Businesses seek to expand opportunities for disabled workers

NEW YORK – Many small business owners are open to hiring or want to recruit employees who have disabilities.

Sometimes it’s because they want to expand the opportunities for people who have talent and skills but can’t find jobs.

The unemployment rate for people with disabilities who want to be hired is 8 per cent, more than twice the national average.

Miles Thornback got hired three years ago at the RE/MAX Prestige real estate agency in Costa Mesa, California. The owners heard that Thornback, who has cerebral palsy, had spent six years applying for jobs at hundreds of companies and finding nothing but negative mindsets.

Business owners do need to make reasonable accommodations if employees need help balancing their work and their personal or medical needs.