"Shame On You!"

None by KCPW

Tough Ads Target Employers Who Discriminate

(KCPW News) Utah's remarkably low unemployment rate of 2 and a half percent isn't helping the state's disabled population. Among Utahns with disabilities, the rate is closer to seventy percent - a fact Governor Jon Huntsman Junior calls quote "unacceptable."

But to Ken Reed, who uses a wheelchair, it's reality. He was once passed over for a job because the other candidate "was able to jump out of a car more quickly."

"It took me maybe a couple minutes more to do the same thing, but I would still be able to do the same job just as well," says Reed.

Huntsman today unveiled a hard-hitting ad campaign intended to shame employers who have passed over a person with disabilities, despite their excellent qualifications.

Huntsman says Utah businesses will need to tap the pool of workers with disabilities if they hope to survive an impending worker shortage that could reach 10-million nationwide.

Reed is convinced that in virtually every employment situation, a person with disabilities would be perfectly able to perform. He works with the Utah Center for Assistive Technology helping businesses accommodate a disabled employee. Reed says the cost is surprisingly small - usually around 500 dollars.

The ad campaign urging people to hire based on ability, not disability, will run statewide beginning next week, at a state cost of about 20-thousand dollars.

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