For Microsoft, accessibility technology could be a future tool to attract aging Baby Boomers who are losing their hearing or vision. IBM has similar contact with consumers. For Cisco, the rationale behind its move to include the disabled, although smart business, is less obvious. Part of Cisco's drive likely has come from CEO Chambers, who himself is dyslexic. And under Section 508 of the Americans with Disabilities Act, companies bear a legal responsibility to ensure that their hiring practices and workplaces are accessible to the disabled.
Cisco sees that as an opportunity.
Companies will have to employ more disabled people to meet the accessibility requirements of 508. That remains unclear, as the company declines to divulge how many disabled people it employs. Numbers of disabled employees in the tech sector as a whole are likewise murky, but possibly in the thousands. Project Hired's Kuczler says, though, that she regularly places workers with Cisco. Thus far, the company has failed to promote anyone with disabilities into the very top executive ranks.