Mark Wafer, a successful coffee shop franchise owner, when asked why he chose to hire so many people with disabilities, had this to say : "A person in a wheelchair has to be innovative just to get through the day...Imagine how that mindset helps a pod or team at a workplace."

What a great way of looking at it!

We're all so caught up in trying to find ways that a person with a disability is going to be burden on our workplace, we forget to think about all the skills and talents that a person with a disability will bring to the table. Skills and talents that only a person with a disability can develop through life experience. Businesses need to start seeing the potential that these unique life experiences and perspectives can offer. Plugging into that untapped potential can transform a workplace by encouraging innovation in all areas of a business.

Research shows a strong link between diversity and innovation. Well-managed heterogeneous teams are simply more productive, more creative and more effective than homogeneous groups.

Diversity can contribute to more effective decision-making and problem-solving by providing a range of perspectives, a broad spectrum of expertise and a more robust process for critical evaluation. Different perspectives can draw attention to shared assumptions that may be implicitly guiding current practices.

Simply put, diversity can shake up the status quo and bring a business out of the "We've always done it this way" mentality.