Disabled In The Advertising Business

Many of you know that I was struck by a taxi in 2015. I am recovering, albeit slowly.  I am lucky enough to be a recruiter so that I can continue to work.  But it has left me wondering where disabled people are in the advertising business.   

The ad business is struggling with diversity.  Some agencies have added executives whose entire job it is to find and hire people of ethnicity and color.  That is great, but there is another group of people who are simply not represented in advertising.  

The disabled. 

I have seen estimates that senior citizens, over 65, have a rate of impairment of about 30%; that includes people who must use walkers, wheelchairs or have other debilitating issues.  However, surely there is a high percentage of people of working age who are fully able to work but are confined to a wheelchair; I am sure many of these people have brilliant minds.  I am also sure that Stephen Hawking would not be hired by an advertising agency.

Being disabled does not mean unable to work.  It means, simply, that a person has some sort of impairment.  In many cases, it simply means being confined to a wheelchair, but that has nothing to do with willingness or ability to work in any situation. I realize, looking back, I have almost never seen anyone confined to a wheelchair who is actively working and employed in advertising. Certainly none are senior executives.

The late, great Harold Levine (Levine, Huntly, Schmidt and Beaver) spent ten years of his retirement and his own money going around the country trying to recruit people of color into the advertising business.  He concluded it was a fool’s errand because ad agencies simply didn’t pay enough to attract the best and the brightest grad students. (While ad agencies pay entry level MBA’s about $40m per year, companies are paying twice that and law firms are paying well into the $100’s for the best students.)

The disabled are not included.  But it is my observation is that there are thousands of talented but wheelchair bound people who would be delighted to work in advertising.  And they would be thankful for whatever they are paid.