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Split into two separate businesses in 1993, Marriott is now run by the two sons of founder J. Willard Marriott. John Willard Marriott Jr. is chairman of Marriott International, the hotel manager and franchiser. Richard Marriott is chairman of Host Marriott Corp., the hotel owner and service provider. Richard Marriott is also chairman of the Marriott Foundation for People with Disabilities. Recently, I sat down with Richard Marriott to discuss his company's philosophy and record. Here are excerpts from our conversation: Q: Why is Marriott involved in helping disabled people get jobs? A: It simply makes good business sense to hire the best qualified individual for a position, regardless of other characteristics they may possess. By focusing on what individuals can do rather than on their limitations, one is able to effectively and appropriately match the person to the job. Diversity is valued and respected at Marriott as a critical element in building the strongest possible workforce, the company's lifeblood. The importance of this is even more striking given the tight labor market we currently face. But well beyond this immediate challenge, our experience has clearly demonstrated that people with disabilities can and must be valuable and productive members of our workforce. Q: How is Marrriott involved in hiring disabled people? A: We feel the most positive way for people with disabilities to join our company is through the open doors of regular recruitment and employment processes. The company has been involved in many, many partnerships with organizations which assist people with disabilities to enter the workforce. You'd be hard pressed to find a Marriott operation that doesn't have some kind of local linkage with a community-based organization working with people with disabilities. In 1989, my family and I established the Marriott Foundation for People with Disabilities and its signature program, "Bridges...from school to work." With a mission to enhance employment opportunities for youth with disabilities, Bridges works to link young people leaving high school special education programs with local businesses through competitive job placements. [By] matching the young persons' interests and abilities with the employers needs, the result is usually a "win-win." The young adult gains valuable work experience and entry to additional vocational opportunity, while employers get access to a valuable, but often overlooked, source of applicants. Q: Where are these programs? A: The Foundation currently operates Bridges programs in Atlanta, Chicago, Los Angeles, San Francisco, and the Washington, D.C., area [Montgomery County, Md., and the District of Columbia]. We will be launching another Bridges initiative in Philadelphia this fall. Q: Why did Marriott start the foundation? A: It was, and is, our sense that the seeds for much of the unemployment among adults with disabilities are sown as individuals leave high school. For far too many young people with disabilities, particularly those in our urban centers, their options are limited or nonexistent. We felt that if we could help those individuals at that critical juncture, help them successfully transition from school to productive employment, we could have a real impact on their long-term prospects for vocational success. We've been able to work with almost 5,000 young people since the program was established 10 years ago. Q: How does assistive technology play a role? A: To the degree that assistive technology is a critical element in any successful employment situation, the Bridges program avails itself of that technology. The wonders of assistive technology in the workplace aren't unique to the employment of a person with a disability. All of us use such technology, from voice mail to ergonomically designed tools or furniture to fax machines to workplace lighting, to do our jobs every day. Moreover, most assistive technology specific to the accommodation of a disability is quite low-tech and inexpensive. Too often the concepts of accommodation and the use of assistive technology are viewed as complicated, expensive, and unique to people with disabilities. Those assumptions can become further barriers to employment for such people. Q. How do you use assistive technology in your Bridges program? A. All of the young people we work with use some form of assistive technology on the job, just as we all do. In terms of assistance specific to their disability, there is the occasional example of a fairly high-tech application: software to create enlarged text on a computer screen for someone with a sight impairment or a voice synthesizer for an individual with impaired speech. One of the wonderful aspects of the technology revolution is the way in which it continues to open doors for those individuals who haven't previously been able to fully participate in the mainstream. The great majority of the accommodations we use, however, are quite low-tech. Most, in fact, have more to do with the creative application of common sense and ingenuity than they do with cutting edge technology. Let me give you a few examples: The development of a small photo album to help guide a young person unable to process written instructions or to retain an extended set of directions from home to work. Any time they get stuck in the travel process they can open the album to a picture of themselves walking north on Main Street, or boarding the Number 32 bus, or getting off at a specific stop. The use of a plastic child's hoe by an individual who doesn't have the physical size to reach items as they come down a check-out conveyor belt, but is otherwise well suited for the position of cashier/customer service. The creation, on an ad hoc basis, of simple signs and gestures to aid communication between an employee who is deaf and co-workers. The use of wooden blocks to raise a work station by three inches so a wheel chair can fit under the desk top. While not particularly exciting, these examples are, in our experience, far more typical of accommodations needed in the workplace than the high tech, Star Wars kind of intervention. And that suggests a critical message for employers: employing someone with a disability is not that big a deal. Q: What companies have been active participants in the Bridges program? A: Approximately 1,200 employers have participated in the program. That's a diverse representation of the overall labor market. Many of those employers are small local businesses -- barber shops, day care centers, corner drug stores, even a funeral home. But many national and international firms are important partners in Bridges as well. They include Bank of America, United Parcel Service, Gap, Epson Computer, Blockbuster Video, Chevron, and many, many more. What they all have in common is a recognition of the potential in youth with disabilities to benefit their company, and a willingness to work with those young people to unlock that potential. Q. How does Marriott spread the word to other employers on Bridges' success? A. Our Web site --- www.marriottfoundation.org -- is a comprehensive source of background information. Our local efforts also include a Business Advisory Council (BAC) in each of our five markets. Q. Are any Bridges trainees [youth] working for Marriott? A: Yes, although because our efforts are primarily externally focused, it is a small minority of Bridges youth who actually work for Marriott. Most of our Marriott operations already have some type of initiative built around employing people with disabilities and so our work with Bridges is directed primarily at non-Marriott employers. Q: What has been Marriott's experience in working with disabled people? Is it rare that a large corporation would do what you do? A: Our corporate experience has been very positive. Without a strong, committed workforce at every level of the organization, Marriott wouldn't be where it is today. That kind of workforce isn't developed or maintained without accessing every conceivable source of applicants and that certainly includes people with disabilities. The resulting diverse and talented team of associates is key to providing the kind of customer service that makes us successful. It's not so unusual for large, successful corporations to do the kinds of things we do. It just makes good business sense." Q: Often people become involved in helping people with disabilities because a family member has a disability. Is there someone in the Marriott family who has a disability? A: Our involvement is motivated entirely by an interest in making our company, our communities, and our country stronger and more productive. It is our sense that until all of our citizens are fully involved and contributing we will have fallen short in this effort. Q: What does Marriott see as the future of disabled people in the workplace and for Marriott? A: We believe the future is bright in the workplace for people with disabilities. As a group, and as individuals, they have so much to offer that it's hard to imagine that opportunities for them won't continue to grow. That having been said, we have a long way to go. A quick look at the unemployment statistics for this group over the last 15 years make that clear. We must all continue to work hard to assure that the opportunities afforded people with disabilities allow them to be stretched and challenged; to demonstrate just how much they have to offer. My hope is that we will continue to move toward a time when no one is viewed in the context of their limitations, but when all are appreciated for their promise and their performance. Share your opinion of Bowe's new book on BW Online's Assistive Tech Forum. Or, if you have a question about assistive technology, write to John at JMMAW@aol.com EDITED BY DOUGLAS HARBRECHT |
