Technology Breaking Down Barriers in Employment for the Disabled, says BMO
Role models are finally taking centre stage – The Honourable David C. Onley, Lieutenant Governor of Ontario, joins BMO Financial Group in recognizing United Nations’ International Day for Disabled Persons.

TORONTO, December 3, 2007 – On a day that the United Nations has set aside to highlight issues of equity and access for people of disabilities, BMO Financial Group told members of its own diversity councils that Canadian businesses and BMO in particular, are making encouraging strides towards building inclusive workplaces for people with disabilities.

The Diversity Councils of BMO Capital Markets and BMO Private Client Group gathered in the bank’s Head Office tower in Toronto today to hear The Honourable David C. Onley, Lieutenant Governor of Ontario deliver a keynote address and to view an impressive demonstration of adaptive technology which accommodates people with disabilities in the company’s workplaces

His Honour’s remarks were webcast live, with captions, to all employees of BMO and captioned by American Sign Language interpreters and a note-taker at the event.

The Honourable David Onley, Ontario’s 28^th Lieutenant Governor, was welcomed as an important role model and an important symbol of who Ontarians are as a community. “A few years ago, we would not have seen someone with a visible disability as the representative of the crown, “said April Taggart, Senior Vice-President, Talent Management and Diversity. “Now, young people with disabilities in Ontario, through the Lieutenant Governor, can say ‘It’s not impossible for me to be on TV, to be a journalist, or to one day become the Lieutenant Governor…The future just became more accessible!”

“International Day for Disabled Persons invites us to reflect on the unfortunate reality that, in many parts of the world, disability remains a barrier to many of the things we take for granted here in Canada. Some countries do not have the economic capacity to address accessibility as a pressing human rights issue,” she said.

“At BMO Financial Group we have made significant progress towards making our working places more accessible,” said Ms. Taggart, who cited several examples of technologies, workplace accommodations and bank initiatives that have not only opened the doors to opportunities for people with disabilities, but have helped individuals personally succeed and contribute to the bank’s overall success.

• JAWS – A screen reading program that assists the blind and visually impaired to read, write, send email and perform a host of other computer activities is one example of workplace accommodation. This technology has opened up educational and employment opportunities that were previously inaccessible and JAWS is available in a variety of languages.. – “We have a sense that blindness is total darkness when, in effect, it is not always that ; there are degrees of vision,” – April Taggart
• TTY/TTD Machines – a telephone device for the deaf, deafened and hard of hearing that assists communication with customers, colleagues, and other stakeholders – “We employ deaf employees in a variety of roles in the bank – including financial services roles with customer interface. We are seeing these technologies being used successfully throughout the organization.” – April Taggart

“In 1992, within our own community at BMO, we embarked on a Task Force on the Employment of People with Disabilities to examine myths and barriers about disability and employment that existed in the workplace. We have been able to successfully dispel and dismiss these myths,” said Ms. Taggart. “For example one common myth was that people with disabilities took a disproportionate amount of sick time. Experientially, this has proven not to be the case. Moreover technology is creating more and more opportunities that simply were not there before.”

• Learning disabilities: At the time that BMO’s Task Force Report on the Employment of People with Disabilities was written in 1992 there were very few ways to accommodate the learning disabled in the workplace. Now BMO uses tools such as Kurzweil, a reading technology for learning disabilities that allows the learning disabled to be employed effectively, since learning disabilities are absolutely no reflection upon intelligence. In fact, BMO has employees with learning disabilities working very successfully in investment roles. A number of years ago they simply weren’t there because technology did not support them.
• Myths:
1. Accommodating special needs cost too much – BMO has learned that this is not the case and that many disabilities can be accommodated at reasonable cost.
2. There has been a longstanding belief that people with disabilities will hurt profitability when, in fact, they have increased profitability.