HIRING THE HANDICAPPED: A Matter of Good Business

HIRING THE HANDICAPPED

To keep pace with the expanding demands of consumers, U.S. industry needs a steadily increasing stream of skilled and productive workers. One great manpower pool that many businessmen have neglected is handicapped workers. In 1954, according to the American Federation of the Physically Handicapped, there were 7,000,000 Americans of working age who were severely handicapped—by blindness, the loss of a limb, by tuberculosis, epilepsy, or some other crippling disease. Of the total, only a relative few were permanently employed. But the estimates are that some 4,000,000 can eventually be rehabilitated and gainfully employed. Not only would rehabilitation lead them into happier lives, but with the increasing complexity of such U.S. industries as electronics and aviation, handicapped people can actually perform many skilled and delicate jobs better than able-bodied workers.

∙