Saluting National Disability Employment Awareness Month

This month, Marriott International is observing National Disability Employment Awareness Month (NDEAM) -- a time to recognize the many workplace contributions of people with disabilities.

This year’s theme -- America’s Recovery: Powered by Inclusion -- is something we all need to act on. While the global pandemic has taken a toll on many segments of the workforce, in September 2021, the labor force participation rate for people with disabilities was 36.4 percent for people ages 16 to 64 years old, compared to 76.5 percent for people without disabilities in that same age group, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

As the globe works towards a recovery and more businesses begin to staff up, we must – as a nation and a world – make every effort to ensure that all people are included in the recovery and that people with disabilities have abundant employment opportunities.

This issue is very close to my heart. My own son, Stephen Garff Marriott, had a disability. He struggled with mitochondrial syndrome (a rare disorder) which, as he aged, left him blind, deaf and – at the end of his life - unable to walk. Stephen had a wonderful career at Marriott, working as a hotel manager, director of resort marketing and eventually vice president of corporate culture until he passed at the age of 54 in 2013. Despite his physical challenges, which began for him as a young child and worsened over time, he lived a vibrant life as a husband, father and Marriott associate. He used tools such as a voice-activated computer to write his emails and read him documents and he memorized his speeches. He never complained, but instead celebrated the dawn of every day. He was my hero.

Stephen was a big champion of an idea my brother Dick Marriott had in 1989 – for the family to establish Bridges from School to Work (Bridges), a nonprofit organization that has helped more than 20,000 youth with disabilities find meaningful jobs during and after they completed high school. Stephen was an original board member.

Bridges matches young people with companies looking for entry-level workers and provides the training, mentoring and long-term support they need to succeed. Over the last 32 years, Bridges has worked with more than 5,200 employers in 12 U.S. cities from New York City to Los Angeles.

Marriott International, of course, is one of those employers. I have been proud to watch us work with Bridges since its inception and hire talented young people like Jamieson Holloway, a chef who today works at the Atlanta Marriott Marquis.?

Jamieson started working with Bridges as a junior in high school. He had always wanted to be a chef, but didn’t see a pathway to a career. High school was challenging and he doubted himself. A teacher introduced him to Bridges and the organization encouraged him to focus on his abilities, and not dwell on what he could not do.?

Bridges helped him secure a job as a cook at Turner Field and encouraged him to enroll in a culinary arts program at Atlanta Technical College. He was eventually hired as a dishwasher at a local hotel, where he worked his way up to breakfast cook at a rooftop restaurant. He is now employed with us and we couldn’t be more delighted.?

As we celebrate NDEAM, I encourage every company to power their recovery with inclusion. Not only is it the right thing to do, but it’s also good for business. There is great talent out there. It’s to everyone’s advantage that the right people are hired for the right jobs – regardless of abilities.