations complete a survey (DEI estimates between 30-40 hours to complete), send it into DEI, and receive an objective score on their disability inclusion practices and opportunities for improvement. DEI puts respondents achieving 80 percent or better on their website, with companies like Accenture, Microsoft Corp., AT&T, The Walt Disney Co., Capital One Financial Corp., and Boeing Co. achieving a score of 100 percent. DEI has an advisory committee composed of corporate and nonprofit executives and advocates who advise on benchmarking topics and questions.
While it's a commitment to perform the survey, it provides an organization a sincere and introspective lens within their culture, policies, and practices on disability inclusion and is valuable to simply help identify areas where an organization needs to improve.
This isn't fluff stuff. The Accenture report notes several tangible outcomes of those organizations that embraced a disability inclusion culture.
These soldiers all have one thing in common; they are on the autism spectrum. Their job is always to take visual materials from satellite images and sensors in the air. With the aid of officers and decoding tools, they analyze the images and find specific objects within the images which can be necessary to provide the most effective data to those planning missions. The IDF has also unearthed that soldiers with autism can focus for longer amounts of time than their neurotypical counterparts.
This story speaks to me personally. My son Trevor was diagnosed with autism at age five. The thing I knew about autism at the time was Dustin Hoffman's Rainman character. Raising a boy on the spectrum drastically changed my perspective on disability inclusion, seeing strengths through the challenges, and cultivating those strengths while accommodating the challenges. He's a grown man today, living on his own, working, paying his bills, saving money, and building relationships. His strengths outweigh his challenges.
The exact same reckoning along with his strengths and challenges can cause success with overseeing how an organization thrives, but how do you begin to ensure inclusion of disabled people's strength in the workplace at scale with at an organization level? It has to start at the board and C-suite level.
The Center for Disease Control and Prevention defines an impairment as "any condition of the body or mind (impairment) that makes it more difficult for anyone with the situation to complete certain activities (activity limitation) and talk with the world around them (participation restrictions)." An impairment can:
In 2018 Accenture published a highly skilled research report entitled Getting to Equal: The Disability Inclusion Advantage.A number of the statistics in the report are eye-opening:
The Disability Equality Index (DEI) is a joint project between the American Association of Individuals with Disabilities and Disability:IN (formerly referred to as the US Business Leadership Network). DEI's primary goal is to provide a benchmarking tool to greatly help companies assess disability inclusion policies and practices in six key areas:
VA disability rates
Organizations complete a survey (DEI estimates between 30-40 hours to complete), send it into DEI, and receive an objective score on their disability inclusion practices and opportunities for improvement. DEI puts respondents achieving 80 percent or better on their website, with companies like Accenture, Microsoft Corp., AT&T, The Walt Disney Co., Capital One Financial Corp., and Boeing Co. achieving a score of 100 percent. DEI has an advisory committee composed of corporate and nonprofit executives and advocates who advise on benchmarking topics and questions.
While it's a commitment to perform the survey, it provides an organization a sincere and introspective lens within their culture, policies, and practices on disability inclusion and is valuable to simply help identify areas where an organization needs to improve.
This isn't fluff stuff. The Accenture report notes several tangible outcomes of those organizations that embraced a disability inclusion culture.
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