Are employers ready to hire, retain and accommodate veterans with disabilities (VWDs) returning from engagements in Iraq and Afghanistan? A survey of 1,083 human resource professionals examined employer readiness in three areas: knowledge, beliefs/willingness and actions/practices, with an emphasis on the signature disabilities of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) and Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI). Overall, employers surveyed did have willingness to employ VWDs and saw some benefits in doing so. Yet, they had key knowledge gaps around accommodating workers with PTSD and TBI and around disclosure issues. In the area of respondent willingness to employ VWDs, findings indicated most employers believed VWDs would benefit their organizations and would perform as well as other workers. Yet, they believed employing VWDs would involve more costs and more of a manager's time and were largely unsure if workers with PTSD were more likely than others to be violent in the workplace. Respondents' actions/practices indicated that the majority were not using recruitment or other resources specific to VWDs and had scant experience in accommodating workers with PTSD and TBI. Implications of these findings are discussed in terms of research and application to impact employer knowledge, willingness and practices around employing VWDs.

Employment in general workforce and economic self-sufficiency continue to be the exceptions for people with intellectual and developmental disabilities (IDD), rather than the norm. Research, policy, and practice can and should play a coordinated role in solving this problem. This article summarizes the methods used and the consensus-based national goals identified to guide the direction of the field that were developed by experts in the field. A discussion of the implications of the findings is also provided, including the need for advocacy to advance the goals.

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Abstract. BACKGROUND:Fragmented employment service systems, a lack of information about disability across sectors, and a wide disconnect between the efforts to employ people with disabilities and the needs of the business community, have presented barriers to the adoption of best practices and effective implementation of new policies designed to improve the employment rate of people with disabilities. OBJECTIVE: The goal of the Diversity Partners Project is to develop, test, and launch an innovative learning intervention to improve the relationships between employment service professionals (including disability services, workforce development and staffing organizations) and employers seeking to hire individuals with disabilities. This paper illustrates how a systematic approach to knowledge translation (KT) was used in an iterative intervention development process that engaged key stakeholders at every phase. CONCLUSION: In the disability arena, KT requires a willingness to challenge strongly held assumptions on the part of the project team, to move swiftly and repeatedly between inquiry and development, and to honestly engage with potential stakeholders who have a vested interest in the development efforts being undertaken.

BACKGROUND: Effective employer engagement strategies are critical to the provision of high quality employment supports for individuals with disabilities. There is a gap in both relevant research and knowledge surrounding these strategies. This article describes the knowledge translation (KT) activities of the Diversity Partners Project, which are designed to promote and contextualize a set of promising employer engagement practices to improve outcomes for job seekers with disabilities. OBJECTIVE: KT is an emerging area of study in the field of disability and employment. This article explores the role of capacity building in a knowledge translation intervention for employment service providers. CONCLUSIONS: Ongoing efforts on the Diversity Partners Project have involved KT principles as an integral part of the process. The target audience of the intervention has been actively engaged in the process from development to implementation to evaluation. Overall, frontline staff have been receptive and even eager for the on-demand, business-focused tools made available to them on the website, though broad adoption has been hindered by a number of factors.