Word: viscardi
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DIED. HENRY VISCARDI JR., 91, a leading campaigner for jobs for the disabled; in Roslyn, N.Y. Born with withered stumps for legs, he worked his way through law school and was employed as a tax clerk when a doctor fitted him with artificial legs that added 2 ft. to his natural 3 ft. 8 in. After working with amputees during World War II and at the urging of Eleanor Roosevelt, he started Abilities, Inc., a nonprofit job-placement group, in 1952. Three groups founded by Viscardi merged in 1991 to create the National Center for Disability Services...
...force behind Abilities is its evangelistic president, Henry Viscardi Jr., 48, who knows firsthand the problems of cripples; he was born with stumps for legs. Until he was 25 years old, he hobbled about in cork-stuffed orthopedic boots, looking so grotesque that, he recalls, classmates dubbed him "the ape man.' Then a friend helped him get aluminum legs. Overnight he "grew" from 3 ft. 8 in. to 5 ft. 8 in., became imbued with a fervor to give the same sort of boost to other handicapped...
...Gimmicks. When Viscardi applied to the Insurance Co. of North America for workmen's compensation insurance to cover his employees, North America's Herbert Stellwagen said: "I was horrified. Not one of them was insurable." Nevertheless, Viscardi persuaded Stellwagen to write a policy "with no gimmicks, hedges or qualifying clauses." In nine years there have been only three reportable accidents, an amazing record that brought a 48% cut in premiums. In addition, Viscardi says that absenteeism is very low and that there is very little extra cost for medical or other special facilities. Viscardi fires almost as fast...
...Abilities' profits (federal taxmen have ruled it a nonprofit organization) go into the Human Resources Foundation. The foundation has found, for example, that cardiac patients can do much more work than anticipated and actually improve in health in the process. In addition to publishing such findings, Viscardi writes books about the experiences of people at Abilities guaranteed to bring a lump to the throat (next one to be published in June: A Laughter in the Lonely Night). He has helped Minneapolis-Honeywell, Hughes Aircraft, Republic Steel, Sperry and Grumman Aircraft to use the skills of the handicapped; Sears, Roebuck...
...Turney Jr., president of Anodyne Inc., a nameplate manufacturer, was so impressed that he built a special plant in Florida to use mostly disabled workers. Other Florida businessmen, spurred on by former Governor LeRoy Collins, have started a carbon copy of Abilities called Abilities, Inc. of Florida under Viscardi's active guidance. Similar projects are under way in Japan, Australia, India, New Zealand and Canada. Viscardi estimates that more than 5,000,000 Americans who have disabilities of some kind could work, but last year fewer than 500,000 got work, and about 300,000 are added...